How to Create a Website from Scratch: A Step-by-Step Guide for Non-Techies

Creating a website can seem like a daunting task, especially if you don’t have any programming skills. But with the right tools and resources, anyone can create a website that looks and functions just the way they want it to. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps of creating a website, from identifying the type of website you need to promote it to the world. And thus, your question about how to create a website will be crystal clear. 

Do I Need Programming Skills to Create a Website?

To answer your question quickly, the answer is no. There are a variety of website builders and content management systems (CMS) available today that make it possible to establish a website even if you do not have any prior knowledge of coding. These platforms provide you access to pre-made templates as well as editors that allow you to drag and drop content, which simplifies the process of designing and constructing your website. Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly are three well-known examples of popular website builders.

How to Create A Website in 7 Steps:

Our investigation (as well as our own personal experience) has led us to the conclusion that the majority of website development projects consist of the following stages:

1. Identify the Type of Website You Need

Before you start building your website, you need to determine what type of website you need. Will it be a personal blog, an e-commerce store, or a portfolio website? Knowing the purpose of your website will help you choose the right platform and features to include.

Category 1: Small or Mini Sites

An online portfolio or résumé is a good example of a very modest website. Copywriters, translators, and artists often make use of these to display examples of their work, along with their contact information and an “about us” page.

These kinds of websites often contain less than or equal to seven pages. It is even possible that it will be a one-page website, in which case all of the information would be presented on a single page.

This kind of website is characterized by very few updates and a mostly static layout. You just need to design it once, verify that everything operates as it should, test it on mobile devices, and then you can leave it sitting there. The majority of traffic comes from visitors who type the URL straight into their browsers or via local directories such as Google Maps.

Required time: putting up a website of this size often does not take a significant amount of time; a weekend should be plenty for a first version that is acceptable.

Category 2: Blogs

You may also establish a blog, which is a great option if you prefer to express your opinions on a regular basis. This provides your site visitors with a cause to revisit your website and often encourages them to remark on your content. Adding new blog entries is often accomplished via the use of a simple editor that enables users to contribute both text and photos. A blog on traveling or eating would be a good example of a typical kind.

There is also the option to include a blog page on portfolio websites; but, with the growth of social media platforms, this option has become less common.

Time commitment: It is possible to launch a simple blog with little effort in only a few days. The most significant time commitment comes from consistently publishing new information.

Category 3: E-commerce Business-focused Websites

In most cases, the website is an indispensable component of this kind of enterprise; in other words, if it were not for the website, the company simply could not exist.

It’s possible that the website is the primary marketing medium, for instance:

• A company that provides delivery of meals
• A program for members to join (e.g. online fitness course)
• A website that allows users to make reservations for vacation homes.
• Services of counseling or coaching provided over the internet

It’s even possible that the website is the firm itself:

• An Online Store
• A website that provides comparisons of various items (like Tooltester.com)
• A website devoted to providing education online
• A digital version of a printed newspaper or magazine.

The amount of time necessary to complete it is highly dependent on the layout and the features of your website. For instance, if you use a website builder like Wix, you can quickly and simply establish a website for your yoga company that includes online appointment scheduling and payment processing in less than a week by just making use of common components.

You will, however, need to utilize a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress in order to construct a larger website that includes custom features and page designs. At this point, we are looking at a timetable of at least one month, but the specifics will depend on your level of technical expertise. If you need to engage a designer as well as a coder for certain duties, this cost will grow even higher.

2. Choose A Platform and Budget For Your Website (or hire someone to accomplish it)

Once you know what type of website you need, you can start looking at different website builders and CMSs. Consider your budget and the features you need before making a decision. If you don’t have the time or expertise to create a website yourself, you can hire a web developer or designer to do it for you.

