In this digital world, if you are a designer, seller, content creator, own a business or someone who is looking for getting more online exposure of their content or business, then having a website is necessary. Having your own website lets you showcase your products, portfolios, drive traffic, get customers, increase your social media following, etc. In this article, I am going to discuss how to create a professional website with full control, what are the steps, and which technologies to use.
While most people look out for free ways to get themselves a website, it often have various disadvantages. You are not able to fully control your website. For example, if you create a website using wordpress.com (not talking about wordpress.org software) platform, it may place ads on your website and you will not be able to control it. Also you won’t receive any commission for showing them.
If you are really serious about getting online exposure, then investing some amount of money is totally justified. You will get good ROI later.
For getting a professional website, the first thing you require is a domain name. it’s the address through which people will access your website. For example, you are accessing this website using the domain “icuriousgeek.com”.
Step 1:Buying a domain name
For getting a domain name, you have to purchase one from websites like Godaddy or Hostinger. You have to visit the website, where you will be presented a search bar where you will enter the domain name you want to acquire. Domain names are unique, so there can be only one owner of a particular domain name. Therefore, you have to check the availability. If the domain name is available, you can add it to cart, select the duration till which you want the registration, the most preferred one is 1 year. After that you need to pay using various payment methods that the site provides. After successful purchase, you own that domain name for the mentioned period.
What if the domain name is not available?
If the desired domain name is not available, you can try with other extensions. For example, if example.com is taken, you can consider purchasing example.net. You can also consider purchasing country specific domains like example.in to start with.
If you want a particular domain at any cost and can afford to pay more, you can contact the domain owner or visit some domain reselling or auction sites. But it will cost more especially if the domain name consists of words which are common and mostly searched.
Step 2: Buying a hosting plan
After you are done purchasing a domain name, you have to buy a hosting plan. There are many hosting providers like Godaddy, Hostinger etc. There are many types of hosting like Shared hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated server hosting, Cloud Hosting etc. Shared hosting is preferred for getting started as it costs less. You can always upgrade your hosting plan in the future when traffic to your site increases and as per your requirements. The process of buying a hosting plan is same. You have to select the type of hosting and duration and then checkout with your preferred payment method.
One thing you should know is that many hosting providers have bundled packages where they provide a free domain when you purchase hosting plan for at least 1 year. If the hosting plan includes one, you don’t need to purchase a domain name separately.
SSL Certificate is required to make your website secure. Otherwise most modern web browsers will restrict or warn visitors that your website is not secure , and this will impact your website reputation.
Many hosting plans bundle a free SSL also. If it’s included in the package, then it’s fine. Otherwise you will need to purchase one.
Visit Hostinger for purchasing domain or hosting
Step 3: Connecting your domain to your site
After the above two steps are completed, you need to connect your domain to your site. That basically means updating the nameservers in your hosting control panel.
It is always best to purchase both the domain and hosting from the same site. It will make the process of connecting way easier.
Step 4: Choosing your CMS (Content Management System)
A good CMS is required to manage your content efficiently. When it comes to CMS, WordPress is the leader. Many major websites use WordPress as their CMS. WordPress makes content management easier through it’s various features and super useful plugins.
Most hosting plans support WordPress hosting. You will find the option of installing WordPress in your dashboard. Just follow the steps and install WordPress. You need to set username and password for your WordPress account. After WordPress is installed, you are good to go. You can access WordPress by typing in your domain name, slash, wp-admin( e.g. example.com/wp-admin). Log in with the username and password you created while installing and you can access your WordPress dashboard.
Step 5: Setting up Analytics and SEO tools
Getting your site discovered by search engines and viewing your website traffic stats is important. WordPress has a plugin called Site Kit by Google which lets you connect to Google Analytics and view your website stats right from your WP dashboard. You can also connect AdSense through Site Kit.
For SEO, there are many plugins like Yoast SEO, AIOSEO, etc. You can install these plugins and activate them. It is recommended to use one SEO plugin at a time.
You can read about Google’s Tools and Products for Business.
Step 6: Submitting your site to Search Engines
After everything is set up, you need to submit your site to search engines like Google and Bing for easy discovery of your site. Google provides a tool called Google Search Console to let you submit sites to Google for indexing. Bing provides it’s Bing Webmaster Tools. You can submit URLs and sitemaps there. If it doesn’t have any issues, it will get indexed and can appear in search results.
Most SEO tools like AIOSEO generate sitemaps for you in XML format and it can be accessed by typing in the domain name followed by /sitemap.xml ( e.g. example.com/sitemap.xml).
Bing provides a WordPress plugin called IndexNow to automate URL submission to Bing and other partnering search engines. You can install IndexNow and set it up. You need to enter an API key while setting it up. You can generate one from Bing Webmaster Tool’s homepage.
Wrapping Up
Setting up a professional website can be a great investment. After all, more online exposure means more traffic. Also having a professional website boosts your brand reputation and opens up new possibilities. You can follow the above steps to create a professional website easily with a small investment. If you like the post share it with others to help them get their websites easily.
