When I started designing websites I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know what any languages were called, what hosting meant or how to register a domain name. If you talked to me about designing a web page I would have given you a blank deer in the headlights look and probably started crying. If you feel like you are in this state of mind have no fear! I will try to layout everything you will need to get started designing websites.
First of all you need to find a host. A host is a computer that will store your website files after they are created. You need to have a host because when people try to visit your site they have to actually go somewhere to view the files. When people type in web addresses they are actually going to another computer to view the pages that are stored on that computer. Hosts are all over online and easy to find and rate. Some range from $5 per month up to thousands per month.
After you have found a good host you will need to register a domain name with any registrar service. There can only be one unique domain online for each domain so you may have to be very specific about what you are naming it in case the domain you want is already taken. You mainly need a domain name because people won’t know to type in the computers address where you files are stored so the domain name makes it easier to access them.
Once you purchase the domain name and have it pointed to a hosting computer all you have to do is create files and upload them to the host computer. The simplest file to create is a HTML file. So open up a text editor on your computer and type the following:
<html> <body> Hello this is my website. Thanks for stopping by. </body> <html>
Save this text file as index.html. Upload that to your hosting account and there you go. If you type in your web address you should see the words in your code. This is basically how you set up a webpage.
Now obviously there are a lot of other things you will want to add to a page like images forms etc. But for now at least you know how it all goes together. Good luck in your web design goals and hopefully this will help you get started.