How to Start a Website (Easy

Guide for Beginners)

An easy way to start a website in 30 minutes or less. Free step-by-
step guide for beginners with a real example.

Starting a website from scratch is not difficult, in fact, it’s a very easy task to do even for beginners.
You don’t need to know web development or have any coding skills.

We’ve built hundreds of websites for our clients and in this guide, you’ll learn how to start a
website from the beginning, step-by-step.

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have a beautiful and professional website on your own domain.
The whole process will take less than 30 minutes to complete and all steps are included in this
tutorial.

How to Start a Website

1. Sign up for web hosting
2. Install WordPress
3. Add a website theme
4. Customize your website design and layout
5. Customize your homepage
6. Add a contact form
7. Add content for essential pages
8. Add your logo
9. Get website traffic

1. Sign up for web hosting

The first step to creating a website is to sign up for web hosting. Web hosting gives you the tools
to set up a website and make it available on the Internet.
While you can choose any company to host your website, in this tutorial we will use our personal
favorite, Bluehost. It’s the one of most affordable and reliable companies and has great offers with
huge discounts and freebies for beginners.

Click this link to go to Bluehost to claim your special offer and then click the green GET STARTED
NOW button.

 Click the Get Started Now Button.

On the next screen, click the SELECT button under the BASIC plan. It’s the cheapest plan that costs
only $2.95 per month and includes everything you need to create your first website.

As your website grows and you’ll need more space and computer power, you can easily upgrade
to a more powerful plan from your hosting account.
  Click the “Select” button under the Basic Plan.

The next step is to specify the domain name for your website. In simple terms, a domain name is
how you want your website to be known online. It’s the unique internet address of your site.

 If you already own a domain name: type it into the “Use a domain you own” box and click
NEXT.

 If you don’t own a domain name: Search for your preferred domain.

If your chosen domain name is not available, try again until you get the message that the domain
is available.

Click here for domain name tips +

Account Information

The next step is to provide details about your account.

Fill in all required fields and make sure that the email address is correct. You’ll use the email
address to log in and manage your account so double-check that before proceeding.

 Account Information

Package Information

From the Account Plan, select the duration of your hosting plan. By default is set to 12 months.

 Package Information

Learn more about the account plan +

Package Extras

Everything displayed in the Package extras is optional and not required for creating a website. You
can safely un-check all boxes and proceed to the next step.

If you change your mind, there is an easy way to add those extras at a later stage.

 Package Extras

Payment Information

To finalize this step, you need to enter your payment details and check the “I have read and agree
…” checkbox.
  Payment Information

When you’re ready, click the SUBMIT button to finalize payment.

Congratulations! You have just bought a great domain name and hosting for your new website.

Note: Once you complete your purchase, you’ll receive an email to confirm your account.
Click the link in the email to verify your account. After verification, you’ll also receive another
email with important information about your hosting account. Keep it somewhere safe.
  You have successfully registered a domain and hosting for your website.

Click the CREATE ACCOUNT button and proceed to the next step, which is to create a password
for your hosting account.

Type your recommended password in the ‘Create Password’ and ‘Retype Password’ fields and
click the CREATE ACCOUNT button.

 Create a strong password for your hosting account.

If everything is ok, you’ll get the message that your account is ready. Click the GO TO LOGIN
button.

 Your hosting account is read. Click the go to login button.

Log in to your hosting account

You’re now ready to log in to your hosting account, install WordPress, and start customizing your
website.

Enter your domain name and password and click LOGIN.

 Enter the username and password to log in to your hosting account.

2. Install WordPress

Once you have registered your domain name and signed up for hosting, the next step is to set up
your website using WordPress.

Why WordPress? +

To set up your website to use WordPress all you have to do is follow the simple instructions below.

You’ll be presented with a 3-step wizard. The first step is to answer a couple of questions about
the purpose of your website. Don’t spend any time on this, this is just informational. Select the
most appropriate options and click CONTINUE.

 Select the options as shown above and click continue.

Go through the questions in STEP 2 and click CONTINUE TO THEME SELECTION.

3. Add a website theme

The next step is to select a theme for your website. A theme defines the layout, colors, and look N
feel of your site.

