How to Make a Website and Blog From Zero

Dicat - Want to create a website but don't know how? Or maybe you think it's difficult, you need programming skills, design, html, and the like?

If you think so, then this article is for you. In this article, you will find out how to create a website quickly and easily. I will write according to personal experience with a detailed discussion. Of course, as much as possible I arranged in simple steps that are easy to follow even beginners.

Skill levels required for this tutorial:

Beginner.

The time required to create a website:

60-120 minutes.

What you learn here:

Complete tutorial.

Cost estimation.

There are still many people who think if creating a website or blog is a difficult thing, they must have deep technical skills, can be coding, and so forth. Not to mention in terms of expensive costs.

Now it's not like that.

Even beginners can create a website from scratch to be used in a short time. Within 1 hour you can buy a domain, do basic website settings, and the web or blog can already be used.

In terms of cost, it's also very affordable. With a capital of 300 thousand - 1 million rupiah, you can create your own website.

I myself do not have expertise about coding or other deep technical matters. But you can create your own website easily. One of them is this blog. It didn't take long to create this personal blog until it's ready to use.

Now in this article I will explain what are the things needed, the details of the costs, and the steps taken, and also the website settings to be used. For those who are learning to make a website from scratch, this tutorial will suit you.

Tutorial on making this website is quite long. Please just bookmark it so you can read it later.

how to create a website for beginners

Steps and How to Make a Website From Zero

Here are 6 steps and how to create a website from scratch that you can follow.

Step 1: Determine the contents of the website that you will create (niche).

Step 2: Choose a domain name that you want.

Step 3: Select the web hosting specifications according to your individual needs.

Step 4: Install the CMS platform and start creating websites.

Step 5: Perform website settings as needed.

Step 6: Make a plan and do research for articles on the website later.

Please refer directly to the details of how to create a website below.

Website is a collection of pages on the internet that contain information in the form of text, images, video, audio, or a combination of them all and are within the scope of one domain.

Furthermore, for the steps and how to create a website from scratch can be seen below:

1. Determine the Idea and Content of the Website

 Fee: Free of charge 

The first step you have to do is first determine what your web content will be. Thus, later you will not be confused when creating articles.

There are no specific benchmarks when determining the content of this website, it depends on you and your individual needs.

Well, below is just an idea. Please choose as you wish.

Personal website / blog. You can fill it as you wish. Can be in the form of personal notes, experiences and views on a particular thing, stories, and others. Free. Examples of personal websites one of which is this blog.

Discuss one or several specific things. For example, you discuss about travel, computers, the latest technology, funny and unique things, sports, and so forth.

Website of organization, school, community or other institution.

Selling goods or services.

Latest news.

and so forth

Determining the ideas and content of my website is the first step, because it will be closely related to the next steps below.

2. Choose the Appropriate Domain Name

 Cost: IDR 100,000 - above 1 million (depending on the domain extension you choose). 

After determining the contents of the site, then just choose your web domain name later.

What is a domain?

Domain is a unique name that is used to identify a website server address (ip address) so that it is more easily accessed by visitors.

Roughly speaking, a domain is your website address. There are two parts in the domain that we need to choose later.

The name of the domain itself.

Domain extension used.

To make it easier, for example like this blog;

Dciat is the domain name that I choose and use. Whereas .me is the domain extension I chose.

The domain extension that you choose will be free as you wish. You can choose .com, .net, .info, .org, .id, .me, and so on. So it's not complicated, just choose the .com extension , the most popular one is used.

9 Tips on How to Choose a Domain Name:

Customize with your web content later

Not long.

Easy to remember and type.

As much as possible not to use numbers (eg catslucu234.com)

As much as possible not to use hyphens (eg cats-lucu.com)

Choose a domain name that is unique and brandable, for example a new term that you make, a combination of 2 words, and others. For example skidipapap.com, or Unikpedia.com.

By place. For example, tripbanten.com, garutflash.com, etc.

Use your own name. For example, my blog; dicat

Use the domain name generator. This is a service that will generate a list of domain names that you can choose from. Just enter one word, a list of domain names will appear that you can choose from. One of these services can be checked at Namemesh.com .

Now, please search and specify the domain name that you will use.

Note:

Domain purchases are not permanent. You must extend the domain fee every year. The price depends on the domain extension you choose. Popular extensions like .com cost around Rp. 130,000 / year.

Also check out: Tips on choosing SEO services

3. Choose Web Hosting as Needed

 Cost: IDR 150,000 - IDR 1 million, depending on hosting and package used 

Now after you have a choice of domain names, then just choose the hosting that will later be used to store your website.

What is Hosting?

