Create a Website from Scratch: Your Complete Blueprint

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Embarking on the journey to create a website from scratch is an exciting endeavor, brimming with endless possibilities. Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur, a passionate blogger, or a small business owner looking to establish your online presence, mastering the art of website creation is key to unlocking your digital potential.

Understanding the creation of a website in general: The creation of a website goes through different stages that allow you to define the project in its entirety by reviewing all aspects of the website making.

To fully understand how to create a website, it is therefore necessary to know all the aspects that come into play. Choice of technology and frameworks, web programming languages, tools and software… From the realization of mockups to web development, find out how website design goes.

In this comprehensive guide to build a website, we’ll walk you through every step of the process, equipping you with the knowledge and tools needed to bring your vision to life. From conceptualization to launch, get ready to delve into the world of web development and craft a captivating online platform that resonates with your audience.

Create a website: Development Technologies Needed

When you are a novice, to start creating your website, the first questions that come to mind are:

• Where To Start To Create A Website?
• how To Set Up A Web Site?

The goal is not to necessarily teach you how to make your own website, but rather to understand and how to go about it. Blog, showcase site, e-commerce… let’s quickly get to the heart of the matter and the technical part of website design. To immediately question the techniques and technology that will be used to develop a website is legitimate.

When we talk about development technologies, we are referring in particular to the software and programming languages ​​used for Creating A Website.

Know that there are indeed different ways to go about creating websites: CMS or standard Frameworks… each has its advantages and disadvantages that we will not necessarily discuss here. Let’s talk about the different techniques and languages to setup website.

Note that there are web applications that allow you to create a free website without any programming knowledge such as Wix or Ionos.

These software will not be discussed here, we assume that they are not suitable for professional web design.

Essential Web Programming Languages To Make A Website

In the vast ecosystem of web development, mastering the foundational programming languages is akin to wielding a craftsman’s toolkit for digital creation. HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript stand as the pillars upon which the dynamic and interactive web is built.

Understanding the nuances of these languages is essential for anyone venturing into website creation. From structuring content to styling elements, handling server-side logic, and orchestrating client-side interactivity, proficiency in these languages unlocks the potential to craft immersive online experiences.

When we talk about the creating of website, we often repeat different programming languages ​​specific to the web: Html, Css and Php.

HTML Language: The Basis For Creating a Website

If you don’t know, a website is displayed primarily in HTML, which stands for Hypertext Markup Language. This language makes up all web pages: from structure to content and forms, a web page mainly uses HTML in the form of markup.

• To display a title on a web page, we use for example the h1 tag: <h1>My title</h1>
• There are tags for different uses: to display <img> images , to display a form <form>, to display a paragraph <p>, to put in bold <strong>…

In short, HTML is the basic language used for displaying and create simple web pages.

CSS Language: To Style Your Website

To design a website, create a style specific to the site, we use another programming language, called CSS for Cascading Style Sheets. Understand, cascading style sheets for your web pages. This modifies the way in which the content will be displayed and presented on the screen: choice of colors, borders, background color, choice of font and size, position…

We thus personalize the website by defining display settings. It is thanks to CSS that we deploy and integrate the design of a site carried out upstream during the design of interfaces and models. CSS is usually used with HTML tags to put web design into practice.

Example to set the background color to red for a web page: body {background-color: red;}

PHP language in Making a Website:

PHP is a programming language that is used on the server side and involves the notion of dynamic website.

To sum up the to make a website on a single article is impossible. Let’s try to keep it short and concise with a concrete example and the use of forms on a website.

• We have seen that HTML displays the content of a site on the screen. But when you fill out a form and submit it, what to do with the data processing?
• HTML is only used for display, but PHP allows you to process the data entered in the form.

Explanations: We talk about server processing, because we must understand that a website works in several stages which could be broken down as follows:

1. The Internet user requests to display a page;
2. The server processes the information;
3. The server returns the page to display.

