Bluehost- In-Depth Review: Why you should choose Bluehost?

Are you looking to make a website? Starting a website can be a terrifying thought specially when you’re not techy. Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Having helped over 400,000+ people make a website with WordPress, we have decided to create the most comprehensive step by step guide on how to a make a website without learning how to code.

This guide is useful for users of all ages and skill levels

Here is an overview from start to finish of all the steps we’ll walk you through in this guide.

    · How to find and register a domain name for free
· Choosing the best web hosting
· How to install WordPress
· Installing a template to change your site’s design
· Creating pages in WordPress
· Customizing WordPress with addons and extensions
· Resources to learn WordPress and get support

Before we start creating a website, let’s cover some of the most commonly asked questions that we get.

First, nope you DO NOT need to be a web developer to create a custom website. Our guide is written for non-techy users, and we will show you a no-code solution to create a website.

With that said, let’s look at all the things you need to build a website.

What do I need to build a website?

You’ll need the following three things to start your WordPress site.

         · A domain name – this is the name of your website such as                        google.com
     · WordPress hosting – this is where your website files are                            stored.
     · 45 minutes of your undivided attention.

How much does a WordPress website cost?

The answer to this question really depends on what kind of website you are trying to build.

A website can cost as low as $30 per year and can go as high as $30,000 per year.

We recommend all our users to start small and then add more features to your website as your business grows. This way you will save money and minimize potential losses while avoiding overspending.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to build a website for about $100.

We will also show you how to take it further by adding more features to it in the future.

Which is the best website platform?

There are many website builders available that will help you setup a website. We recommend using self-hosted WordPress as your website platform.

WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world. It powers nearly 43% of all websites on the internet.

WordPress is free, open source, and comes with thousands of pre-built website designs and extensions. It is extremely flexible and works with almost every third-party tool and service available to website owners.

We use WordPress to build all our websites.

How to make the most of this create a website tutorial?

This is a step by step tutorial on how to make a website. We have divided it into different steps, and we’ll walk you through everything from start to finish. Just follow along the instructions, and you’ll have a professional looking website in the end.

We will also point you in the right direction to take your website to the next level based on your needs.

Have fun creating your website.

Let’s get started.

Step 1. Setup

One of the most common mistakes that beginners make is choosing the wrong website platform. Thankfully, you are here so you will not be making that mistake.

For most users, a self-hosted WordPress.org site is the perfect solution. It comes with thousands of designs and addons which allow you to create any kind of website you can think of. WordPress is free for anyone to download and use to build any kind of website without any restrictions.

If WordPress is free, then where is the cost coming from?

WordPress is free because you’ll have to arrange your own custom domain name and web hosting provider, which costs money.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what your users will type in their browsers to reach your site (For example, wordpressexpert.com or google.com).

Next, you’ll need website hosting. All websites on the internet needs a web host to store their website files. This will be your website’s home on the internet.

A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $2.95/month.

This is A LOT for most people who are just starting out.

Thankfully, Bluehost, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name for the first year.

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world. They are also an official WordPress recommended hosting partner.

They have been working with WordPress since 2005, and are committed to give back to the community.

So now if you decided to make your website just click on this Bluehost link to go ahead and purchase domain name and hosting for our website.

When you click on the link This will bring you to the page above. So click on Host your site with the red mark. Then scroll down to see the page in the image bellow

These are the hosting choices for you. Basic and plus plans are the most popular choices among our users.

But if you are a beginner I recommend you to select the Basic plan.

You’ll need to click on select to choose the plan that you like and continue to the next step.

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to select a new domain name.

Ideally you should stick to a .com domain name. Make sure that it is related to your business, easy to pronounce and spell, and easy to remember.

After choosing your domain name, click on the next button to continue.

Now you’ll be asked to provide your account information such as name, address, email, etc.

Just fill the forms with your informations and scroll down to finish the process.

Next, you will add your payment information to finish the purchase.

Then check the Square  inside the red circle to agree to the terms and submit.

After completing your purchase, you’ll receive an email with details on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel).

This is your hosting account dashboard where you manage everything like getting support, setting up emails, etc. Most importantly, this is where you’ll install WordPress.