Hosting is a rental place or space on the server, which is used to store data or website files so that they can be accessed on the internet.

Domain and hosting become an inseparable thing. The analogy is like a shop and a shop or a mall .

Domain is the name of your store. While hosting is a shop or shanties that you rent in one shop or mall complex. You can rent a shop / spacious place and amenities according to the needs of your store.

Likewise with hosting, you can buy a hosting package according to the needs of your website. For the record, you can buy hosting and domains from one place. This will facilitate the management of your website later.

Lots of hosting and domain providers to choose from. Here, I use Niagahoster as an example.

Niagahoster is one of the leading hosting service providers in Indonesia. So the quality is also quite good.

How to Buy Hosting and Domains at Niagahoster

1. Open the Niagahoster site

Please open the Niagahoster.co.id site here, then see the hosting packages offered there.

2. Select a Hosting Package

Next, please scroll, then see the hosting package offered by Niagahoster.

how to create a website 1 - choose hosting

Choose a hosting package

Then which package should you choose? Adjust as needed. If you are a complete beginner, I recommend buying the cheapest package first.

As the website develops later, you can upgrade to a higher package.

Click on the Select Now button on the Niagahoster.co.id page

3. Select a Hosting Payment Package

On the next page, please choose a hosting payment package. Depending on the type of hosting package, you can choose to pay for 6 months to more than 1 year at a time.

how to make website 2- payment package

payment package

Especially for the cheapest package at Niagahoster, the smallest payment is for 1 year at a time.

4. Buy a Domain

Next, please enter the domain you have chosen before. Please enter the domain name (without the .com / .net extension , etc.), then select the domain extension in the field provided.

Click the Search Domain button to see if the domain is available or not.

Choose a domain name

Choose a domain name

If it is not available, this means that the domain name you have chosen has already been purchased by someone else. Enter another domain name of your choice.

how to create a website 4 - buy a domain

If available, please click the Add to Cart button .

5. Purchase Details

Next you will be taken to the hosting purchase details page. Here you can see the total price of your purchases.

If it's ok, click the Next button .

6. Register for a Niagahoster Account

In the next step, you will be taken to the login page. If you don't have an account with Niagahoster, please click the Register Account button.

how to create a website 6 - register a niagahoster account

Please fill in the data in accordance with the available fields.

how to create a website 7 - fill in information

Then just click the Payment Options button .

7. Choose a Payment Method

Niagahoster has various payment methods that you can use. Please choose according to what you want.

how to make a website 8 - how to pay for niagahoster

Niagahoster payment method

Then just click the Checkout Now button , it will be brought to the thank you page.

how to create a website 9 - see how to pay

Please click on the link button that appears, it will then be taken to the payment procedures page, according to the payment method you selected previously.

8. Make a Payment

Next, just make a payment according to the instructions on this page. Here I use klikbca. Click the Copy link, then just paste the account number and also the news to Klikbca.

10 ways to create a website - choose how to pay

Make sure you enter the News and also the payment transfer amount exactly as given by Niagahoster. The goal is that it can be processed automatically.

Don't forget to screenshot or photograph the payment data that you make on internet banking or other payment methods. This can be needed if later we need to confirm manually

9. Wait for the Confirmation Email and Data Hosting

Done. Then just wait for your confirmation email and your hosting data. In the email there will be login data to cPanel, username, and password . Make sure you backup and store this data in a safe place.

If 15 minutes after making payment your purchase has not been processed, please do manual confirmation via the link https://panel.niagahoster.co.id/pembayar

OK, until this step you have chosen a domain, and also bought a domain and its hosting.

In the example above I use Niagahoster. If you use another hosting provider, the outline of the purchase steps will be the same. Most just a little different in the purchase menu.

Please also see here the list of other Indonesian web hosting .

Next, just install the website on the hosting that you have purchased.

4. How to Install a Website Platform

 Fee: Free 

Now we install the website platform so that it can be immediately accessed and used. Here, we will use the CMS ( content management system ) platform to install your site.

Why use CMS?

Because it is easy to use, user friendly, and does not require special expertise.

If you create a website from scratch, it means you must know HTML, CSS, javascript, PHP, and database management. Took a long time. By using a CMS that is ready to use, your site can run in a short time.

Well, my choice fell on the WordPress CMS. Why WordPress? because this CMS has many advantages compared to other CMS (joomla, drupal, etc.).

Advantages of WordPress compared to other CMS;

1. CMS With the Largest Users

WordPress is the most widely used CMS in the world.

most cms are used

Top 10 CMS of the world. Source: w3techs.com

Data from the graph above;

Around 44.8% of websites in the world do not use CMS, that means 55.2% of the sites in the world use CMS. Well, from the whole CMS user site, 60.1% use wordpress. More than half! Overall, 33.2% of websites in the world use wordpress.

