Creating Your Own Website in 2023: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Then you are right here!

In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know to set up a website.

Whether for you privately, for your company, your organisation or your club. And regardless of your budget:

I’ll show you both free and paid methods to create a website or homepage. And the paid methods won’t break your budget either (and will cost you far less per month than a gym membership).

In addition:

I’ll take you by the hand and walk you through the entire process in six easy steps.

This is the guide I wish I had when I started my own website(and was absolutely clueless about how a website actually works).

Here is an overview of all the steps:

This is how you can create your own website

1. Choose your website type
2. Decide how you want to create your website
3. Find a suitable domain
4. Plan your own website
5. Create important pages
6. Design your site

1. Choose your website type

It is important that you are clear about the type of website you want to create first.

Because that determines the selection of the right website system in step 2.

There are generally 4 different types of websites:

The simple home page

A simple homepage (also called a one-page website) consists of just a single page (the start page or homepage) on which all information is bundled. In addition, there may be pages with mandatory legal information, such as imprint and data protection declaration.

Due to its simple structure, it is particularly suitable for private individuals who only want to present themselves in a short form (e.g. as a digital business card).

Can’t you imagine anything? No problem!

The simple site

A simple website includes not only the homepage, but also a few other subpages. These are used to introduce your company, you as a person or your organization on the Internet, such as:

• Customer testimonials and references
• picture gallery
• offered services
• contact form
• arrival
• Company history, philosophy or values
• job offers

A simple website is best for you if you want to attract customers online but offer products or services offline. So e.g. B. for local companies, associations or non-profit organisations.

The complex site

A complex website differs from a simple website in three ways:

It is usually larger, more sophisticated in design, and offers visitors more technically advanced features that often require a database, such as:

• A comment system
• forum software
• A classifieds or job portal
• A member or customer area
• An online shop with a payment function
• Newsletter functions (possibly with interfaces to newsletter tools )
• Integrations and interfaces to other services or apps
• Advanced SEO features
• multilingualism

Such a website is mainly suitable for you if you want to acquire customers online or you want to earn money with your website yourself. So if you e.g. B. agency owner, freelancer, coach or consultant.

The blog

In the past, blogs (also called weblogs) served exclusively as online diaries. Many blogs are now more complex websites (like this one).

Blogs can be powerful marketing tools that help you spread the word about your products or services.

Key word: content marketing!

A blog doesn’t just have to stand on its own, it can also be part of a larger website.

2. Decide how you want to create your website

Websites are mainly built using these three methods these days:

1. Website Builder
2. WordPress
3. Programming the website yourself

Since the 3rd method is not suitable for beginners, it is not part of this article.

Programming a website yourself requires in-depth knowledge of HTML and CSS, possibly even complex programming languages ​​such as JavaScript or PHP.

Method 1 and 2 are also suitable for beginners, but differ in a few key points:

2.1 Website Builder

Setting up your own website is by far the easiest and fastest with a website builder.

You have everything there from a single source, and thanks to the modular principle, you need little training time and no programming knowledge whatsoever.

The website itself is created directly in the browser. You can add or remove elements to each page simply by dragging and dropping.

Various templates (also called templates or themes ) are available for designing your site , which greatly simplifies the design process.

In addition, many construction kit providers offer an assistant that will guide you through the process of creating a website:

It’s that easy!

You can use Wix, for example, as a modular system .

But Wix did very well in our website builder comparison , partly because it offers more design options than other systems and is easier to use.

In addition, Wix is ​​also suitable for more complex websites, as it can be expanded with useful functions through apps.

The main reason why I am most likely to recommend it for beginners:

The basic version of Wix is ​​free. This means that you can try out the construction kit at your leisure and put your website online without having to take out an annual subscription right away (the free version is permanently free of charge ).

Sounds good doesn’t it?

Advantages

• Free version with a wide range of functions
• All from a single source
• Ready-made templates as design templates
• Modify each website element using drag and drop
• Comprehensive SEO functions
• Easy to handle
• Little training time
• Requires no programming knowledge
• Comprehensive support for your website (in the premium version)

Disadvantages

• Bad URL in free version (https://yoursite.wixsite.com/yoursite)
• Not suitable for more complex websites
• dependency on a provider
• Lack of portability (you can’t just export your site and then import it into another system like WordPress)

2.2 Create WordPress website

WordPress(.org) is a free content management system that you can use to create a blog or website.

Over 43% of all websites worldwide are now powered by WordPress, making it by far the most used platform.

For comparison:

Wix only has a share of just under 2%.

The big advantage of WordPress:

With a WordPress website you are much more flexible than with a website builder. First, you have a huge selection of different WordPress themes (i.e. design templates) available.

There are currently over 7,200 free themes in the WordPress theme directory alone . There are also thousands of paid premium themes.

Secondly, WordPress allows you to add various functions to your website using plugins, such as the necessary and helpful cookie consent tools .

There are now over 60,000 plugins in the WordPress plugin directory.

Third, you have complete access to the code of your WordPress installation including all plugins and themes and your database. This means that you have (almost) unlimited design options for your website, provided you have the appropriate programming knowledge.

The only drawback:

Learning WordPress and administering it yourself requires a bit of time and the willingness to deal with technical issues.

You can find more information in my detailed instructions: Create a WordPress website: How it works in 6 easy steps

Advantages

• High flexibility and range of functions
• Full control over your own data
• Many available themes (design templates) and plugins (extensions)
• Very large community
• Problems with WordPress can be googled very well, as there are numerous tutorials on various topics

Disadvantages

• possible additional costs for premium plugins or themes
• No modular system by default, additional plugins are required for this
• More training time than with website builders
• More effort for administration (e.g. plugins, themes and WordPress itself must always be kept up to date)

2.3 WordPress or Website Builder?

I tell you honestly:

I’m an absolute WordPress fan and didn’t think much of website builders for a long time.

In recent years, however, my attitude to this has changed.

First, because website builders have gotten better and better (e.g. Wix websites used to be Flash-based, which was really scary).

And on the other hand, because I keep getting feedback from readers and customers that WordPress is too complicated for beginners.

The fact is:

With a website builder you can build a website faster and easier than with WordPress.

I would always advise against using Wix, Jimdo and Co. for more complex web projects or for a web project that you would like to expand further one day.

You are also better off with WordPress if you want to earn money with your website, e.g. B. if you want to build a niche site, commercial blog or online magazine.

However, setting up a simple homepage or website with WordPress would be like shooting at sparrows with a cannon.

Here you will find a small decision matrix, when you should rather use WordPress and when you should rather use a website builder:

	Simple home page	Simple site	Complex site	blog
Website Builder	Yes	Yes	No	Yes, if purely private
WordPress	No	Maybe (if expansion planned)	Yes	Yes if commercial

3. Find a suitable domain

The domain is the address at which your website can be reached on the Internet.

The part of the URL that represents the domain is highlighted in bold in the example below :

https://homepage.com

Incidentally, with a free tariff for a website builder, you only have one subdomain available that runs under the domain of the provider. With Jimdo , for example, like this:

https://homepage.jimdo.com

And even worse with Wix , because your chosen website name is repeated again at the end:

https://homepage.wixsite.com/homepage

Do not get me wrong:

For a private homepage, that’s perfectly okay.

However, if you want to use your website professionally (e.g. as a company homepage), you should always take a paid tariff with an connectable domain for website construction kits.

Anything else looks unprofessional.

3.1 What is there to consider when choosing a domain?

You can do a lot wrong when choosing the right domain.

To help you choose a domain you’ll still be happy with years later, here’s a quick checklist of important things to look out for:

1. The shorter the name, the better (under 16 characters is best)
2. It is best to avoid umlauts (ä, ü, ö) or Eszett (ß), because the reproduction in the domain name is ugly (e.g. unschoen.com or heiss.com )
3. The spelling of the name should be obvious to most people
4. Your domain name should reflect what your site is about.
5. You should not infringe any trademark rights with your domain name.

However:

Don’t stress about choosing a domain either!

You can change your domain at any time afterwards (which can, however, involve a bit of effort and entail additional costs of around €5 to €15 for a new order).

3.2 Which domain extension? (.com, .de, .net etc.)

If you are targeting worldwide visitors, I would always advise you to use a .com domain.

.com domains enjoy the highest level of trust.

.com domains rank first. You should definitely opt for any other domain if you want to only address some targeted country visitors, but want to build a multilingual website.

If .com isn’t available, you could also choose a .net or, if you’re a non-profit organization, an .org domain. But that should always be the second choice.

You should rather keep your hands off the top-level domains (New gTLDs) introduced in 2014 , such as:

•  .web
• .blog
• .Berlin
• .discount
• .GmbH
• .insurance

Although these have been on the market for a number of years, they are still not very widespread and generally appear less professional.

3.3 Your own name as a domain?

In some cases it can make sense to choose your own name as the domain.

Especially if you are the focus of attention as an expert or person, e.g. B. as a coach, consultant, freelancer, artist, model or author.

Choosing your own name as a domain can help you build a personal brand. In addition, this has the advantage that you do not restrict yourself thematically.

Even if you want to create a private homepage, using your own name makes sense.

However, you should not choose your own name as a domain name if…

• You don’t want your website to be found under your name
• You operate as a team, e.g. B. the site should be for a company, organisation or association (should be obvious, right?)
• You plan to sell your domain (and possibly the associated website) at some point in the future

4. Plan your own website

Once you’ve found and registered a website provider and domain, it’s time to start planning.

Of course, some design and structuring issues will arise in practice, but it doesn’t hurt to have a rough plan before you get started.

4.1 Create customer avatar

Above all, if your website is intended to attract customers, it is essential to look at who your customers actually are.

A proven way to do this is to create a “customer avatar” (also known as a “buyer persona”). This serves to concretize the image of your desired customer in your head and thus tailor the content of your online presence better to him.

To create a customer avatar for your desired customer, you can e.g. B. ask the following questions:

• What demographics does he have? (age, gender, marital status, occupation, income, level of education)
• What previous knowledge does he bring with him?
• What are his goals? What does he want to achieve?
• What fears and problems does he have? What questions keep him up at night?
• What sources of information does he use (magazines, social media channels, websites, forums, Facebook, etc.)?

4.2 Determine website structure

The next step is to plan your website structure.

That means you think about which sub-pages (also called web pages) your website should contain and how they are structured hierarchically.

To do this, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• What helpful content do I want to provide in order to be found on the web? (Keyword: content marketing!)
• Which services, products or offers do I want to offer for sale on my website?
• What content do I need to help visitors get to know me better and build trust in me?
• How important is individual content for visitors? What content should stand out?
• Do I want to create landing pages (e.g. to get newsletter subscribers or sell digital products )?

I also recommend that you get inspiration from other websites (e.g. those of your competitors or websites with a similar theme or purpose in general) and see how they are structured.

To visualise your entire website with all its web pages, it can help to visualize them using a mind map.

You can do this with pen and paper or use software like SimpleMind , Mindmeister (browser-based) or XMind .

5. Create important pages

There are some pages that are essential for any website.

These include the following:

5.1 Home

Your start page (also called home, index or homepage) is the basis of your website.

Here visitors get an initial overview of the content of your website, about you or your organization. Its purpose is to instill confidence in visitors and encourage them to learn more about you or your organization.

Common elements for your homepage are:

• A brief summary of what you or your organization stands for and what you or it offers
• An overview of the most important content of your site
• Testimonials (customer testimonials) or a list of customers
• Certificates, memberships in industry associations, awards, customer ratings, seals, etc. (to build trust)
• Postal address, e-mail address, telephone number and/or opening hours (for local companies)
• A form for subscribing to your newsletter (if available)
• Your recent blog posts (if you have a blog)

In navigation, the start page is often also called Start or Home . The link in your logo should also lead back to the home page.

5.2 Contact Page

Potential customers or interested readers can find ways to contact you on the contact page.

Depending on the website, the contact page may contain the following data:

• address
• phone number
• E-mail address
• Messenger (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype etc.)

To make contact easier, it also makes sense to include a contact form.

In the navigation, the contact page is often also called contact , message to me/us .

5.3 About Page

On the About page you introduce yourself or your organization in more detail.

This can include the following points:

• an introduction to you or your team
• your values, vision and mission
• your why
• your story or story

Of course, you can also divide these points into different subpages. In addition, the following subpages are conceivable:

• Press
• jobs
• partner
• customer testimonials
• corporate philosophy

In the navigation, the About page is often titled “About Me”, “About Us”, “Team” or “Company”.

5.4 Privacy Policy

A data protection declaration is mandatory for every website as part of the information obligation in the GDPR. The legal basis for this can be found in Article 13 of the GDPR.

According to Art. 2, the GDPR does not apply to “ natural persons who exclusively exercise personal or family activities”.

However, it is not clear how far this restriction extends. A single advertising banner or the public provision of your content could be enough for your website to no longer fall under it.

So even if you run a purely private website, you should definitely have a privacy policy on your website.

You can get a privacy policy e.g. B. with the data protection generator from Dr. Create swivel (free for individuals and small business owners). If you are an entrepreneur who is subject to VAT.

6. Design your website

The design of a website is just as important as its content!

No matter how valuable and interesting your content may be:

If your web presence looks stale and like it did 10 years ago, many visitors will leave again.

The first impression counts!

6.1 General design tips

Here are some general points to consider when designing your website:

• Readable on all devices: View your entire website (not just the start page, but also individual web pages!) in different browsers and on different devices (desktop computer, smartphone, tablet). Ideally, your website should be easy to read on all devices.
• Font size and line spacing: use a font size of at least 16 px for the body text and a line spacing of at least 1.5em (that is, one and a half times the font size)
• Sentence and paragraph length: Don’t write long sentences and avoid paragraphs that are too long.
• Load time: Test your load time with tools like Pingdom . Long loading times (over 3 seconds) ensure that more visitors jump off.
• Lean navigation: Be careful not to have too many top items in your menu.
• Images: Use images on every page and blog post. Especially if there is a lot of text on the respective page. However, make sure that these are not displayed distorted or loaded larger than they are displayed in the browser. 
• Links: Links should stand out clearly from the body text, e.g. B. by a different color, underlining and/or boldface. If you can’t or don’t want to make your links in your brand colors, then make them blue.
• Buttons: Use call-to-action buttons to direct visitors to the pages you want them to (e.g. to the contact form or online shop)
• Logo: Use a logo in the head area (also called header). This will make your website look much more professional.
• Search function: Provide a search function so that visitors can search your websites
• Social media channels: Link to your social media channels (e.g. Facebook fan page, Twitter profile, LinkedIn etc.)
• Use text tools: Spell checkers like LanguageTool or AI text generators can do a lot of work on your website texts

6.2 Structure of a website

Every website consists of different elements:

header

The header usually contains the menu (also called navigation) and your logo. The header is particularly important as it is the first thing visitors see from your web pages.

body

The body contains your actual content.

Footer

The footer of your webpages contains related links and information that visitors don’t need to see right away, like:

• Your latest blog articles
• Links to imprint, privacy policy, terms and conditions or other legally relevant pages
• Certificates, seals and awards
• An overview of other pages on your site
• Links to partners or other websites of yours
• Links to your social media channels
• Footnotes and Disclaimers
• Payment Methods
• Links to support, customer service etc.

Sidebar (sidebar)

Like the footer, the sidebar is used to display further links and information. It can be placed on the right, left or both sides of a webpage.

In contrast to the footer, however, the sidebar should contain information that is of greater importance because it is more prominently visible:

These include e.g. e.g.:

• Links to your offers
• Information about you or your organization (preferably with a picture!)
• newsletter form
• advertising banner
• search function
• Links to your social media channels

7.FAQs

Here you will find frequently asked questions about setting up and building your own website: