If you’ve got an itch to start a website or blog, then I’ve got you covered! In this tutorial, I will show you my beginner’s guide on how to create a website for those in the UK. Step by step!
So what can you expect in this tutorial?
In this guide, I will show you how to set up a web host and domain (this is essential), install WordPress (the most used and loved website builder which is free), and how to create a website that looks amazing!
Even better is that you won’t have to have any experience at all to do this. But rather just know how to use an internet browser. There is also no coding whatsoever! Zilch, nada, zippo!
In short, here are the steps we will be following to create our very own website.
- Choose a cheap web hosting provider and pick a domain
- Install and setup WordPress
- Install themes and plugins to your website
- Adjust settings for your website
- Steps on how to grow your website traffic in the UK
How To Create a Website UK 2024 (Step-By-Step Guide)
Part 1: Choose a Web Hosting Provider & Register a Domain
Before we get started on building a website, we first need to pick a web host and registrar a domain name in which we can host our website and install WordPress.
If this is your first time hearing “web host”, “domain name” or “WordPress, that’s totally fine! I have been through the same eyebrow-raising gestures.
If you are familiar with these terms, you can feel welcome to scroll ahead ☺️. If not, I recommend you to check out the below explanations.
A domain name is essentially the address of your website that allows Google and people find your website on the internet. As an example, the domain name for this website is hostreviews.co.uk.
There are also many domain name extensions available from .com, .net, .co and heaps more! If you keep following on, I will show you how you can get a free domain name when choosing a web host.
If you want to store anything online, it will have to be stored on a server (which is just another name for a computer) so people can access these files over the internet.
While it might sound a little complicated, web hosting is actually incredibly simple. You can literally signup and have a website running within 5 minutes. It only takes a few clicks, which I’ll be showing you how below.
To post articles, photos, pages, videos, menus, and anything related to a website. We will need to use a website builder (like WordPress) todo these actions.
While many haven’t heard of WordPress, it is actually the silent heartbeat of the internet in which 40% of all websites are made with. Best of all is that it is completely free and extremely beginner-friendly.
Now that we have established that having a domain name and a web host is essential. We can now go and pick a web hosting provider and domain name for our new website.
1. Go To BlueHost (Or Your Web Host Of Choice)
To get started, the first thing we want to do is head over to BlueHost which is the provider I will use to make this website with.
If you want to activate your free domain and £2.33/mo pricing, you can click on the button below.
Activate Your 50% BlueHost Discount
Once done, the below screen will open in a new tab in which we can now go ahead and click “get started”. If for some reason the discount didn’t activate, please get in touch with me and I can email you my personal discount link 🙂.
2. Choose Your Desired Web Hosting Plan
Before choosing your plan, a good thing to ask yourself is “how many websites do I want to make?”. If the answer is one, then I would recommend the “Basic Plan”.
If you have a few ideas and are looking to make multiple websites, I would recommend the “Plus Plan” as it allows you to make an unlimited amount of websites!
The Plus Plan is the one I am currently using.
3. Enter Your Desired Domain Name Or BYO
Now that we’ve chosen our desired web hosting plan, we are now welcomed to the free domain name section.
Still not sure what web host is right for you? You should definitely check out my best web hosting UK list for more info.
If you haven’t already got a domain name, you can enter a name of your choosing below and select the domain extension.
As a good rule of thumb, I always try and pick a .com domain and avoid the .net, .co, .biz and so on. If you already have a .co.uk, you can simply enter it in and then click Next.
If you haven’t yet picked up a .co.uk or .uk domain, I use and recommend CrazyDomains as they have great prices, customer support and also charge in GBP.
4. Enter In Your Account Details
Next up on my how to create a website UK tutorial is to enter in your account details which is very straight forward.
5. Select Plan Duration/ Any Extras & Complete Registration
After you have filled in your account details, we now have the options of choosing the duration of our plan and any extras.
As a pro tip, I would recommend signing up for the 3 year period as you are locking in that 50% discounted price for 3 years.
I personally picked the 1 year plan when I signed up. So I missed out on 2 years of cheap prices 😞.
After picking your plan duration, there are now options for “Package Extras”. I personally don’t find much value in these, so feel free to remove or keep them to your own liking.
Now that we have our plan, duration and package extras complete. We can now go ahead and complete the registration!
After you have registered, you will then be welcomed with the below screen in which you can create a password for your brand-new BlueHost account!
We are half way to getting your website up and running!
