How to Build a Website: Introduction to the Basics.

Have you ever thought about creating your own website from scratch? Or at least wondered how it is done? Well, if so, you came to the right place.
Creating a basic website is not something from another world, actually it is quite easy. I will be creating this series of hubs explaining in a simple way how to do it yourself.

This is the first hub from the series where i'll be giving you a general idea of the whole process. After reading this you will have some understanding of what it is all about. The next group of hubs will hopefully be an insight to each one of the steps I'm going to mention here.

The first step you need to do when creating a website is to prepare (on paper) the structure of the website. (website architecture)
This consists of creating small charts that will give you (and whoever works with you on the website) a view of what the website will look like. Think about the number of pages and how they will be linked between each other ( will every page be linked to the homepage? ). Thinking about the audience is also something to considered at this stage, but I imagine this is not important for your first website.

Now you know what your website will look like and how it will be structured. It is time to think about the technology involved. You will need two main things, one is the domain name and the other is the web server.
The domain name is the address people will type in on the address bar to find your page. An example of a domain name is: "www.hubpages.com" or "www.mgsblogs.com".
The web server is the computer where your website will be stored. Think of a website as a group of files on a computer that can be accessed via a domain name. If that computer is switched off then the website won't be available, that is why it is a good idea to use a professional web server provider ( host ) instead of keeping it on your computer. ( security is another reason ).

You will be creating your website on your computer and at the end you will have to upload ( send ) your files to the web server. This can be done using an FTP program. Basically this will be a program that will show you the files in the server and the files on you computer, then you just need to drag and drop them from one to the other. Once they are on the server your website is up and running...live...online.

You must be thinking, "but I want to know how to create the pages". Well, I didn't forget, just wanted to give you the knowledge of what the whole process involves first. Let's think of creating the pages as a special step, the main one.

The most important thing to know regarding creating a website is that the main page needs to be called "index.html". There is a couple of variations but I won't go into that for now. The page called "index.html" is the one that the web server will show as your first page. So, when someone types in your domain name, that will be the page they will see.

To create a website file ( webpage ) you can use any text editing program you like, Notepad or Microsoft Word are two examples. However I recommend you use a specialised program like Adobe Dreamweaver. Do not forget that wherever you create your webpage you need to save your files as ".html" ( eg. index.html ). With time and experience you will probably start using other languages other than HTML and then the format of the files will be different. ( eg. "index.php )
On the HTML hub I will be giving you a step by step explanation how to create the code. Do not worry, it isn't hard.

I will be creating a hub for each one of these steps very soon. The second one is already waiting for you:

HTML Basics

This is my first "real" hub and so i will appreciate your comments with your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks for reading.