A website has a hosting on a web server and is used thanks to the Internet network. What the client sees is the tip of the iceberg, what the server will have made visible. On this same server, we therefore perform upstream processing before generating the final web page on the screen.

The PHP language thus makes it possible to process information in order to generate a web page.

In the context of a CMS for example, the page is generated by retrieving the content through a database and rendered under a template. We therefore say that the PHP language makes a website dynamic, because we generate information on the server side (off screen) before making it visible on the client side (that is to say at the final display on the screens).

• Thus, through a database like MySQL, we can generate and display dynamic content such as news, products etc.
• Thus the notion of dynamics is opposed to the notion of static: If we were to display web pages whose content would be invariable, we would only use HTML for static pages. PHP is therefore essential in the production of dynamic web pages when we need to process data, usually from a database.

JavaScript Language: To Create Interaction

There are many uses of JavaScript but in our case, we will only deal with the possibility of creating interactivity between your visitors and your pages. JavaScript is mainly executed on the client side, that is to say, it acts directly on the web page during the visit.

• In addition, it allows you to display messages on the screen during navigation such as alerts, popups or modals, to process the data of a form before sending, to interact with the constituent elements of a page such as buttons, links, images etc.
• JavaScript also allows data to be exchanged between the web server and the web page displayed through the use of Ajax. To put it simply, this technique makes it possible to update a web page and its contents and process data without having to reload it on the screen.

Use of Framework To Make a Website

We often talk about frameworks in IT, especially in the context of web development, but what exactly is a framework?

To put it simply, a framework is a software solution, a development infrastructure to use, making it possible to produce a final program thanks to a set of modules and tools made available.

The use of a framework requires that we respect a certain development architecture thanks to design rules defined by the latter, what we can call patterns. In itself, the framework is the skeleton of the application to be created.

In Making a website, we often talk about PHP and CMS frameworks. In summary, this implies that these frameworks are thus produced in PHP and specialized in content management system, therefore suitable to make a website.

The advantages of a framework are to allow faster web development and simplified maintenance.

The use of CMS and PHP frameworks

To make a website, you can opt for the use of a CMS, that is to say software that allows you to make a website based on a content management system. The most famous CMS to make a website of them is by far WordPress for its versatility, the number of plugins available, and the whole community around.

However, we can cite several which are sometimes specific depending on the type of site that will be developed such as Joomla, Drupal or Prestashop and Magento to create ecommerce sites.

Admittedly, the advantage of this kind of tools is the ease of quickly making a free website. without any programming knowledge. However, without going into the source code, you will limit yourself to basic functionality even if frameworks like WordPress are quite comprehensive.

If you want to personalize your site and set up unique features, you will need to get your hands dirty or call on web developers. Read our guide on How To Choose Best Web Developer Company?

To create websites, you can also use other PHP frameworks which also present an excellent alternative, such as Laravel, CakePHP or Symfony.

Summary Technical Parts List on How To Make A Website

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Website Development and Web Design

Another big part of a website, and not the least, this time, the interfaces and the design.

When we talk about web design, we talk about the realization of the graphic elements of a website:

• The general style,
• The choice of colors,
• Menus,
• The arrangement of sections,
• The display of buttons,
• Forms,
• Banners, etc.

But besides the graphic aspect, there are many other factors to take into account for building a website from scratch.

Elements To Consider For Web Design For Developing A Website

Two inseparable but different elements that should be known when talking about web design.

UI: User Interface

Before you launch headlong into the your website development, all the graphic elements must be thought out. Their display must be done with respect for a certain logic in addition to respecting a palette of colors and graphic elements.

Font, logos, visual identity… it is on the one hand to respect the graphic charter.

The way in which all the elements constituting the interface of your site will be arranged must be as coherent and attractive as possible. Interfaces are the elements that connect visitors to a site.

Tastes and colors are debatable, but on the web, there are still some fundamentals to respect:

• Favor readable fonts and a contrast that makes reading easier;
• Prefer light colors;
• Standardize the size of menus, buttons, font size … Avoid using different fonts;
• Make your menus and sections easily identifiable;
• etc.

