How to Make a Website in 2024 (Beginner’s Guide)

Ready to learn how to make a website? Without learning how to code?

Getting online is not complicated work anymore.

When it comes to making a website, there are a bunch of website builders out there on the internet today.

With this step-by-step guide, I’ll show you how to do it with a tiny budget without any interruptions or annoying ads on it.

Let’s learn how to make a WordPress website from scratch, step-by-step!

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How to Make a Website in 3 Steps

Whether your website is a simple or fully functional website, you should go through 3 main steps to make it accessible, user-friendly, and functional.

  1. Choose a website platform
  2. Get the domain name and web hosting
  3. Setup and design your website

Put simply, you’ll need to have a domain name (yourwebsite.com) and a web hosting service to make your website fully accessible to others.

When you have a domain name and hosting, you can make a website. This means you’re going to build a self-hosted website. Self-hosting is when you pay a web hosting company, and they’ll store your website and make it available to the public.

Step 1: Choose a Website Platform

WordPress is the most popular website content management system. The new data reveal it is used by 43.2% of all the websites on the Internet.

So we’re going to get a domain name + web hosting and use WordPress to make your dream website alive.

Once you’ve finished this guide, you’ll have a fully working self-hosted WordPress website with a custom domain name!

Ready? Let’s dive in!

Step 2: Get the Domain Name and Web Hosting

Put simply, web hosting is a service that stores your website and its files on a secure server that has always connected to the internet.

Thankfully, Bluehost offers great web hosting packages to start your WordPress website seamlessly.

→ Click here to head over to Bluehost and hit the “Get Started” button

Start a blog on Bluehost

The first thing is you need to select one of the web hosting packages you prefer. I recommend you select the basic package because it’s more than enough when you’re just getting started.

If you’re planning to build more than one website in the near future, you can also select any other higher package but you can always upgrade your package later if you need.

Bluehost pricing plans

Moreover, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee so there’s no risk in purchasing web hosting when you’re creating a website with Bluehost.

The next thing is, that you need a domain name.

Your visitors will use this address to find your site through their PCs laptops and mobile devices etc.

My domain name is talkbitz.com. You can choose any name that you’d want to be your website’s domain name.

If your choice isn’t available right now, you can click the option “I’ll create my domain later” to set up a domain after you purchase the hosting package.

Bluehost domain search

They offer a free domain name for the first year and it will also help you to get web hosting at a slight budget.

After you find your domain name is available, you’ll need to sign up on Bluehost to get your domain name and web hosting to start building your website.

Bluehost checkout

Once completed, you need to choose your web hosting account plan.

You can choose your plan in 12 or 36 months upfront.

When you pay for 12 months, your monthly cost will be just $35.40 and you’ll get web hosting for 1 year with a free domain name and also a free SSL certificate.

Bluehost package details

If you’re wondering what is “SSL certificate” means, it will secure the communication between your visitor’s browser and the HTTPS-enabled website (That’s your website).

Simply, the padlock icon appears on the left side of your web browser’s address bar.

Furthermore, watch out for pre-ticked package extras.

When you register a domain name, your details will be stored in a public directory.

So I recommend keeping the “Domain Privacy Protection” extra. Which will help you keep your personal information protected from public access and replace it with generic Bluehost contact information instead.

Pick your package extras carefully and scroll down to the next section.

It’s time to purchase your web hosting package. Enter your payment information correctly, review the Bluehost Policies and Terms, and then hit the green “Submit” button!

Bluehost checkout submit

Lastly, give a password for your Bluehost account. Keep in mind that this is the password for your Bluehost account-related settings, not for your WordPress website (which will receive you via email).

Create a password for your Bluehost account

Now, you need to log into your Bluehost account. Use the password you just created in the above step. Or sign in with your Google account as you signed up before.

Log into your Bluehost account

Now you’re all set! Let’s start building your website!

Enter the name of your website and a tagline. Toggle on the two switches if you need a blog and an online store for your website. You can also change these settings later.

