How To Make a Website Yourself, For Free
Learning how to make a website for free is an easy proposition. It’s 2020 for gosh sakes! It should be easy now! And it is. Here’s how.
Gone are the days of having to hire an expensive web designer for a basic website, or a professional website for that matter. You just need to know the simple steps.
Step 1- It’s All In the Hosting
The first thing that you need is a hosting plan. Hosting plans cost money (WHAT? You said free!). Yeah, I know. But this is a minimal cost if you learn how to host a website yourself. We are talking $3 to $9 per month. If you see an offer for more than that, it’s a rip-off.
With the Top Hosting Plans, you will get a free domain for life, along with the necessary software to help you make a website for no additional cost.
Step 2- Install a Blogging Software On the Domain
Wait a minute, I want to make a website, not a blog. Okay, but take a close look at this website right now. THIS SITE is made with blogging software called WordPress.
WordPress comes standard with the top hosting companies out there on the market. All you have to do is select the WordPress button in the cPanel (admin panel) of your hosting and follow the prompts to install the software on your domain name of choice.
Other software that comes with hosting companies that will help you create a website is Joomla and Drupal, but WordPress is by far the most popular.
“Drag and Drop Website Builders” ON YOUR HOSTING ACCOUNT- You can use these as well. But just be warned that the code behind the look of the website can get very cluttered, and search engines won’t like your site as much as using a WordPress site. Search engines love WordPress sites and will rank them highly if the content is good and relevant. “On Page SEO” is easily and already mostly taken care of with WordPress.
Step 3- Make Your Site
With WordPress, you can choose from 1,000′s of free “Themes” which give your site the look and functionality you want. You can add “Plugins” to further enhance your site’s look and functionality. Add “Widgets” in the sidebars to show navigation of the pages, posts, pictures, etc…The options are really quite endless with WordPress.
I would recommend a Plugin called “All In One SEO Pack” as well to help you take care of on page SEO.
Since you want to make a website for free, and EASILY, using WordPress is a great option that I highly recommend. There is really no need to learn HTML, buy expensive software, or hire out someone else to do the work for you.
The only unavoidable cost is Web Hosting, but again, in this day and age, it is very cheap. It should cost you no more than $4-$10 per month, or the company you are looking at is not honest.