Most of my readers know just as well or better than me how to make a website, but this will go out to all the rest, because there are plenty of people who have no idea how a website comes to be. A website development can definitely be a complex project that requires a whole lot of knowledge, time, and effort, but it doesn’t always have to. So today, I’ll try to explain the web design process in simplest terms to aspiring designers with a simple analogy: websites are like houses. Read on to see what I mean.

Step 1: Domain Name

What is a domain name? This is the URL, or address, of a website (like example.com). This is the identification for a web browser to know what website to display. Think of it as the address of a house, where your house is the website.

An internet domain name consists of:

• Second-Level Domain (SLD) - The word(s).
• Top-Level Domain (TLD) - The extension.

In “example.com” the SLD is “example” and the TLD is “com“.

They’re separated by a dot. In our house analogy, the SLD would be the number part of your address and the TLD would be the street name.

“Com” is the most popular extension. Think of “com” as the street with the ocean view. This is usually the first choice for a web developer. Some others include “net“, “org“, and country-specific ones like “us“.

How do I register a domain name?

You’ll have to purchase the name through a domain name registrar. A registrar is like the Realtor through which you’ll purchase a house. Some popular ones are GoDaddy and Namecheap (my favorite). With a (usually free) account at a registrar you’ll be able to search for, register, and manage all the names you buy.

On every registrar, the domain names are priced by its TLD. For example, all .com’s are a set price, all .net’s are a set price, etc. Most of the common TLD’s go for under $10 (depends on registrar).

You’ll learn that you won’t always be able to purchase the domain you want because everyone is capable of registering it. Luckily, my uncommon name was available for all TLD’s.

Step 2: Web Hosting

You’ll need a server to store all the information you put on your website. A web host will provide this storage along with (hopefully) support. A web host is like the person selling you the land to build this house I keep talking about. Or the landlord who you have to pay rent to every month. Some popular web host providers are Bluehost and Hostgator (I’ve been using HG over a year – no problems so far).

Some hosts offer hosting for an unlimited number of domains for a set price per month. This price doesn’t usually exceed $10 for a basic package. Basic would mean a family or personal website (a small house in our analogy).

If you’re planning on creating the next YouTube (unlikely) you are definitely going to need more space. Our analogy wouldn’t be about a house anymore, it would turn into a large company building, for which you’d need a massive lot. If your site really does get very popular you’d need servers of your own.

Step 3: Web Development

Time to build this house you’ve been setting up for. You already know your address and you bought your lot with the appropriate size for the amount of space you need. Time to build.

Everything you see on the computer is governed by code. The sizes, colors, functions, everything. We have to tell the computer exactly how to display and act in different situations using its own language. Despite common belief, code is not green, scrolling text on a black background. Some code languages are very easy to learn, and some are difficult (just like a new verbal language is), but you don’t always have to program it yourself.

You have about 3 options from here:

1. Learn how to code and build it yourself.

This is like grabbing a hammer, nails, some wood, and learning to build a house. This is the most challenging option, but definitely the most rewarding. Instead of a hammer and nails, your tools would be programming languages like HTML and CSS. Languages like these are all the stuff behind the website curtain; the stuff nobody sees. A good place to start learning is W3Schools.

I’m not going to go in depth on coding, but a few tips on the website design:

• Design a simple layout as if you were designing a floor-plan for house you wanted to get around easily.
• Choose a nice color scheme as if you were painting a house.
• Decoration is always good on a website or house, but don’t overdo it.
• How to Make the Worst Website Ever - read, then do the opposite.

2. Hire someone to build it for you.

This is like hiring a contractor. The price of this usually goes into the thousands for a nicely built website, but is the preferred choice for many developers. This will ensure a unique, and (hopefully) stable website for you. With a lot of searching and researching, you should be able to find a reputable service.

3. Find a nice template to work off of.

This is like buying an older house that’s been lived in. With this, all the building (coding) is all done for you, the only thing left is for you to add your own furniture (content). There’s plenty of themes or templates to use (many are free). Google should be able to help you find a nice one.

Something else I should mention is that you can always take the CMS (Content Management System) route. Meaning, you can build a blog or a forum by downloading a platform as a template to work off of. They’re usually extremely easy to use. Some web hosts even offer one-click set-up for certain systems.

WordPress (free) is definitely the way to go if you want to start a blog. If you want to start an online community, like a bulletin board, I recommend phpBB (free) or vBulletin (not free).

Just remember one thing. Be unique. The internet is full of websites, and just a click away. Give your visitors a reason to stay on yours.

Testing Your Site

One important thing for me is to make sure, no matter what option you went with, that the code is valid. Using a validator, you can make sure your house (website) was built properly and up to the standards of the city (web).

An even more significant aspect of web design is that it looks and functions properly. I must admit I have no house-analogy for this one, but it means cross-browser testing. A browser is a program to display web pages. Popular browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. I cannot express how strongly I recommend Firefox (it’s free).

Anyway, each browser reads the code differently (some better than others), so what may look right in Firefox, might not look right in IE (this is very common). This is why it’s important to test things out.

An extremely handy tool to use for this is BrowserShots. All you do is type in your site address and it’ll generate screenshots of your site on many different browsers in several operating systems.

Step 4: Site Maintenance

Eventually you’re going to need to clean your house or repair the sink; same with your website. Site maintenance can consist of:

• Content writing (especially for a blog)
• Software upgrades (to make sure you’re up to date)
• New features (to keep your visitors interested)

As you can see, a website is never really “finished”.

Conclusion

Those are the core elements behind the scenes. There are several more topics you might want to get into, like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but I’m not going to cover that today.

This is by no means a complete guide for building a website. Once you get started you’ll see that there’s more to it than it seems, but with Google’s help, time, patience, and a slightly lighter wallet you should be able to create your own home on the world wide web.