What is a website?

When talking about websites, people are usually referring to a collection of interlinked web pages hosted on a web server that share a domain name and are found on the internet. 

Different types of individuals and organizations can create websites: websites are commonly used to promote businesses, connect with others, or share information with the world. 

When all the world’s websites are put together, you get the World Wide Web that search engines search through when you enter a search term to Google. 

Websites are traditionally created through a coding process, but nowadays it is possible to use a website builder to build your website without having to code a line. 

What are the purposes of a website?

It can be said that there are as many purposes for a website as there are websites in the world. But more broadly speaking, the purpose of a website, whether it’s for an individual or an organization, is to have a web presence, share information with the site visitors and potential customers. 

Here are some of the top purposes for having a website. 

Make money 

Having a website, regardless of its type (a personal website or a corporate website), enables you to earn money online by selling or promoting, advertising, and marketing your products and services to the masses. 

Both businesses and individual users need a website if they are looking for ways to make money online as their main or secondary source of income. 

Most websites selling products and services online can earn anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars a month. But many sites also earn advertising revenue, even if their main focus isn’t on eCommerce. 

Establish online authority  

For businesses, having a website can serve as proof of their credibility as a brand – it gives the brand a place to showcase their expertise in their field. 

On the other hand, for private individuals, a website can help to cement and establish their expertise in their professional field.  

For example, businesses can use their blogs as a place to showcase their new products and give tips and tricks on topics related to their niche. But many social media influencers have their own websites to simply share aspects of their lives with their followers. 

Build a community 

A web presence in the form of an internet site can also help business to expand their customer base and build a community around their product or brand. 

On the other hand, an individual site owner can use their website as a place for them to virtually meet with like-minded people, or build a large following. 

Many pop-culture phenomena have dedicated forums and news websites that focus solely on a particular topic or niche. 

Educate or inspire others

For businesses, a website with its own domain and own URL can be a medium to inform and educate their customers on how to solve their problems by sharing tips and tricks on the topic of their expertise. 

Individuals can use their web pages as a place to express their creativity, thoughts, interests, and ideas. 

A consultant could, for example, use their website to share insider knowledge or blog about the newest trends in their field of expertise.

Most common types of websites 

Most publicly accessible websites fall into roughly 6 categories, regardless of whether they are static websites or embody the more modern, dynamic website.

1. Blog 

The main purpose of a blog is to share the writer’s thoughts and experiences within a particular niche or topic. 

Many individual people have their own blog, where they share stories of their lives in a form of social news to their friends, family, and extended acquaintances. 

Many websites consist of a blog section, but a site can be a stand-alone blog, too, with several web pages on top of just the blog posts. 

A blog usually displayed the newest content at the top of the home page, a bit like individual news stories. Many blogs use content management systems to keep track of all the content on the website. 

Companies can have blogs, too – usually, these websites are used for search engine optimization, and they play a big role in a brand’s content marketing strategy. 

2. Business website

Corporate websites usually aim to inform other users about the company, its history, values, products, and services. 

These kinds of internet sites usually focus on either selling their products and services online or promoting the brand with user testimonials and portfolio pieces. 

A business site can also have a blog section that aids in how visible the brand is in the search engine search results. 

3. eCommerce website

Most eCommerce websites are online stores that operate either completely online or support the sales of a brick-and-mortar store. 

These kinds of websites focus on selling products and services online, from attracting the customer to the online store to managing the order fulfillment process and shipping the products to the customer. 

Many eCommerce websites need reliable web servers, since they usually contain a lot of data and should be able to deal with high amounts of web traffic, too. 

4. Educational website 

An educational website does what it says on the tin: it aims to educate the user on various topics. 

A government website aims to inform its citizens about the regulations, rulings, and comings and goings of the government and its laws and decisions. 

A university website could educate and subtly influence a user to choose to come and study at the said university. 

5. Informational website 

These kinds of websites focus on providing the user with information – this could be on a particular topic (like information found about particular games on gaming websites) or on the world in general (think how a news site has lots of other categories and other resources within its web pages). 

6. Social media 

Most social media websites are all but the image of a static website: these kinds of websites are highly complex beings with interactive content, various types of users, and masses of personal data. 

Social networks are some of the most popular types of websites, as the website’s content is usually also made into apps that can be used on mobile devices, too. 

How to create a website

Lucky for you, you no longer need to be fluent in a programming language in order to have your first website. 

Many individual websites are nowadays built with website builders –  visual tools that allow you to build stylish sites without any technical expertise. 

With a website builder, you can create your own website that search engines love in these simple steps: 

1. Select a platform

We might be biased, but Zyro is the go-to platform for beginners, busy small business owners, and other web developer novices who want to build a good-looking website without the hassle of understanding how to navigate through a content management system like WordPress or how CSS or HTML code works. 

All you need to do is select the right website plan for your needs (you have a few choices between personal website plans and eCommerce plans for online shops). 

2. Decide on a domain name

Once you’ve picked the right plan for you, it’s time to think about the domain you want your website to have. 

A good domain is short, easy to remember, and easy to type. It also has to be available, so it’s worth using a domain name generator to check that your dream domain is indeed free.  

3. Select a template and design the website 

This is the fun part – most website builders have lots of website templates to choose from. 

Templates are ready-made designs that you can have for your website, so they save you both time and money as you won’t have to worry about hiring a designer to build your website for you. 

With Zyro, you can choose a specific category (blog, online store, business website, portfolio, and so on) when browsing the templates, if you already know the kind of website you want to have. 

Since all templates are customizable, you can go further than simply updating the content on the web page – want to add images, videos, and change the colors around? The world’s your oyster. 

4. Add widgets or integrations to extend the functionality of your new web pages 

Once your web pages are ready, it’s time to think about the bigger picture. 

Adding widgets and different integrations make it easier and faster to track and grow your static website. 

You’ll be able to understand how your search engine optimization is doing with the right kind of SEO plugins, and tools like Google Analytics help you identify where your website visitors come from, how they behave on your website, and why they leave. 

You could also integrate different social media integrations to your site, making it even easier for customers to reach you directly through your website, without having to click on external links.

5. Preview and publish 

Before you can publish your website, it’s important to preview and review everything on your site. You want to be sure that the moment the user enters your website, there’s nothing funky going on with your further information buttons or any other media that’s important to your business or brand. 

Review all the copy on your site for typos, and check all the links. Check that each web page has a tidy and neat URL – you don’t want to lose visitors because the address bar of your website gets exhaustingly long the moment they visit a new page. 

With Zyro, you get what you see in the editor and can toggle between desktop and mobile views, making it easy to tidy up every web page before publishing.