Don’t worry, changing a website theme is very easy, so if you change your mind, you can change
it later.

For now, click the ASTRA theme and finalize the process.

 Select the ASTRA theme and click continue.

That’s it, in a few minutes your new WordPress website will be ready. Continue with the next steps
to see how to customize and view your new website.
  Well Done! You’ve just installed WordPress on your website.

4. Customize your website design and layout

Once the above process is completed, you’ll be presented with a screen like the one shown
below.
  Click My Sites to view and configure your website.

This is the home page of your hosting account. As you can see, there are different options like
Marketplace, Email & Office, Domains, and Advanced. You don’t have to do anything with them
now but feel free to familiarize yourself with each option.

To customize your website, we need to log in to WordPress. Click MY SITES from the left menu.

Move the mouse over the website thumbnail and click LOGIN TO WORDPRESS.
  Move the mouse over the website thumbnail and login into WordPress

What you see now is the WordPress backend. This is the software you’ll use to customize your
website, add new pages, create content, and everything else that has to do with website
management.

You’ll notice at the top a button with the label ‘Coming Soon Active’. This is to warn you that your
website is not yet available on the Internet but it’s shown only to you. So, the first step is to make it
public.

Wait for about 5 minutes and then click the COMING SOON ACTIVE button. This is needed so that
the connection between your domain name and hosting provider is completed successfully.
  Click the Launch your site button to get your website live.

Don’t worry about the technicalities, spend a few minutes familiarizing yourself with the other
options, and when ready click the ‘Coming Soon Active’ button and then the LAUNCH YOUR SITE
button.

In a couple of seconds, your website will be published on the Internet and the message below
will appear. Click on the VIEW SITE button.

 Your website is live! Click the View Site button.

A new browser tab will open and your website will look similar to this:

 This is how your website should look now.

At this stage, you can also check your website by opening a new browser window and
typing your domain name in the search bar.

This is how the default WordPress website looks for our selected theme.

Let’s see how easy is to customize the design of this website.

Go back to the previous tab (WordPress backend) and select THEMES from the APPEARANCE
menu.
This is the place you can change your theme. As you can see there are many free themes
available, you can move the mouse over a theme to preview it and install it.

 WordPress has a number of free website themes to choose from.

Since we already selected a theme, we’ll go directly to the theme options to customize our
website. Select ASTRA OPTIONS from the left menu.
  Select ASTRA options from the left menu.

This is the place to change the colors of your website, add your own logo, change the layout of
the different pages, and perform a number of other functions.

Instead of trying to build a website from scratch, you’ll use the ‘Importer Plugin’ to import the
layout and content of a pre-built website.

This is easier than starting a website from zero.

Click on the INSTALL IMPORTER PLUGIN.

  Click the Install Importer Plugin Option

Once the plugin is installed, you’ll be asked to select a Page Builder.

A page builder is a piece of software that is installed on WordPress and makes website
building a very easy process, especially for beginners.

For this example, we’ll use GUTENBERG which is the page builder that comes for free with
WordPress (it was created by the WordPress team).

Select GUTENBERG as the page builder.

  Select Gutenberg

You’ll be presented with a number of layouts. You can choose anyone you like depending on the
type of website you want to create.

 Select your preferred website layout.

Click the IMPORT COMPLETE SITE.

  Click the Import Complete Site button

You’ll be shown a popup with some options. Make sure that you select the options as shown
below and click the IMPORT button.

 Click the Import button.

In a few minutes, the process will be completed. Click the VIEW SITE.
  Click the View Site button.

You’ll notice that your website shows the right colors but the homepage does not look the way it
is supposed to look. No worries, we’ll fix this in a minute.

Go back to the WordPress admin and select SETTINGS > READING from the left menu.

Configure the HOMEPAGE and POSTS PAGE dropdowns as shown below and then click the SAVE
CHANGES button.

 Set your homepage and blog page and click save changes.

Viola! Your new website is ready and it looks beautiful! Well Done!

Now, open a new tab and type in your domain name. Your website should look like this:
  Your website should look like this!

Click the menu options (About me, Blog, Contact) to see how the pages look.

When you’re ready, continue with the rest steps to see how easy is to change your homepage and
the content of the pages.

