Access Keys

How to Create a Website - Setting Up a Website

Personal

More topics >

Personal website

I want a website – where do I start?

So, you’re thinking about creating your own website. What do you need to do it make it happen?

Firstly, it’s worth spending some time thinking carefully about what you want your website to do, what it should look like, and who you want to reach with it. That will help you to make several key decisions about how the site is hosted, designed and built.


Website or blog?

If you want your site to be interactive, allow comments from readers and encourage them to engage in a conversation with you, then you might want to consider creating a blog rather than a traditional website. Find out more in our Blogging section.

If you would prefer to have static pages rather than articles that appear in date order, and if you want to include any element of e-commerce or advertising on your site, then a website might be more appropriate than a blog.


What do you want a website for?

If you try to answer that question as early as possible in the process, it will really help you to decide what format and style will be best for you, and what features your website needs to have. Here are a few questions to consider for starters:

  • What's the topic? Is there one main focus, or are you covering a range of interests?
  • Who do you want to reach? What’s your target audience?  Local or global? Friends or everyone?
  • Is it like a blog, to record your thoughts and opinions and seek feedback from others?
  • Is it a community site where you hope to reach people with similar interests or hobbies?
  • Is it commercial site to make additional money on the side?
  • Is it a fan or tribute site dedicated to a celebrity, musician or sports team?
  • Is it a heritage site documenting your family tree?


What features do you want the site to have?

It’s also worth thinking about the features you want the site to have as early as possible. You might like to consider including some of the following:

  • Photos
  • Video
  • Audio
  • Podcasts
  • E-commerce facility

If you are interested in any of those features that will have a bearing on the way your site is designed and on the way it is hosted.


Getting a domain name

All websites require a domain name, and hosting. Many people start by choosing a suitable domain name for their website and the best way to get your domain name is to use a domain name registrar. Most have free online tools that will enable you to check to see which suitable names are available.


Building your website

Many registrars will be able to bundle the domain name purchase with hosting for your website as well. Some registrars can also provide a website creation service as well. Usually the website creation service is relatively simple and template-based. However, for anyone looking for a quick and easy solution it is often a good way to create your first website.

Alternatively, if you do want your website to stand out from the crowd by having a particular look or special functionality you may wish to consider to building it yourself. By learning the necessary skills to create your own website you'll almost certainly save money in the long run and you'll benefit by knowing how to manage and update the site. There are lots of books and courses available that can teach you how to become a website designer.

However, it takes a lot of time and dedication to learn the design and technical skills and if you do not have the time or the inclination to learn then you should probably consider appointing a website designer to build your website for you. It is probably best to try and find a website designer by asking around and using someone who has come highly recommended by someone that you trust. Failing this, there are many online directories of website design companies. If you approach a company from a directory it is always important to ask to see some examples of their work and to get competitive quotes from several other companies.


Further information about setting up a website

  • For more information on building your website, see our page on web building tools.
  • For more information about hosting your website, see our page on web hosting.
  • For more information about the style and layout of your website, see our page on site design.
This personal information might also be of interest: Blogging

Website design

Whether you build your website using a kit of templates, design it yourself from scratch, or appoint a web designer to build it for you, it is important to consider the fundamentals of good website design.

Many people think of colours and pictures when they think of website design but this is only a small part of successful site design. Here are some important guidelines to creating and effective website:

1. Select standard fonts

Words that are created in unusual or eye-catching typefaces may look exciting but if images are used to create the text then your website will probably not feature in search engine results very well. Generally it is best to stick to standard internet text for all the words on your website.

2. Consider contrast

Background and font colors should contrast. In other words use light text colours on dark backgrounds or vice versa. Also try to avoid red and green combinations as these are hard on the eyes. Finally, it is always worth checking how your website looks when it's printed out.

3. Ensure clear navigation

It is very important to consider who will be visiting your website and structure the site around their needs. In the web design business this is know as ‘user-centered’ design. The approach to the site navigation should be consistent across the whole website and all terminology used should be clear and simple.

4. Consider page layout

A website should not be too busy, a simple layout is usually best. Also avoid long web pages as research shows that most people would rather click than scroll. However, ideally visitors should not have to click more than three times to get to the information that they require from the homepage.

