How To Create A New Web Site

I’m often asked how to set up a website, either for personal use or for a new business. It’s easier and cheaper than most people expect, and you don’t need to know HTML or any programming.

There are three things you need: a domain name, somewhere to host it, and something to build the pages with. Here’s how each one works.

Start with the domain name

A domain is the address people type to reach you, like rickysays.com. The ending matters less than it used to, but .com is still what people assume when they’re typing from memory, so take it if you can get it.

Checking availability is free and doesn’t commit you to anything. If you come up with a name you like, reserve it quickly. Good ones go fast, and there’s a whole industry of people who register names speculatively and resell them.

One thing worth knowing before you buy it somewhere random: most hosting companies give you the domain free for the first year when you sign up for hosting. If you’re going to need hosting anyway, buying the domain separately usually just costs you money.

Sign up for web hosting

A web host is a company that stores your pages and serves them to anyone who visits. They also handle email at your domain, so you can have you@yourbusiness.com instead of a Gmail address.

I use Bluehost (formerly HostMonster) and have for over 20 years, across rickysays.com and most of the other sites I run. Two reasons I’ve stayed. Their pricing has come in lower than everyone else’s every single time I’ve compared, currently $3.79 a month with the first year’s domain included. And when something breaks, I call and an actual person picks up within a couple of rings, which is rarer than it should be.

A basic shared hosting plan is all you need to start. You can move up later if the site ever gets busy enough to need it, and most people never do.

Let the builder do the first draft

This is the part that used to be hard, and isn’t anymore.

Bluehost includes a WordPress AI Builder free with every plan. You answer a few questions about what the site is for, and it generates three versions with colors, fonts, and starter content already in place. Pick the one closest to what you had in mind, then adjust it by dragging sections around and swapping out the text and images. You never see a line of code.

For most people this is where I’d start, and you can have something live the same afternoon. Compare that to the old way, which meant installing software, choosing a theme, learning how the theme wanted you to lay out a page, and filling in every section from an empty template.

The important part is what you end up with. It builds a real WordPress site underneath, not a proprietary one. If you outgrow it, hand the site to someone else, or want a plugin it doesn’t offer, it’s ordinary WordPress and anyone who works with WordPress can pick it up. That’s the difference between this and an all-in-one service like Squarespace or Wix, where leaving means rebuilding from scratch.

If you’d rather build it yourself

You can still do it the manual way, and it makes sense if you have a specific design in mind or you enjoy this sort of thing.

Install WordPress from your hosting control panel, then pick a theme. A theme controls fonts, colors, and layout. There are thousands of free ones, so you can get something decent-looking without hiring a designer.

Resist the urge to spend a week choosing. Pick something clean, get your pages up, and change it later if you want. A theme is the easiest thing to swap and the least important thing to get right on day one.

Either way, writing a page comes down to clicking “Add New,” typing, and hitting publish.

What this actually costs

For a straightforward site you’re looking at roughly $45 to $90 for the first year, including the domain. That’s hosting, your own address, email at your domain, and software that’s free.

The ongoing cost is mostly your attention. Sites that go stale look worse than no site at all, so it’s worth deciding up front how often you’ll actually update it.