How to create a website

Why create a website?

Nowadays, having a website is essential, whether you are a business, an independent contractor or an individual. Here are the main advantages of a website:

• It improves visibility and credibility: a well-designed website acts as an online shop window, that’s accessible 24/7. It showcases your products, services, customer testimonials, photos and videos, inspires visitors’ confidence and boosts your company’s reputation.
   
• It generates leads and sales: an e-commerce site makes it easy to shop online, while a showcase website captures leads by integrating contact forms, special offers, or strategic calls to action.
   
• It allows you to share information and content: integrating a blog into your site allows you to publish tips, articles or news items, which can improve natural referencing (SEO) and make your site more visible on search engines.
   
• It reinforces branding: customising the site design with distinctive elements such as your logo, colour palette and fonts helps create a strong and consistent visual identity that customers can easily identify.

Types of websites

Depending on your goals, choose the type of site that aligns best with your project.

How to create a website in 5 steps

To help you as much as possible with creating your website and publishing your first webpages, we recommend following these steps.

• 1. Book a domain name: more than 800 extensions available
• 2. Choose a web hosting plan to suit the traffic you expect for your website
• 3. Choose a module (CMS) and install it in just one click
• 4. Configure the website and add options to improve its performance
• 5. Publish pages directly in your CMS

1. Book a domain name: more than 800 extensions available

Your domain name represents the reputation of your business on the internet and what visitors will remember when they visit your website. It must be unique, memorable, and align with your brand, location, and the needs of your target customers. Choosing a domain name is therefore a crucial step in creating your website, as it symbolises your online identity and makes it easier to access your services.

Once you have chosen a domain name, it is vital to select the best domain extension to optimise your website’s SEO ranking, and its related pages. Here are the main types of extensions:

• Generic: the most popular extensions, such as .com or .org, recognised worldwide, reassuring visitors about your website’s credibility.
   
• Geographical: ideal for targeting internet users from a specific geographical area, such as .fr, .be or .ch, these extensions improve your company’s local exposure.
   
• Customised: ideal for providing more information on your website’s activity. Extensions such as .blog or .shop specify the type of content or services offered to users.

To maximise the impact of your domain name, it is important that it is short, easy to remember and write. This allows web users to quickly access your content online, while making it easier to share your site name.

Once you have found the perfect domain name and verified its availability with our WHOIS tool, register it to become the official domain name holder. By doing so, you ensure that no one else will be able to use it, which is essential to protect your brand and maintain the consistency of your online presence.

Browse all of our solutions, and book your domain name now to see your online project become a reality.

2. Choose a web hosting plan to suit the traffic you expect for your website

A website is based on many elements, such as programming codes, images, databases and scripts. Once you have created your website, it must be accessible to all internet users. This is where web hosting comes in.

Web hosting is essential to ensure your website’s online availability. It involves using an infrastructure, such as a server, to display your websites and make the files accessible to each visitor. You can choose between physical space or the cloud, which is an ideal solution for low-cost hosting, while ensuring continuous accessibility. Unlike some website creation platforms, a web hosting plan ensures that your website stays online without any unwanted advertising.

Our hosting solutions vary depending on the resources allocated, including storage capacity, expected traffic, and the number of sites to deploy. Evaluate your business needs and the goals of your web project to select the hosting plan that best suits you.

If your business grows, your web hosting plan can evolve accordingly. We offer flexible solutions that adapt to your goals, so you can develop your websites and applications without constraints.

In today’s environment, your company’s online presence is more critical than ever. With our hosting services, your website will benefit from optimal speed and security, with options suitable for companies of all sizes, whether you are a startup or a key account.

Explore our range of web hosting plans, including a free domain name, and choose the solution that fits your goals.

Whether you want to host your personal website, business website or e-commerce website, our comparison tool will help you find the best cloud hosting package.

3. Choose a module (CMS) and install it in just one click

With content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress, Joomla! and PrestaShop, you can easily create a dynamic website without needing any programming knowledge. Here are their main advantages:

• User-friendly interface: design web pages, publish articles and customise the look of your site with ease, even as a beginner.
   
• Multiple features: include product specifications, contact forms, image galleries and other options to adapt the site to your specific needs.
   
• Community support: get advice and resources from large French-speaking communities who share tips and extensions to improve your website performance.
   
• Optimised SEO: CMSs are designed to promote organic SEO by focusing on content and loading speed, increasing your online exposure.

Choose the CMS that best suits your project using our comparison table

4. Configure the website and add options to improve its performance

OVHcloud hosts your website on a platform optimised to guarantee the best performance. If you don’t want to have to worry about installations or technical updates, you can improve the performance of your website by enabling the following options:

• SSL certificate: a free SSL Let’s Encrypt certificate is included with your Web Hosting plan. To boost customer confidence, you can opt for an EV SSL certificate, which displays the company name and padlock on all web browsers, ensuring enhanced security and a secure site.
   
• Anti-DDoS protection: with our exclusive Anti-DDoS solution, we protect your website in the event of a permanent attack. This security service is included with all of our hosting plans, ensuring your website remains accessible.
   
• Private or shared SQL: create as many databases as you need to ensure the performance of your website. Each web hosting plan includes a database for storing files that are essential for the website to work properly, and you can add them as required from the customer area (option available with the PERFORMANCE plan only).
   
• Backup and restore: if you’ve deleted a file by mistake, don’t worry. Each web hosting plan includes a backup option, which you can use to restore your website from the latest backup version. No more starting from scratch.
   
• Multi-domain management: with the multi-sites option, you can host multiple websites on the same web hosting plan, and easily manage them from your customer area. This option is ideal for companies that need an online presence for multiple activities or services.
   

5. Publish pages directly in your CMS

Once you have created your website and installed your CMS module, log in using the credentials provided in the confirmation email. Now is the time to create your web pages, work on design, and write quality content to enrich your site.

Choose a layout that optimises the presentation of your content, whether it’s text, images or videos, while highlighting key elements. Align with a graphic charter that includes fonts, colours, image size, and logo. The CMS allows you to select customisable themes and templates, adapted to your business, while maintaining visual consistency across your entire website.

Visitors to your website have specific expectations for your content. Your task is to respond to their needs quickly, providing a seamless user experience. To do this, take care of your homepage and make sure that the navigation is clear and user-friendly. Use strategic category names for your site menu to effectively guide users.

Opt for consistent authoring with your other communication materials, such as social networks or brochures, to strengthen your brand image across all digital and traditional channels.

Once you have created your web pages, it is crucial to promote your website to increase its exposure. Use tools such as Google My Business for local businesses so potential customers can find your website and get your contact information, including phone number, opening hours and physical address. You can also boost your website presence by sharing links on social media.

Explore our Visibility Pro solution, which gives you a single, easy-to-use interface for promoting your website.

Once you have created your website, it is vital to keep feeding it regularly with new content, to keep your visitors interested and ensure good exposure. Also improve your site’s natural referencing ranking (SEO) on other search engines to achieve the best positions on search results pages, which will increase traffic.

To do this, periodically check your website’s structure and the internal mesh between pages. Optimum organisation will help search engines to better understand your site, which will help its ranking.