Udemy – Build Professional WordPress Website from Scratch

WordPress is the most popular CMS (Content Management System) used for creating blogs and websites. Learning how to build a professional-looking website from the ground up is pretty easy, but tricky at the same time. There are lots of resources online and even some books that teach you the art of building a professional-looking website but at the end of the day, it all comes down to the information you need to know and the ability to put it all into practice. Unfortunately, not all blogs and websites are created equal. There are lots of tips and tricks that you can use to make your blog or website look as good as new but if you aren’t careful, it’s all gone to waste. It’s important to find a balance between looking good and being useful. In this tutorial, you’re going to learn everything you need to know to build a professional-looking website from scratch. You’re going to use the versatile platform called Udemy to create your website. Udemy is a community of learners who can share and access videos, as well as create courses and tutorials on a wide variety of subjects. Plus, you can create a website with no experience at all! So, let’s get started.

The Fundamentals Of Building A Website

If you’ve ever built a website or blog before, you know that they aren’t exactly easy to create. Unless you have a background in web design, it can be tricky to know where to start. That’s why we’re going to take a look at the basics of building a website before getting too far ahead of ourselves.

The Purpose Of A Website

As the name suggests, a website is normally used for presenting information on the internet. This could include information about a company, product, service, event, or anything else that can be presented in a way that people can easily understand. Websites can also be used to host digital brochures, online catalogs, and more. Essentially, a website can be used to tell people about you, your company, or product. This could be useful for many different types of businesses.

The Importance Of Linking

You’ve probably heard the expression ‘it’s all about links’, and you’d be right. But, not only do links mean that your content is connected to other content, it also helps with the search engine optimization (SEO) of your site. When a user clicks on a link, they normally expect to be taken to another website or page. Therefore, this means that more people are more likely to click on your content if it is connected to other important and popular content. This is especially useful for websites with a large amount of text. Although, even if you have the best content in the world and the most beautiful writing, if it’s all just posted on a page, people aren’t going to read it.

The Building Blocks Of A Website

Having a good foundation is essential. Without it, all the other building blocks can look a little shabby. This is why we’re going to take a quick look at the building blocks that make up a website. Once you have these basics down, putting together a professional-looking website will be a lot easier.

HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the language of the web. It’s what makes your website look the way it does. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and it was designed to be easily read by humans and search engines alike. As a beginner, you’ll probably want to start with HTML5. This is a newer version of HTML that was designed to make websites more accessible. You can learn more about HTML5 at W3Schools.com. This is also the version that’s supported by most modern web browsers.

CSS

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a stylesheet language that allows you to add style to your web pages. You can use CSS to change the look and feel of your site by adding borders, colors, fonts, and more. It was developed so that multiple people can work on a website simultaneously. This is important because, although it makes things easier, it also makes the creation of a website more collaborative. You can use tools like Squidoo.com to find and follow blogs that discuss CSS and web design.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language that can be used to add additional functions to your site. If you have a blog with significant amounts of text, you can use JavaScript to add interactive tools, like drop-down menus, navigation bars, and more. It’s also commonly used to provide functionality to interactive widgets, like the famous Contact Form 7.

Images

Images are important. Everyone knows this, but it’s hard to put into practice. Images can instantly enhance the look and feel of your website or blog. They can be used to represent your product or service, as well as create a mood or ambiance. Images commonly appear in the form of photographs or illustrations. However, they can also take the form of maps, graphs, charts, or any other visual aids.

You’ll want to make sure that you have a good balance of images and text content on your site. Too many images and not enough text can easily overwhelm the reader. If you’re writing a guide for other businesses, you might also want to consider using infographics.

Let’s Get Technical

We’re almost done so let’s take a quick look at the tech-side of things. You’ll need a web host to actually get your website online. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’re going to use LinuxMint.com because it’s one of the most popular web hosts used for creating websites. Although, you can use any other hosting service that you may prefer. Just make sure that you’re getting a hosting service that’s recommended for bloggers. Most web hosts offer detailed guides and tutorials for getting started building a website. Plus, they have customer support available 24/7 via live chat or telephone. This is important because not all web hosts are created equal and it’s always nice to have a reliable service that you can count on when things go wrong.

Your Domain

Your domain is the address of your website, normally stored in an ‘.com’ or ‘.net’ tld (Top Level Domain). For the purposes of this tutorial, we’re going to use the ‘.com’ tld because it’s the most popular one and you can easily find a registrar (such as ‘1and1.com‘) that will provide you with a custom-branded certificate that is recognizable and accepted by all web browsers. This is particularly useful if you’re trying to secure financial transactions or other sensitive data online. Don’t worry, you don’t have to have a .com tld to get a custom certificate but it does make it a lot easier to find a suitable registrar.

The Subdomain Name

Your subdomain name is the ‘.com’ part of your domain. It’s essentially a shortcut to your site’s main page and is used to identify your site in autocomplete searches for a user’s name or email address. For example, if you go to myname.com, you’ll be redirected to ‘myname.com‘ unless you have a trailing ‘.com’ in your full address. This is why it’s important to choose a subdomain name that is unique to your site. If you get a .com tld and don’t register a subdomain name, you’ll have to type out the full address every time you want to visit a page on your site.