If you’re not familiar with the field, the safest approach is to enlist the help of a specialist or a company that creates websites. Still, the very first step is to purchase a domain whose name fits the character of the site. Whether it will be personal or business-oriented.
You’ll also run into several terms that some people (not always correctly) use interchangeably: portal, web service, and website.
- A portal is the broadest in scope or devoted to a specific subject area.
- A web service can encompass many separate websites.
- A website is the most common term; it’s often used for all of the above, but it can just as easily be a simple, static information page with no content updates.
Next Steps
Regardless of whether you’re building a portal, wortal, or simple website, the administrator must be able to update content and even change the layout or interface. That’s where a CMS (Content-Management System) comes in. The site designer must choose which CMS to use; several popular, user-friendly options include:
- WordPress – the most popular and beginner-friendly; once you get accustomed to it you can quickly build a site yourself using its ready-made templates.
- Joomla – favored by many businesses for its flexibility.
- Drupal – recommended for feature-rich or academic content–heavy sites.
- ModX – next in popularity among major CMSs.
- ExpressionEngine – often cited in fifth place.
Other noteworthy systems are TextPattern, Contao, DotNetNuke, Umbraco, and Concrete5.
Before finalizing your CMS and hosting, it’s also important to strengthen your practical knowledge of web development. Building small projects with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript not only improves your technical skills but also gives you hands-on experience to manage and customize websites more effectively. This practice ensures that when you launch your site, you’ll already be comfortable handling both design and functionality.
Free templates are available both across the internet and inside these CMSs. Nonetheless, hiring a professional web-development firm is worthwhile: they can fully customize the site for your needs and provide stronger protection against intruders.
Finally, your site must reside on a specific server. Large organizations, especially IT companies or online stores, maintain their own servers. For portals with modest amounts of content and infrequent updates, it’s usually better to use a reputable company that offers hosting services.