Let's start building your websit

Now pick a theme for your website. You can choose a free or premium theme as you want. Choose any theme for now and you can change your theme anytime.

Pick-a-theme

Once you pick a theme, your WordPress website will start installing itself.

I know that doesn’t look attractive but don’t worry, you’ll learn how to change the design to something more appealing with the below step.

Step 3: Setup and Design Your Website

I hope now you’ve your new website alive, it’s time to make it feel more attractive with the design, customizing, and some branding stuff.

Simply, go to your WordPress dashboard to start customizing your website. You can find it at yourwebsite.com/wp-admin. You can also find it on the Bluehost account. (Check your inbox for login details.)

So, this is the dashboard you need to create content and customize your website. To get a clear idea about how to use this properly, you can head over to my WordPress Dashboard guide.

Once you’ve logged in, you can see your WordPress dashboard like this:

How to Make a Website in 2024 (Beginner's Guide) 1

To build up your website, you can be starting by choosing a simple theme for your website.

Navigate to Appearance > Themes > Add new and search for the “Hello” theme.

Then Install it and click “Activate” to enable it.

Hello theme

In addition, I recommend installing the Elementor WordPress page builder plugin. It helps you build your website in a drag-and-drop website builder without writing a single line of code.

Navigate to Plugins > Add new and search for the “Elementor” to install and activate it.

Elementor Plugin

With Elementor, you can design an appealing website easily without any design experience. Here’s a free YouTube course created by the Elementor team to help you learn everything from scratch:

You can also head over to Elementor’s YouTube channel for more design tips.

After all of the customizations, make sure to publish it to see every website visitor. You can also create many pages such as About Us, Contact Us, and Privacy Policy for your website following the same process.

And don’t forget to make a logo for your new website with the help of online platforms like Tailor Brands.

After you’ve customized a page for your homepage, you need to set it as it is for the home page in WordPress settings.

To do that, go to “Settings” from the WordPress dashboard and navigate to the “Reading” section. Then a page for the home page under the “Your homepage displays” section and save it.

Setting up WordPress homepage

Finally, enter your website domain on your browser’s address bar, and see what it looks like!

With Elementor, you’ll figure out it’s super easy to design anything in a few steps.

Launch Your Website and Keep Improving It

Congrats on your new website!!!

You’ve just learned how to build a website with WordPress on your own!

Moreover, there are many types of websites you can build with WordPress. But they’re not limited to Portfolios, Online stores, Booking sites, Forums, Job boards, etc.

No one can put ads on your website and no one can limit your features on the website there are plenty of WordPress plugins that can help to add more functionality to your website. You got the freedom to do what you love.

As you grow you can scale your website with higher plans at Bluehost.

Here are a few other tools you can use to improve your website:

  • Tailor Brands: This is an AI-powered free logo designing and branding platform that helps you make a logo for your website with zero design skills. It’s simple.
  • Envato Elements: If you want to use digital assets the right way for your website content, promotions, and ads, Envato Elements comes with millions of digital assets including graphic templates, video templates, fonts, stock photos, music, web templates, and more.
  • Constant Contact: This is a powerful email marketing platform where you can create and manage email lists for your website.
  • Google Analytics: This is a tool that Google provides to help website owners measure their website performance and traffic. If you want to set up Analytics on your new blog, read this guide.
  • Google Search Console: This is the place where you can add your website to Google search engine results. If you want to see your blog on Google, you need to set up Google Search Console for your website first.
  • WP Buffs: This 24/7 WordPress website management and support service helps businesses keep their websites up and running. They offer a wide range of services, including website updates, security monitoring, and performance optimization.

Never stop by here, you can do many more things with WordPress. You can explore more guides on our website to learn more about website building, and blogging, and there are hundreds of guides that can help you grow online.

Happy website making!

How to Make a Website
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Minosh Wijayarathne

A content marketer and storyteller at heart. I have a deep interest in anything related to crafting better content, increasing productivity, and being happy.
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