How to make a website in eight steps

If you want to know how to make a website, we have just the guide for you. In our guide for beginners, you can find out what you need to know to get your content online as soon as possible.

Why is it important to have your own website?

Re­gard­less of whether you’re offering a service, launching a product, creating content or want to get the attention of potential customers, having your own website is the best and, above all, easiest way to achieve this goal. Although re­com­mend­a­tions from existing customers or a suc­cess­ful social media presence can also be helpful, having your own website is more sus­tain­able and looks more pro­fes­sion­al. Once you have decided to create your own website, there are a few things to bear in mind. With our practical guide, you will learn how to build your own website as well as what you should consider before jumping in.

How to create a website? A checklist

• Decide on the type of website
• Find a suitable name
• Search for a provider
• Choose a method
• Buy an SSL cer­ti­fic­ate
• Use AI to fa­cil­it­ate the process
• Optimise your content for search engines
• Develop marketing strategies

Decide on the type of website you want

Before you start comparing prices, pondering over domains and trying to figure out how to create a website, you should think about the type of website you want to have. Why do you need your own website? What goals do you want to achieve with it and what re­quire­ments should it fulfill? After all, there are many different types of websites, and they all require different ap­proaches. For example, if you plan to have your portfolio online, the structure of your website will differ from that of a blog. Likewise, online shops have com­pletely different re­quire­ments than online business cards. This is why it’s important to first determine what you need your website for.

Find a suitable name

Every single website has a domain name. This is the name that you enter in the browser to access websites. The name is referred to as an address, which also helps to visualise what the domain name is needed for. The domain is made up of the actual name and an extension such as ‘.com’ or ‘.net’. Although you can the­or­et­ic­ally choose any name, there are a few things to consider when making your selection.

• Catchy: The name should be simple enough for potential visitors to easily remember.
• Simple spelling: Don’t un­ne­ces­sar­ily com­plic­ate the spelling as this could lead to typos and prevent people from reaching your website.
• Logical: It is not helpful if your domain name is memorable but has no con­nec­tion to you or your business. Companies should include their company name in the domain name or at least a part of it. For in­di­vidu­als, your name or at least a common nickname or stage name is a good starting point.
• Unique: This is not so easy to achieve with well over a billion websites. However, if you have the op­por­tun­ity to make your domain unique, this will certainly help the number of clicks you get. Hyphens are a great way to improve read­ab­il­ity.
• Timeless: In most cases, you will use the same domain name for a long time. This helps to strengthen the overall re­cog­ni­tion value. For this reason, it is usually not a good idea to choose a name that is based on a specific trend or other factors that may change with time.
• Endings: In most cases, country endings such as ‘.net’ or the wide­spread ‘.com’ make sense for an in­ter­na­tion­al presence. However, there are also endings that can emphasise the goal of your website even better. These include, for example, ‘.info’ for in­form­at­ive pages or ‘.edu’ for edu­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions. There are also suitable domains if you are looking to create a digital presence for a local business.

Once you have found the right name, you can buy the domain.

Search for a suitable provider

It is important to choose a suitable provider. They will provide you with the hardware that your website will be stored on and accessed from. Providers differ in terms of their flex­ib­il­ity, space and costs. If you create your website with a website builder, a provider is usually included in the package. We’ll explain more about this later on in the article. For all other cases, you can choose one of these three options:

• Shared hosting: With this option, your website is hosted together with other websites on a server. On the one hand, this is a cheaper so you save money, but on the other hand, it can also mean that storage options and bandwidth are limited.
• Dedicated hosting: A dedicated server is only used by you. This not only no­tice­ably increases your flex­ib­il­ity, but also ensures that you have access to sig­ni­fic­antly greater resources. However, this model is also more expensive and is therefore only re­com­men­ded for websites with par­tic­u­larly high traffic. You can find out more about the dif­fer­ences and sim­il­ar­it­ies between shared hosting and dedicated hosting in our Digital Guide.
• VPS: The middle ground between the more cost-effective shared hosting and the more flexible dedicated hosting is the VPS (Virtual Private Server) option. This provides you with the resources of a physical server, but virtually. This hosting option is often com­par­at­ively fast and flexible, but also requires a certain amount of technical knowledge. You can find a more detailed com­par­is­on between VPS and dedicated hosting here.

How to build a website? Various methods

So now you have a catchy name and a home for your website. At this point, the question arises as to how you want to create your website. The decisive factors here are your own know-how, what you expect from the website and the cost factor. You can choose from the following four methods.