Choice 1: Using a website builder to create a site

Let’s begin with the choice that has the least amount of difficulty: a website builder. This is what some people refer to as an “all-inclusive package”: Generally speaking, the following may be provided by a single platform:

• The format of the template.
• Drag and drop web editor
• Hosting websites
• Domain name Email address
• Assistance to customers

It simply depends on the kind of work being done. This is not something that is just helpful for novices. The second piece of good news is that almost all website builders provide free subdomains on which users may set up simple websites (e.g. yourname.sitebuildername.com). Although I wouldn’t suggest utilizing a free website for professional purposes (since it is sponsored by advertisements), doing so is the ideal method to test out the website in great depth before determining whether or not to pay for it.

On the other hand, if you wish to move your company online, you should think about purchasing a premium plan. Prices begin at around $8 per month, but they include everything you need to get started. If you require a professional email address for your company website, there will be an additional cost of between $1 and $6 each month.

Choice 2: Creating a website with a content management system (CMS)

Content management systems, often known as CMS, are a little bit more difficult. In spite of the fact that they function fundamentally in a manner somewhat dissimilar to that of a website builder, using them is much more challenging.

This is due to the fact that they are able to support particularly large website projects, such as Typo3, Joomla!, or Drupal. The typical customer is a major company that has a dedicated technical staff and generates hundreds of pages for its website.

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that is fortunately another option that is far simpler to use. It’s not nearly as tough to set up as it was in the past thanks to hosting firms that offer an installation with only one click. This is another reason why it is the most widely used content management system (CMS) in the whole globe.

WordPress, the content management system that is very simple to use

Let’s have a look at some of the benefits and drawbacks of using WordPress:

Pros:

• You have complete discretion over which web hosting provider you choose with.
• Excellent for websites that support several languages.
• Technical adaptability: you have access to the whole of the source code (provided that you understand how to use it).
• Using plugins, you are able to get more functionality.
• You can improve the speed at which your website loads.

Cons:

• There is no direct assistance for customers (limited support from your web host or theme provider)
• The constraints imposed by the template might limit creative flexibility.
• Even for the most basic capabilities, you will need to purchase additional plugins.
• You could require the assistance of a coder, even if it’s only to make some minor adjustments to the design.

Choice 3: Hire A Developer to Create Your Website

You may also employ a web designer or a web firm to help you create your website, which would speed up the process significantly. These may be found on Upwork, Fiverr, and 99designs, among other places. You have the ability to do due diligence on your prospective contractor by seeing their ratings, which is made possible by these platforms.

It is challenging to put a price on this item. If you are collaborating with a sole proprietor, you should budget between $100 and $200 for each page that they produce for you. I would estimate that it would cost between $800 and $1,200 to create a modest portfolio website that has six pages and includes some degree of design modification.

Employing an agency comes at a higher financial cost. The benefit of this is that you will have access to individuals who possess a variety of expertise (designers, programmers, copywriters and SEO specialists). However, since the agency has to be able to support the whole team, it is more probable that your expenditures will begin at $1,500 for the portfolio website that I detailed before. If you want them to construct a bespoke design, come up with an SEO strategy, and do some content for you, the price could easily exceed $3,000 or even more.

You may, of course, also locate cheaper deals; but, if you do so, you shouldn’t anticipate a significant amount of personalization at the lower cost.

WordPress is a reliable content management system (CMS) that’s also quite inexpensive, therefore the vast majority of site designers use it. You will also be required to pay for hosting, although there are a large number of inexpensive web hosting services from which to select, with prices ranging from $8 to $12 per month. There are other contractors that will put up a package for you that already includes web hosting and for which you will pay a price either monthly or annually.

Make sure that your web designer or agency allows you full access to your domain name, the website, and its hosting in order to prevent undesired complications. This is a crucial point to keep in mind. Additionally, everything needs to be organized under your name.

When there are problems, we’ve heard far too many tales about web designers who disappear or about firms that keep websites hostage. If you are dissatisfied with the job that the previous contractors have done, having access to these vital assets allows you to collaborate with a new freelancer or agency.

