creating websites

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Choose from expertly crafted HTML5 website te mplates , all fully customizable and tailored for any type of business.

Photography

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Build a one-of-a-kind website with ease

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Intuitive drag & drop elements

Extensive media library

Interactive design effects

Reusable HTML components

Mobile optimization and more

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How to use an HTML website builder

Create your site in no time with our easy-to-follow steps:

Plan your website.
 Think about the type of site you’re creating and who your target audience is. Then start mapping out the pages you’d like to incorporate.    

Sign up for a free HTML website builder.  Choose the right plan for you that fits all your website's needs.  

Pick a template or let AI do the heavy lifting.  Browse our collection of templates or chat with our AI site builder and have a website created for you.    

Customize your website.  Seamlessly change colors, fonts, layouts and more. You can add custom CSS or Javascript for extra customization.  

Get a domain name.  Connect a custom domain or use a free Wix branded domain to get your site online.  

Optimize for search engines.  Use a suite of advanced SEO tools to help you optimize your site and increase organic traffic.  

Publish and promote your website.  Once your site is live, drive traffic by promoting it with built-in solutions like email marketing and social media tools. 

Enhance your site with  end-to-end business solutions

Start selling products, create a community, take  bookings and establish your brand online—all from one place.

Online store

Sell anything and boost your revenue with powerful eCommerce features.

Create a blog and monetize your content effortlessly.

Scheduling software

Offer your services, take online bookings, and manage your calendar seamlessly.

Showcase your work, reach new clients, and expand your online presence.

Domain & hosting

Look professional online with a custom domain name and enjoy free web hosting .

Branding tools

Establish a strong brand identity with a customizable logo , color themes, and more.

Built to help you succeed

Manage client relationships, promote your business, and drive growth with even more built-in tools:

Run your business on the go with the Wix Owner app.

Reach the right audience with social campaigns & SEO tools.

Make informed decisions with detailed reports & analytics.

Turn prospects into clients with live chats, email marketing, and forms.

Looking for inspiration?

Explore HTML sites created by Wix users and get inspired to start your website creation journey.

Studio van Duelman

Daniel Aristizábal

Sharon Radisch

Steven Popovich

The Robin Collective

Mariela Mezquita

Generation She

Learn more about designing with an HTML website builder

How to Build a Website from Scratch Guide

How to Design a Website

27 Common Types of Websites

Static vs. Dynamic Websites

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Get answers.

Watch tutorials and read detailed articles in the Wix Help Center.

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Get help at any stage—from site creation to online growth.

HTML website builder FAQ

What is an html website builder.

An HTML website creator simplifies the website creation process, allowing you to design and customize your site without extensive coding skills. Wix's HTML website builder streamlines this process for you.

Is Wix's HTML website builder free?

Yes, Wix offers a free HTML website builder. Explore the pricing details for additional plans tailored to your needs here .

What kind of site can I build with an HTML website builder?

Whether you’re looking to build a one-page website , a blog, an online store, a scheduling site or any other kind of page, the Wix HTML website builder gives you the freedom to build a site that fits your needs.

Can I create a website without knowing how to code?

Absolutely. Wix is an HTML website builder that makes it possible to create a high-quality website without knowing how to code. In the Wix Editor, you can drag and drop any feature you want and customize it to match the look and feel of your site. Of course, if you do know how to code, you can add advanced functionality to your site with Velo.

Why use an HTML website builder?

Wix's HTML website builder combines user-friendly tools with the flexibility of HTML, making it an ideal solution for creating a dynamic online presence without extensive coding.

How long does it take to build an HTML website?

With Wix's HTML website builder, you can have a professional website up and running in just a few hours. You can also try our AI website creator to have a business-ready site built for you in minutes.

Maximum flexibility. Minimum hassle.

Wix.com > HTML Website Builder

How to Make a Website: A Beginner’s Guide

By Amanda Shih-Goel

Download a free workbook to help you design your site with confidence.

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Your website is your online homebase: You might have countless social media profiles , portfolio pages , and more than one account on different online marketplaces, but your website is the place where you can tie it all together, provide context for your work, and build direct, authentic connections with your audience.

Squarespace’s all-in-one website building platform gives you everything you need to create a compelling, effective online presence. You can start your new website with a single landing page, or build a complex, multi-faceted presence with media and ecommerce , and everything in between.

1. Do your research

Before you even start to think about your website design, sit down and do some brainstorming. Look at other websites in a similar space to yours and then think about the purpose of your website. 

Write down a few ideas about your:

Goals for your website

Brand visuals and tone of voice

Audience and how you’ll reach them

Understanding these concepts will help you make decisions about pages to add, copy to write, and design . For example, knowing what you want people to do once they land on your website will help you figure out how to organize your content.

2. Choose a template

Website templates are pre-designed layouts that help you quickly create a professional, simple website. You can drag and drop elements like text blocks, images, photo galleries, logos , and more into the template to make it your own. 

When you’re ready to choose a template for your site , it’s helpful to know the primary functions you need it to have. This is where your website goals can help to guide you. Are you building a portfolio, a blog, a resume site, or an ecommerce website? Or something brand new and hard to categorize? 

You don’t need coding or web development experience to customize a website template to your brand’s needs. But if you have some coding experience, you can add custom CSS code to add extra features to your web design.

Effective design sets the foundation for a strong website that will attract your ideal customers, prove your professionalism, and showcase your personality. Squarespace offers a range of templates that you can customize with brand colors, fonts, and imagery. Or you can build a fully custom template from scratch with Squarespace Blueprint AI . 

If you have the desire and resources for a little extra help, consider getting matched with a Squarespace Expert , who can help make your website vision a reality.

