According to statistics from a recent survey, about 30% of companies have no website at all. This guide can help you if your company is one of those or if you would like to make some changes to your current outdated website. When choosing how to host a website, there are many options. The most popular choices among them are as follows:
Shared hosting
The least expensive choice is shared hosting. It’s ideal if you just launched a new blog or website and you aren’t getting many visitors yet.
Virtual private servers
Increases the power and control you have over the configuration of your hosting account. This is an excellent option if your website is beginning to gain a bit of popularity and is seeing an increase in traffic.
Dedicated web hosting
The strongest choice is dedicated hosting. Compared to the other two types, the cost will be higher. Large websites with hundreds or even millions of monthly visitors usually use dedicated servers.
The best website builder is WordPress
It’s time to get your website built after you choose the ideal hosting plan for your business requirements. This can be accomplished in a wide range of methods, such as web design software, ready made designs, or even hand coding each page. While each choice has its benefits, WordPress is considered as the greatest website builder for a lot of users. Adding new pages to your website, publishing posts or quickly updating the design are all made simple with WordPress.
How to launch a WordPress website in 4 easy steps
Selecting the ideal web host is important, but it’s just the first step towards putting your new website live. To start your website, there are a few things you must take.
- Get a domain name
Getting a domain name is the most important step. Choose a good domain name because it’s the identity of your website and cannot be changed after the purchase. Select a domain name that is simple for your visitors to remember. Dashes are not recommended, and the shorter the better. If people hears you say your domain name, it should be simple for them to figure out what it is.
You can purchase your domain through registrars such as GoDaddy or Name.com, But if you choose the appropriate hosting company you can get your domain name for free. For example, all hosting plans offered by Bluehost.com including the basic shared hosting come with a free domain.
- Install WordPress
Installing WordPress is now possible after you have linked your domain name to your hosting account. You can install WordPress by downloading it from WordPress.org. But this is not recommended for you if you’re not familiar with editing configuration files, changing settings or uploading files. Instead, look for a hosting company that provides an automated WordPress install. For example, all of Bluehost’s hosting packages come with an easy to use WordPress website builder that does all of the technical work for you.
- Choose a theme for your website
The simplicity with which you can modify the appearance of your website is one advantage of using WordPress. WordPress has a theme system that allows you to easily modify the visual appearance of your website with a few clicks. There are many theme options available in WordPress theme directory. A good number of paid themes are available as well which gives your website even more capability. When putting your website together, don’t be scared to try different themes. Most themes have thumbnail images in the directory however testing it on your website will give you a better idea of how it looks.
- Install plugins
Similar to themes, WordPress provides several kinds of plugins that enable you to improve your website’s functionality. Nearly 60,000 plugins may be found in the WordPress directory and hundreds more can be found elsewhere. With the help of plugins, you can do a lot of things like protect your website against hackers, improve load times, monitor website traffic, automate social media marketing, automatically backup your website, convert it into an online store (WooCommerce), and much more…
Additional tools to consider when creating your website
After your website is working, you should think about using a few additional tools. These are simple to integrate with WordPress, all you need to do is install new plugins to your website.
Google analytics: with Google Analytics you can easily monitor the number of visitors to your website, where they come from and what they do once they visit your website. If you sell goods or services, it can also monitor sales conversions.
CDN: A content delivery network (CDN) such as Cloudflare minimizes the risk of downtime, speeds up website loading times and secures against data theft. When you first set up your site, a content delivery network (CDN) usually isn’t necessary, but once you start receiving some traffic, you should consider using one.
Customer Support for your hosting provider
Make sure you carefully review the quality of customer support that each hosting service offers when comparing them. If something goes wrong and your website goes down, you could lose your business if you don’t get the issue resolved right away. Seek out a web host that provides phone, chat, and email assistance. Make sure the customer service staff is open around the clock as well. After all, your website doesn’t take nights or weekends off.
Setting up a website doesn’t have to be difficult if you follow this guide. Your website is the face of your company, it must be fast and reliable. And if you want that kind of websites make sure to choose a good hosting company.