An extraordinary amount right?

2. Easy to Use

The features in wordpress are user friendly, easy to learn and use by beginners. You only need a minute to get used to using wordpress.

3. Opensource and Free

This is important. Free. No need to pay any fees to use wordpress CMS.

4. Many themes and plugins available

You can choose lots of free themes to display your site later. Can choose as you wish. In addition there are also many free plugins that can be used to add functionality from the website later.

If you feel it's lacking, there are many themes and plugins that are sold at affordable prices.

5. Many Tutorials Available

You can also learn various tips and tricks about Wordpress from various tutorials on the internet. Please search on Google or on Youtube, most likely what you are looking for already has a tutorial.

There are many other advantages of wordpress, which you can later find on your own.

Now we go directly to the tutorial to install wordpress.

How to Install WordPress on Hosting

1. Open cPanel

Please access cPanel by using the data previously sent to your email when you buy hosting and domain.

2. SSL / TLS settings

Next, we first set SSL / TLS to enable HTTPS in your domain later.

By using https, your website will be safer compared to sites that do not use https. In addition, it can prevent our website from being compromised by other parties' ads when opened by visitors.

If you open a website that has not installed https using the internet from indihome, Telkomsel, XL, or other providers, ads often appear pasted by that provider. Pretty annoying.

It's a loss, right, if our website is accidentally infiltrated by other parties' advertisements? By installing https, we can prevent this. You can skip this step. But I highly recommend to enable https on your website.

How to activate it quite easily;

Look at the security column in your cPanel , then look for the SSL / TLS Status menu . Click on the menu.

how to create a website 11 - cpanel access

Next, you will be taken to the next page;

how to create a website 12 - SSL validation

Here we can enable free SSL from let's encrypt. If when opening this page the automatic process does not occur, please click on all the domains you want to set, then click the Run AutoSSL button . Wait for it to finish.

3. Install WordPress

Next we process install wordpress. Please scroll and look for the wordpress menu in cPanel. Click on the menu.

how to create a website 13 - choose wordpress

You will be taken to the softaculous install page as below.

how to make a website 14 - install wordpress

Just click the Install Now button directly .

4. Install parameter settings

On the next page, please set it first.

how to create a website 15 - fill in the data

In the Choose Protocol column , select https: // or https: // www. This is so your website will use https which is safer.

Leave the column in Directory empty

In the Site Settings column , please fill in the contents of your website. Don't worry, you can edit it later.

In the Admin account column , fill in with a secure username and password.

In the Choose language column , please choose as you wish. I use English because I'm used to the English menu.

In the Select Plugin column , check the Limit login attempt and Classic editor.

You can also choose a theme here, or not. The theme can be chosen later.

Then just click the Install button.

5. Access Website and Admin Panel

Done. Now your website has wordpress installed. Please open your domain, your website will appear but still the default wordpress display.

how to make a website 16 - done

By default, you can access the wordpress admin panel via the address Domainanda.com/wp-admin, or Domainanda.com/wp-login.php.

Do not forget to record and save your wordpress login access. Later it will always be used when you set up the website, and also when posting articles.

5. How to Setting WordPress on a Website

 Fee: Free 

Next we do the basic settings of this wordpress, so it is ready to use. There are some basic things you need to do so that your website is ready to be filled in with articles.

1. Basic Settings

In this section, we will do the basic settings of wordress to be more search engine friendly, prevent spam, and some other basic settings.

Open the wordpress dashboard via the link  Domainanda.com/wp-admin , or Domainanda.com/wp-login.php .

Then click the General menu . In the Site title and tagline section, fill in according to your website's topic. Fill in brief here.

For example, the Site title in Popular Travel content , then the tagline in the cool and economical tourist attractions.

how to create a website - general settings

Then in the Writing Menu , you can choose the default editor to Classic Editor . This is an editor / way to write articles with old features. Currently the latest wordpress introduces a Block editor for creating articles, it's just not yet familiar and quite need to learn more. Let's use the classic editor first.

In the Reading menu you can specify the number of articles displayed on the front page (homepage), the category page, and the tag page. Please specify in the Blog post show at most column .

Then in the For each article column in a feed, show , select Summary.

Urgent! Make sure DO NOT check the Discourage search engines from indexing this site. If checked, then your website will not be able to appear on Google search pages.

The next step, open the Discussion menu , then the settings as below.

