What is a website
Website is a collection of HTML pages linked with each other. It is used for showing information. These days it serves a lot of other purposes like online shopping or railway reservations. It is also used as an online identity of a business or a brand.
How is a website made
The pages of a website can be made in different ways. It can be designed using a note pad and writing a series of codes in HTML. By a slight upgrade to IDE (Integrated Development Environment) things get easier, faster and convenient.
But the real fun lies where a site can be made online by anyone. Three main categories of such tools exists, Blogger by Google and WordPress.com by Automattic, Wix, Weebly and others like Shopify and lastly a self hosted website with content management system like WordPress. Lets discuss each one in detail.
Blogger.com and WordPress.com
2003 was a watershed year in the history of internet and publishing. Both Blogger.com and WordPress.com came into being in this year. And they redefined the way a website is made. Suddenly everyone could make a site without HTML coding and without any knowledge of how internet works. Both are free platform and both provide a free sub-domain.
Blogger.com comes with powerful integration of Google Adsense, so this platform has the edge. But the design of Blogger is still very very primitive and it is still a blog. While WordPress.com has beautiful themes which transform the look and feel of your blog to make it look like a website. Hundreds and thousands of bloggers use these two free platforms to host their blog. WordPress also has paid plans.
Amazing world of site builders
Online site builders provide a huge relief to those who want to create something easy on their own. This service is provided by sites like Wix, Weebly, Shopify and so on. They provide ready made templates and blocks. These blocks can be placed on any page, they can be resized or deleted. Blocks and Apps give the necessary tools to improve performance of your site. You get a free subdomain with your account. All website functions are available. Online store can also be created in a few steps.
Self Hosted WordPress website
Finally the most sought after where you can get maximum flexibility is a self hosted website. You need to choose a content management system or CMS. CMS allows you to install and customise your website. It also provides a set of tools to perform various roles right from admin to subscriber. WordPress is the most popular content management system and there is no close second. All hosting providers provide specialized WordPress hosting. Themes change the look and feel of your website depending on its role. Plugins are like apps or software which provide additional functionality to the website. With WordPress, customization is simply a breeze.