5. Keep your website up to date

It is very important to keep your website current and accurate. This will help to keep your site professional and credible looking and it will also help to keep your site ranked well with leading search engines. Also check your links from time to time to be sure that any links to external pages still exist.

This business information might also be of interest: Business website

Web building tools

Many people choose to build their own websites using online web building tools. They can be particularly useful if you have never had a website before as most web building tools allow you to try it for free, you can use these products. 

Benefits of web building tools

The main benefits of web building tools are:

  1. You can often create your website for free and cancel the project at any time if something goes wrong.
  2. You can usually switch to a paid version if you want to remove restrictions and include additional features, that aren't available in many free versions. In the short to medium term the costs are normally much less than getting a professional web designer to build your website.
  3. Web building tools are normally easy to use so that almost anyone can quickly create small websites without the need of HTML programming skills.
  4. The content of your website is stored separately from the layout. Normally, in a few clicks, you can easily change the appearance of your site - the colors, fonts, etc., without having to retype all the text content.

Disadvantages of web building tools

Web building tools are not a great solution for everyone. In general they are good for start-ups and small sites. However, if you need a site with unusual or bespoke functionality, or a completely unique look, then you should probably consider building the site yourself from scratch or engaging a website designer. 

This business information might also be of interest: Business website

Tips for website navigation

Static navigation

Static navigation is an unchanging area that gives simple, clear labels to the sections of your website. Often, this will be at the top of the screen, displayed in a horizontal menu format. Elements often included in static navigation:

Home button

It is good practice to ensure that on every page of your website, users are able to click once to return to the site's homepage. This allows people that have reached a dead end or decided that they are in the wrong place on your site to simply click back to the start and begin again. A good place for this is toward the top left of the screen, as this sits near most internet browsers built in navigation of the “back” and “forward” buttons. Many organisations choose to use their logo in this area as a “home” button.

Main menu

Most commonly displayed as a horizontal list of the main sections of the site. For an online shopping site, this might be high level e.g. “Home”, “Products” “Services” “About Us” and so on, or may be lower level e.g. “Kitchen Appliances” “Computer and Office” and so on.

Sub menus

These can be displayed in many different ways such as a secondary horizontal menu underneath the main menu, or left or right hand vertical lists. They are used to break the main menu content into smaller, more manageable sections that allow people to really dig deep into the information on your website. For example, if a user clicks on “Products” on the main menu, a sub menu may then show “Kitchen Appliances” “Computer and Office” and so on, listing the type of products for sales. After clicking on “Kitchen Appliances” a further sub menu may be shown with “Small appliances” “White goods” and so on. This menu system can be used help visitors find exactly what they are looking for, filtering down to the specific information of interest to them.

Search bar

Many websites now include a search bar, to allow visitors to find specific terms on your site and jump directly to the content they require. This can really help improve speed of navigation and its usage has increased as people have become used to search engines.

Linking

As well as the static navigation controls, it is important to ensure your content uses links wherever relevant to improve navigation. Links to other pages on your site, or simply to sections on the current page can be applied to text, images or buttons. Whatever method is employed, it should be done consistently. If a button is used to link to content, ensure buttons of the same style are used throughout; if using hyperlinks in text, ensure links are easily identifiable and again are consistent in colour and style. Always ensure your call to action is easy to see; wherever possible keep this “above the fold” (i.e. before users need to scroll) to ensure visitors are able to buy products, contact you or perform whatever action your site is primarily for as easily as possible.

Plan and test

A good way to plan your navigation is to visit successful websites and spend time looking in detail at the way their navigation works. Look at the use of static navigation as well as the way pages are linked to each other within content. Users find it hard to remember exactly how a well designed website navigation works without seeing it because it can feel intuitive and almost natural to use.

Once you feel you are happy with your navigation, it is a good idea to test it on other people. Having worked on the website and its navigation for some time, you are likely to be too close to it to see any potential issues. Sit with the tester and ask them how they would go about finding specific information using the navigation. Monitor their expectations and how easily they have found the intended web page. It is best to ask people who are able to be impartial to ensure you get valid results. Repeat this process with a number of people, and if themes emerge of particular problems, resolve these and test again.

It may take time before users are happy with the journey, and there are likely to always be some pain points, but testing in this manner can ensure major issues with the journey are fixed before the website goes live.