3. Create your website pages

You can get started with just a homepage for your brand or business, but depending on what you’re building, you’ll likely need additional website pages. Most people will benefit from having an About and Contact information page for website visitors. Consider what other pages you might need, like a blog page or a page for FAQs.

Short on time? See tips for creating a one-page website.

Basic website navigation

Navigation design is the sum of all the elements that people use to navigate a website. It includes everything from your website’s navigation menu to buttons and copy , hyperlinks, and how you design your page layouts .  

Good navigation design helps visitors to move around your website and find what they need. The more user-friendly your website navigation is, the more people will want to stay on the page. A bad design will cause people to click away from your site before getting to your content or products.

When it’s done well, navigation UX (user experience) is intuitive. Ideally, visitors will have such an easy time finding what they need that they won’t even think about the navigation design of your website.

See our full guide to designing your navigation

Designing page layouts

To design your page layouts, take the time to truly consider your customer journey. How will someone get from the landing page of your site to taking the step of contacting you or buying from you? 

Once you’ve put together a page, ask yourself:

When someone lands on your homepage, is it clear what they need to do next? 

Is your navigation easy to understand? 

Do you naturally guide someone where you want them to go, like your products page?

When you add new pages to a Squarespace website, you can choose between blank pages and pages with pre-built layouts designed for specific uses. Squarespace is powered by Fluid Engine , a no-code drag-and-drop grid editor to help you customize where and how content appears on your site. 

You can add content blocks to a blank page to create a new layout, or manipulate the blocks within a templated layout page to create rows, columns, or even overlapping content. With Fluid Engine’s grid as guidance, you can easily resize and realign those page elements in whatever ways suit your creative vision. Squarespace websites are built with responsive design , which helps to optimize your site for any sized screen.

Your page layouts and whether they’re responsive on mobile impact:

SEO performance

How much time people spend on your site

How likely someone is to buy from you  

The goal is to create a polished representation of your brand, so the experience visitors have on your website encourages more trust, interest, and engagement for your website .

See our 10 essential principles for web design

4. Add content to your website

Once you have your layouts set, the next step to guiding people through your website is choosing the right copy and visual elements.

Writing website copy

Writing website copy that informs and engages your audience is a crucial part of your action plan. Website copywriting should be high on your to-do list. Before you even write your copy, set yourself up for success by deciding what to write and where to put it. 

Start with your homepage and define what you offer or the purpose of your site. 

Identify key details and any other pages to include in your header, such an About page, pages for your products or services, or a page with a contact form.

Keep copy concise and skimmable.

Consider which search keywords are relevant to your business, and how they can be incorporated into copy and site navigation.

Not sure where to start? Get our guide to writing website copy or let Squarespace AI do the drafting for you.

Adding photos to your website

The first step to choosing images for your website is to identify what types of imagery fit your brand. Once you figure out the aesthetic that represents your brand, you can source the photos and images that will bring it to life. 

Stock photos are a useful place to start, especially when you’re launching your business and don’t have many of your own photos yet. Squarespace offers integrations with stock photo services to help you find high-quality, free or affordable images for use on your website.

Your other options include taking photos yourself or hiring a photographer, if that’s within your budget. Leading with photos that directly represent your brand—photos of yourself, your studio or storefront, your items for sale, or your team in action—can support your credibility and build trust with your audience. 

For photos and images to load quickly and cleanly on your website, pay close attention to image formats, resolution, and sizing. All of these can impact how your images look and how quickly your pages load.

Make sure you’re working with JPEGs or PNGs. 

Stick to a width of 1500 to 2500 pixels. 

Keep the total size of media files on a webpage under 2 MB to optimize load time. 

Once you upload your photos to your site, you can manage them all from one central place.

5. Buy a domain

When you’re almost ready to launch your website, choose a domain name . A domain name, like squarespace.com, is one of the first impressions you leave online and impacts everything from SEO to a person’s ability to easily remember and find your website. It doesn’t take long to buy a domain , but you should spend time picking one that fits your brand. 

Ideally, your domain name and your business name will be the same or similar. For example, if you’re launching an ecommerce store for an existing business, start by searching for a custom domain name that matches the name of your business. That way, existing customers can easily find your site. If your domain name isn’t available with “ .com ” after it, consider a different domain extension, like “ .co ” or “ .store .” 

All Squarespace sites on an annual billing plan include a custom free domain . Already own a domain? You can transfer it to Squarespace .

Learn about web hosting services and why you need one

This post was updated on June 1, 2023.

Posted on 28 Sep 2021

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How to create a website: The 2022 step-by-step guide

You want to create a website, do you? You're in the right place. Armed with this step-by-step guide, you'll have a clear roadmap to follow for creating your own site.

You don't have to be a programmer, a geek, or a techie to do this. You also don't have to be an illustrator or a designer. All you'll need to do is take some time, make some decisions, spend a few bucks, and write your site's content, and soon, you'll have a shiny new website you'll be proud to promote.

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You want to create a website? Here's where to start

Before you pull out your credit card and sign up for a website builder or web hosting plan , you'll need to make a few important decisions. Some of these decisions will chart your course for the long haul. Others are simple choices, just to get you started. We'll walk you through all of them, and provide you some guidance on how to decide. Here are the first four:

• Is lock-in an acceptable risk or do you want to plan for site portability?
• Do you buy your domain through a domain registrar or get it with your hosting plan?
• Do you hire a consultant or build your site yourself?
• Do you use a website builder or use WordPress?

Let's look at each in turn.

What are lock-in, switching cost, and portability?

In this section, I'm going to talk about switching cost . It's the most important concept to understand before you make any site setup decisions. Unfortunately, you won't see this issue discussed in most "how to build a website" articles. I think that's because most folks writing such articles don't have as many years of experience running production sites as I have.

If you're building a growing site that you want to nurture for years, you'll probably want to avoid lock-in at all costs.

