Things to know about making websites
A website consists of pages of HTML – a 'markup' language that is simple to learn. A web page needn't even be HTML but a simple text file. In the early days of the web, each web page was a separate .html file written on a personal computer then uploaded to a web server. Someone uses a web browser to request a page and the web server serves it to the browser. Nowadays, each time a page is requested, the web server serves pieces of web page together as one complete web page. This allows, for example, the same footer to be included in each page instead of every page containing its own footer. If every page has the same footer, it can be edited once and the edit applies to every web page on the site. The same applies to other standard parts, such the navigation menu, which is the same on every page.
Nobody writes web pages on their personal computer these days. Typically, you install a 'Content Management System' (CMS) on your web space and log in to write pages, add the pages to navigation menus, select different types of pages, and so on. You use a 'theme' for the entire CMS and all you have to do to create a new page is write the text, add an image perhaps, then press a button. The CMS does the rest by using the theme to structure the page automatically. A theme can be complex or simple, depending on the type of website.
The world's most popular CMS is WordPress. There are two main versions of WordPress: wordpress.org and wordpress.com. One is installed on your own web space (which you own), the other exists on WordPress web space (which you don't own). In either case, you don't actually own WordPress itself. The main difference is the degree of control you have over it. You can use your own domain name in either version but with the .com version (not on your own web space), you have to pay. I use the .org version download which I install on my own web space using my own domain names. This website is an example.
There are literally millions of WordPress 'themes'. Many are free to use. I prefer to build my own themes – such as this one which I named 'Works Unit' for no particular reason.
Web space
Web space is normally rented with a web hosting package. Mine costs about £18 per month (containing several websites) but I could manage with less. Web hosting packages come with a web server pre-installed, plus emails, databases, additional software and more. I connect to the space with FileZilla – an industry standard and free FTP program (File Transfer Protocol). You install FileZilla on your personal computer then connect to your web space. On the left side of the screen is my own files in Windows File Explorer and on the right side is a similar view of whatever I have transferred from the left, either by dragging it over or double-clicking. Files can be transferred in either direction. I can manage the web space as if it exists on my own computer but it's somewhere in London no doubt.
Technologies
A knowledge of HTML is almost essential. Fortunately it is a very simple language. A knowledge of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is also essential. Things are made easy by being able to search the web for technical advice every aspect of running a website. The other technologies worth knowing something about are PHP (a scripting language) and JavaScript. Perhaps also JSON, which I know very little about. WordPress is PHP.
This website uses JavaScript I did not write myself. I am no good at it so I copied it and deployed is as written. JavaScript is useful but not essential.
Which CMS to use
I first started using WordPress in 2006. My websites tend to be simple. It seemed to me that WordPress is a sledge hammer to crack a nut in my case, so I started developing my own CMS in 2008. Half my websites use WordPress, the other half use qwwwik – my own system which I continue to develop. qwwwik is partly a hobby and partly a much smaller and simpler CMS to use than WordPress and others like it. Both my WordPress sites and my qwwwik sites use the same simple 'Works Unit' theme which does everything I need.
I am tempted to drop WordPress altogether. It has become a monster whose future direction is more or less under the control of one person: Matt Mullenweg. But it works and there is an enormous body of help available on the web. qwwwik works better for me, but I am its only author so it will be maintained and updated only for as long as I am. Unless, of course, someone else takes it over some day. Either way, it is written simply in PHP. Any reasonably competent PHP developer would understand it easily and fix anything that may arise in the future. I can't guarantee it however.
The simplest and easiest way with the least knowledge and time involved is probably to use wordpress.com but you have the least amount of ownership and control. I have got one (since 2017) but I never use it.
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