How To Build A Website And Get Noticed

Building a website where you have Nail Sticker total control and where it will get noticed by the search engines has never been simpler. Let me clarify how it is done. There a very good video by my good friends Ferny and Raymond that goes through all of the following steps so you can see what each step looks like, but if you're like me, having a good set of written directions that you can print out and follow is a big help. STEP 1 - Get a domain name.This can be anything you would like it to be so long as it's available, but bear in mind if you are needing your site to get ranked on google and other search engines for promotion of yourself or a product, then your domain name should be relevant. Let's suppose you want to do Self-Branding, you want to promote you. In this case your domain name should be your name.com. If it is not available then make your name part of the domain name e.g. askmikescherer.com or workwithmikescherer.com. You can also use .net, .info or .biz extensions as well if it helps. So, to get your domain name go to NameCheap.com because it's cheap. Set up your account and note the login details, you will need to go back there soon.STEP 2 - Procure a Hosting ServiceA hosting service is the location where your website is stored. Your Domain will point to this place so it can find all of your setting information.There are severalof these to choose from but my suggestion is Hostgator. Go there, click "Webhosting" to get yourself an account. Make sure you get a "Business Plan" as the features provided will allow you to market from your website with a merchant account without any hassles. Hostgator is also recommended because it makes the instalation of WordPress very effortless. Wordpress is the best software available to build and manage your own website (Blog). The reasons will become clear once you begin using it.Click "Order Now" for a business plan and follow the directions. Enter your new domain name, go through the steps until you have purchased your Hosting Account.Now, you will have to be patient and hold your firefor an email from Hostgator. You can't carry on until you get the information in the email. It might take half an hour or so while Hostgator sets up your account so don't stress, go have a coffee or something.Righto, have you got your welcome email from Hostgator open? Then let's proceed.The email will have your account particulars followed by your Nameserver details. It will also have the link to your hostgator cpanel. These are the important bits. Now go back to Namecheap.com and log in to your account. Click on the domain you registered then look on the left menu to find and click "Transfer DNS to webhost". A new screen will appear where you enter the nameserver info from your email in the first 2 boxes. Copy and paste each one at a time from your hostgator email. Click "Save Changes" and that's it, you're all done for now. You are going to have to be patient for a bit longer now because it can take up to a day or two for Hostgator and Namecheap to talk to each other and resolve your domain name to it's IP address so that it can be operated from your Hostgator account. Going back to your email, note the URL link to your cpanel. It appears as IP address/cpanel. This is where the control panel for your website will be. When the nameservers have resolved properly, the URL IP address will be your domain name e.g. domainname/cpanel.The Next Day (or 2)Log in to your Hostgator account. The best way is to type your DomainName/cpanel into the web browser address bar. Enter your username and password and your cPanel will appear. It is highly graphical and easy to use. View the tutorials if you wish, otherwise skip it and go to the step 3 below, setting up your Wordpress Website. Wordpress was initially developed as a blogging platform but has now grown into a full blown, professional website building system.STEP 3 - WordpressThis step is ridiculously easy. Wordpress as I said developed as a blogging technology but has now evolved into a fully functional CMS (Content Management System). This is Wordpress.org as opposed to Wordpress.com, which is still a hosted blogging platform. Wordpress doesn't require any html knowledge, although it is helpful to know some, its exremely easy to SEO your website with Wordpress and you can easily add content and manage the pages on your website without any technical knowledge.So let's go and create your Wordpress website with Hostgator. Open a web Browser and type your domain name/cpanel into the address bar. Log in with your username and password (from your email). Scroll down to Software Services and click on the icon "Fantastico Deluxe" (Smiley Face). On Nail art the window that appears, go to the laft menu and click on Wordpress. Click New Installation. Your Domain name will already be there, leave the "install in directory" box blank. Call the administrator username 'admin' and choose a paswword. Fill in a nick name, the site name and a description then click install. Click finish install and that's all.Now type your new domain name into the web browser address bar and you will see that it has turned into your new website. It is very basic at this point so you need to scroll down to Meta and click on the link to login to your back office. Login using the admin username and password you just created (you will want to remember this) and there is you Wordpress back office.Now that is all there is to it. What now?