5. Customize your homepage

To change the content, colors, or images of your homepage, follow the instructions below.

While viewing your homepage in a browser, click the EDIT PAGE button from the top bar menu.
This will open the homepage in EDIT mode.

 Click the Edit Page button to edit your homepage.

Note: If the top bar menu is not available, then it means you’re not logged in to WordPress. In
this case, you have to log in first by going to my.bluehost.com and login in with your
username and password.
As you can see, the page is separated into a number of sections. Click with the mouse to select
and edit a section.

Let’s see how to change the homepage slogan to “Welcome to my awesome website”.

Click anywhere in the surrounding box, delete the existing sentence, and add your preferred
wording.

 Change the homepage text and click Update.

To SAVE your changes, click the UPDATE button. That’s it, it’s that simple!

 Click the Update button to save your changes.

You can follow the same steps to change anything that you see on the homepage.
You can even remove a section by selecting it, clicking on the three dots menu, and then choosing
REMOVE BLOCK from the menu.

 How to delete a website block.

Note: If after working on your homepage you changed your mind and you want to switch to
a different layout or theme, you can select APPEARANCE > THEMES from the left menu.

6. Add a contact form

The CONTACT us option is available in the main menu but not yet activated. To create a contact
page we first need to create a contact form. To do this we will use a WordPress plugin.

A plugin is a piece of software that adds extra functionality to WordPress. There are hundreds
of free and paid plugins you can use. You can find these by clicking the PLUGINS option from
the left menu.

Here are the steps to follow:

Click WP FORMS from the left menu.

Click ALL FORMS
Click ADD NEW
  Click Add New to create a new contact form.

Enter a name for your form and select the SIMPLE CONTACT FORM option.

 Create a new contact form.

A nice form is created for you and now it needs to be added to a page.

Click the EMBED button (top right corner) and copy the form shortcode as shown below.
  Copy the contact form shortcode.

So far, we have created a new form, now we need to create a contact page, add our shortcode,
and configure the main menu to show the page.

Click the X button (top right corner) to close the form builder and select PAGES > ALL PAGES from
the left menu.

Click the ADD NEW button to create a new page.

 Click the Add New button to create a new page.

Add a title for the page and paste the shortcode copied from the previous step.

Your page should look like this in edit mode:

  Add the form shortcode and click Publish.

Click the PUBLISH button (top right corner).

You can also click VIEW PAGE to see how your contact page looks.

The last step is to add the contact page to the menu.

Click the WORDPRESS ICON (top left corner) to go back to the WordPress admin.
Click the CUSTOMIZE button from the Topbar menu.
Select HEADER > PRIMARY MENU.

In the ‘Button Link’ type ‘/contact’ (which is the name of our contact page) and click PUBLISH.

 Configure your menu to show the contact page.

That’s it, you’ve just added a contact form to your brand new website! Go ahead and test it by
clicking CONTACT from the main menu.

7. Add content for essential pages

Besides a great homepage, a good website needs to have some other important pages. In
particular:
 About page
Privacy policy page
Blog main page

Let’s see step-by-step how to add these pages to your website.

About Page +

Privacy Policy Page +

Blog Page +

8. Add your logo

To complete your website setup, you need to upload your own logo. Your logo should be
something unique and representative of your brand.

Changing your logo is easy, follow the steps below:

Click the CUSTOMIZE button from the top bar menu.

 Click the Customize button.

From the left menu select HEADER and then SITE IDENTITY.

Click the CHANGE LOGO button.

  Click change logo to upload your own logo.

You’ll be prompted to select an image from your computer.

For the best results, make sure that your logo is according to the suggested image dimensions.
  Upload a new logo with the correct dimensions.

To SAVE your changes click the blue PUBLISH button located on top.

9. Get website traffic

You should proud of yourself, you just learned how to create a website from scratch that looks
beautiful and professional!

The next step for you is to learn SEO and Digital marketing – If you want to build a successful
website that will get traffic and generate money for you, you need to learn SEO and then master
other digital marketing techniques.

Our Digital Marketing Course Bundle will teach you EVERYTHING you need to know about
SEO and Digital Marketing. You’ll learn how to optimize your website for search engines to
get traffic and how to use all the important digital marketing channels to boost your traffic
and sales.