If you’ve recently decided to start a website, you might be feeling overwhelmed by the steps you need to go through to get it off the ground. If that’s the case, don’t worry – you no longer need to be an expert at HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build a website. In 2020 it’s easier than ever to get an online presence, so get started with the following steps!
1. Hosting
The internet may seem like an abstract host of information, but your website doesn’t just spring into existence. It needs a (semi) physical location and a space to host the collection of files that is your website. You need a server that people connect to view the files that your website is made up of. This sounds complicated, but it’s easy. All you need to do is to buy a hosting package from a hosting provider.
Often, it’s easier to do this when you buy a domain name. If you don’t already have a good idea of what you want in a domain name, you can use online tools to help you along the way. A domain name is the address of your website. You can use domain name registrars to check for the availability of a domain and then buy it. When you do so, you should get the option to buy a hosting plan too.
When choosing a hosting provider, try to get one with great uptime and speed. You should try to avoid shared hosting, as this is slow, and if you share with spammy sites you can get penalized by Google. If you share with vulnerable sites you could even get hacked.
2. Building the Site
How good are you at Hypertext Mark-up Language? If you’re any good, you probably don’t need much help at building your site. However, most people are, at best, vaguely familiar with HTML and CSS and don’t have the time to learn all the basics that are necessary when building a site. Instead, you can make this process easy with a CMS or a site-building option.
A CMS is a content management system; it allows you to make changes to your website easily without coding lots every time. There are many different CMS sites and what you choose all depends on what you want to do, which options you want, and what sort of site you’re building.
eCommerce often has special requirements that not every site-builder can cater to. A good eCommerce site-builder is Magento, but it has so many options for customization that you might need help from professionals. Sites like magecloud.agency can help you to design your site, as well as optimize your speed and boost your security.
3. Maintenance
Once you’ve built your site, it’s incredibly important to maintain it responsibly. There’s one key reason for this, besides providing the best user experience for your visitors: you want to avoid being hacked. Even if you’re building a site for a small business, you’re still a big target because your security will probably be subpar. That’s why maintenance is so important. If you use a site builder with plugins, make sure that they’re always updated.
Apart from that, keep an eye out for security fixes and if you have content on your site, remember to keep uploading it regularly, even if you don’t feel you have the viewership to warrant it! It’ll pay off as part of a solid SEO strategy.
