Your business needs a website. This is no more optional!

Today, almost every type of business requires a website… to let people know about their existence, to attract the right target audience, and to drive revenue, either directly or indirectly.

In this guide, we’ll cover how you build a website from scratch without necessarily having a lot of technical knowledge. We discuss the steps, best reseller hosting benefits, our recommendations, and much more.

Ready?

Let’s dive in!

Types of Websites: Understand the Basics

To begin with, there are different types of websites. Which one you should go with depends on what your business is.

● Online or eCommerce store

As the name suggests, these websites are meant to sell products. They are digital storefronts with features like carts and checkouts. Of course, there’s a good chance you have shopped online yourself on one such website.

● Blog

Blogs are content-heavy websites. Originally, there were digital diaries. Now, blogs have become very dynamic with unique features, including e-store integration. So, in addition to publishing content, you can even sell products on the blog by integrating cart solutions.

Today, blogging can even make you money. There are many ways to make money from your blog, including affiliate marketing and Google AdSense. Some popular blog topics people write on are:

● Lifestyle

● Tech

● Health/Fitness

● Business and Startups

● Finances/Budgeting

● Food/Recipes

● Parenting

● Travel

You can consult web hosting reseller hosting services to get blog domains and hosting at a very reasonable rate.

• Forums

A forum is an online discussion website. On such websites, people of different interests come together on this website and discuss their interests with other people. You will find many online forums catering to countless categories, like movies, games, sports, cars, news, economics, climate, history, and more.

● Niche Social Networking Site

Niche social networking websites are similar to social networking platforms but their target audience is very niche. For example, Discord is a popular chat room/ social network for gamers; of course, Discord is now attracting a wide range of audiences now, which is a whole different conversation altogether.

● Membership Site

On such websites, only those who have subscribed or are members can see the content. Creating one such website is simpler than it may look. You can use Plugins like ProfilePress and MemberPress to build a WordPress membership site.

● Static Business Website

These websites are very occasionally updated. Their sole purpose is to tell the audience what you have to offer and that you have an online presence. Businesses like Home Repairing services, Electronic Repairing services, and more rely on static websites that don’t regularly require content updating.

It’s important to note that the new-age websites can pack elements of every type of website under the same roof. For instance, a business owner can have a static website with a separate blog section under the same domain name, as well as an online store integrated on the same website. That website can make some content only-for-members. It can even have an integrated forum.

When you’re planning to create a website, it all comes down to what kind of business you have, what kind of website features you want, and what’s the objective of the website. These key factors will define what type of website would be ideal for you.

What do You Need to Build a Website?

There are three essential things that you need to build a website:

(i) Domain name

Before beginning anything, choose a suitable and relevant domain name that is available, memorable, and easy to type. Remember, your domain name is also your brand name. This is the name your business will be known with. So, take your time to come up with a good domain name.

(ii) Web hosting

Web hosting is the service that hosts your website and makes sure that your website is available to everyone. Without a domain name or a web hosting account, you can’t set up your website.

(iii) Content Management System (CMS)

Building a Website through WordPress is the most popular choice and highly recommended, especially for beginners. 39.5% of the websites on the internet are made on WordPress. Setting up your website on WordPress is a one-click procedure. You make an account, pick a theme, and ta-da – your website is ready. Almost every top web host now offers dedicated WordPress hosting plans.

Other popular CMSs include Drupal, Joomla, Wix, Shopify, and more.

Choosing the Right Website Builder

As mentioned earlier, there are many CMSs aka website builders. BUT which ones are the best?

Here are some of the popular names that are trusted by many:

Wix

Wix puts up many ads on Youtube; you might know about this website builder already. Wix is a great solution for those who are beginners in website creation. They have extensive resources that take you through each step and guide you on what to do next.

Wix has a drag-and-drop feature that simplifies building a website from scratch. You can build a website for a business, set up from a blank slate, and choose from over 500+ templates.

Benefits

● You can build a Wix website for free and use some of the drag and drop features for your website.

