Step-by-Step: Starting Your First Website with Shared Hosting

Whether you want to develop a personal, business, or blogging website, this can be a fun experience for you. One of the easiest ways is getting your website live with shared hosting or looking for the best website migration services with paid hosts, as this can be a cheap means of hosting your first website on a trial basis.

Simple shared hosting solutions or NVMe web hosting solutions offer the basic web hosting foundation ideal for all first-time website owners. It helps you understand the web world without causing budget restrictions. In this tutorial, we will take you step by step through how to launch your first website with shared hosting.

Explaining shared web hosting

Shared hosting is the web hosting solution whereby different websites share a server to access resources. Resources required to host your website and content, such as bandwidth, storage, and processing power, are obtained through a physical server. However, these resources are distributed among various other users, and thereby you pay only a fraction of the actual server cost, rather than the complete maintenance. This is the best option for new website owners since it is affordable and easy.

Benefits of shared hosting

Affordable: It is affordable because you don’t have to pay the costs alone.

Convenient: Offers easy-to-use control panels for ease of operation and management.

Outsourced: Maintenance and security are taken care of by a host provider at the server level.

Let’s go through the steps of hosting your first website via shared hosting.

  • Step 1: Selecting a Reliable Hosting Company

When you are starting, it’s impossible to start hosting your UI directly, but you will need a hosting partner. From shared hosting plans, you will need to select based on your flexibility, preference, and budget. When choosing, keep in mind the following:

Uptime Guarantee

Support to Clients

Space/Bandwidth

Level of Simplicity (better if cPanel)

One of the best cheap shared hosting services is MilesWeb, with good customer service and easy account setup.

  • Step 2: Register a Domain Name

Your domain name is the address of your website on the internet; therefore, if you want your visitors to find your website easily, you need a domain name. Most hosting providers, such as MilesWeb, offer a free domain name with their shared hosting plans.

Tips for Choosing a Domain Name:

  1. Keep it Simple: Avoid long or complex names.
  2. Be Relevant: Reflect on your brand or purpose.
  3. Choose the Right Extension: .com is the most popular, but consider others like .net or .org if applicable.

Once you’ve chosen your domain name, register it during the hosting setup process or through a domain registrar.

  • Step 3: Purchase a Shared Hosting Plan

Once your domain name is ready, select a shared hosting plan that fits your needs. Hosting providers typically offer several plans like:

  1. Starter Plan: Ideal for small, personal websites.
  2. Advanced Plan: Suitable for growing businesses.
  3. Unlimited Plan: Best for websites with high traffic or large content.

Compare carefully between plans and select one with scaling capabilities for future growth.

  • Step 4: Connect Your Domain

Once you have bought a hosting plan, you will have to attach your domain to your hosting account.

  • Step 5: Configuring Your Website Using Your Control Panel

Most common shared hosting plans provide users with a highly accessible control panel such as cPanel or Plesk. Here is what to do:

Log in to your control panel’s dashboard and install a CMS.

CMS (content management system) such as WordPress is the easiest way of building and managing your website. Most hosts provide one-click WordPress installation.

  • Step 6: Design Your Website

Once your CMS is installed, it’s time to design your website. If you’re using WordPress:

  1. Go to the WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Themes and select a free or premium theme that matches your vision.
  2. Some essential plugin categories for first-time website owners are SEO plugins for efficient optimizations, drag-and-drop plugins for designing website elements, contact form plugins to add CTAs to your website, and much more. 
  • Step 7: Optimize and Secure Your Website

To make sure your website is well-performing and secure, optimize your website for speed by adding security plugins. Further, for enhanced security and credibility, add SSL certificates and choose a provider that offers auto backup options and restorations. 

  • Step 8: Launch Your Website

Before going live, review your website to ensure everything looks and functions as expected. Check for typos or broken links, and test rigorously for mobile responsiveness. It is essential to check all the interactive elements on the page, including forms, buttons, and others.

When satisfied, make a launch announcement for your website on social media, email, or through any marketing channel.

  • Step 9: Maintain and Update Your Website

A launching website is just a stepping stone. To keep the process running smoothly, you should highly maintain your website by adding new content, tracking performance, monitoring its layouts, updating themes and plugins, and keeping engaged with your audience. 

Final Note

Shared hosting makes the website launching process easier. It is an inexpensive entry-level web hosting solution with considerable resources for small to medium sites. The ease is further assisted by companies like MilesWeb, which offers free SSL certificates, one-click installers, free domains, and good customer support.

In the above blog, we have included a very easy procedure for making your very first website live with a shared hosting solution. Just go ahead and follow the steps and launch your website effortlessly.

Step-by-Step: Starting Your First Website with Shared Hosting

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share via
Copy link