How to Create a Website in 2024. Creating a website in 2024 shouldn’t be so hard, especially with the high rise of no-code development platforms in recent years. Even though there are countless website development tools that are been released every day, most of these tools are either paid or freemium tools while only a handful of them are completely free.
In this article, we will learn about some standard industry tools used in creating any type of website even if you have zero knowledge of computer programming. To begin, I will like to state that there is a difference between a website and a web application. A website at the basic level is made up of multiple web pages such as the home page, About us, Services, and a Contact page. The contact page may sometimes come with a form with input fields that users may fill out and submit. The main objective of a website is to provide information to visitors.
A Web Application on the other hand can be any computer application that can be accessed using a web browser. This may be as basic as a School Management System and as complex as Google Sheets (Online Spreadsheet by Google). In all honesty, little can be achieved with no-code tools when the objective is to create a Web Application but a lot can be archived with them when creating a website.
If your objective is to create web applications, then I will advice you to enroll in a web development class where you will learn the basics of web application development such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP or Node Js etc. You check out a list of these Computer Training Schools to enroll.
How to Create a Website
To begin the process of creating a website, there are some basic terms you will need to understand since these terms will be used along the way. So let’s begin;
Domain Name: A domain name is a URL (Website Link) that users will type inside the address bar of their browser in order to be taken to your website. Eg. www.infopeeps.com
Subdomain: A subdomain is a child domain that is created based on the parent domain name. These type of domains may be used to divide your website or application into multiple parts. Eg. www.africa.infopeeps.com, www. europe.infopeeps.com. You will realize that the domain name has a prefix of Africa or Europe. This is beneficial if you have users from both continents but want to serve them with different content.
Domain Extension: A domain extension is the ending part of your domain. Domain extensions are of two types. ie Generic domain extensions (eg. .com, .org, .info etc.) and top-level domain extensions (.edu.gh, .gov.ng, .co.uk etc).
Web Host: A web host is a computer connected to the internet that stores all the files of your website or application. There are registered companies that provide these services and are called Web Hosting Companies. Some of these companies are Namecheap, BlueHost, DigitalOcean, Linode, Amazon Web Service (AWS) etc.
CMS (Content Management System): A CMS is any system that has the ability to create, store, update and delete data. CMS usually has multi-user capabilities where permissions may be assigned to every user.
Please refer to these terms if you find any of them confusing as we proceed along the way. Now let us look at some popular tools we can use to create our website.
How to Create a Website with WordPress
WordPress is one of the most popular CMS which was originally developed for blogging. Over the years, WordPress has outgrown it’s intended purpose and is now used by experts and beginners in creating websites and applications.
WordPress works with the templates and plugin architecture where a user downloads and installs a template of preference and later customizes it to change things like colors, menus, widgets etc. There are two versions of WordPress they are wordpress.com and wordpress.org the difference between these two is the domain extension.
wordpress.com is a managed service where a user only needs to create an account and select the type of website they want. (news, online shop etc.) A default subdomain will also be generated by the system in the form of www.infopeeps.wordpress.com. You can later buy a unique domain name and update it on the setting page of your website. The advantage of this version of WordPress is you can own a website without having to pay a dime. It is also very easy to set up and the best option if you are not much of a tech-savvy. The downside is you will have no access to the code base, also you will not be able to add custom features aside from the ones provided by the platform and plugins.
WordPress.org on the other hand is an open-source and self-managed platform that allows you to download WordPress source code onto your system, re-customize it to your preference and then host it with any web hosting platform of your choice. It gives you the freedom to build whatever you want with it since you have complete access to the codebase. This version of WordPress is great for experts and or people who want to get their hands dirty.
Both versions of WordPress operate on the template and plugin architecture. Plugins in WordPress are extra pieces of code that can be installed in WordPress to provide you with a particular type of functionalities. Eg. You can install the popular WooCommerce WordPress plugin to convert your website into an online shop. Another feature of WordPress is its powerful new drag-and-drop feature introduced in version 6.0. This allows you to edit almost every part of your website with the Gutenberg editor.
Conclusion
If you are a beginner looking to get into the website development game, then WordPress should be one of those tools under your belt since so much can be done with this amazing tool.
In our next post, we will explore how to create a website with other no-code tools such as Wix, Shopify, Webflow, and Squarespace.