Website builders

Cost: ££

If you opt for one of the various website builders, you create your website yourself using existing templates. You do not need to have any pro­gram­ming knowledge and can simply follow the program’s in­struc­tions. There are many different programs for creating a website, and most website builders offer you the following ad­vant­ages:

• No in­stall­a­tion necessary
• Can also be used without pro­gram­ming knowledge
• Partially automatic updates
• Re­spons­ive design
• Pro­fes­sion­al look
• Less error-prone than other options
• Saves time

However, there are also a few (possible) dis­ad­vant­ages to website builders. It all depends on the provider. Some dis­ad­vant­ages include:

• Sig­ni­fic­antly less flexible than other options
• Not as in­di­vidu­al
• No pro­fes­sion­al support
• Sub­sequent ad­just­ments are not always possible
• Moving to another provider is difficult and often im­possible
• SEO op­tim­isa­tions are more com­plic­ated

Pro­gram­ming

Cost: £

By far the most cost-effective and flexible solution is custom pro­gram­ming. If you know how to make a website, you can build it exactly the way you want and adapt it over time. In order to do this, you need to learn how to code if you don’t already know how to. In our Digital Guide, you can find in­form­a­tion on HTML and CSS as well as basic tutorials in PHP, C, C++ and Python. This method is re­com­men­ded if you already know how to code or would like to learn and need a solution that is as in­di­vidu­al as possible. If you program your website yourself, you’ll benefit from:

• Maximum flex­ib­il­ity
• Full control
• Low costs
• Focus on the es­sen­tials
• In­di­vidu­al security ar­chi­tec­ture

However, there are also a few dis­ad­vant­ages to this method.

• Very time-consuming
• Extensive pro­gram­ming knowledge required
• High sus­cept­ib­il­ity to errors
• Features dependent on your own skills
• No technical support

CMS

Cost: ££

Another method is to use a content man­age­ment system (CMS). These can be free of charge, depending on the provider and can be cus­tom­ised according to your re­quire­ments. This option is ideal if you plan to change the content on your website regularly, need lots of subpages and there are several people re­spons­ible for main­tain­ing the content. This approach has the following ad­vant­ages:

• Low costs
• Simple structure
• No pro­gram­ming knowledge required
• Fast creation
• SEO op­tim­isa­tion possible
• Content can be added at a later date
• Main­ten­ance also possible for employees

The possible dis­ad­vant­ages of a CMS are:

• De­pend­ence on the provider
• Less flexible than in­de­pend­ent pro­gram­ming
• Ad­di­tion­al costs for main­ten­ance, upkeep and ad­di­tion­al plugins
• Updates and security measures are the user’s re­spons­ib­il­ity (exception: Managed WordPress)

Website design service

Cost: £££

The fourth and most cost-intensive method is to com­mis­sion a pro­fes­sion­al agency. You discuss your re­quire­ments with them in detail, define the features you need and receive a finished product at the end, which will continue to be main­tained for you. This option is par­tic­u­larly useful if you have no pro­gram­ming knowledge and need a com­pre­hens­ive website with lots of features. Website design services have the following ad­vant­ages:

• No prior pro­gram­ming knowledge required
• Website optimally tailored to your re­quire­ments
• Func­tion­al­ity and security are guar­an­teed
• Search engine op­tim­isa­tion and re­spons­ive design
• Legal issues are taken into account
• Saves you time

Here are the possible dis­ad­vant­ages:

• Sig­ni­fic­antly higher costs
• De­pend­ence on website design service
• Creation can take longer due to con­sulta­tions
• Not many op­por­tun­it­ies to review the website during the creation process

Build a resilient security ar­chi­tec­ture

Just as important as re­search­ing how to create a website is knowing how to keep it secure. You should def­in­itely take the necessary steps to ensure your website’s security is top notch before it actually goes online. Ensure you equip your website with an SSL cer­ti­fic­ate. This Secure Socket Layer protects your data by en­crypt­ing it against un­au­thor­ised access. With some hosting providers, the cer­ti­fic­ate is already included in the price. Strong passwords and regular updates and backups also protect your website during use.

Make the most of AI

The topic of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence has also become in­creas­ingly in­ter­est­ing when it comes to creating websites. Various AI websites can fa­cil­it­ate a lot of important tasks that are required for building your website. The new tech­no­logy is also worth con­sid­er­ing when it comes to content creation. This applies not only to creating texts with the help of an AI generator, but also to creating AI images or gen­er­at­ing AI videos.

Optimise your content for search engines

To ensure that your content can also be found online after you’ve re­gistered your website with Google and other search engines, a good SEO strategy is useful. This ensures that your content appears prom­in­ently in the popular search engines. In our Digital Guide you can find ten useful tips for search engine op­tim­isa­tion, in­form­a­tion about what you need to know about SEO when choosing your domain and an overview of the best SEO tools. If you really want to set up your website perfectly, we also recommend using our com­pre­hens­ive SEO checker.

Choose a strategy for your online and offline marketing

Now you know how to make a website. If your website is online, secure and optimised for search engines, you can start to promote your website. With the right mix of online marketing and offline marketing, you can build your site’s pop­ular­ity, strengthen your brand and increase the number of clicks on your website.

How do you build a website? An overview of the possible options

The best way to create a website depends on many factors. In par­tic­u­lar time, cost, re­quire­ments and pro­gram­ming knowledge play a major role. To help you determine the best approach for creating your own website, we have sum­mar­ised the different methods and their major char­ac­ter­ist­ics here: