Benjamin Paine
Managing Director at Digital Nomads HQ
Building A New Website?... Follow our step-by-step guide...
We have put together a beginner’s guide to making your own website – this is outlined in an easy step-by-step format for you to follow along at your own pace. Whether you have worked on websites before, or are completely new and have no past experience, this will guide you along the way.
Some common questions people that stop people from building a website;
Do I need to know how to code?
No.
As I mentioned this is designed for beginners… so no matter your experience, at the end of this guide you’ll have a live functioning website to show.
Will I make a mistake or “mess things up”?
While yes, there is a lot of intricacies in any website process – if you follow this guide step by step, you’ll be fine.
I will be sure to mention any areas that you should avoid or hire a developer to assist with down the track.
Will it cost me a lot of money?
The benefit of being able to self-develop a website is the savings.
Aside from hosting fees, which shouldn’t cost more than 10-20$ AUD per month…
you’ll have no other outgoings.
So, with that covered… let’s get building your new website!
Step 1: Choose a domain name (.www)
The first step for every website is to ensure you have a domain that your website can be accessed (www.example.com)…
This is quite straightforward, and we have a few rules you can stick to to make the right choice for your business.
Business Websites: Your domain should be as close to your company name as possible or an “exact match” for consistency.
Example: Digital Nomads HQ, Our Domain Digitalnomadshq.com.au
Personal Websites: Use your name for a personal blog or personal branding (unless you have a personal brand name)
.com vs .com.au: If you are an Australian business, targeting the Australian market get either the .com.au or (new) .au domain. For a more detailed explanation of why read this; .com vs .com.au
Where do you buy a domain?
Simple: https://domains.squarespace.com/ – This was previously Google Domains.
An easy platform to buy your domains and check if a domain is available.
How much does a domain cost?
Both .com.au and .au domains are (A$27/yr)
Step 2: Hosting your website (Web Hosting)
Now you have your domain sorted… we need to sort website hosting.
Hosting is the server to which your website will be stored online…
Now there are many web hosting services, that will include both hosting and the ability to build your website also – Wix, and Squarespace are examples of this.
Leveraging platforms like these can be the “simple”, or “easy” option… but note, that they come with there own limitations. So to maximise flexibility, SEO & long-term success we will use globally the largest web platform (CMS) WordPress in this guide.
Organic positions within search display a strong correlation to the more links/authority a website has… the higher it ranks.
Finding a web hosting provider
With 100s of web hosting providers online… just search “web hosting” in Google and strap in.
We have grabbed one of our favourite for the ease of use, price & performance – so you don’t have to go searching.
Dreamhost Hosting
(Not sponsored) Dreamhost has a fantastic $4.95p/m (USD) WordPress starter hosting plan. This will include your SSL certificate, and great performance and they will even install WordPress onto the server for you… saving your time!
Get started here – https://www.dreamhost.com/wordpress/shared-wp-hosting/
Click “Get Started”
Select Your Term (Monthy, 1 Year or 3 Years)
It will prompt you on whether you have a domain already, as we have already purchased your domain you can select “I already have a domain”, to which you will be prompted to input your new domain name.
Upon completion of this step-by-step – Dreamhost will assist you through some key areas;
• It will create an environment
• Talk you through the connection of your domain to the hosting environment
• Install an SSL (for security)
• And install WordPress for you.
These are all very simple step-by-step process with which the platform will assist you, and if you get stuck at any time you can use their 24/7 live support.
This is your Domain, Hosting and Website setup complete.
Step 3: Designing your website
Now we have you set up with your WordPress website, you can log in through your Dreampress dashboard or at yourdomain.com/wp-admin with your login credentials.
WordPress
This is your dashboard for WordPress.
The left-hand side menu is where you assess each part of your website and can perform different functions… i.e. add pages, add posts (blogs), add imagery etc.
By default, WordPress leverages a default Twenty Twenty-Four theme which is built using a platform called “Gutenberg”.
Now in this guide, we are going to take it one step further and add a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) builder called Elementor… Why?
Elementor is a fast, and very user friendly builder to give you better design functionality – so why wouldn’t you?
Step 1:
Installing Elementor
Click Plugins on the side menu
“Add new plugin” in the drop down.
In the top left corner search “Elementor”
And select “Install Now”
Once installed select “Active”
Ok, so that’s Elementor Installed…
Themes
We want to ensure the default “Hello Elementor” Theme is also active.
You do this by selecting on the side menu “Appearance” – “Themes”
And “active” Hello Elementor.
Once complete, it should look like this.
