How to Create Your First Website in 2021

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If you have an upcoming business idea and want to make it a reality, creating your website is one of the fundamental steps you cannot afford to miss. With the major mass of the world spending their time on the internet, creating an online presence of your business is an absolute necessity. 

With over 1.89 billion websites already existing in 2021, building a website is no more a tough nut to crack. If you are looking forward to creating a new website for your business and are not sure where to start, we have curated just the right guide for you. 

This step-by-step guide will help you create your first website in 2021 with WordPress and Bluehost, one of the top-rated website builders and hosting companies, respectively. Once you gradually reach the end of the guide, you will be all set with your first professional website up and running in no time! So without any further ado, let’s jump right into it.

Why You Should Create a Website?

While you are wondering whether creating a website is worth the investment or not in 2021, you are already losing on a lot of potential sales. A website allows you to reach a wider audience base and take your business to a global level. It establishes your business credibility and helps to expand your customer base.

Sure, you can use social media to reach a wider audience base, but the pesky algorithms and changing rules will highly regulate your growth. Also, social media is currently highly saturated. However, all these businesses promoting their products on social media may already have a website and are way ahead of your business already. Hence, you may have a tough time growing on social media directly. 

Having a website for your business helps you to interact with your target audience easily while improving your sales in the long run. A website gives you more control and scope to expand and flourish in your business. 

Let’s not forget, most consumers prefer to check out the websites before making their purchasing decisions to look for customer testimonials, product details, and much more. Thus, your website is also one of the biggest determining factors for your sale, even when you have a strong social presence.

Website Creation Investment

You can also build your website for free. However, that comes with many restrictions and limitations. A business is meant to grow, and if you choose a free website builder over the paid ones, you definitely may have issues in the future when you try to scale your business.

For example, a free website will not have a separate domain name, sufficient bandwidth, and storage. There will be ads as well which of course, doesn’t bring your business any revenue. Lastly, you miss out on many major benefits.

Hence, we recommend investing in paid website builders to create your website if you are going to get serious about it. However, it doesn’t always have to be super expensive. We have just the right options for your business!

To build a website, you first need to invest in a reliable web hosting service. It is one of the basic requirements to get your website live and running. Bluehost is one of the top web hosting services that offer services starting at just $2.95/month!

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Every plan gives you a one-click WordPress installation, free domain name, automatic updates, and everything else that you need to build a professional website for your business.

Thus, a minimum investment of $2.95 is a prerequisite to getting your website started. However, with the installation of plugins and themes, the cost would range somewhere from $5 – $100/month. This investment is lower than the ROI you will gain once you start your website. 

We also recommend you to get additional security for your website, which costs $2.99/month to keep your website safe and secure. 

Next, if you choose to hire a developer to create your website with a custom WordPress theme with the additional features and plugins, the expenses could rise to a whopping $10,000! 

As we already mentioned before, we have just the right fix for you that can help you create your website without incurring such high expenses. At an affordable rate, you can get your website started in just a few hours. However, designing and creating copies for the website and other factors may take more time, but it is definitely worth it. There is no exact duration since it depends on the complexity and how quickly you can follow the steps and master the platform. 

11 Steps to Create Your First Website

Now that we have discussed the importance and basics of creating a website for your business let’s get into the steps right away and kickstart the process!

Step 1. Head Over to Bluehost.com

Bluehost is the leading choice for web hosting services worldwide for the very right reasons. It offers multiple feature-rich web hosting plans at affordable rates, one of the best ways to get your website started without spending much on your website. Visit the Bluehost official website and click on Get Started.

Step 2. Select a Web Hosting Plan

Bluehost currently offers four web hosting plans: Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro.

Here’s the breakthrough of the different services offered under each plan

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One of the best things about the plans of Bluehost is the longer the duration of the plan, the cheaper it gets. Thus, Bluehost is definitely a great choice if looking for a long-term and sustainable investment for your website.

Since you are starting with your first website, you can go for the Basic plan wherein you get all the basic features at $2.95 for a period of 12 months. You can always upgrade to the next plans whenever you scale your business in the future.

Once you choose the plan, click on Select.

Step 3. Figure Out Your Domain Name

Your domain anime is typically your website’s address. You need to choose any domain name that resonates with your business and the content you will produce. Also, your domain name should be concise, easy to pronounce, and remember for your customers.

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You need to choose a unique domain name. Else you won’t be able to set one if it is already taken up by some other website.

You can also search for available domains under the Create a new domain tab and choose accordingly. If you have an existing domain ready from any previous website, add it into the Use a domain space, and you can continue with your previous domain.

If you cannot make the right choice and are confused for longer hours, you can skip it and create the domain name later!

Step 4. Create Your Bluehost Hosting Account

After you choose your domain name or skip it for later, you will be directed to a webpage asking for your personal and billing information to finalize the purchase. Fill in all the required details as asked.

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You can also buy additional features and add ons at this point to enhance the functionality of your website even further. If you ask for a recommendation here, the SiteLock Security – Essential is a great choice for people starting their websites. This will boost the security of your website and keep cybercriminals at bay. 

You can also get the Codeguard Basic which offers daily automated backups to store and preserve your website data and prevent any potential data loss.

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Lastly, add your payment information and check the terms and conditions checkbox at the bottom of the screen. Click on Submit, and your Bluehost account is all set!

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Step 5. Install WordPress

This step may sound complicated already but trust the process. Since you choose Bluehost as your web hosting choice, you need not go through the entire technical jargon and codes altogether. You can just install WordPress with a one-click installation!

