In today’s digital world online presence is vital, especially if you are a small business owner. Building a website seems to be a complicated task. And it can be if you want to have a complex website with a database and many other features. For these types of websites, we recommend that you consult with one of the 10 top web design companies. If you run a nonprofit organization you may want to explore web design for nonprofits rather than building it yourself.
Though, if you are looking for a simple online presence, then you can do it yourself. Building a website on your own is free, yet you should remember to take security precautions when doing so.
To build your own website for free you just require a few hours of your time to follow these steps:
- Choose a Domain Name and Register for it
The domain is your address on the web, which visitors use to find you through their browsers.
For example, this website’s domain name is leadgrowdevelop.com. You can choose your domain name based on your business name or anything else you prefer.
Depending on the value of domain names their prices usually vary from $10 to $50 per year.
How to Choose a Domain Name
- If it’s a personal website, then choose your name as the domain; e.g. YourName.com
- If it’s for your business, then choose your business name as your domain; e.g. YourCompanyName.com
- If your activity focus is a specific country, you can choose county based domain; e.g. .de, .fr, .ca.
- You may find out that your first domain name option is taken. It’s normal, as many good domain names are taken. So, try other variations and find a suitable one for your website.
Once you find a domain, register for it to get access.
- Sign Up with Web Hosting
Web hosting is where your website files are stored on a secure server. There are many web hosting service providers that you can choose from.
The approximate cost of web hosting is in the ballpark of $3 to $10 per month. It’s not much money to invest in something you can earn hundreds and thousands of dollars from.
The most important features to look for in your web hosting are speed, security, support, scalability, and price.
- Set Up a Website Using WordPress
After registering for your domain name and choosing your web hosting, it’s time to choose a CMS or content management system.
There are many website builders and CMS platforms you can choose from. Here we explain the WordPress CMS setup.
WordPress is usually offered somewhere in your hosting cPanel as “WordPress Install”.
After you install WP on your website, you can name your website and provide some basic information about it.
Then, you will get access to your WP website login information. Make sure you keep the login information in a safe place.
- Customize Your Website
There are thousands of free and paid themes available for WP websites. Browse them through the web and select your favorite theme that provides all features you need on your website.
You can add the new theme through your WP panel, through Appearance > Themes > Add New.
Search and install the theme, and customize it based on your brand color scheme, fonts, logo, and any feature you expect to have on your website.
- Add Valuable Content
Make the most important pages of your website and add content to them. For starters, you can add “home page”, “about us”, “blog page”, and “contact us” pages.
Then, you can add “services” or “store” pages, depending on your business.
Add your unique and valuable content to each page to get traffic through search engines. Moreover, you can add your website link to your social media to promote it and get more traffic.
The above steps can help you build your website for free. You should manage WordPress updates all the time to stay ahead of the millions of websites.
Author Bio:
Ayla Anderson is an avid reader and an enthusiastic blogger who writes articles on home improvement, business, Family, and beauty. She is also an MBA student who spends much of her time advising newly small businesses on how to grow their businesses. You can follow me on Twitter.