● All the website design templates are compatible with desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones.

● WiX provides you with features like e-commerce integration, SEO optimization, and more.

Demerits

● Branded ads are placed on your website; to remove them; you have to upgrade to their premium plan.

● The features to build a free website is limited. You get access to more features after upgrading.

● Wix doesn’t give you the benefit of moving your website data somewhere else. There is no export feature.

Shopify

Shopify is an excellent choice to build eCommerce websites. It helps you build an online store from scratch without the fuss of having to deal with codes. There are tons of free and paid customizable themes. It gives your online store an instant professional look.

Benefits

● The website offers easy online payments. You can accept payments without any third-party accounts. Shopify also has collaboration with over 100 third-party payment gateways.

● They have improved SEO tools and blogs embedded in the website template with a marketing dashboard. In this dashboard, you can track your SEO and the performance of your website.

● All the templates of Shopify are mobile-friendly and lightweight.

Demerits

● If you are using an external payment gateway, you will be charged an extra amount of anywhere between 0.5% and 2%.

● To integrate your website with social media, flash sales, and live chats, you have to pay for it separately, which is a major drawback and may be expensive for you.

WordPress

WordPress is the most popular and user-friendly name out there. You can build any type of website right from blogs to small business websites, eCommerce stores, portfolios, and a lot more. A WordPress website is easy to make and customize.

Benefits

● WordPress gives you access to thousands of free and paid themes to customize your website. You can change your theme whenever you want. You also have access to a lot of free and paid plugins to boost your website’s performance. All these features and plugins are very easy to use and affordable.

● With WordPress, you have complete control over your business website or personal blog.

Demerits

● The learning process of how to use it can take some time.

● You can’t create a free website on WordPress. You have to pay a third-party for hosting services and domain names.

Steps to build a website on WordPress

Since WordPress is among the most used CMSs and a go-to choice for the majority, we’ll keep that as an example for our further explanation.

Step 1: Choose a domain name and web host

Purchasing your domain name and hosting account is the first step. As mentioned above, choose a domain name that suits your brand/product/service and is easy to remember. A domain name costs around $14.99 per year.

The web hosting account stores all the data that is uploaded on your website; it is like a house for your website data. Choose the wrong web hosting provider and not only will your website perform poorly (with low uptime, low speed, and other issues), but you would also be exposed to cyber attacks, data leaks, and other vulnerabilities.
At My Reseller Home, we offer the best reseller hosting, as well as other web host solutions. We offer a wide range of plans to suit one’s distinct needs, requirements, and budget adequately. We assure our customers of higher affordability, 99.9% uptime, higher web security, unlimited storage and bandwidth, free emails, 24/7 support, and much more. To that, our plans also come with free domain names. Check out our different web hosting plans here.

Step 2: Start creating your website

(You can log in to your WordPress website by going to (yourwebsitename).(your tld)/wp-admin. The login credentials will be sent to your email address by your web host after sign up. Once you’re on your site’s dashboard, the first thing to do is change your password.)

It’s worth noting that WordPress dedicated hosting plans don’t require any separate installation. WordPress is installed already. Simply signup to your host, log in to your dashboard and start designing your website. Pick a relevant theme from WordPress’s extensive library that matches your needs. You can even download or buy a WordPress theme from a third-party.

After picking an appropriate theme, take care of the little details, like adding a name to your website, tagline, and bio. Browse around to understand the what’s and how’s. It will take some time to have a complete idea of how the backend works and how you can be a power user to make the most of your WordPress site. So, have patience!

Step 3: Verify whether your website is set to HTTPS

An SSL certificate ensures that your website is shown to your audience securely. Many web hosting providers automatically set your website to SSL when you install WordPress. Check if yours did too and if you have an SSL certificate or not.

Step 4: Create Pages and Posts

After you have created your website, you can now create your home page. On the left-hand side of the dashboard, you will see two options – Posts and Pages.

If you are going to create pages for your website like Home, About Us, Products, then click on ‘Pages’; if you want to create a blog post, you can click on ‘Posts’. Posts are arranged in reverse chronological order; the latest post appears first.

