I build my first website a long time ago and I remember that at that time it was impossible to find a well written blog post or a guide to build a website. Everything article was very bad written (at leat in Italian, my mother tongue).
Today I write this blog post that, I hope, will help you at least to understand the basic of this world that can change literally your life, and discover how to build a website and a blog for free with no competences.
In fact, if you have a local shop, with a proper website you can radically change the way and the amount of your sells. Even if your job has nothing to do with an online activity, you can radically change your life and the way you look at this strange word, I assure this.
To build a website or a blog for free and make it available online you need, basically, two things:
- a web server (that is the place that host your website)
- some code and a graphic theme (that are the tings that make your website work)
The first is, usually, something that you have to pay monthly or annually. In fact you’ll borrow a physical space to host your website and make it available on the Internet. However here I will show you some free alternatives that are very good especially if you don’t need specific options.
In this guide I will avoid the use of WordPress or whatever tool and CMS (content management system) because if you want a fast a reliable website for free you have to avoid the high price for hosting a WordPress website.
What are we going to use in this guide?
Recently I discovered two tools that will help you very much! We are going to build a static website and not a dynamic one. The differences are huge but hey, you are here to build a free and basic website or blog right? And what is more important than anything other for a website? The speed! If your website is fast, Google will like it and your visitors too!
And if you want a fast and free website, what is better than a good static website? This website is also a static website and many others of mine are static too!
Prerequisites
- Create a new account on Netlify (this will be our server and it is free!)
- Create a new account on Stackbit (this is a revolution for static website and it is in beta right now; you can request early access to use it at this stage)
Steps to follow to build a website or a blog for free
- After creating an account on Stackbit, click the big button on the top right of the screen “New Project”.
- Select a theme (many themes will arrive in the future and are under construction right now).
- After selecting a theme you can click on “Continue to site generator”.
- Now you have to select the site generator for your website. These are different languages for static website. If you need more infos about these you can search on Google and you will find all informations you need. For this website I am using Hugo because I know it and I never face a problem, it is reliable and fast, but manny other will tell you different things.. it depends on preferences :)
- After selecting the website generator, click on “Continue to CMS”.
- Now you have to select the CMS, that is like WordPress but for static website. We will select “Netlify CMS”.
- Click on “Connect accounts”, log in to your Netlify account and wait until Stackbit do the dirt job for you!
Now your website is live and you can reach it heading to your Netlify account or at your Stackbit account. To enter to your admin area you have to add “/admin” without quotes after your website address.
If you need more help or you can’t understand how to do it or you need someone that do this for you and manage your website, I’m here for you! You can see my services here or contact me here.
Photo by Bram Naus on Unsplash