Part 2: Install & Setup WordPress
After we have signed up with BlueHost (or your web host of choice), we can no go ahead and install WordPress.
Once you have entered in the password for your BlueHost account, you will then be promoted with the below screenshot.
BlueHost includes many free themes, but for this step, I always skip installing any of these themes as there are many better ones to choose from within WordPress.
When on this screen, simply scroll down and click “Skip This Step”.
1. Install WordPress With “1-Click Installation”
All that’s left now is to install WordPress! After you have skipped installing a theme. The below view will load in which we can now install the latest version of WordPress on our website with the “1-click installation”.
So to begin, simply click “Start Building” which will start installing WordPress. Depending on your connection, this may take a few minutes to install.
2. Becoming Familiar With Your WordPress Dashboard
Once WordPress has finished installing, it will take you to the dashboard of your new WordPress website!
Well done! You now have a live website up and running! It really is that simple.
Below is a screenshot of my WordPress dashboard in which you can easily navigate around. I have labelled certain items on the dashboard which are the most used so you can start exploring by yourself.
- Posts: Will take you to the post section where you can easily add new blog posts to your website.
- Pages: This allows you to create pages such as contact, about, privacy pages and so on.
- Appearance: For editing the visual look of your website, appearance has many functions such as installing new themes, theme customisations, menus and more.
- Plugins: This will allow you to install plugins that give more functions to your website such as e-commerce, caching, SEO, sharing buttons, tables and heaps more.
- Settings: For changing things such as permalinks, passwords, privacy, comments, sharing and more.
- WordPress Icon: Press this WordPress icon to return to this dashboard at anytime.
- Site Name: To view your website at anytime and see changes, click the name of your website todo so.
3. Install a New Theme On WordPress
Now comes the fun part in this how to create a website UK guide! This is where you will be able to add your own personal touch and make the website yours.
Take the theme below for example. This is a one click install that instantly improves the look of a website.
Fortunately WordPress has 10,000’s of free themes available to install for any type of website you can imagine. Seriously.
There are themes for all types of website from forums, news sites, online stores, blogs, comparisons websites, travel blogs, small business sites, photography websites and the list goes on.
To to begin, you can go to Appearance > Themes > Add New and see the most popular type of themes or organise by category. You can also search for themes in the top right hand corner.
Once you have found a theme that you like, you can see how it looks before installing by clicking “Preview”.
If you want to install that particular theme. Simply click “Install” then “Activate” to implement the theme on your website.
4. Change Website Layout & Design
After we have a new theme installed, we now have the option to change heaps of settings within the theme itself. Not to mention things such as a static page, full width or primary content with sidebars.
To access theme customisation settings, you can go to Appearance > Customise.
Once in the customisation area, we can then change colours, header image, logo, favicon, website title, menus, website layout and heaps more!
Also when making a change, the website will update in live time to see what changes you have made. Nice!
You can also scroll down to preview in mobile, tablet and desktop view by clicking on the device icons. When finished with your desired changes, click “Publish” to update these changes.
5. Installing Plugins On WordPress
Now that our website is looking stunning, we can now go and install various plugins that will greatly enhance the functionality of our website.
Plugins come in all shapes and forms and can be seen as add-ons that add extra features for users.
Some of the most useful plugins are for SEO, speed optimisation, page builders, icons, caching, image sliders, contact forms, tables, spam protection, backups, analytics, email lists and tons more!
To install a plugin, you can go to Plugins > Add New. and see plugins from popular, recommended or search for plugins on the top right hand corner.
Once you have found a plugin of your choosing, click “Install” then “Activate”.
If you are unsure where to start with plugins, I will give you the list of plugins that I install for every new website that I make. Even this website you are on right now!
- WP Super Cache: For speeding up your website.
- Akismet: Anti spam plugin
- JetPack: For sharing, analytics and content optimisation
- Yoast SEO: For optimising search traffic
- Really Simple SSL: Redirects http to https
6. Change Your Websites Permalinks
Before we start publishing posts or pages, we will go into the settings of WordPress and change the permalink structure.
Ummm english please…? Permalinks are the extension of a domain name for individual posts and pages.
For example, the permalink for this post is hostreviews.co.uk/make-a-website which is simple and the most common type of structure to have.
It is also much better than the default WordPress option which would be hostreviews.co.uk/2019/06/08/make-a-website.
So to change this, we can go into Settings > Permalinks then make sure “Post name” is selected. Once done, scroll down and select “Save Changes”.