Step 5: Set a static homepage page for your website

By default, WordPress shows all the latest posts on your homepage instead of a static page.

You can change this setting by going to Settings. Select the page that you want to show to your audience as a front page.

Ideally, you want to have an appealing homepage. So, after setting a static page as your homepage, you should take time to improve its aesthetic and add relevant features. Widgets and plugins will help you here (more on this later).

Unless you have a proper idea regarding how your homepage should look, a simple tactic here is to look at your competitors and see the kind of design they have. Take inspiration from them.

Designing your homepage isn’t easy. It’s the most important step; after all, a poor homepage will put off all the visitors. This is why it’s better to work along with a web designer to design your homepage, as well as the rest of the website. Remember, even when you have picked a premium theme, it would still need customization and little changes. Having experts by your side can make things simpler and efficient for you.

Step 6: Add a navigation menu to your website

Your navigation menu is usually located at the top right or left side of the website. This improves the visibility and discoverability of key pages and posts on your website.

To add this menu, you have to go to Appearance and then Menus on your admin dashboard. After that, specify the name of the menu under the Menu Name field and then click on ‘Create Menu’. You can now select your existing pages, custom links, and posts; click on Add to menu. With the drag and drop feature, you can change the serial of the menu. Specify the display location and click on Save Menu.

Step 7: Add widgets to your website

It is something that makes your website look more professional and handier. To add widgets to your website, go to Appearance.

On one side, you will see all the available widgets; on the other side, you will see all the widgets your theme can support. To add a widget to your sidebar, grab the widget and drag-and-drop it to the sidebar area. If you want to list all your pages in the sidebar, for example, you can grab the ‘Pages’ widget and drag it to the sidebar side. You can also organize the settings of a widget.

Step 8: Customize your website with Plugins

You can search for WordPress plugins and install them for free on the dashboard. Go to plugins ● Add New. You can search for plugins on the right-hand side and then click on Install Now. After the installation is done, click on Activate now.

You can even download and install plugins from a third-party. There are many websites that offer free and premium plugins that can help enhance the appearance and functionality of the website.

Step 9: Get your website visible on Google

Google must know about your website so that it shows the URLs on SERP for relevant queries. To ensure that, go to Settings and make sure the ‘discourage search engines from indexing this site’ box is unchecked. This will allow the bots to crawl your site and index.

Step 10: Set a permalink for your website

A permalink is the web address used to link your content or specific pages. The default permalinks are difficult to understand for search engines, hence to customize them, go to settings ● permalinks ● common settings ● select the Post name option.

Your website is now all set for a formal launch. Of course, there are plenty more steps in between these broad steps. But in all, WordPress does make things a lot simpler. Creating your website from scratch isn’t as difficult as it may sound. You buy a domain name, choose a web host, install WordPress on your server, pick and install a theme, adjust the settings on your dashboard, add relevant widgets and plugins as needed, and there you have it… You have a functional and good-looking website that’s ready to take your business to the next level.

Benefits of Reseller Hosting

If you’re planning to have multiple websites, or want to start a web hosting business yourself, or you offer web development services to clients, you’re better off selecting reseller hosting plans.

There are several resellers hosting benefits. It involves buying a bulk plan and then distributing it to others.

● Low rates

Reseller hosting services provide you with web hosting at low prices; you can store a lot of website data on the cloud or server at low rates. And if you’re working with the best reseller hosting provider, you can even avail further discounts.

● Income generation

The reseller web hosting plans have the option of revenue-generation. Once you have invested in the bulk, you can distribute the hosting space and features to other businesses, charging them money. You run this venture under your own brand name. You even devise your own plans; meaning, you get to decide how much your customers/clients will pay you.

Conclusion

If this is your first time creating a WordPress website, start small and simple. Don’t try to create a fancy website with too many features. Get the basics right first. And then as you move forward, expand the website with more features, better color schemes, advanced plugins, and, of course, better content.