Total Newbie's Complete Guide to Setting up a Website

From my experience as a professional web designer, there's a huge number of people who know nothing about web design. They just want to get a basic website onto the internet, but have no idea where to start. If this is you, then this guide is what you're looking for.

This guide goes through the entire process, step by step. It also has useful advice for beginner web designers.

Press Ctrl+D now, to bookmark this page for future reference.

This guide just shows you how to get a basic website onto the internet. It doesn't go into making nice graphics, or learning how to do web design in any kind of efficient manner.

Once you have a basic site up, you've gotten over the hurdle. You can learn the rest as you go.

 

 

1 – Before you begin, what's the purpose and topic of the website?

A group, organisation or church website

The purpose of the site is to provide information about the group, to its members, or to outsiders. To maximise its effectiveness, you'll likely need to promote the site outside the internet.

A small business website

The purpose of the site is as a source of product information. Again, you'll likely need to promote it in the real world. Don't expect more than a trickle of new customers coming in via the website. Your site is never going to be drawing in large numbers of visitors, because it's just a whole lot of stuff for sale. However, the site will help you retain and sell to existing customers, by providing them an easy way of keeping up with what you're offering.

A hobby website

Unless your site is a site about yourself, your family, or something else with an extremely limited audience, you can make money out of it too. A site about almost any kind of craft, topic of study, interest, location, or activity, can make a small amount of money (often enough to pay for your website hosting) through advertising. Also, website hobbyists often end up getting a taste for success, and their hobby site turns into a real source of income.

A website designed to make money

If the objective of your website is only (or primarily) to make money online, and you don't have any real-world infrastructure, then you need to know what you're getting yourself in for. The vast majority of people who run their own websites don't earn enough money online to let them quit their job. There are no short-cuts, and it's a crowded field. However, if you do want to head down this path, then the following are essential:

Commitment - Success will likely take years. Most people quit long before they start making even a small amount of money. If you have a history of flitting from one project to the next, and can't stick with something long past the initial rush of enthusiasm, then don't even start making a website. Success will entail writing a large volume of high-quality articles.

Interest - Pick a website topic you're interested in, and are knowledgeable about.

Commercialisability - This is a secondary concern. You'll most likely make money by advertising (I recommend using Google Adsense). If you can, pick a topic that's somehow related to a business. If your topic is related to any kind of business, or if there are any products or services related to your topic, then you'll make more money from advertising. (For example, a site about commercial web hosting will likely make a hundred times more than one about jokes.) However, be careful here. You still need to know your topic. Many people make the mistake of choosing a high-paying topic that they have no interest in, or knowledge about. Those sites rarely get anywhere.

 

2 – Choosing a domain name

Your website domain name needs to be simple and obvious. Ask people to guess what your domain name is. Take the most common answer, and use it as your domain name.

Country-specific domain names (like .ca or .au) often carry more requirements, and can cost more. Only use these if your business is a bricks and mortar business, tied to a specific country.

Use a dot com domain name, unless you're an organisation, in which case, you should use a .org domain name. Never use .biz, .ws, .info, or other similar domain names. They say "I'm dodgy/cheap", or "someone serious took my .com domain name."

3 – Web hosting

As well as registering a domain name, you'll need to pay for space to actually put your website on. You should get your domain name and buy web hosting at the same time, from the same place. This means you don't have to "link" them together afterwards.

This site is hosted on PowWeb web hosting, so I can definitely recommend them. They're one of the best web hosting providers around, based on my experience. They're currently offering a cheap web hosting plan to new signups, so the first twelve months only cost $3.88 per month, which is around half price. Visit PowWeb Hosting and have a look.

 

4 – A web page editor

To actually create a web page, you'll need a web page editor. The most popular is Adobe Dreamweaver (click the link to go to Adobe, and buy Dreamweaver online). Many people use Microsoft Expression Web (which comes with Microsoft Office 2007 onwards) or the outdated Microsoft FrontPage, which is similar, and comes with earlier versions of Office. 

 

5 – Building a website

Once you've bought a domain name and web hosting, and you have a web page editor, you'll need to use your web page editor to create a website.

This is a list of how to perform the most basic tasks, in either Adobe Dreamweaver, or Microsoft Expression Web. If you use another website editor, these instructions may not exactly match.

In Expression Web, click the little "Design" button at the bottom. Click the Task Panes menu, and make sure Folder List is ticked.

Start by creating a new website.

	DREAMWEAVER	EXPRESSION WEB
Create a new site	Click Site > New Site Click the "Advanced" Tab. Click "Local Info". Type a name (can be anything) in the "Site name" box. Type in your site's address (i.e. http://www.nameofsite.com) in the HTTP address box. Click "Remote Info" Click "Access", and choose "FTP". From the email you got from your web host, fill in the FTP host, Host Directory (this will be htdocs/ if you're with PowWeb), Login, and Password boxes. Tick "Use Passive FTP". You can click the Test button, to make sure everything's working. If not, contact your web host. Press OK.	Click File > New. Click the "Website" tab. Click OK.
Create a new page	Right-click in the Files window, and click New File.	Right-click in the Folder List window, then click New > HTML.
Rename a page	Click on it twice, in the Files window. The main page of your site should be index.html	Click on it twice, in the Folder List. The main page of your site should be index.html
Edit a page	Just start typing on your blank page.	Just start typing on your blank page.
Open your site (to work on it again)	If it doesn't open by itself: Click the little drop-down box, at the top of the Files window, and choose your site.	If it doesn't open by itself: Click File > Recent Sites. Then click on your site.
Insert a picture If your picture is very large, you'll want to resize it, in an image-editing program. If you're using Windows, even Paint will do. It's in Accessories, on the Start Menu.	Drag it in. Click "Yes" if it asks you to copy the file in. (Or click Insert > Image.)	Just drag it in, from Windows Explorer. (Or click  Insert > Picture > From File.)
Make text into a link	Select the text, then right-click on it, and click Make Link. Choose the page to link to, or type in a website address.	Select the text, then right-click on it, and click Hyperlink. Choose the page to link to, or type in a website address.
Insert an email address	Click Email Link, in the Insert window.	Just type it in.
Put the site on the internet (or update it with changes you've made)	In the Files window, click the folder at the top (or just one file), and click the little "Put Files" icon. It's an arrow, pointing upwards.	Click File > Publish Site. Choose FTP. From the email you got from your web host: Fill in the Remote Website Location and the FTP Directory (this will be htdocs/ if you're with PowWeb). Click OK. Put in your username and password. (Also from the email.) At the bottom right of the screen, click Publish Web Site. If this doesn't work, or you can't find some of this information, contact your web host.
Insert a table (optional) A table is a grid. You can insert pictures, or type in the boxes (cells) in the table. Try it out.	Click "Table" in the Insert window.	Click Table > Insert Table.

 

6 – How do I get more visitors / how do I get a higher Google ranking?

Make a bigger and better site.

If you have a bigger and better site, people will be more likely to link to you from their sites. People will follow these links, and come to your site. Also, Google sees these links as a "vote of confidence" in your site. Links from quality sites will be worth more, if you can get them.

Don't bother with tricks or short-cuts. Google is constantly cracking down on people who try to exploit its system. In the long run, there's really only one way to have your site become more popular, and that's by making it bigger and better.

 

7 – Selling products online

PayPal is the biggest online transaction system. It also accepts online credit card payments. If you plan to sell products online, you really have to accept PayPal. Many buyers only use PayPal, and don't have a credit card (or don't want to apply for a credit card). Click here to visit PayPal.