UX: User Experience

We could translate the user experience as the ability to take into account the needs and sensitivities of Internet users while including the objectives of your site. The user experience encompasses the user interfaces which are a means of achieving this:

• Design adapted to different mobile responsive media,
• Functional and intuitive design…

Provide a relevant display that brings visitors and encourages them to discover and explore the site and its contents, by positioning and highlighting the blocks, sections, buttons of your site correctly. But display is not everything…

Knowing how to create a website is not that easy when you really explore the subject thoroughly. We must also think in terms of functionality:

• What will make the difference,
• What will attract my visitors,
• How my site will be pleasant and better perceived by Internet users.

Google regularly recalls the importance of interactivity between site and users! And it is not for nothing. It is this alchemy between ergonomics, credibility and website SEO that will make a site more efficient and of quality.

The goal is to get Internet users to use your site as organically as possible, thereby improving its browsing experience.

Software To Make A Website and Web Design

To create your interfaces, think about ergonomics, prepare your menus, headings, sections and blocks, there are many tools and software.

We won’t make an exhaustive list here, but the idea is just to understand that to create a website, you have to spend a lot of time in the design of the web design.

The use of tools and software to lay out your websites and define the structure of the pages is strongly recommended: For example,

• Photoshop and Gimp to create the graphic charter and interfaces,
• Balsamiq, Cacoo for the realization of functional mockups / prototypes.

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How to Prepare yourself to make your own website?

To make a website, we must therefore prepare a certain number of things, think about its design, create its interfaces and think about ergonomics, work on the way of presenting the pages and their content.

Choose the technology to use to develop it by opting or not for a particular framework, with a perfect mastery of the different software, languages ​​and web programming techniques.

From preparation to going online, there are various stages essential to the create a website, of which only a part of them will be scratched here!

Indeed, we are not talking here about the other essential points to be addressed from the web and creation domain, in particular in:

• Definition and study of the project: Identification of the project, objectives, customers, competitors.
• Writing content: editorial quality, presentation of a company’s activity, its services, blog articles, etc.
• Marketing management and website seo including organic SEO and its importance, optimize for search engines and Google, to generate your traffic, integration of social networks…

Checklist To build a website project

Do not hesitate to call on a professional web developer to accompany you on this adventure, especially if you are a business. A professional and tailor-made site requires the support of web experts such as a web agency.

Some subjects to list so as not to forget anything beforehand:

• validate the brand, to register the appropriate domains .
• Start monitoring the idea, the concept, the competitors….
• Put on your journalist hat and unroll all your questions
  • Why
  • How? ‘Or’ What
  • In what language
  • What would you like to sell, show ..
• think about or choose the dominant colors of the logo, graphic charter, make a brief. 
• Essential functions : newsletter, multilingual, e-commerce, forms….
• Blog, not blog?
• How many institutional pages and list of page categories,  CGV, legal notices
• E-commerce? : how many product categories? shipping costs ? weight, size of the products? packaging weight? Insurance? Cost calculations? developed ecommerce site vs pre-built site?

Make sure you have as much information as possible from the start. Do not hesitate to make diagrams: slider at the top, menu, logo on the left, logo on the right … All the elements will give you a number of pages, the essential plugins, the size of the site from a point of view disk space (at the rate of x images / products)

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How To Make a Free Website From Scratch

In today’s digital age, having an online presence is non-negotiable for individuals and businesses alike. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a creative professional, or someone simply looking to share your passions with the world, having a website serves as your virtual storefront, showcasing your talents, products, or ideas to a global audience.