3. Register a domain name – ideally, select a .com domain

A domain name is the address of your website on the internet. You can register a domain name through a domain registrar such as GoDaddy or Namecheap. It’s important to choose a domain name that is easy to remember and relevant to your website’s content.

In most cases, there are two sites where you are able to register a domain name: a domain registrar (such as Namecheap) and your website builder (such as Wix) or web hosting business (such as GoDaddy) (e.g. Dreamhost).

For example, the first year of use with Wix and Squarespace both give a free custom domain name at no further cost. The same may be said about both Dreamhost and Bluehost.

After the first year, their prices are just a little more than those of Namecheap, for instance, but the fact that you only have to deal with one provider often makes up for the difference in price.

Unless you are only doing business in a single nation, such as Canada (which uses the.ca extension) or the United Kingdom (which uses the .UK), it is strongly recommended that you use the.com extension for your website (co .UK). Obviously, there are also a great number of prosperous companies that make use of one of the more recent domain name extensions, such as .me or .agency, instances.

4. Create a Strategy for Your Website’s Structure and Content

Before you start building your website, it’s important to have a plan for its structure and content. This will help you organize your information and make it easy for visitors to navigate your website.

In the same way that it is not always a good idea to start cooking without first consulting a recipe, it is also not a good idea to begin the process of establishing a website without first consulting a template. In this situation, it is not a good idea to improvise. Planning can assist you in deciding which portions of your website are necessary, which material will be most useful to you, and how the style of your website should seem.

The creation of a mind map that contains the concepts of what your website will need is an excellent method to get started. The primary components of this mind map may be used for the navigation of your website.

Some helpful hints for the planning of your website:

• Take notes on anything that interests you about the website using a piece of paper and a pen. Both brainstorming and making a mind map are excellent methods for organizing your ideas in a logical manner.
• Have a look around at some other websites that you find intriguing, both in terms of their layout and their content. Take note of what it is that appeals to you and what does not.
• When you have a rough copy of the content you want to include on your website, you should get feedback from individuals whose opinions you respect. You might be sure to come across a number of unique points of view worth including.
• Make a list of all the pages that your website will contain (you can do this in Excel), and save it. Make a note of the page’s title, the kind of material it will include, the keywords it will focus on, its goal, and the type of page it will be.

5. Pick a theme you like and customize it

Most website builders and CMSs offer a wide range of pre-made templates and themes that you can customize to fit your brand and style. Make sure to choose a theme that is responsive and mobile-friendly.

You will need to settle on a design for your website regardless of the method you choose to use in its creation.

Making visually appealing site designs is not a simple process. In point of fact, I’d argue that there are more instances of awful designs than there are of excellent ones on the internet. Make sure that your website is not one of them.

In the same way that bell-bottom jeans were considered fashionable in the 1970s, many thought they were ludicrous in the 1980s and 1990s. A similar thing occurs while designing websites. You need to keep in mind that something that was seen to be a solid practice five years ago may now seem to be somewhat dated or out of date.

Here are some ideas to help you create a design that will win the hearts of your site visitors:

• Make an effort to select a bright hue (or perhaps white) for the backdrop.
• Pick up colors that are appealing to the eye and that work well together. If you need assistance, try using Adobe Color.
• Maintain a clean and straightforward design, and make sure there is enough of space between each component. instructions on how to make the text legible.
• Avoid using an excessive number of typefaces; often, using one font for the titles and another for the body content is sufficient. This information will assist you in making your selection.
• Maintain a style and structure that is constant. It is expected that the users would not detect any variations between the websites they see. Do not attempt to make your own Frankenstein.
• In addition to that, your website need to be completely optimized for use on mobile devices.
• You need to ensure that any photographs you upload have a polished appearance. Do not post a selfie that you shot while standing in front of the mirror in the restroom. Keep in mind that the cameras included in today’s smartphones produce extremely high-quality images. You can obtain some very good headshots if you plan things out.
• Less is more. When in doubt, go for the bare minimum.

6. Add Your Content (text, images, and other media)

Once you have your theme and structure in place, it’s time to add your content. This includes text, images, videos, and other media that will make your website come alive.