Here's the issue: Building a website is a complex process, involving many technologies and configurations, running on top of a server environment provided by a hosting provider. The switching cost is the time, effort, and dollar cost of switching to a new provider. The inability to easily switch is called lock-in .

If you run an active website for any number of years, it is almost guaranteed that you'll need to switch hosting providers. These are just a few of the reasons you might need to switch:

• Your provider may become unreliable, may increase prices, or may start to offer reduced quality support. 
• Your site might simply outgrow the provider's capacity.
• The hosting provider's server software might not keep up with the security requirements of a payment processor. 

A few years back, I had to switch because of a very sad circumstance: The owner of one of my hosting providers passed away and the company simply closed down, making rapid switching an unexpected urgency.

You may work with one provider for three, four, five years, or more. But if you're running a site for the long haul, it's rare to stick with one hosting provider unless you simply have no way out. So, planning to be able to switch is useful.

Many web builders are proprietary, so if you want to switch to another service, you'll have to rebuild your site either mostly or entirely from scratch. At the very least, there will be a ton of cutting and pasting between services. 

For smaller sites, that's not much of an issue. Rebuilding five or 10 webpages is no big deal. But if your site is 50, 100, or even thousands of pages, that's a lot of copying and pasting (or, if you're very lucky, exporting and importing). Think about this: If you do one blog post every weekday, you'll have at least 261 pages by the end of a year. Content expands very quickly.

Another approach is to build a website using non-proprietary tools. We'll be discussing WordPress a lot when we get to this. The benefit of non-proprietary tools is that they make switching far more practical. The disadvantage is that they're usually more complicated.

As we discuss the decisions you're going to be making in setting up your site, we'll be coming back to the issue of lock-in again and again. You'll need to decide early on if lock-in is an acceptable risk, or if you want to plan for site portability. Generally, if you expect to have only a few pages that don't change over time, lock-in is probably okay. But if you're building a growing site that you want to nurture for years, you'll probably want to avoid lock-in at all costs.

Register a domain name

No matter what technology you use to build your website (we'll talk more about that later), you're going to need a domain name. That's the online brand for your site, and as such, it's an important part of your online presence.

Do not let any of the web hosting providers try to convince you to use something like yourname.theirname.com. It's better to have yourbrand.com as your domain name. Domain names cost about $10 a year and you go to a domain registrar to buy one. The only challenge, as with vanity license plates, is finding one that hasn't already been used.

Here's a caution: Most registrars also offer some form of domain marketplace, where those who own domain names try to sell them to others who want them. Stay away.

I have an acquaintance who decided he wanted a very specific name and spent thousands to buy it. Yes, the name of your company might have already been taken. Be creative. There are still many great combinations of letters out there. Don't spend hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars on a domain name. Just be creative and choose one that's available.

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Many hosting providers and website builders include a free domain name as part of their plan. There are pros and cons to going that route. You can often save the ten bucks for the first year, and it's usually a few minutes easier to set up. But switching costs will be there if you need to move.

Recommendation:  I like keeping my domains separate from my hosting providers so I have more control over where they point. If I want or need to switch hosts, I'm not also trying to extract my domain at the same time. If you go with a domain registrar separately from your hosting plan, you can also nail down your online identity early in the process. Otherwise, you might have to wait until you've decided on a hosting technology and provider.

 You are unlikely to have access to the same developer for the entire life of your site. Consultants move on, get new jobs, move away, die, or get fired. I

Personally, I've used GoDaddy and Namecheap , both of whom offered good prices and reasonable support.

Build it yourself or hire a consultant? How to decide

If you run a large corporation that can hire a web team, sure, go out and hire a consultant. And while there are many web developers out there (freelance and with agencies) that do a wonderful job, they can increase complexity considerably. For now, I'm going to tell you a few reasons why I don't recommend you hire someone. After, I'll show you some tips for succeeding if you do.

Let's start with the reasons you might want to avoid hiring someone. At the top of the list is cost. Building a custom website is a lot of work. While it's possible to crank out cookie-cutter sites where only the logo and colors change, anything built with more of a personal touch will take days to weeks to months.

I volunteer with a nonprofit. I agreed to build their site. It had just a few highly custom features (a tweaked membership list and member-only access). Even with just a few custom features, it took me a couple of weeks to put it together. Even the cost of hiring the least expensive developer, billing for 80 to 100 hours, is going to add up.

Beyond cost, however, is the loss of control. I also maintain a free donations app, again as part of my pro bono work. At least once a week, someone contacts me telling me that they lost their developer (or they have no idea who the original developer was) and they need to know how to modify their site.

Recommendation: Build it yourself.

You are unlikely to have access to the same developer for the entire life of your site. Consultants move on, get new jobs, move away, die, or get fired. If you are solely reliant on someone else to keep your site alive, you're at serious risk. It's incredibly valuable, especially for your first few sites, to build them yourself. Learn about hosting. Learn about your content management system. Learn about backups.

If you build up these basic skills, you'll be able to jump in if your developer is unavailable. At the very least, you'll have a better chance of understanding whether the consultant's asking price is reasonable or over-inflated.

If you do want to hire a consultant, my biggest piece of advice is to keep each job simple, with clear objectives and a measurable set of guidelines. Rather than hiring someone to develop your entire site, you might hire someone to configure your e-commerce plugin -- and teach you how to maintain it. Rather than having someone design the entire site, you might hire someone to help you choose your site's colors and tweak your CSS to display them.

Recommendation: Keep the jobs simple, tangible, and objectively measurable. It's much easier to convince a vendor to make a fix because payments aren't processing than it is to try to convince a consultant to redesign because you didn't get the light and airy feeling you were hoping for.

Website builder or hosted WordPress?

