Not too long ago, developing a website required knowledge of coding in the form of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), along with other auxiliary web standards and tools like CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), Javascript, PHP, and MySQL. If you were well versed in all of them you could create dynamic, sleek, easy to maintain websites with extensive features – from simple portfolio sites to a large business shopping site. If you are a professional web developer the aforementioned acronyms will represent only the most basic skills at your disposal, but lucky for you, it is no longer necessary for a beginner web developer to learn how to make a website.
Knowing What You Want
Nowadays, if you want to learn how to make a website, but don’t even want to become a web developer, all you need to do is explain your website needs to yourself in as much detail as you can: What purpose would it serve? To which audience would it cater to? Would it be a blog or a business site? What kind of content would it provide? Would it be a news site? Would it be an entertainment site? Once you are can clearly answer all of those questions, setting up your website is a trifling matter that can be done within an hour, with no web-developing knowledge required. And after that, you can just tweak it with some website tips .
You may think that setting up a website without any knowledge would be an exaggeration in order to make the whole process seem less intimidating, but that is not the case at all. Such accessibility is made possible by highly evolved and matured CMS platforms – Content Management Systems – they take care of every aspect of the code and background functionality, while your job is relegated to creating content and organizing your website to your liking – no coding knowledge needed! If you know how to navigate through apps on your smartphone, you will know how to navigate through the CMS’ features. CMS platforms are now so numerous and competitive that user-friendliness has become a major feature of all of them.
Making The Decisions
Once you are settled on what you want to accomplish with your website, you need to choose the right CMS. If you are a beginner, it would be best to choose the most mature CMS, and that would definitely be WordPress. This is important because less matured CMS platforms have fewer developers, therefore fewer themes, add-ons, and plugins. Furthermore, WordPress is natively supported by almost every web hosting service you might encounter. This will ensure that the setup of your website goes smoothly, still not requiring you to know how to make a website, but simply clicking through easy-to-understand prompts.
Once you have installed the WordPress CMS, you are ready to explore the vast amount of options at your disposal. If you have a clear understanding of your website’s purpose, the first step is to choose the theme template. This will be your site’s foundation, as it will determine the look of it, how the content is structured, how easily the widgets can be integrated, and how compatible it is with mobile devices. You can easily search for theme templates on the main WordPress site in many different categories, and you can switch between each one until you are satisfied with the final result. After you are set on the theme, all you have to do then is add extra functionality as you see fit – through plugins and widgets. Again, a simple keyword search on the WordPress site will lead you to the right solutions. Just make sure to avoid bloat by removing plugins and themes you no longer need or use. Along with regular updates, this will keep your website responsive for your visitors. On a final note, avoid over-loading it with large images, as studies have shown that average internet user gives up on a site if it has not loaded within 5 seconds, but you should strive for under 3-second response. You can verify its snappiness here – tools.pingdom.com.
Everyone Can Make A Website
It is no secret that it is hard to earn money as an emerging web developer because every theme and plugin under the sun has already been developed. This is most fortunate for people who just want to put their content on the web, without knowing all the tedious background minutia. Therefore, if you are a beginner, you don’t technically make a website, but simply pick up a package that best suits your needs and then just tweak it with plugins. Every step of the process is highly intuitive.