Site Appearance and WordPress Settings
Let’s keep moving through this!
So, with both Elementor installed and default themes now set… we can start tailoring your website to your business, brand and desired goals.
Let’s start by fixing up the site name, favicon and site logo. Again, on the left-hand side menu select “Appearance” – “Customise”.
This will display a page that will look as such;
The left menu will allow you to change the site identity – this includes;
Your logo, Site title, tagline and site icon (favicon)… this will be displayed in the browser for users.
Go through and complete these fields.
Here’s my example, so you can see how it should look.
Once you have completed these, click “Publish”
Creating your homepage
With site logos done and your business name in… let’s create a homepage.
Select “Pages” – “New Page”
Name your page – Home
And click the blue “Edit with Elementor”.
This is where the fun starts, designing your Homepage.
Important to note: I’m trying to keep this short and not too “in-depth” in either the navigation design (design of the navigation menu) or include any advanced on-page design techniques… for that we will have an additional guide.
My goal is to give you the basics to which you can then learn and experiment yourself.
So, with that being said – your page will look like this to start with;
The left-hand menu is your “widgets”
Widgets are pre-configured blocks, or designed elements to add to your page (without the need for custom code).
By simply dragging and dropping these blocks into your page you can start building out a design that works for you.
Here’s a short video showing the drag and drop, adjusting the sizing of images, and colours of fonts.
By default, Elementor gives you 25+ widgets from headings, text editors etc.. to more advanced, Google Maps embeds, Image carousels and progress bars.
Experiment with what widgets best work for what information you are trying to convey to your customer – don’t use widgets for the sake of using them.
Once you are complete with your page design, select publish.
What you should include in your website homepage design
Headline
The rule is “within 3 seconds” – your website needs to tell visitors what you are about, our what the business is offering. So take time on your copy and especially the homepage primary title tag.
Expert Tip – This title tag should be a H1 tag for optimal SEO performance
Sub-Headings
Primary CTAs (Calls-to-Action)
Imagery
Now with your Homepage complete – let’s set it as the “homepage” for the website structure.
This ensures when someone visits your website, they will be sent to your new “homepage” as the landing page to which they then can navigate from.
How to set the Homepage on wordpress?
In the WordPress dashboard
Under “Appearance” select “Customise”
There is a tab called “Home page settings”.
Select “Static Page” and select your “Homepage”.
And Publish.
Creating more pages
Now you have created a homepage, you can start by adding a complete structure and additional pages that are important to websites.
These common pages are;
• Homepage
• About
• Contact Page
• Our Services / Product
• Blog
• Gallery / Our Work
• Testimonials or Reviews Page
Make sure to take the time and brainstorm which pages your business needs in order of priority and back.
These pages you can add to your navigation menu.
How to add pages to your menu in WordPress?
With your new pages being added to your website, we need to ensure that users can navigate to each of these pages seamlessly… in comes your navigation menu.
The list of pages at the top of almost every website, allows users to click between your primary pages.
Let’s get this working on your website;
In the WordPress dashboard;
Click “Appearance” – “Menu”
Give the menu a name and select “Create menu”
You can then add pages to your menu, whether this is posts or your primary pages that you have just created.
Ok… so, quick recap…
By now you will have a domain purchased, hosting setup, WordPress installed, logo & favicon installed, homepage and sub-pages created with a navigation across your website!
See, not so hard…
Now let’s ensure your website can be found by search engines…
Getting your website seen by search engines
With your site complete, we need to make sure Google is aware of it… and there’s a process to do this.
There are two parts to this process;
Creating a sitemap
Submitting your sitemap to Google.
Let’s start by creating your sitemap…
Adding a sitemap to your website (with Rankmath)
WordPress is fantastic for its library of plugins and this is another example (like Elementor) … we will add a tool called Rankmath.
The same way in which we added Elementor to your website, we will search for “Rankmath”, Install and activate.
Sitemap done.
Now there is a lot of additional benefits of Rankmath (aside from just the sitemap) for SEO and by utilising this tool as you create new pages, it can assist you in analysing your content and providing recommendations to increase your search engine performance.
Let’s submit your sitemap to Google!
This handy tool will not only assist you in submitting your sitemap to Google (so it knows your website is live) but also assist you in setting up Google Analytics.
Google Analytics will give you live data on website visitors, by country, source, and how users are engaging with your website… so you can make changes to better their experience.
Final thoughts
Remember…. your website is an asset to your business or company, so don’t leave it stale.
Update content frequently, add new pages as you add new services or products to your business and rotate imagery with up-to-date pictures of the team of new packaging on products…
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