You're now at one of the most important structural decisions about your site: Whether to use a website builder service like Wix or Squarespace , or to set up a hosted site, probably based on WordPress.

Without a doubt, if you want the fastest and easiest path to a website, one of the website builders will get you there. The gotcha is that website builders are all about lock-in. If you want to move your site to another provider or another site management technology, you pretty much have to rebuild the entire site from scratch.

Here's a chart that helps compare the two approaches:

The website builder option

As I mentioned, the website builder option is your fastest route to a site. Choosing the builder is about all you'll need to do. Once you do, you create an account, pick a theme, fill your site with words and pictures, and you're done. The builder will do the hosting, manage the servers, and even provide you with a domain name. But -- and it bears repeating -- once you've chosen a website builder, it's hard to switch.

For some of you reading this, switching options and flexibility might not matter. Getting up and running fast might matter more. For you, then, let's dive a little deeper into making the builder choice.

First, I'm going to point you to our article that compares website builders. This is a great place to start to look at each of the builder products, compare features, and prices.

Also:  The best website builder for 2021: Your step by step guide

Here are five factors to consider when choosing a website builder:

• Trial period. It's important to have enough time to check out the service and decide if it can do what you want.
• Template choice. This is big. You need to choose a look for your site. If the builder doesn't have the look you want, don't sign up. Conversely, if you love a certain look, this might be the builder for you.
• E-commerce. Do you want to sell physical or digital goods? The builder needs to have an e-commerce option that fits your needs.
• Other services. Do you want forums, social links, blogging, or video content types? Make sure the builder you choose offers these.
• Price and capacity. Choose a service that can handle the size site you intend to build and is within your budget.

Some builders will offer additional benefits, like libraries of graphics, free email, mail list management, and more. Carefully consider what you need and evaluate accordingly. Take full advantage of any trial period and test, test, test. Better to learn about limitations now, than later when you're completely locked in and switching costs are much greater.

Wix website builder

Choosing and configuring your template

While most website builders offer pretty much the same set of features, the place they're going to differ the most is in their template designs. Template design is as much art and science, and as such, you may find the aesthetic offered by one provider is considerably different from another.

  Make sure to test your template on more than just your computer. Test it on tablets and phones to make sure it displays properly as well.

Templates usually come in a variety of categories:

• Information site
• Landing page
• Membership site

Often you can include multiple page styles in one site. So, if you want a site that provides information about your company, but also has a blog, a portfolio of client projects that you want to showcase, and a shop for purchasing some downloads, be sure that your provider can handle all these options -- and that they look like something that fits your company's style.

Once you choose your template, you'll want to fill it with your unique content. You can write your text right in the website builder's editor, or write it in a text editor and paste it in. I like to write my articles, mostly, in Evernote and then paste them into my posts. That way, if I accidentally hit the back button in my browser, I'm sure I won't lose all my hard-crafted writing. If I am writing directly in the posting tool (like I am right now), I make sure to hit Save. A lot.

Make sure to test your template on more than just your computer. Test it on tablets and phones to make sure it displays properly as well. Most of the templates provided by the bigger website builder services do this automatically.

E-commerce: Setting up online selling

Where online selling gets interesting is how the money is processed and how you manage to deliver goods.

Configuring a site for online selling is often quite straightforward. Website builders will often handle every aspect of capturing the sale, including taking your customers' money. You'll usually set up product listings, often with categories, and then upload descriptions and pictures of the items you want to sell.

Where online selling gets interesting is how the money is processed and how you manage to deliver goods. Generally, most website providers will offer to process credit cards using some service they've contracted with. They'll usually take a fee off the top, a percentage of each transaction plus a per-transaction fee. They may also charge you extra just to use the e-commerce service.

Other services will give you the option of using PayPal or Stripe , at least if you're in the US. Both capture customers' money, disbursing payments to you either when a threshold is reached, or on a regular basis. I've worked with both PayPal and Stripe, and while I have had much better support from Stripe as a developer, very few of my users have complained much about either service.

The shopping cart you setup may need to be able to deliver digital goods, and unlock files for download once payment is completed. It's rare that a website builder's cart system will offer licensing, though. If you want to issue license numbers for each digital download, you probably want the WordPress solutions we'll discuss in a bit.

If you're shipping physical goods, you'll want to make sure the cart handles taxes, as well as providing you with some mechanism for managing shipments. The ideal cart will give you the option to print shipping labels and interface with UPS or the USPS for shipments. If you want to sell physical items, definitely take the time to examine these features carefully. 

WordPress is a great option if you need flexibility and scalability.

WordPress: The sweet spot of website creation

That's about it for website builders. Give them your credit card number and start crafting your content. Next, let's look at hosted WordPress, which is a far more flexible (but a little more complex) option. Personally, it's the option I use. 

WordPress has  an enormous user community and an almost unlimited amount of training, help, and support, and a virtual cornucopia of resources.

If you decide you need more flexibility and control than website builders provide, I'm going to go out on a very safe limb and recommend you consider WordPress as the foundation of your website. According to  tracking service W3Techs , WordPress now runs 40% of all websites and has a 64.3% market share of all sites based on a content management system.

WordPress is an open-source CMS you install on your hosting provider's site. Usually, WordPress comes pre-installed, or you need to run a quick installer to create the site. The installation process involves answering a few basic questions. To just get WordPress up and running, it rarely takes more than about five minutes or so.

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It's the customization of WordPress that can take a while. That's because there are so many options and capabilities, especially when you factor in the added functionality offered by plugins and themes.

One other benefit of WordPress: Because it's so huge, there's an enormous user community and an almost unlimited amount of training, help, and support, and a virtual cornucopia of resources, sites, and helpful people out there who know WordPress.