Firstly, you need to verify your Bluehost account from your email. Check for any confirmation email on your email account during the signup process and log into your profile. You will then be directed to the Bluehost account once you confirm it by clicking on the link on the email. 

Click on My Sites on the side menu bar. Next, click on the Create Site button.

Enter the name of your new website with the username and password you want to use for managing your WordPress website. 

Bluehost will then suggest to you some extra features which can improve your website. You can install it right now or choose to do it later. Click on Next. 

You have now installed WordPress with Bluehost.

Step 6. Set Up Your WordPress Website

Login to your WordPress account and go through different tabs to familiarize yourself with the UX. Most of it is self-explanatory. Hence, you won’t have a tough time understanding them.

Let’s start with tuning the basic things first, and you can then proceed to the others at your convenience:

Website Title and Tagline

To change the website title and tagline, click on the Settings tab by tapping the menu bar on the left of the screen. Click on General. Choose your website title and tagline in the respective fields. 

Adding a tagline is optional, and you can edit it later too!

Set your Website Permalinks

Permalinks define your web page addresses or URLs and how they look on your website. Here you need to adhere to the SEO rules. Go to Settings and click on Permalinks from the sidebar. You can now find a list of options. Check the Post name field here.

Make your WordPress Website Public

To make your website public on Google, you need to find an index for your website. Head to Settings and click on Reading. Uncheck the Discourage search engines from indexing this site. You can find these options under the Search Engine Visibility field.

Step 7. Select and Install a WordPress Theme

Now that you have set the basic requirements for your website, it’s time to choose how your overall website looks and feels for your visitors. For now, you will have a default theme. But you can always change it from the official WordPress.org directory. 

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You can select from the vast range of options from the Free and Premium options. You can also check out other third-party websites for themes such as Themelsle or aThemes for more options. 

Here’s how you can install a theme from the official WordPress.org directory. 

  1. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click on Appearance. Click on Theme and SElect Add New on the top of the screen. 
  2. If you already know the specific name of the theme you want to install, just enter it in the search bar and click on Install right below the theme.
  3. Once the installation is complete, click on Activate, and a pop-up button will appear with an Install prompt. Approve it, and your theme is installed.
  4. This process is applicable when you are installing a free theme. For premium themes, the process is slightly different. Let’s check it out.
  5. Follow the instructions already started to download the theme. The files will probably be downloaded in a .zip file format. Save it to your desktop.
  6. Visit your WordPress dashboard and click on Appearance and next on Themes. Hover to Upload at the top of the page.
  7. Click the Upload theme, and you can find a file input selection dropdown. Choose Browse and choose the .zip file from your Desktop. Click on Install Now. 

Step 8. Choose and Install Appropriate WordPress Plugins

Once you have chosen the themes, plugins are the next step to proceed. As we already mentioned, Bluehost offers a collection of WordPress plugins such as Akismet Anti Spam. Jetpack, Google Analytics, etc., you can also download other plugins to enhance the functionalities.

However, don’t go overboard with plugins since you don’t want to slow down your website with multiple plugins. 

Here is the process to download a plugin:

  1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard and click on Plugin.
  2. Click on Add New and add the name of the Plugin you want to install in the search bar from the top of the screen.
  3. Click on Install and Activate. The Plugin is now added to your WordPress website. You can also find the Plugin in the dashboard menu. Click on the specific Plugin to view, and change settings whenever required.

Step 9. Create Pages for Your Website

This is precisely where all your content, product lines, and other elements will be displayed to your visitors. You can create pages like Homepage, About page, Contract page, Portfolio page, Blog page, and so much more to maximize the SEO of your website. Let’s check out the process of adding pages and posting on your WordPress website.

  1. Click on the Bluehost menu on your WordPress dashboard and click on Content. 
  2. Click on Pages and select Add New page. Here you get a black canvas to add in the content you want. Once you are done with adding your website content, hit Publish. 

Step 10. Improve Your Website’s Navigation

Now that we are ultimately done with the basics, it’s time to adjust the website navigation, one of the core requirements to maximize the user experience for your visitors. Here’s how you can adjust the menus and widgets.

Adjust the Menu

The theme you choose determines the options you get in your menu settings. 

  1. Click on Appearance and the Menus from the sidebar on your WordPress dashboard to view the menu panel.
  2. On the left hand, you can find all the pages that you can add to a menu, and on the right, you get to adjust the menu structure and the settings. Use the drag and drop builder to customize and reorder at your convenience. 
  3. Click on Save Menu and save the changes.

Adjust the Widgets

Widgets are just blocks of content that appear in different places on your website. To create or change a widget, go to Appearance from the WordPress dashboard and click on widgets. 

Grab the widget you would like to add from the left-hand panel and place it on the area you want using the drag and drop builder. Ensure to keep your customer’s view in mind while adjusting the widgets.

You can finally preview your website and click on Save once you are happy with the changes. 

Step 11. Launch Your Website

Bluehost offers a “coming soon” page by default to your website once you create the account and install WordPress. 

Once you are done with the settings and customizations, click on Launch your site from the Bluehost WordPress dashboard, and your first website is finally live!

Conclusion

Learning the process of how to create your first website or how to create your SaaS app is an incredible feat! Once your website is live, make consistent efforts to post high-quality content regularly and promote it with different strategies. This includes keyword research, different SEO practices, and so much more.

The key to running a successful website for your business is to stay patient and consistent with your results. Once you are over with the first step, creating your website, the next ones will seem to be simpler over time. Thus, don’t wait any further. Start building your first website already and watch how your business transforms in no time!

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