How To Optimize Your Content: 

When writing on a website, we tend to use language that is less official than when writing in a book or letter. It is imperative that we assist the harried guest in locating the information they want.

Things that you need to take care of:

• You should arrange your pages using titles and subtitles since your visitors love to scan the text in order to go to the most relevant portions as quickly as possible. Make it easy for them to do so. Skipping advertisements on YouTube and opening sequences on Netflix has a similar satisfying effect.
• Concise sentences with a large number of line breaks throughout the text. Because of this, it is very simple to read.
• Bulleted lists: exactly like this one. Another method of information consumption that requires little to no effort.
• Effective fonts: as was said in part 5 of our design section, you should choose a limited number of fonts (no more than a couple of distinct ones) that are simple to read on the screen.
• Take ownership of your material by identifying yourself as the proprietor of the website and making liberal use of photographs, even if doing so makes you feel uneasy. In addition, demonstrate any relevant credentials.

Things that you really need to stay away from:

• Making use of difficult language for the sole purpose of seeming intelligent. This will result in users leaving your website at a rate that is comparable to that of a bullet train.
• Insufficient use of calls to action: far too many websites suffer financial losses because their site visitors are unable to determine how to get in contact with the company or start a transaction. You really need to make things as simple as you can! Make use of live chat, CTA buttons, online booking tools, and online contact forms. Whatever works best for you and your clients is what you should do.

7. Publish And Promote Your Website

When your website is ready, you can publish it and make it live on the internet. Make sure to test it on different devices and browsers to ensure it looks and functions as expected. Once your website is live, you can start promoting it through social media, search engine optimization (SEO), and other marketing strategies.

If you have already built and launched your website, you can go on to advertising it and optimizing it in order to attract more visitors and enhance the overall quality of the experience for those who use it.

• Maintaining an up-to-date website is essential; websites are not textbooks. They may still be modified after they have been published. Be sure that you are always updating the website and that you develop fresh information that is relevant to the topic whenever you get the opportunity to do so. Take, for instance, the website of a restaurant: if the menu is updated, the change need to be displayed on the website in as timely a manner as is practicable.
• Positioning on the internet: Your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) needs further work if you want to see a significant increase in the number of visits it receives. This is not an overly difficult task, but it does need time and effort to complete.
• Analysis of the web: If you don’t measure your website traffic, all of your efforts to improve your internet placement (see point #1 above) will be for nothing. You’ll know whether or not it’s functioning based on the results of this test. Google Analytics is by far the most widely used tool for analyzing websites. And there is no charge!
• After your website has been made public, you need sign up for an account with Google Search Console in order to alert Google that your page already exists and to get information. Or, at the very least, provide Google with the URL (Internet Protocol) address of your website so that it may index it.
• Email marketing is another prevalent method, particularly for companies, which involves sending regular emails to a website’s visitors in order to maintain touch with them. This is particularly helpful for small enterprises, internet merchants, and bloggers. The practice of marketing through email is a science unto itself.
• Finally, most websites also have social media accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn, amongst others, so that they may communicate with their target audience outside of the confines of their website. This is particularly helpful for those who make their living in the visual arts, such as illustrators, jewelers, or photographers.

FAQs

Can I create a website for free?

Yes, many website builders offer free plans that allow you to create a basic website without any cost. However, these plans usually come with limitations such as branding and limited storage space.

How long does it take to create a website?

The time it takes to create a website varies depending on the complexity of your website and the platform you use. A basic website can take a few hours to a few days to create, while a more complex website can take several weeks or months.

Conclusion 

Creating a website may seem like a daunting task, but it’s definitely doable even if you don’t have any programming skills. With the help of website builders, CMSs, and other resources, anyone can create a website that meets their needs and goals. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a website that looks and functions just the way you want it to. Remember to take your time and plan your website’s structure and content before you start building it, and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. With a little patience and effort, you’ll be able to create a website that you can be proud of.