Part 3: Publish Content & Create a Menu
So far, we have created a website with WordPress, installed a theme, downloaded some plugins, setup a permalink structure, and tweaked the design of our website. First off, well done!
If you have done these things, then you now know how to create a website for those in the UK. See, it really is that easy!
So what now? Since we have a great looking website, we now have to fill it with some content.
This typically comes in the form of blog posts and pages in which people can find and navigate through your website.
Posts on the other hand is for content that you want to share on your website and with others. This includes blog posts and articles that you wish to show on the front page of your website and in the menus.
1. Publish a Post To Your Website
To publish a blog post to your website, the first thing we want todo is open up the posts section. This is easily done by going to Posts > Add New.
Once done, this will open up a new blank canvas to share your thoughts to the world. If you have ever used word processing programs such as Microsoft Word, Pages or Google Docs, then you’ll be right at home.
Using the WordPress post publisher is very straight forward and intuitive. You simply add in a post title and then some content. It really is that simple!
As for the content, you can add text, headings, images, videos, audio files, contact forms, buttons and more.
After you are done with adding some content, you can click “Preview” to see how it looks. If you are happy with your final product, you can then click “Publish” to publish it on your website.
For tips on how to get more traffic to your blog post and how to submit them to Google, don’t miss out on part 4!
2. Publish a Page To Your Website
Now that we have published a few blog posts, we can now go ahead and add some pages to our website.
Typically I only add an about page and contact page when I create a new website. But feel free to add more or less depending on your website.
To get started, go to Pages > Add New. If you published a post above, then publishing a page should be an absolute breeze as the layout and structure is that exact same.
Once done, you can click “Preview” then “Publish” once you are happy with the page.
3. Add a Menu
If you are following along, you should now have a blog post and a page up on the website. That’s awesome! Well done!
The next and final thing we have to do is to add a menu in which visitors can navigate our website.
To add a new menu, you can go to Appearance > Menus to get started.
Once on this page, you firstly want to click “Create Menu” and assign it a name.
After this is done, you can then assign a menu location. I typically always check “Header Menu” as this will make it appear up the top of the website.
Once you have done that, you can then check posts and pages on the left-hand side to add to the menu. After they are added in, you can then edit the menu item text and drag it around to your liking.
For a good menu layout, I usually have Home・Posts・About・Contact.
After you’re happy with your menu layout, click “Save Menu” to save changes.
Part 4: How To Grow Your Traffic, Revenue & Increase Speeds
Wooo! That’s it, folks! If you have come this far, you should now have a fully operational UK website with WordPress, a theme, plugins, posts/ pages published and a menu assigned.
Best of all is that you built this website all by yourself!
So the next time someone says “Do you know how to build a website”, you can say “Much to learn you still have”. Sorry, had to drop a Star Wars reference somewhere in this guide 😛.
Ok, so is that all there is to it? Well, yes and no.
In my opinion, making the website is actually the easy part. If you want to get web traffic and earn some money, then that is where it starts to become a lot harder.
But don’t fret! Below I will show you some great methods, tips and starting points on how to get more traffic, increase the speeds of your website and maybe even earn some money. Let’s get stuck in!
How To Speed Up Your UK Website
Did you know that for every 1 second it takes for your website to load, the likely hood of someone waiting drops by 11%.
So if your website takes 5 seconds to load, there is only a 45% chance that a visitor will come to your site 😱.
So how do we remedy this? Won’t a good web host do this automatically? Unfortunately, a web host can only do so much before most of the speed optimisations fall on the website maker.
Here are some proven ways to speed up your website.
Install a Caching Plugin: One sure-fire way to boost your websites speed is to install a caching plugin. Caching is a system that has a preloaded version of your website stored/ cached that is ready to load to a visitor.
I personally use WP Super Cache which is a completely free WordPress plugin. This is a good tutorial to get you started.
Compress Or Convert Your Images: One of the biggest contributors to slow websites are massive images that haven’t been scaled in size or format. And I see it all the time!
For example, an image size of 4000 x 2200 will look the exact same as an image with the size of 1500 x 750 (unless you zoom in) on a webpage. For a website, it is best to use images that are well-sized, in JPEG format and preferably under 200kb.
You can use free online tools like image resizer and Jpeg to Png which will save you TONS for time and space!
Use a Light Weight Theme: Another reason for slow websites are WordPress themes that are made with a lot of code which bloats the size and speed. I use and recommend StudioPress themes (which I use for this website). They will set you back about 50 pounds, but they are totally worth it!
Don’t Install Too Many Plugins: Did you see my recommended plugins list about? Did you also see how I only recommend 5 and not 15? That’s because for every plugin you load, an internet browser will have to load more code which slows down the performance of your website.
How To Get More Traffic To Your Website
Now comes the real big challenge for website owners. And that is to get people to come to your website.
At the end of the day, this is the main objective as it will result in more readers, business leads and revenue (whether that be from ad revenue/ customers and brand recognition).
So is there a school of thought or methods for doing this traffic optimisation for a website?
Actually there is, and its a 70 billion dollar industry. Welcome to the world of Search Engine Optimisation, or most commonly known as SEO.
Here are some of the most tried and tested methods that will bring you consistent traffic, day after day and year after year.
Content Is King: As the age-old saying goes, quality is king. Well, the same goes for SEO. If you want your blog post to appear in Google, then you’ll want to write the most epic and jaw-dropping post ever that is jam-packed full of value.
Write Content That People Are Actually Searching For: Say you wrote an epic 4,000-word post that is the best on the web. The only this is that no-one is reading it… This issue is mainly due to the fact that no-one is searching for that specific topic of your blog post.
To learn what people are actually searching for, you can use free tools like Google autosuggest, Google Keyword Planner and the Chrome add-on Key Words Everywhere.
Content-Length Really Does Matter: In a recent study, Brian Dean found that the average word count of a blog post in the number 1 position on Google is 1,890 words. He also found that when the blog post decreases in word count, so does the Google rankings and traffic.
Links Are Super Valuable: Another strong contributor to SEO are things called “backlinks”. A backlink is simply one link from one website to another where they recommend that website, product or service.
Backlinks can also be seen as a “word of mouth” signal to Google that someone is recommending your content/ website. Ideally, backlinks from an authoritative website like the BBC.co.uk or the telegraph.co.uk carry a lot of weight.
How Can I Make Money From My Website?
Ok, I’m not going to lie. When I first heard of the words “money” and “online” in the same sentence, alarm bells started to go off in my head.
But after doing it myself and seeing others do it for years. It definitely isn’t a scam and is actually very accessible to anyone with a computer and an internet connection.
While there is a lot of shady tactics out there, most website makers actually earn revenue through some of the biggest companies in the world.
Take Google and Amazon for example.
Googles whole business model is to enable publishers to put ads on their website so they can earn revenue from clicks and impressions. Google just takes a cut from the top.
Amazon on the other hand has a referral program in which users can earn a commission for sales made via one of their custom links.
To learn more, see are some of the most well known and honest ways to earn money from your website.
Putting Ads on Your Website: To get started, you can apply for Google Adsense which will allow you to put ads on your website. It is completely free and only takes a couple of minutes to signup. Once accepted, you’ll just need to add one piece of HTML that will generate ads automatically on your website.
Becoming An Affiliate: Another great way to earn income from your website is to become an affiliate. Companies such as Apple, Amazon, Adobe and eBay all have affiliate programmes available.
Selling Online Courses: If you are super passionate and are a self-proclaimed expert in a certain field. You can make an online course to share your knowledge to the world.
Selling Physical & Digital Products: If you have created a digital or physical product, you’ll be able to easily sell them on your e-commerce store. Another version of this is called drop shipping where you sell products on your website but source and send them directly from the manufacturer.
Training & Consulting: If you prefer a more personal experience, you can always do personal training and coaching to people online. This is a great method, but it isn’t as scalable as there is only one of you!
How To Submit Your Website To Google Search
Now that I have shown you how to build a website, then the next thing is to release it onto the internet.
But how does this actually happen? And do I need to do anything for this to happen?
While you don’t have to submit your website to Google, it is highly recommended that you do so as they will have a full list of your posts, pages, categories which can be submitted in an XML sitemap.
To submit your website to Google so it can index it in the search results, you’ll have to sign up for their free Google Search Console tool.
Once you have signed up, it will ask you to submit your website and prove ownership. Below is a great video on how to do exactly that.
Once you have verified ownership of your website, you can then submit an XML sitemap which is essentially a map of your website that Google can crawl.
This is a great tutorial from Yoast that walks you through every step and how you can also get verified by other search engines such as Bing and Yandex.
Final Thoughts
Ok, that wraps it up, folks! Hopefully, my guide on how to create a website has shed some light on the topic in a simple and easy to follow way. If you have used this guide to create a website, please share your website down below as I would really be interested in how they came out. Thanks for reading!
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