How to create a website for free. The step-by-step guide.

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Step by step, detailed guide:

How to create a website for your small business, for free!

 Technical Level – Intermediate

 What will the outcome be? - We will create a website that does everything you need, for free. The website will include of: Multiple pages, Products/Store (where your customers can purchase your products), contact page and many more. . .

This will be a WordPress site as it is the easiest to create.

We will create a temporary site, then we will export it as a static site and publish it.
Don’t worry, it’s much easier than it sounds.
Some may think this method is the hard way, but it is a great method for creating a free website with no watermarks or ads.

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Part 1:

Firstly, sign up to InfinityFree. Once signed up, confirm your email.

Once signed up, you will be taken to Your Accounts.

Click the Create Account button:
 

For this part create any subdomain and domain extension. Only you will be able to see this.

Select Search domain

Create an account password, or leave it blank, then select Create account

Now, the website will “pend”. If you go back to Your Accounts, you will see that its pending. Just wait for around 10 minutes and refresh the screen.

When the icon goes green, your account is Active. 

Select Manage:

Now, select Control Panel:

You now need to select I approve. If you don’t you may lose your account:

Scroll down to Softaculous App installer, and click it:

Now, select WordPress. You can select whatever you want, but WordPress is the easiest.

Next, select InstallNow:

Leave the Software Setup as default.

Change Site Settings to how you like it. 

TIP:

              The Site Name should be your businesses name

              The Site Description should be a short introduction about your business

Leave “Enable Multisite (WPMU)” unchecked.

Under “Admin Account” add some admin details. You will need to remember this

Choose the correct language, then select install. Don’t worry about the theme at the moment. You can change it later.

The installation will now take place. Be patient, it can take up to 20 minutes. This usually happens within a minute or two.

Once WordPress has installed, head to the website you just made. If you forgot the URL it will be shown under Your Accounts.

Your site should now look like this.

You have now successfully created your temporary site.

Well Done!

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Part 2:

This site may be slow. Just be patient, this is a temporary backend site.

You now need to edit your site and add custom themes, colours, text, pages, store and more.
To do this:

In your URL bar, type your website domain followed by /wp-admin

You will see this. Type your username and password that you created before.

Once you log in, you will be taken to the dashboard.

Click the appearance tab, then select themes.

Next, click Add New:

Find a theme that you like, then select it and click install.
It will say installing. Just wait, then when you have the option, select activate.

Now, click the home icon, it is located on the top header:

Next, select Customize:

Open every section and customise the appearance of your site to how you like it.

 TIP – be different, be yourself. Be quirky!

Once you have customised, select publish to save it:

Now, you will need to edit your content of the site.
Go back to the /wp-admin part of your site. 

On the left, you will see “Posts” click that then delete the post that is there.

Next, on the left you will see “pages” click that then delete both pages.

Now, go to “pages” and create a new page by clicking add new.

Create your page. Select the + icon to get more options.

You can create as many pages as you want.

On the left, select “Settings” then “Reading”
Reading Settings will open. You want to select a static page, then select your homepage.

Don’t forget to hit save!

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Adding a Store

If you want an online store for your website, follow these steps:
Adding your Ecwid store to WordPress site – Ecwid Help Center

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Adding a Contact Form

If you want a contact form on your site, create a Microsoft Form then select send, then select the embed icon:

Next, click copy:

Go back to the add page area of your website.

Find your contact page. Go into it, to edit it.

Click the + icon, then search for “HTML” click the HTML code option then paste in the code.

When you publish it, you will see your form!

More detailed look at editing your WordPress site. Click here.

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Part 2a:

You will find that here: Website creation 101 guide

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Part 3:

This is how to deploy your site; with a domain you like.

Start by finding a domain you like. 

 Domains ending in .tk, .ml, .ga, .gq, .cf are free.

For a free domain, go to Freenom.

For a paid domain, I would recommend Google Domains.

Here is how setup your site with a Freenom domain. Google domains will be similar.

When you load into Freenom you should see this.

Type your domain name into the box, hit enter and wait.

Find a domain you like, then select Get it now:

Next you will see:

Click Checkout.

Select the period of 12 months, this can be renewed later.

Click Continue.

You may need to create an account and put in your details.

Accept the Terms and Conditions.

Select Complete Order.

Wait for the order to process.

You now have the domain!

Open Netlify and sign up.

Once signed up, go to the domains tab at the top.

Select Add or register domain.

It will ask to add DNS records, leave this for now. Click continue.

You will be given 4 nameservers.

Open a new tab and go to Client Area - Freenom.

Find your domain, then click manage domain.

You will see Management Tools select that, then select nameservers. 

Select Use custom nameservers:

In the Nameserver boxes, type the name servers from before, you can copy and paste them.
 REMEMBER – Don't spell it wrong. One per line! (you should have one line empty at the end) 

 Click Change Nameservers when you are done.

Wait for the nameservers to change.

Once its done, go back to Netlify and select Done:

Now, we need to bring your site from your temporary site over to your new site

Go to your temporary site’s admin panel (/wp-admin)

On the left, select Plugins then Add new:

In the search box type Simply Static: 
 

You will see this, select install now:

Wait for it to install.

Select Activate.

On the left at the bottom, you should now see Simply Static:

Click Simply Static.

Now, click Generate Static Files:

Simply Static will fetch files and generate your folder, just wait.

When it’s completed you will see this: 

Click the blue text.

A file will download onto your machine.

Go back to Netlify, and select the Sites tab this time.

Drag the folder you just downloaded onto that page.

Select Domain Settings:

Next you’ll see add custom domain:

Click that then type the domain you typed earlier (when you did the domains tab). This is NOT your temporary domain.

Type the domain then click verify.

The domain will be added.

If you scroll down you will see HTTPS. Click request SSL Certificate.

You have successfully deployed your site!

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Part 3a:

You will find this here: What is website SEO and how do we get it right?

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Thank you for reading this!
I hope this worked flawlessly for you. Let me know below!
If you encounter any issues or trouble, just reply to this!

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