Basic Steps for Making a Website

Many of my friends keep on asking me various question about how to create a website. This article lists the very basic steps and information for accomplishing this goal. A website basically requires a domain name, web space and web development skills. Let’s have a look at these aspects in a bit more details.

First of all, you need a domain name for your website. For example, the name for this website is TechWelkin. Think about a name that reflects the objective of your website. Once you’ve got a name –it is time for registering a domain name. For example, this website’s domain name is techwelkin.com

Many people also call domain name as address of the website. In technical language, domain name makes up the part of URL of the website.

In order to register the domain name –you can use any of the domain name registrar (e.g. godaddy.com, hostgator.com, hostindia.net etc.) On the website of registrar you’ll be able to search whether the desired domain name is available or not. With billions of domain names already taken –you may need to compromise a bit on the name you want.

Name of the website and domain name do not need to be same. I can change the name of this website from TechWelkin to something else –but changing domain name is not recommended after you’ve setup a website on it because it may invalidate your current web page addresses and you’ll lose some to significant traffic.

A domain name should cost you around Rs. 500 (US $12) for one year. Also, you would need to renew your domain name before your subscription expires. Otherwise, you’ll lose ownership of that domain name.

After domain name, now you need space where your website will sit. Analogically, domain name is like a name plate and web space is like a house. For web space, you would need to contact a hosting provider (in most cases the domain name providers also provide hosting)

Usually, hosting providers offer you a number of plans/packages to choose from. While choosing a plan, you should consider:

• Amount of space offered
• Number of databases allowed
• Bandwidth allowed
• Availability of cPanel (or another similar admin panel)
• Possibility of hosting multiple domains within the same space
• Platform of the space (for most websites Linux platform is good –and it is cheaper also)
• Customer support (if the provider is outside your country –check if they provide support via chat)
• Price of the package

After comparing packages from different providers –you should select the one that is most suitable for your use.

Now comes the real part of making a website process. Nowadays, it is very easy to create website using CMS like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla etc. These CMS work almost like a blog. There are ready-made templates available that you can use to stylize your website.

However, if you need customization or added features –you should require web development skills. You would, at least, need to know HTML, CSS, JavaScript and a bit of PHP.

Your hosting provider will guide you how to connect your newly subscribed domain name to your web space and how to upload files via FTP.

These are very basic steps of how to build a website; there is lot of stuff that remains to be told especially with respect to development of the website. But if you do not have willingness to learn web development –you should leave that part for a professional web developer. However, if you want to learn web development –you should find help. And remember, it takes time and patience; and not everybody has inclination of learning web development.