If you want a deep dive into a six-year-old WordPress site that provides support, e-commerce, and information, I wrote an in-depth article (below) about how my software products site works. Keep in mind that this is the result of many years of evolution, so don't expect that you have to understand it all right now, but if you're planning on growing, this is a good example of what you'll be building out over the years:

Real-world example: WordPress site 101: Free and low-cost tools to build a powerful web presence

WordPress plugins

Plugins extend WordPress's capabilities. There are thousands upon thousands of them. I consider plugins the great strength of WordPress because they allow you to customize WordPress to do almost anything. Many are free, many more are paid add-ons. Many offer a free core plugin but sell either a pro version or add-on capabilities.

There is a wide range of plugin capabilities, ranging from small tweaks to WordPress behavior, to major applications like:

• Support ticketing
• Donations management
• Privacy control
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• And even verticals like restaurant management, delivery services, doctors' office scheduling, and more.

Recommendation: The best place to start when looking for WordPress plugins is the official WordPress Plugin Repository . There are other sources for plugins (including their developers, for premium versions), but the WordPress repo has a specific set of quality and communications requirements that makes it worth sticking with. Also, the plugins from the repo can be updated automatically in your site's plugin dashboard. Plugins from other channels may require you to update each plugin by hand, a task that will become more tedious with time.

I develop and maintain a number of WordPress plugins. If you'd like to see the tools I use to do this, click below:

Real-world example: One developer's favorite Mac coding tools for PHP and web development

WordPress themes

We talked earlier about templates offered by website builders. WordPress's term for this is themes. The second great strength of WordPress is its enormous themes library . There are some very nice free and default themes, and a tremendous number of excellent commercial themes available. This, too, is one of the reasons I confidently recommend WordPress.

Remember, if you're not an artist or a designer, themes in WordPress and templates in website builders are your friends.

Recommendation: I recommend you consider one of the great page builder themes like Divi , Elementor , or Beaver Builder . These give you the best of both worlds: Website builder ease of use, but with the flexibility, power, and scalability of WordPress. They allow you to customize your look but also include a wide range of pre-built templates as good starting points. I, personally, use Divi.

Also, as you explore themes, you may discover the term "responsive." Responsive, in web talk, is a term that basically means the webpage will respond to different size screens. For example, a form on a large page might have the title of a field to the left of the field data entry area, but that same form, displayed on a small phone, might have the title of the field displayed above the field entry area. 

When you choose your theme, be sure to check that it's responsive. You absolutely want to make sure your page will properly function on mobile devices.

Choosing images

As with website builders, you will undoubtedly want to upload some images on a WordPress site. Only you can provide your logo and pictures of your products, staff, and offices. But if you want a wide range of other pictures, here are two great resources:

• Unsplash :  An enormous library of gorgeous (and free-to-use) images. Consider installing the Unsplash plugin for easy, in-dashboard access.
• Pixabay :  Another large library, but with less consistent image quality, also mostly free to use. Consider installing the Pixabay Free Images plugin for easy, in-dashboard access.

Module-level lock-in vs hosting-level lock-in

But keep in mind that once you integrate a bunch of plugins and themes into WordPress, you're going to have something of a lock-in situation as well. It's not the same as being stuck on one hosting provider, but you may have data formatted just to work with your chosen plugins, or pages formatted to work with just the theme you've chosen.

The difference between module-level lock-in and hosting-level lock-in is that you can often find replacement themes and plugins, and you can almost always move your entire WordPress site (including all those plugins and themes) to another host without too much work.

WordPress security

Also, you may have heard about security problems with WordPress. Don't let that scare you away. Keep in mind that 40% of the internet is running WordPress, so millions of websites run it. That makes a very large target of opportunity for bad guys and opens up a wide range of errors people can make in configuring their sites. 

Also:  Best website monitoring tool in 2021

Here are a few very simple practices that should help keep your site secure:

• Regularly backup your site:  Some hosting providers will do that for you, cPanel allows you to as well, plus there are a bunch of WordPress-specific plugins and services that add more capabilities.
• Make sure to apply updates as they come out:  The WordPress dashboard has an Updates section that lights up with a red number when there are updates to apply. Just select the updates and apply them. Most WordPress exploits are for older vulnerabilities that have already been updated.
• Only buy premium themes from their original sellers:  Hackers and criminals often set up discount stores where you can buy heavily discounted (and stolen) versions of commercial plugins and themes. Not only are you giving the bad guys your personally identifying information, but you're also almost undoubtedly installing hacked versions of the plugins and themes that will infect your site visitors.
• Use site scanning tools:  There are commercial tools like Wordfence , iThemes Security Pro , Bulletproof Security , and more. You can also install Jetpack , which will give you a baseline of security functionality for free.
• Use a website monitoring service: Site monitoring services will just let you know when your site is down or comes back up. Others will also actively scan the files on your site for known malware. Site monitoring is good to both let you know if your site is experiencing problems, and because if your site goes down a lot, it might be because something on it is corrupted or damaged.

Recommendation: If you do the simple practices of backing up your sites and applying updates as they come out, you'll almost always be in the clear.

File management with WordPress

If you spend much time at all with WordPress, you're eventually going to have to upload files to your site. These will most often be images, and you can upload images through the WordPress dashboard interface. In fact, the WordPress dashboard interface will also let you upload themes and plugins as well.

Note: you're not going to be uploading your text, because there are very nice writing interfaces provided by WordPress and some of its themes.

But, if you have to upload or manage files outside of the WordPress interface, say by uploading a JavaScript or CSS file, or having to remove folders from a broken plugin or theme, you'll need to understand file management.

There are two primary ways to manage files on your site: through cPanel or an equivalent host management file manager, or through an FTP client. Let's discuss each in turn.

cPanel is an interface for all your hosting settings. It's a commercial product, so it's something your hosting provider will pay for to include in your hosting offering. When you buy your hosting, the hosting provider will provide you with a cPanel URL and you use it by navigating its menus and icons, looking for whatever function you want. cPanel comes with a rudimentary file manager that lets you drill down through your site's file structure and upload, download, move, copy, delete, and modify files.

There are other hosting dashboards out there, but nearly all of them will include something like cPanel.

Another approach is to use an FTP client application on your computer. FTP has been around since way before the web (it stands for File Transfer Protocol). The base FTP is completely unsecured and open. Most likely, if you use FTP, your hosting provider will tell you to use SFTP (secured FTP), which requires some additional setup. Most hosts will recommend settings for the most common FTP programs. Personally, on Windows, I use FileZilla . On Mac, I use both Forklift and Transmit , usually depending on what sorts of tasks I'm trying to accomplish that day.

One thing you'll need to understand is the directory structure of a typical WordPress install. WordPress consists of a set of PHP files, with the top-level files located wherever your hosting provider likes to place its users' server files. Within the top-level WordPress folder will be a set of additional folders, and these are important:

• wp-admin: This is the main folder for the entire WordPress backend interface. Don't touch it.
• wp-includes; This includes much of the code that drives WordPress. Don't touch it.
• wp-content: This is where your customizations will live. You'll visit and modify this from time to time.

The name wp-content is misleading. This folder doesn't really hold content. It holds customization modules. Within the wp-content folder are the following important subfolders:

• plugins: This is where your plugins live, one plugin per folder
• themes: This is where your themes live. There are also child themes here, which modify the main theme
• uploads: This is where all your uploaded media lives
• mu-plugins: These are must-use plugins, often installed by products that substantially tweak WordPress behavior
• Languages: This holds language files for non-English implementations
• upgrades: Where WordPress holds its upgrade files when it upgrades the entire installation.

And yes, Languages is upper case, while all the other folders are not. If you want to learn more about the wp-content folder,  this is a really good introduction to the wp-content folder.

Choosing a hosting provider

Be aware that the typical hosting business model relies on these big jumps in renewal charges, and plan for it accordingly.

If you go with one of the all-in-one web builders like Wix or Squarespace, you won't have to choose a hosting provider. But if you go with some other CMS or WordPress, you'll need to contract with a company to deliver your webpages to your visitors.

I wrote about the hosting provider business model in  Best free web hosting in 2021: Cheap gets expensive fast , so click over there and give it a read-through. You'll learn a ton about how to think about hosting, what services hosting providers offer, and some of the pricing tricks hosting providers try to foist upon their customers.

The biggest thing to watch out for is renewal pricing. Hosting providers know how time-consuming it is to move a site, so they price their offerings low to suck you in, but then when it comes time to renew -- once you're fully installed, setup, and entrenched -- they raise their prices. These are not just twice as expensive. Sometimes they can be as much as ten times more expensive than what you spent when you first signed up. So, be careful. Be aware that the typical hosting business model relies on these big jumps in renewal charges, and plan for it accordingly.

Another article to check out, on our sister site  CNET,  is  How to choose a web hosting provider . There, I wrote about the different types of hosting and servers to take into consideration.

Also:  Best web hosting in 2021: Find the right service for your site

Here's a quick tip: You can probably get by with shared hosting if you don't have a ton of pages or a complex site. But stay away from the bottom-of-the-barrel pricing plans. You get what you pay for. Look for a plan that's roughly about $10 per month if you're running WordPress or anything with a basic CMS. If you're running complex e-commerce, expect to spend more. 

The reason for this is that you'll need a base level of performance to be able to feed pages with any responsiveness. The super-cheap sites will have terrible performance and often lax security. If you're creating your first impression on the internet, make it count. Spend a few bucks -- way less than we used to spend mailing out brochures in the pre-internet dark ages -- to get a decent quality but still affordable offering.

More to explore:

• The best cheap web hosting in 2021
• Best web hosting in 2021: Find the right service for your site
• Best free web hosting in 2021: Cheap gets expensive fast
• Best WordPress hosting in 2021

What about email?

It's kind of weird. When "the industry" talks about an online presence, they're mostly talking about setting up websites. But having a full online presence should also include email -- even if it's just a free Gmail account. Your customers, constituents, and prospects need to be able to reach you via email. It's just part of the online way of life.

Heads up: Email does not automatically come with web hosting services. You may need to solve this outside of hosting entirely.

Most website builders don't provide email accounts. If you have your site on Wix or Squarespace, for example, they'll recommend you use some other service to host your domain's email accounts.

Also:  Best email hosting in 2021

Conversely, most moderately inexpensive cPanel-based hosting accounts do come with email. It's just another option in the large laundry list of things you can turn on and off in cPanel.

But then, if you pay a premium for higher-end managed WordPress hosting, with concierge-level customer service, more performance, and higher capacities, email often won't be included.

I do have email included on some of my super-cheap test cPanel accounts, but I don't run my email through them. Instead, I have a Google Workspace account with two email accounts. Email is so mission-critical to my work that I wanted to run it through a service that is very invested in providing a solid email experience. Another great option is Office 365, which provides email via the Outlook web app, as well as Microsoft's excellent Outlook installed software application.

Mailing list management

Mailing list management uses email but is almost always a completely different service from email hosting. Let's clarify. 

• Email hosting: A service that hosts your email accounts, and stores and manages all your incoming and outgoing email messages. 
• Mailing list management: A service that manages all your subscribers, allows them to subscribe, unsubscribe, and provides you a mechanism for sending a bulk email to thousands of subscribers at once.

Mailing list management, as a service, almost never comes with either a website builder plan or a hosting plan. There is an entirely different pantheon of companies that manage mailing lists. They often charge by the number of subscribers you have and the number of messages you send to your list.

