Any idiot can use one of those ‘Click here and we’ll automatically make your site for you’ things – but they’re boring.

When I say ‘make your own website’, I mean just that – I’m going to tell you about how to figure out the domain name, the hosting, ftp stuff, and so on: how to build a website from scratch.

If you don’t know what that means, it’s fine – nor did I until I looked into it.

It took me ages to work it all out, so I decided to make it simple for everyone else by writing down what I found out in layman’s terms. I’ll use as little techie jargon as possible, and I hereby promise always to explain it.

It’s really not that hard to understand.

I’m only going to need about 10 posts.

So here goes!

1. Get a web address, like myfirstwebsite.wordpress.com (= getting a domain name or URL)

2. Create the individual files that will make up your site

3. Store your site somewhere that’s connected to the internet (=setting up some hosting)

That’s it.

There are three things you need to know about these files:

1. Each file makes a particular contribution

2. When they work together, they make up a website

3. The way you combine them determines how your website works

Each file makes a particular contribution

Let’s use the website I made as an example – punctualpigeon.com.

I used nine files in total:

3 text files, one for each of the three pages (‘article’, ‘about’, and ‘contact’)

1 additional text file, for the ‘thank you’ page that appears when you send a message via the ‘contact’ page

1 pdf file, which is the downloadable version of the text of  the ‘article’ page

2 image files for the download and print icons

1 file to check that ‘contact’ page messages include all the required information

1 file to email me a copy of ‘contact’ page messages

Each file has a job to do.

When they work together, they make up a website

In order to get those individual files to make up a website, you have to get them to work together.

To do that you have to put them in a folder, put that folder onto a webserver, and give the folder a web address so that other people can find them.

When someone types in the web address of the folder into their browser, the browser goes to the folder, finds the individual files, and combines them to display a website.

The way you combine them determines how your website works

The precise way in which the individual files are combined is determined by the coding language you put in the files.

For example: I decided to include a ‘download article’ link on the ‘article’ page of punctualpigeon.com, so I used a coding language called HTML to tell the words ‘download article’ that if someone clicked on them, they should start downloading the pdf file.

You give your website structure by creating relationships like this between your individual files.

So each individual file has a particular job, they work together to make a website, and the way that website works depends upon how they connect with one another.

To get a domain name, you have to rent it from a domain registration company.

Domain registration companies loan domain names to people like you and me. They usually charge an annual fee. The domain name for the website I’m making cost £10.22 for one year.

I got it from UK Reg, but there are dozens of others.

The domain registration company will rent you any domain name you like – so long as it’s not already being used by somebody else.

You can’t have two websites with the same domain name, or your browser would get very confused.

Anyway, that’s it – once you’ve rented your domain name, you have the address for your website sorted!

Computers can read coding languages, so we can use them to give computers instructions.

So when you want to make a website, you need to use one or more coding languages.

What coding languages are there?

There are loads – HTML, CSS, PHP, Ajax and Ruby on Rails to name but a few.

Each one has a particular specialism.

But most are based on HTML, because it’s relatively simple to use.

How do I use a coding language to create a website?

A website is made up of a set of individual files.

Each file creates a single page or performs a single function.

Every file (except for pictures, videos, and audio files) contains instructions; e.g. ‘show this text on the page’.

To talk to computers – to tell them, for example, to ‘show this text on the page’ – you have to write those instructions in a coding language so that computers can understand them.

There are thousands of websites that will tell you how to write those instructions – if there’s one thing you can always find information about on the internet, it’s how to put stuff on the internet!

How do coding languages work in practice?

When you type a web address into your browser, your browser visits that address, reads the instructions in the website files it finds there, and shows you the website in a way you can understand.

All those instructions are written by the person who created the website.

That person wrote those instructions by using one or more coding languages.

So that’s what a coding language is: the means by which humans can talk to computers.

There are several different browsers. Yours is probably called Internet Explorer, but it could be Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari if you’re on a Mac.

A browser is an interpreter.

It reads the files that make up a website and turns them into the website as you see it.

All the individual files that make up this website are written in languages we can’t easily understand – these are coding languages, and there are lots of them.

If you looked at the coding languages directly, without the help of a browser, it would be like trying to understand the cascading symbols in The Matrix.

Not easy!

That’s why we use browsers: to make websites usable by everyone.

How does it work?

Browsers work like this:

1. You type in the address of the website you want to visit (e.g. myfirstwebsite.wordpress.com)

2. The browser sends a request to receive the files stored at that address

3. The webserver on which the files are stored sends the files through the internet to your computer

4. The browser reads the files and displays them to you so that you can understand them. The instructions in the files, written in one or more of the coding languages, determine how the website looks and behaves.

So that’s what a browser is: an interpreter that helps you understand the files that make up a website.

Your website, like your house, needs an address.

The web address (also known as a domain name, or URL) is is where people can find your website. So the web address for this site is myfirstwebsite.wordpress.com.

How does a web address work?

The individual files that make up your site and stored on a webserver in a single folder.

That folder has a unique web address.

When someone types that unique web address into their browser, the browser goes to that address and combines the individual files it finds there in order to display your website.

I vaguely knew it was about files and servers and URLs and stuff, but I didn’t really understand what those things are or how they fit together.

So I decided to find out.

I find it much easier and remember pictures rather than words, so I used a Sharpie to draw an amazing diagram:

I know, I know. I’ll do a neater and more legible version sometime soon.

For now, though, here’s what I understand to be correct in text form. NB this is from the website creator’s point of view – after all, that’s the whole point of this blog.

1. Gather all the files you want to use to make up your website

2. Put them all in one folder

3. That folder needs to be connected to the internet – you do this by storing the folder in a thing called a webserver, which is like your normal computer but bigger and without a monitor

4. The webserver is a physical thing – so it has an address, just like your house. When someone wants to look at your website, they just have to type that address into their browser

5. The browser is the thing you use to look at stuff on the internet – Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, or whatever. When it’s found the webserver for your website, instead of just displaying a list of file names, it puts all the files in your ftp folder together to form a normal-looking website

I think that, in simple terms, is it. That’s how a website comes to exist in the first place.