How to create your first website After you have bought your domain name and hosting plan, you need to make a website that looks valuable and attractive at the same time. There are a few ways you can create your website. Some require a good knowledge of web languages, while some other need just the basic operation of computer and internet. You should choose one depending on your competence. Method #1: Creating a website from scratch Required skills: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Database (mySQL or PostgreSQL) You can create your unique and distinctive website all by yourself if you know the main web languages and the fundamental of a website. Otherwise, it is advisable that you get in touch with a web developer. Basic web languages / tools Note: These skills are not compulsory (but highly recommended) if you are making a site using CMS or site builder (see method #2 and #3). HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) HTML is the basic structure of web pages and web applications which makes the content semantic to the web browser. It is consist of sequential tags which has an opening and a closing, and structurally a keyword enclosed by Angle Brackets. Ex: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) CSS is the styling language which is used to decorate the HTML markup of a web page. Without CSS, a web page would look nothing but a large white page having some unordered text and image on it. CSS is the thing that makes the page ideally how we want. Scripting Languages HTML and CSS are nothing without scripting languages because they are not interactive. To make a dynamic web page which will respond to users, you need languages like JavaScript and jQuery. Server-side languages like PHP, Python and Ruby might also be needed over time. Database Management To store, manage and access user-input data of a website, a large table of information is considered which is called database. A Database Management System like MySQL, MongoDB and PostgreSQL is used in the server-side to do this job efficiently. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) FTP is used to transfer a website’s source files to its hosted server more easily. There are web based as well as computer software based FTP clients that can be used to upload one’s files to the server computer. Here is the overview of the process how you can create a first-hand website, assuming that you know the basic web languages and website essentials mentioned above. Step 1: Setup a local working environment using IDE n order to create and organize source files of a website, a good local working environment is important. You can create a web development environment on your computer device by installing an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). An IDE basically consists of a Text Editor, a Build Automation and a Debugger. Sublime Text and Atom are some of the basic IDEs for web development supporting HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, Python and similar web languages. On the other hand, there are extended IDEs like Adobe Dreamweaver which offers a handful of other features (Ex: Server Connectivity, FTP). Step 2: Plan and Design Your Website using Adobe Photoshop Planning website structure and navigation system are of grave importance. First, you have to understand how you want to deliver your content. Plan how many navigation menus, how many columns or content fields, how many images you want to include and where. The best practice is opening up Adobe Photoshop and creating a rough drawing of your web pages. You might need to make different roughs for different pages, for example, the home page, about page, contact page, service page etc. Step 3: Codify the Design using HTML and CSS After you have finished up making rough designs for your web pages in Adobe Photoshop, you can start writing the source codes. This is the easiest part. Make HTML markups for the web elements you wanted to include and use CSS to decorate them according to the designs you made. Step 4: Make It Dynamic using JavaScript and jQuery Only HTML and CSS based websites don’t exist in modern days because front-end user interactions cannot be controlled through HTML or CSS. You can use scripting languages like JavaScript and possibly its improved library, jQuery to control user activity for forms, logins, slider, menus or wherever you need. Step 5: Upload Local Files to the Server using FTP Client The final step is uploading all your source files to the web server. The best and easiest way of handling it is through an FTP client. First, download an FTP client on your computer device and connect it to your web server using an FTP account. After you have successfully connected it to the FTP account, copy all your local files to the root of your web directory. Some good FTP clients are FileZilla, WinSCP and Cyberduck. Method #2: Creating a website with content management system (CMS) Required Skill: Basic Operation of Computer and Internet (Better if you know the basics of HTML, CSS and PHP) A CMS or a Content Management System is built so tactically that it fits first-day-at-work beginners to experienced web developers. It is a software application that makes it easy to create and manage online contents. Most of them are open-source and free to use. If you know the basics of HTML, CSS or PHP, it is advantageous for you. It is not a big problem if you don’t know because these platforms are very much intuitive. Here are top three free choices of CMS platforms you can choose according to your need. Method #3: Creating a website with site builders Required Skill: Basic Operation of Computer and Internet Site builders have made it effortless and instant to setup a website. Without knowledge of web languages, one can launch his full-featured website in a matter of minutes. They offer Drag & Drop website builders which require zero coding knowledge. There are many site builders scattered over the internet – Disha covered 26 free site builders in this blogpost; but not all of them can satisfy the needs. The following three are the most-talked and potential website builders you can use.
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