When it comes to running your website, make sure you look at how you can integrate user sign-in, customer registration, and support registration into your mailing list, so your website constituents are given the opportunity to automatically join your mailing list. WordPress has quite a few plugins that make this an automatic process.

One final thing: Don't spam and don't just sign up users. Make sure to use a double opt-in approach that requires a subscriber to confirm that they want to be registered for your mailing list.

Website creation: Glossary of terms

From a website visitor's perspective, a website is someplace online you visit to get information or to do something. But from a site operator's perspective, a website is, fundamentally, one or more directories of files, possibly accompanied by one or more databases of tables.

 With easy-to-setup options available from website builders and with WordPress, it's just a matter of deciding which is a better fit for your needs.

A webpage is essentially a single document. A website is a collection of related webpages. Many websites, using web programming languages, also work with databases (which provide fast search and retrieval). These sites build the webpages dynamically, constructing all the elements as a user visits the page, and then transferring that cluster of elements as files to a user's browser.

Although we hand-crafted our pages -- HTML tag by HTML tag -- in the mid-1990s, that's no longer a preferred practice. Today, you're almost always going to use some sort of page builder or content management system (CMS), which will do most of the super-tedious page formatting and assembly work for you.

You may have heard terms like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, PHP, and more. These are all, more or less, computer languages in that they follow a specifically defined syntax and, when processed, produce a result of some kind. In this section, we'll touch on some terms you may encounter when getting your site setup or while researching the options.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): This is a text file containing formatting commands for constructing a webpage. You can control the text style, add headings, lists, and place media content. Most HTML pages also embed or include content from other web languages as well, like CSS.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): These are files that help format the webpage. They contain positioning and styling information that gives a page its pleasant look.

JavaScript and Java: These are programming languages, initially developed to run in the browser to modify a page's behavior on the fly. Now, there are server-side versions, like Node.js for JavaScript and Enterprise Java Beans for Java. Almost all web applications, like Gmail and Facebook, use Java and JavaScript (or a modified dialect) to make the pages more dynamic.

PHP, Python, Ruby, etc: These are server-side programming languages that run web applications on the server. For example, an online store will need to call out to a payment processor. Most of that payment processing is handled server-side in a web programming language.

CMS (Content Management System): In 1995, when I got my start on the web, there were no web builders or content management systems. I had to hand-code all my HTML. Today, unless you're writing custom functionality, you probably won't have to know any of these languages in detail to create a successful site. But you might want to have a passing awareness of them and to understand basic HTML and CSS at the least, because little bits of customization in terms of how your site looks may require CSS or HTML tweaking. The most popular CMS today, by far, is WordPress.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer): This is a security protocol used to protect your transactions online. It protects the data transmitted between your computer and the server. If you see a web URL beginning in https://, that's a page that's protected by SSL. A webpage that begins with http:// is not. Having SSL requires having an SSL certificate. This will be handled for you by all website builders and some hosting providers. Make sure you check if you're buying hosting that an SSL certificate is provided. Also, Google is now prioritizing for SSL-based sites, so if you're serving http:// pages only, you're likely to rank lower.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): This is an art, a science, and, some think, a pox on humanity. It's the practice of tweaking or writing your websites so that they show up higher on a Google page after a search. Yes, there are other search engines out there, but it's really Google everyone needs to optimize for. Being highly ranked can mean the difference between success and failure on a site, so SEO is big. That said, pandering to SEO can sometimes result in pages or copy that are less appealing to humans, but are better at influencing the Google page rank algorithm. Most website builder services offer some SEO support, and there is a wide range of hugely popular plugins on the WordPress repository for SEO help.

Every one of these terms could spark its own full class. But, for now, it's good enough just to know what they mean. As you grow in your hosting experience, you'll organically pick up more knowledge about each of these topics.

Final thoughts

As you can see, there are many options. Fortunately, it's relatively inexpensive to set up a starter website. With easy-to-setup options available from website builders and with WordPress, it's just a matter of deciding which is a better fit for your needs.

Are you currently running your own site? What approach are you using? Are there any lessons you've learned that you'd like to share with your fellow readers? Let us know in the comments below.

You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz , on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz , on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz , and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV .

The best web hosting services: Expert tested

The best wordpress hosting services: expert tested, dreamhost review: i'm a satisfied 15-year customer.

How to Build a Website: 2 Methods, 9 Easy Steps, & 35 Amazing Tips

Published: April 03, 2024

Studies show that 76% of consumers research a business online before visiting in person. That means having a website and building web pages that provide the information consumers want to know is as necessary for companies today as having a phone number.

Maybe you’re starting a new business venture or developing your personal brand. Or, maybe you’re looking to update your company’s outdated website.

Whatever the case, building web pages from scratch can feel overwhelming, particularly without technical expertise or a budget for web developers. Below, let’s go over exactly how to build a website and the tools you need to do it yourself.

Table of Contents:

Steps to Make a Website

How to build a website with a website builder, how to build a website with a cms, how to build a website with hubspot.

• Build Web Pages: FAQ

Build Your Website: Tips

I’ve put together a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to creating a website. Best of all, you won’t need a coder, web designer, or big budget to create one — you’ll just need to follow the steps below.

How to Build a Website

• Choose a website builder or a CMS.
• Select a hosting plan or sign up for a website builder subscription.
• Get a domain name.
• Choose a theme or template for your site.
• Customize your theme and templates.
• Add pages to your site.
• Write content.
• Fill in general settings.
• Install extensions, plugins, or add-ons.

In general, you’ll carry out these steps before launching your site. But before you get started, you’ll need to choose a platform.

Start building your website by choosing a platform.

The first thing you’ll need to decide is whether you want to create a website using a website builder or a CMS.

Let’s take a look at the definitions of each below.

Both website builders and CMS platforms provide the out-of-the-box features, pre-designed templates, and extensions required to create a custom site without coding, but they offer different experiences for creating and managing a website.

Website Builders vs. Content Management Systems

Website builders provide everything you need to launch a site. You get website building tools, hosting, domain registration, SSL certification, templates, and support in one place, often for a low monthly rate.

This ease of use and pricing appeals to many site owners. However, free website builders , as well as the more expensive alternatives, tend to be limited in flexibility. For example, you can’t add your own custom code, or drag and drop elements anywhere on your posts and pages.

If you want more control over the functionality and appearance of your site, use a CMS. A CMS will provide the content management features , advanced functionality, and customization options required to build larger, more complex sites.

If you decide that a CMS is the best option for your business, consider the software, ease of use, customizability, security, and pricing of different platforms to narrow down your selection.

Let's look at some examples of both website builders and CMS platforms you could potentially use.

Here are some resources comparing some CMS systems with popular website builders:

• HubSpot vs Drupal vs Wordpress vs Joomla: Which Is the Right CMS for You?
• WordPress.org vs WordPress.com: What’s the Difference?
• Which Should You Use, Wix or WordPress? Things to Know
• A Head-to-Head Comparison of Weebly vs. WordPress
• The Most Critical Differences Between Squarespace & WordPress
• Shopify vs. WordPress: Where Should You Set Up Shop?

Have you decided that you’d like to use a website builder? Excellent! This is the easiest way to start for most beginners.

You won’t need to know how to code, and everything you need is typically included in one convenient package.

So if you don’t want to go through the hassle of finding a hosting service, domain name, and SSL certificate, this is the option for you.

Let’s go through the process of creating your site using a website builder.

1. Choose a website builder.

First up, choose a website builder that fits your needs and budget. You’ll need to consider the following:

• Cost : Your budget will be by far the most important factor when choosing a website builder. Most require a paid subscription to include premium features such as domain names and increased storage.
• Features : Website builders typically offer different features depending on their target market. Shopify, for example, is specifically designed for ecommerce websites, while WordPress.com is primarily known for blogging.
• Extensions : Check out the extensions and add-ons library for each website builder you’re considering. If they don’t offer something you need for your site, skip that builder.
• Themes and Templates : Some website builders provide more themes and templates, while others provide less variety but more well-designed choices. Check out the template library so you can see what your site could potentially look like once it’s finished.
• Ease-of-use : All website builders are designed to be easy to use: simply sign up on the platform and start building. But some are more intuitive than others. Play around with different builders to find out which one you prefer.
• Support : Is the website builder’s support team known for its responsiveness? Do some research beforehand to ensure the premium subscription will also get you premium support.

No matter what, you’ll want to start with a free trial — that way, you can give the platform a test run before committing.

While most website builders come with a free subscription tier, it doesn’t offer a free domain name or the features you need to build a strong website.

My recommendation is to opt for a paid subscription once you’ve decided on a platform.

Below, I’ve broken down some of the most popular website builders you could choose.

Here are a few more resources to help you choose a website builder:

• Best Website Builders Today and How to Choose One
• Best Free Website Builders to Check Out This Year
• Top Ecommerce Website Builders

And here are some posts listing alternatives:

• Wix Alternatives & Why You Might Want Them
• Squarespace Alternatives & Why You Need One

2. Sign up for a subscription plan that meets your budget and needs.

If you’re just getting started, a free plan is a good way to build your business and get it out there.

But as you grow, you’ll want to upgrade to a subscription as free plans typically don’t include enough features to scale and maintain a professional website.

Before you upgrade, take a close look at the features included in each tier to choose the right subscription for you.

Consider the following questions before choosing a subscription plan:

• How much storage will you need?
• Do you want ads to be removed from your site?
• Will you be setting up an online store?
• Will you want a professional email with your domain name?
• Will you want to customize the site using CSS and HTML?
• How much support do you expect you’ll need?

Most website builders have a pricing page that lays out the differences between plans in an easy-to-scan list. The best part is that you can start with the simplest subscription, then upgrade as you require more features and functionalities.

3. Choose a short and catchy domain name.

Some website builders offer a free subdomain for your site, but you'll want to upgrade to a paid subscription to get a custom domain.

A custom domain name is one of the easiest ways to appear more professional and legitimate as a company. Imagine you were looking for a freelance writer.

Are you more likely to hire me if my website address is carolineforsey.weebly.com or carolineforsey.com? An extension like “Weebly.com” can confuse visitors and dilute your brand identity.

Worst case scenario: a visitor might assume you can’t afford a premium hosting service or custom domain, and draw conclusions that your business is not fully established.

The good news is that after you upgrade, your premium website builder subscription will include a domain name for free, at least for the first year. You’ll be able to choose it as you’re setting up the site, or do it later.

If you sell professional services, can customers learn more about the services you offer and easily get in touch with your team if they have specific questions?

If you‘re an e-comm business, how easy is it for your customers to purchase something right off your website?

Interview your customers about their experience on your website, and don’t be afraid to run experiments on your copy or on other elements of your website.

Constantly iterating on the experience you provide your customers will help you perfect your website over time."

Below, I'm covering the process of building your website using a CMS from start to finish.

1. Choose a CMS.

The best CMS system for your business will align with your site's needs and goals.

Let‘s talk about some of the features you’d get from using HubSpot Content Hub to give you an idea of some of the benefits of using content management software.

Example of CMS Software: HubSpot CMS

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

Phases of Website Redesign: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers

The 16 Best Blogging Platforms for 2024 (& How to Pick One)

What Is a CMS and Why Should You Care?

80 Things to Check Before, During, and After Launching a Website

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