Definitions Around The Web To Create a Website

• Hosting: Data storage, website, databases, cloud…
• Web hosting: Storage of data exclusively accessible from the WEB (or Intranet etc…)
• Server:
  • in the machine sense “powerful computer that delivers WEB pages or data (in a company)”
    in the software sense: set of services delivering data in a defined format. Example: WEB server, MAIL, FTP….
• Web server: software which interprets the entries or commands of Internet users and renders the result in the form of an HTML page. The Apache server is one of the most famous. Basically, we have PHP scripts (WordPress, Drupal, prestashop….) Which are converted by Apache and delivered to the Internet user via the Internet. HTML and css for display, JavaScript (executed by the WEB browser).
• Domain name: stuff you are thinking of buying. In reality, and we often forget it, we buy the right to use a domain name for a defined period of time, from a registrar. Finding the perfect domain name for your blog or site is important.

Steps To Create A Website

The good news is, creating a website doesn’t have to be daunting or expensive. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of crafting your own website for free.

Step 1: Define Your Purpose

Before diving into the technical aspects of website creation, take some time to clarify the purpose and goals of your website.

• Are you building a portfolio to showcase your work?
• Launching an online store to sell products?
• Or perhaps creating a blog to share your expertise or interests?

Understanding your objectives will guide the design and content decisions later on.

Step 2: Choose the Right Platform

There are numerous platforms available for creating free websites, each with its own strengths and features. Two popular options are WordPress.com and Wix.com. Both platforms have free version that you can use to make website for free. However WordPress is recommended for this purpose.

• WordPress offers a robust content management system with a wide range of customizable themes and plugins, making it ideal for blogs, portfolios, and small business websites.
• Wix, on the other hand, provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop website builder, perfect for those who prefer a more visual approach to design.

Step 3: Select a Domain Name

Your domain name is your website’s address on the internet (e.g., www.yourwebsite.com). Choose a name that is relevant to your brand or content and easy to remember.

Many free website platforms offer subdomains (e.g., yourwebsite.wordpress.com) as part of their free plans, but if you prefer a custom domain, you may need to purchase one separately. you can read our guide on How to Choose Domain Name?

Step 2: Choose the Right Hosting Platform

Before diving into the technical aspects of website creation, it’s crucial to choose the right hosting platform. Your hosting provider is essentially the foundation upon which your website will be built and maintained.

Everyone complains about everyone. We criticize the stability of OVH or its customer support, but we forget that they paved the way for many other players. O2Switch broke the market with a single price and “took the bread out of their mouths” from agencies that bill for services at a premium.

I think the right web host is the one who offers a middle line between services, speed, flexibility and human contact. In any case, this is what I prefer.

To read more in detail, on how to choose right hosting service, follow this article on How to choose best SEO optimized web hosting.

Step 4: Customize Your Design

Once you’ve chosen a platform and domain name, it’s time to customize the design of your website. Most website builders offer a selection of pre-designed templates to choose from, allowing you to easily customize colors, fonts, layouts, and more to match your brand or personal style.

Step 5: Create Compelling Content

Content is king when it comes to engaging your audience and driving traffic to your website. Whether you’re writing blog posts, uploading photos, or showcasing products, focus on creating high-quality, relevant content that resonates with your target audience.

Don’t forget to optimize your content for search engines by incorporating relevant keywords and metadata.

Step 6: Add Essential Features

Depending on the purpose of your website, you may want to add additional features such as contact forms, social media integration, or e-commerce functionality. Most website builders offer a variety of plugins, widgets, and add-ons to enhance the functionality of your site, so explore the options available and choose the ones that best meet your needs.

Step 7: Test and Launch

Before making your website live, take the time to thoroughly test its functionality and appearance across different devices and browsers. Ensure that all links are working correctly, images are displaying properly, and content is loading quickly. Once you’re satisfied with the results, it’s time to launch your website and share it with the world!

Step 8: Promote and Maintain

Building a website is just the first step – to attract visitors and grow your online presence, you’ll need to actively promote your website through social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, and other digital marketing strategies. Additionally, regularly update your content and monitor your website’s performance to ensure it continues to meet your goals and objectives.

Creating a free website may seem like a daunting task, but with the right tools and guidance, anyone can bring their online vision to life. Follow these steps, unleash your creativity, and watch as your website becomes a powerful platform for sharing your ideas, connecting with others, and achieving your goals.