Web hosting

To get your website on to the internet you need website hosting. The web host stores all the web pages and makes them available to computers connected to the internet. The domain name (eg. knowthenet.org.uk) is linked to a web server's IP address. When somebody types in your domain name into their browser's address field, the IP address is located and the website is loaded from the web server.

A web hosting provider can have anywhere from one to several thousand computers that run web hosting software. Most websites that you see on the internet are accessed from a 'shared host', which is a single server that can be hosting several hundred websites. Larger companies often use 'dedicated hosting', which is a single server (or collection of servers) that are for their own use only.

Finding a good web host shouldn't be too hard, since there are thousands available. Just make sure that the web host you choose offers good technical support and ensures little or no downtime. You will usually have to pay a monthly fee that varies depending on how much disk space and bandwidth your website will use.

The scope of hosting services varies widely. Many internet service providers (ISPs) offer a basic service free to their subscribers. You can also often obtain web hosting from a domain name registrar. A list of registars in the UK is available at: www.nominet.org.uk/registrars/becomeregistrar/taglist

This following is a brief summary of the main types of hosting services:

Free web hosting service

Free hosting is offered by many different companies, usually the service is fairly limited and is sometimes supported by advertisements.

Shared web hosting service

Your website is placed on the same server as many other websites, this can often be several hundreds or even a few thousand. The features available with this type of service can be quite extensive but performance, particularly speed, can be affected by the numerous other websites on the same server.

Virtual Dedicated Server

This is also often known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS). This type of service divides hardware resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. This is generally recognized as providing superior website performance compared to a shared web hosting service.

Dedicated hosting service

This will give you, as the customer, your own server and you gain full control over it. However, often the customer does not own the server itself.

Managed hosting service

With this service you, as the customer, usually get your own server but are often not given full control over it. The service provider maintains full control to guarantee the quality of service by not allowing the customer to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The customer also benefits from experienced system administrators attending to the server. The server is normally leased to the customer.

Cloud hosting

This is a relatively new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers. It removes single-point of failures and allows customers to pay for what what resources are actually used instead of having an open-ended agreement.

This business information might also be of interest: Business website

Writing website content

Writing good website content is essential for you to connect with your customer or audience and provide the information or service they are looking for. It is also important for search engines, so that they can find your site in the first place.

Think about sources of traffic to your web site

Traffic to your web site is likely to come from various different sources, including search engines, direct traffic, referral traffic or existing customers or readers.  Each of these audiences will benefit from a different approach. 

Keeping web site content fresh

The key to building a group of regular readers is to keep the content on the site fresh and update it regularly.  Adding features such as a forum, or comments section will enable your audience to interact with you and others who share your interests.

Writing for search engines

You can attract readers from search engines by using keywords. Search engines use keywords within domain names to rank web sites.  If you choose a domain name that contains generic keywords (like mobile, music blog, gamer) you could achieve a high ranking.  If your web site contains advertising, then this kind of traffic can be valuable, as visitors who come via search engines are more likely to click on adverts than regular readers. Read more on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) here.

Tips on writing effective website copy

1. Write good titles, making them descriptive and relevant for readers as well as keyword rich for search engines.

2. Write for your audience - Ensure that it is relevant and that content is in a language that they understand.

3. Always focus on the purpose of the content, and the message or action that you want your audience to take.  Sell benefits not features.

4. Avoid the use of underline and italic formatting.  Underlined content generally means that it’s a hyperlink and italics are difficult to read on screen.

5. Avoid the use of ‘click here’ when creating hyperlinks.  People typically don’t read web pages word for word, so when they are scanning a page make links to other relevant information descriptive.

6. Write in a clear and direct way.

  • Keep content short and to the point
  • Avoid jargon
  • Write in short sentences

7. Break content up into logical sections, using headings and highlighting to emphasise key content. 

8. Avoid writing lengthy paragraphs and break content up using bullets.

9. Provide links and refer people to relevant information

10. Make content accessible and easy to navigate

This business information might also be of interest: Business website

How useful was this article?

Nominet is constantly striving to improve the level of knowledge on this site. Your feedback is appreciated.

Topic areas

accidental outlaw

Recommended video

Recommended links