How to Build a Website from Scratch (Beginner's Guide)

Editor: Arshita Tiwari on Apr 15,2025

In today’s digital age, having a personal or business website is almost a necessity. Whether you're an entrepreneur, freelancer, blogger, or small business owner, a website helps you build credibility and reach a global audience. The good news? You don’t need to be a tech expert to build a website from scratch.

This guide will walk you through how to build a website from scratch, step-by-step, with beginner-friendly tips. Whether you’re using a free website builder or choosing a DIY approach, we’ll cover everything you need to get started.

Step 1: Understand the Purpose of Your Website

Before you proceed, ask yourself: "Why do I want to create a website?" Knowing its purpose will help you in the planning for structure, design, and content of your site.

The following are the types of websites you might be interested in working on: 

• Blog - Personal stories, advice, and expertise
• Portfolio - Showcase your work for your prospective clients or employers
• Business Website - To promote your services, products, or brand
• Online Store - Selling of products/services instantly
• Educational Website - Provides courses or the like
• Forum - Creating a discussion and involvement

Having clarity on the type and purpose will help you on your design and content decisions going forward.

Step 2: Choose Your Website-Building Route

Since all things considered, you have two primary approaches to building a website:

1. Use A Free Website Builder (No Coding Needed)

For a beginner, this is the easiest and fastest way to create a website online. The website-building platforms allow you to use drag-and-drop editors, pre-made templates, and hosting solutions so that you can visually piece your site together.

Popular Free Website Builders:

• Wix
• Weebly
• WordPress.com
• Webflow (free plan)
• Google Sites

Pros:

• No coding
• Free templates
• Integrated hosting and security
• User-friendly dashboards

Cons:

• Limited customization options with the free plan.
• Ads/watermarks, unless you upgrade.

Must Read: Master Website Building in 2025: The Best Tools & Platforms

2. Hire a Web Designer or Developer

If you want a completely unique design and professional polish without doing the work yourself, you can hire an expert. This is ideal for more complex or branded websites. However, it can be costly and may require ongoing support.

Step 3: Acquire a Domain Name

This includes choosing a domain name, which is basically your website address on the internet (e.g., www.mybusiness.com):

It should be:

• Short and easy to remember.
• Relevant to your brand or niche.
• Available as a common extension like .com, .net, or .org.

You can buy a domain from registrars like:

• GoDaddy
• Namecheap
• Google Domains

Some free website builders also offer a free subdomain (e.g., yourname.wixsite.com), but having a custom domain looks more professional.

Step 4: Pick a Hosting Provider

If you're using a builder like Wix or WordPress.com, hosting is included. But if you're planning to use self-hosted WordPress or hire a developer, you'll need to choose a hosting provider.

Top Hosting Providers:

• Bluehost
• HostGator
• SiteGround
• DreamHost

Things to consider:

• Pricing and renewal costs.
• Uptime guarantee.
• Customer support
• Free SSL and backups
• Ease of integration with WordPress or builders 

Step 5: Planning your layout

What is the basic setup of your website? What pages are going to be included? What content do you need? Doing some planning before getting into the designing stage will make your work easy.

Must-Have Pages: 

• Home page – Gives a small introduction to who you are and what you do. 
• About Page – Discusses your background, values, and mission. 
• Services/Products – Provide details of what you offer. 
• Blog – If you plan to post regular articles. 
• Contact Page – Include contact form, e-mail, phone number, links to your social media. 

Optional:

• Testimonial/Review 
• FAQs 
• Portfolio 
• Shop OR Pricing Page 

Try to keep an uncluttered and neat layout so that visitors can easily find what they are looking for. 

Step 6: Choosing a Design Template

Most website builders that don't charge make available a library of design templates for different purposes, e.g., business, blog, or portfolio, etc.

Some Tips for Selecting a Template

• Select according to your niche. 
• Make sure it is mobile responsive. 
• Look if it is customizable. 
• Bare minimum checks to be a new generation and clean design. 
• Usability and Readability should always be topmost priority. 

Once selected, that will allow you to freely customize fonts, colors, images, and layouts on the builder itself. 

Step 7: Adding Content to Your Website

This will be the working heart of your site. Content means any text, visual, video, link, and downloadable file. Make sure they are lucid, relevant, and interesting.

How To Include Great Content?

• Use headlines and bullets for better readability. 
• Strong calls to action ("Get a Quote!" or "Subscribe Now!") should be included. 
• Keep your paragraphs short and to the point. 
• Use stunning images (absolutely no pixelated or generic stock photos!). 
• The overall tone is in accordance with the interests of the audience. 
• If you're still stuck trying to figure out what to write, consider checking out your competition for ideas and inspiration.

Step 8: Optimize Your Website for SEO

SEO will enhance the visibility of a website on Google and other search engines through the means of including relevant keywords in the search query. 

SEO Best Practices:- 

• Relevancy Keywords (like how to build a website from scratch, how to create a website etc.)
• Add meta title and description for each Page.
• Use heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc. for content hierarchy)
• Add image alt tags (for accessibility and search visibility)
• Optimizing Page Speed (Compress Images; Avoid Big Files)
• Ensure Mobile Responsiveness.

Most website builders either have SEO settings built into them or offer SEO plugins like Yoast SEO on WordPress.

Step 9: Test Before Publishing

Before making your site live, test every page:

• Spelling and Grammar
• Button functionality
• Form submission
• Mobile Responsiveness
• Loading Time of Pages
• External and Internal Links

Let friends or colleagues review the site for feedback and suggestions. A second opinion often catches things that you may have missed.

Step 10: Publish and Go Live

If everything looks good, click Publish (an option usually located in the builder dashboard). If you're using a custom domain, connect that to the website through the builder or hosting platform.

Make sure you've activated your SSL certificate (for HTTPS) that secures your site and helps build trust with it.

Step 11: Promote and Maintain Your Website

But the real work starts after creating a website when you will need to market it and maintain it on a regular basis. 

Marketing tips include the following: 

• Share it at the social media platforms
• Include the link in the email signature 
• Submit to Google Search Console
• Joint Venture with Other Bloggers or Creators 
• Email Marketing Growth 

Sample Site Maintenance Tasks: 

• Keep updating content frequently 
• Fix broken links 
• Keep an eye on uploading speed and performance 
• Refresh design when necessary 
• Keep backups (some builders and hosts do create automatic backups) 
• A well maintained site builds trust and invites more return visitors.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to build a website from scratch is easier today than ever before. With the rise of free website builders and intuitive tools, anyone can build a website online—without coding or hiring a developer.

To recap:

• Understand your website’s purpose
• Choose the right building method
• Pick a domain and hosting provider
• Design your site using a user-friendly template
• Add valuable content and optimize for SEO
• Test, publish, and promote your site

Now that you know how to create website from scratch, you’re ready to bring your ideas to life and make your digital mark.

This content was created by AI