How Do I Create a Website?

You’re all set, ready to launch your business into the world of the internet, but you’re probably wondering how do you even create a website?
This question is asked by many company owners, and the answer to this can become complicated, and fast.
 

Here are 5 key areas to consider whenever looking into how to create a website:

 
Website Development Platform: If you’re a first time website content creator, you’re probably going to want to opt to use a content management system such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla. These systems use prebuilt templates with the option of using plugins to enhance your platform within an administrative area. This also removes the need to deal with multiple pages of code every time you want to update your website. Now while this all makes it seem that coding platforms such as HTML/CSS, PHP, or ASP.NET are not needed, they offer a lot more customization and educate on the process in detail on how to create a website. It’s generally recommended that the coding route is begins with HTML/CSS (since it’s the easiest language to work with), and then build from there into PHP or ASP.NET with some JavaScript incorporated.
 
Third Party Website Builder: Website builder packages can be very powerful in streamlining the process more than even WordPress can do. Updates almost never need to be implemented and all the tools are usually in one area that you can use to set up your website. If you aren’t technical at all, this is typically the best route to follow, the only downside being the limitations brought upon customizations on your website. This is due to limited template designs, code positioning, and interface complexity. Something else to keep in mind is that it’s usually a paid service with a hosting provider that – if cancelled – will bring the entire website down, and cannot then be backed up due to intellectual property ownership. For short term websites this is a good option, however it’s probably not the best option for long term websites.
 
Create a domain and hosting package: The core message of your domain will determine many of the aforementioned areas, and how much hosting power your package will need to contain when you create a website. This is also where picking the right top level domain to use (.com, .net, .org) is critical as your domain acts as the front door of your website. If it’s going to be a simple site, chances are you will want to use a shared server since it’s cheap, and usually has good website support. Virtual Private Servers and Dedicated Servers should only be considered if you are hosting a website that gets a lot of traffic, or is a very complex and resource-heavy website.
 
Website Developers: These can be very useful for quick and stress-free website builds that can also bring a strong coding design. The question of whether to hire a website developer to create a website should be answered with their quality of work, reputation, cost, and experience. It can be thought of as hiring an employee to work for you, so making sure you are clear with exactly what you want in your design and negotiating a fair deal is important. Also creating plans for what to do after your website developer leaves is important for long term websites since maintenance needs to be constantly done on websites.
 
Testing Your Website: Once everything is set up and ready to go, you’re going to want make sure you test all aspects of your site, and continue to do so on an ongoing basis. This can include updates to your platform, control panel, or entire programming languages. Updates that can shut down older versions of websites are very common on hosted servers, so keeping up with research on new releases and testing them for compatibility is something that must be done. An easy solution if there isn’t enough time is to hire someone part time to carry out simple website updates and maintenance to cover this area.