In the settings above, each new comment appears on your website if you have agreed. This is to prevent spam comments, so they don't automatically appear. There are other ways that are more effective, we will discuss later in additional articles.

Next we immediately open the Permalink menu . Please select as shown below.

The goal is that our url or article link is more friendly in the eyes of search engines. Later if you are familiar with SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ), you can also create another url series too.

For basic settings just like this only. Next we edit the website's appearance.

2. Changing the Website Theme

Theme is the look of your website. Each theme has a different look, and often has different functions.

Display your website currently using the default theme from Wordpress. If you want, it can be replaced with other, more beautiful themes. You can just use a paid theme, but here we will use the free theme first. There are so many choices, and it's good too.

Please open the Appearance menu , then select the Themes menu .

If it's already open, click the Add New button . You will be taken to the Theme selection page . A variety of theme options will appear, you can choose from the Featured, Popular, Latest, etc. menus.

Please select and click on the theme that is interesting for you. Here I choose the Revelar theme as an example.

Click on the theme of your choice, then click install.

After the wordpress theme is installed, then click the Activate button .

Done. The theme you selected is already active. The appearance may still not be seen clearly, because until this stage on your website the article has not been filled.

If you want to edit the appearance of the theme used, please click on the Appearance> Customize menu . You can experiment with the menu choices there. I suggest editing this view when your website is filled in 1-3 articles later. The goal is to make it more clearly visible later.

We enter the next basic settings.

3. Widget settings

Widgets are parts of a wordpress website that are displayed in the sidebar or footer. Well, what is meant by the sidebar here is the column that usually is on the left or right of the website page. While the footer is a column that is usually at the bottom of the website page.

Usually, the sidebar or footer is filled with info in the form of the latest articles, search columns, categories, and so on as desired.

Changing the contents of the sidebar and footer can be done in the Widget menu .

Please open the Appearance menu , then click the Widgets menu .

In this basic setting, we just omit the recent comments, Arcives, Categories, and Meta sections . These parts are not very useful for the beginning. Just leave the Search and Recent Post menus .

The Recent Post menu will later contain a list of the latest articles on your website. The name of the widget and also the number of recent articles displayed, you can set by clicking on the arrow button in the recent post widget, then fill in the available fields.

On the left side there are many other widget options. Now, if you want to use it, please drag and drop the widget to the available sidebar column.

You can also adjust the order of widgets in the sidebar by dragging and dropping the desired widget.

4. Creating Articles on WordPress

Next, you can start posting articles on the website. There are 2 choices for making an article;

Using Post

Using Pages

Posts are used to create regular articles, and are sorted by posting time. While Pages is used to create pages that are static. For example, the contact page, about us, disclaimer, list of articles on the website, and others.

But this is not standard. You can use pages to create specific articles or content. In additional articles later, we will discuss how to utilize these two features in more depth.

We first go to how to post on WordPress. In essence, how to post in the same Post or Pages anyway.

Please open the Posts menu > Add New, a display will appear as below.

If you are already accustomed to using Microsoft Word, chances are that you will be able to directly post articles here. Just know a few additional menus. 

Broadly speaking, it's quite clear from the picture above, I just add a little description in some menus;

Add Media. Used to add images or videos to articles.

Save Draft. Used to save your article in draft form, useful when writing articles but not immediately finished in one time.

Preview Used to see the temporary display of the article you write.

Publish. If the article is ready, please click this button to publish your article.

Categories. Used to select the category that matches the article you are writing. If it doesn't already exist, you can create it by clicking on the Add New Category link.

Tags. You can use it if needed. Can be used to define narrower sub categories.

Please test making several articles, both using posts or pages. Don't be afraid to explore it, if something goes wrong we can delete the post or page, or if necessary, reinstall the website from scratch.

6. Website Content Planning and Research

Well, until here I assume you can already install a website using wordpress cms, initial settings, and can post articles. The next step is to make a plan, also do research for prospective content / articles on your website.

Unfortunately not if the website has been made, but not filled?

Usually, many people are confused because of this; What website do you want to fill in? This is where the content research step is needed. By doing content research, you can determine what topics are appropriate and can be made on your website.

The results of this research and planning are not standard. You are still free to fill the website or blog as you wish. Use content research results as a general benchmark of your website.

To research content / keywords, you can see more fully in the article How to Keyword Research .

Video Version Tutorial

Closing

At this point, the tutorial on how to create a website for beginners is complete. You can already buy a domain, hosting, and doing basic website settings.

This tutorial is not yet complete. In additional articles later, I will write how to post more detailed articles, how to use other features on wordpress, how to choose and best theme settings, and how to add certain functions to your website as desired.

Hopefully this article on how to make this website useful!

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