 

Step 2. Install WordPress

What this means is you simply need to login to your Bluehost account, and then click the Login to WordPress button to get started. This setup process has really reduced the learning curve needed to make a website.

You can also login to WordPress dashboard by simply going to yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your browser.

If these steps are not working for wordpress installation just go to youtube and write how to install wordpress on bluehost then come back to follow the tutorial.

You can use your Bluehost account to create multiple websites. Simply go to the My Sites section and use their one-click WordPress installer to make additional websites.

Once WordPress is setup, you’re ready to customize your website design by selecting a new template, and creating new pages.

Wasn’t that easy?

Now let’s move on to the next step and choose a design for your website.

Step 3. Select Your Theme

The visual appearance of your WordPress site is controlled by a WordPress theme.

WordPress themes are professionally designed templates that you can install on your website to change its appearance.

By default, each WordPress site comes with a basic theme. If you visit your website, then it will look something like this:

This is not very appealing for most users.

But don’t worry, there are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes that you can install on your site.

You can change your theme from the WordPress admin dashboard. Visit Appearance » Themes page and then click on the ‘Add New’ button.

On the next screen, you will able to search from 9,100 free WordPress themes that are available in the official WordPress.org themes directory. You can sort them by popular, latest, featured, as well as other feature filters (i.e industry, layout, etc).

For the sake of this guide, we’ll be using Bento. It is a popular multi-purpose free WordPress theme with flexible design options for all kind of websites.

If you know the name of the free theme you want to install, then you can look for it by entering its name in the search field.

WordPress will show you the theme in search results. You will need to take your mouse over to the theme and then click on the Install button.

Once you have installed your theme, you can customize it by clicking on the Customize link under the Appearance menu.

This will launch the theme customizer where you will be able to change your theme settings with live preview of your website.

By default, WordPress doesn’t have a drag & drop site builder, but you can use a WordPress page builder plugin like SeedProd to customize any theme to update fonts, change styles, colors, and other items to match your website needs.

You can even create a fully custom WordPress theme without any code.

Remember, you don’t need to finalize all theme settings right away. You will be able to customize it much better once you have some content on your website.

Let’s see how to add content to your WordPress site.

Step 4. Add Content to Your Site

WordPress comes with two default content types called posts and pages. Posts are part of the blogging functionality and appear in reverse-chronological order (newer items displayed first).

On the other hand, pages are meant to be static “one-off” type content such as your about page, contact page, privacy policy, custom landing page, etc.

By default, WordPress shows your blog posts on the front page of your website. You can change that, and make WordPress show any static page as the homepage of your website (we’ll show you how to do that later in this guide).

You can create a separate page for your blog or news section to show your recent posts. Alternatively, you can create a website without any blog section at all.

Having said that, let’s add some content to your website.

You’ll start by adding a few pages to your WordPress site. Don’t worry if you don’t have enough content for these pages at the moment. You can always edit and update them.

Head over to Pages » Add New page in WordPress admin area. This will bring you to the page editor screen, which will look similar to this, depending on your theme:

First you need to provide a title for your page, let’s call this page ‘Home’.

After that you can add content in the text editor below. You can add text, links, images, embed videos, audio, etc.

After adding content to your page, you can click on the publish button to make it live on your website.

You can repeat the process by adding more pages for different sections of your website. For example, an about page, contact us, and a blog page to display blog posts.

Now let’s add a few blog posts as well.

Head over to Posts » Add New in your WordPress admin area, where you will see a screen much like you saw earlier when adding pages.

You can add a post title and then add content in the visual post editor. You’ll also notice some extra options in the sidebar like post formats, categories and tags.

You can click on the save button to store your post as a draft or click on the publish button to make it visible on your site.

Step 5. Customizing and Tweaking Your Website

Now that you have created some content for your own website, you will be able to customize and put it all in a nice presentable shape for your users.

Let’s start by setting up a static front page (also known as homepage).

Setting up a Static Front Page

You need to visit the Settings » Reading page in your WordPress admin dashboard. Under the ‘Front page displays’ option click on the static front page and then select ‘Pages’ you created earlier for your home and blog pages.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page to store your changes.

WordPress will now use the page titled ‘Home’ as your site’s front page and ‘Blog’ page to display your blog posts.

Change Site Title and Tagline

During the installation you get to choose your site’s title. WordPress automatically adds a tag line to your site title that says ‘Just another WordPress site’.

You can change both your site’s title and tagline at any time by visiting Settings » General page.

Your site title will be the name of your website like WPBeginner. The tag line is usually a single line that describes your website.

You can also leave the tag line field blank if you want because WordPress SEO plugins like AIOSEO, Yoast SEO, and others will override it for better search engine optimization (more on this later).

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Set up Comments Settings

WordPress comes with a built-in comment system allowing your users to leave comments on your posts. This is great for WordPress user engagement, but it is targeted by spammers as well.

To deal with this, you’ll need to enable comment moderation on your website.

Visit Settings » Discussions page and scroll down to ‘Before a comment appears’ section. Check the box next to ‘Comment must be manually approved’ option.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Create Navigation Menus

Navigation menus allow your users to browse different pages or sections on your website. WordPress comes with a powerful navigation menu system, and your WordPress theme utilizes this system to display menus.

Let’s add a navigation menu to your website.

First, you need to visit Appearance » Menus page. Enter a name for your navigation menu and click on the create menu button.

WordPress will now create your navigation menu. But it will be empty at the moment.

Next, you need to select the pages you want to display in your menu and then click on add to menu button.

You will notice your selected pages filling the empty area of your navigation menu. You can move these menu items up and down to rearrange their position in the menu.

Now you need to select a display location. These locations are defined by your WordPress theme. Usually, most WordPress themes have a primary menu that appears in your website header at the top.

Finally, click on the save menu button to store your navigation menu.

You can now visit your website to see the menu in action.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Having helped thousands of people start a website, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about creating a website.

Is WordPress the only way to create a website?

No, there are a lot of other website builders out there such as Web.com, Wix, GoDaddy, etc. But we believe that WordPress is the best and easiest platform to build a website that works on both desktop and mobile devices.

Other industry experts agree with us too which is why over 43% of all websites on the internet use WordPress.

How do I make money from my website?

After helping users create a website, this is by far the most commonly asked question. There are a lot of ways to make money online from your website.

   ·  Affiliate marketing

   ·  Google adsense

   ·  Selling your on products

And much more just search on google or youtube how to make mony online you will get many answers.

Do I need to know HTML / CSS to create and customize my website?

No you don’t need to know how to use HTML / CSS to build a website with WordPress. You can use one of the many drag & drop WordPress page builder plugins to easily customize your web design.

We recommend using SeedProd because it lets you create completely custom WordPress themes from scratch without any code.

How can I start a website for free?

Some website builders may offer free options, but we strongly recommend against using those website building solutions. Often they will insert their advertisements on your website which doesn’t look professional and offer a terrible user experience.

It’s always better to purchase your own domain name and hosting, so you have full ownership of your website.

With that said, you can always register a domain name separately from a popular domain registrar and then purchase web hosting from a different hosting company like namecheap or  bluehost.

What’s the difference between WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org?

When we mention WordPress in our tutorial, we’re talking about the popular self-hosted WordPress.org platform. It’s the powerful open source software that you always hear about.

WordPress.com is a limited blog hosting service. They have recently expanded their platform to offer website and eCommerce plans with custom domains, but they’re far more expensive compared to other WordPress hosting services like Bluehost or namecheap.

I accidentally started my site with WordPress.com or another website builder, can I switch?

Yes, you can always switch your website to WordPress. Often times beginners make the mistake of using the wrong website builder and then realize that those platforms don’t have all the features they need.

How do I grow my online presence?

Now that you have created your new website, it’s time to to grow your online presence and get more traffic.

The most important advice we give to small business owners is to immediately start building an email list.

Email marketing allows you to stay in touch with website visitors and customers after they leave your website. It’s proven to have a 4300% ROI on investment.

We hope this guide helped you learn how to make a website without hiring a web designer or overspending money.

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