How to Make a Website from Scratch: A Complete Step-by-Step Tutorial for Beginners

Web Address (url)

purchase the website address, called the url
cost based on the value of the words or the phrase
also the domain extension (e.g. .com)
You can let the hosting company buy for you but I prefer to buy myself
get the SSL certificate (https is much better than http)
NOTE: it is common to have a very cheap price that will increase when you want to renew. So if you wish to keep the same address then check the renew price & take advantage of multiple years purchase (e.g. buy 4 or 5 years)

there are many hosting companies, there is no help choosing which one
there are also many offers
try cheaper hosting plans
upgrade when you need it – but take advantage of offers that are given at different times during the year
NOTE: it is common to have a very cheap offer at first, but this will increase after your purchase period. You can also take advantage of multiple years of hosting in a purchase (e.g. buy 4 years)

WordPress is free and fine for a new website
It is easy to set up but there are things that it is good to know – these follow.

in settings, reading should have a static page as the home page
in permalinks in settings, make sure post name is selected so when you create a page or post the title will be used for the url – VERY IMPORTANT!
be careful of viruses, security can be increased by checking input to your website in discussions

be careful, some plugins don’t work together, so, for example, if you ry to use too many security plugins, or speed optimizing plugins, then you will get website issues
nobody tells you this, so be careful with many plugins
I tend to delete all the default plugins and choose my own
these include
- an editor e.g. Elementor
- security e.g. Wordfence
- cache/speed optimizer e.g. Litespeed Cache
- some backup tool
all free
free & paid backup is poor – make a plan to do your own
websites can crash when updating, I have had this happen many times and once lost a site