Un site Web - often called a website by abuse of language - technically consists of a set of HTML files linked by hypertext links and stored on a server, that is to say a computer permanently connected to the Internet. It is this set that makes it possible to generate the Web pages that we consult with a browser like Chrome, Edge or Firefox. There are several more or less simple solutions to create a website.
- Our video
- How to create a website?
- CMS: the easy way
- How to host a website?
- More information
Our video
Loading your video "FAQ: create a website easily make a website"How to create a website?
There are several ways to create HTML files that make up the web pages that make up a site:
- en using a CMS (Content Management System), a turnkey platform for easily creating an online site;
- en hosting the site, that is to say by renting a server from a specialized service provider and depositing the files allowing the site to be created as desired;
- en using a turnkey solution like Wix, a specialized platform for easily creating professional quality websites.
It is not necessary to have great technical knowledge to use a CMS. And the first pages of a site can usually be uploaded in a few tens of minutes, with a default visual, like you find on many blogs.
Specialized platforms like Wix offer many easy-to-use tools with ready-to-use templates. It is thus possible to choose your own visuals, to use a large number of fonts and even to integrate videos and photo galleries, and to add animations to create truly personalized sites.
Conversely, if you opt for site hosting, it is necessary to manage the files that compose it with specialized tools and therefore to "get your hands dirty", which requires more technical knowledge (language , HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.).
CMS: the easy way
CMS (literally: content management system) are turnkey platforms for formatting articles and publishing content on the Internet.
For most people, this is the easiest way to start building a site because you don't need to know how to code or have any special knowledge to post.
The main CMS are WordPress, Drupal and Joomla: here is their popularity on Google in recent years: 
- WordPress is the most used CMS in the world. It has the merit of being relatively easy to use at the base, but to accept many extensions (plug-in) proposed by the community to extend its functions.
- Joomla is also quite popular and very easy to use, but according to some users has gaps in its ability to be extended.
- Drupal, on the other hand, is very powerful, but suddenly difficult to afford by novices.
If you want to create an e-commerce site, there are dedicated tools for managing a product catalog, a shopping cart, an online payment system or even order tracking. The main e-commerce engines are Wix eCommerce, Prestashop, Shopify, and WooCommerce.
Finally, if you want to create an online community around a forum, the main forum engines are phpBB, vBulletin, XenForo or even [MyBulletinBoard (MyBB).
How to host a website?
There are two main categories of website hosts:
- free hosts. These hosts lend disk space on a server to create your web pages. This type of service is generally completely free. They earn money either with advertising space on your site, or by offering additional premium features as your site becomes important in terms of traffic. Most of the time, your access provider offers free hosting space provided with your Internet package. See free hosts
- professional hosts. This type of hosting guarantees a quality service (bandwidth) and security (data security and assurance of a reduced number of failures). It is quite essential in the case of a site with high traffic (more than 1000 visitors per day) and allows the purchase of a domain name. See paying hosts
If you choose to host your website, it will be necessary to create the files necessary for its operation. For that, it will first be necessary to learn the HTML language at least but fortunately, there are many tutorials on the net.
- By using a web application framework, that is to say an environment in a programming language allowing the creation of dynamic websites, provided you know how to code;
- En Using a WYSIWYG HTML editor (What You See Is What You Get, translate What You See Is What You Get). This is software for creating web pages visually by placing objects and controls. The software is responsible for generating the HTML code automatically. This is a very practical solution for creating web pages, as the complexity is largely hidden. This method can be very annoying if the editor does not allow to achieve what the user wants. A knowledge of HTML language is nevertheless desirable in order to be able to master the advanced editing options of the software, in particular making it possible to manually modify style attributes. The best known is Adobe Dreamweaver, paid or BlueGriffon, KompoZer, Brackets and Aptana Studio (free).
- En editing HTML files "by hand", that is, by entering the HTML code in a text file using an HTML editor in text mode. This solution is the most tedious (despite the relative simplicity of HTML), but remains the best way to learn how to create a site, to understand how it works, and thus to be able to create optimized code. and clean. The main tools are SublimeText, Notepad ++, Visual Studio Code or even Atom.
More information
Here are some links to learn how to code:
- Introduction to HTML on CCM
- Recommended HTML Code Editors Article
- The Open Classroom site, formerly the site of zero
