Web development, design and website building have all become increasingly simple with the developments of new technologies. Most website builders allow you to create a website free of charge and test their creation tools before you even purchase the pro features. This allows us to test multiple services and options before we completely decide how we are going to approach building our website. Lets take a look at the different options to build a website and try to show a path to the right website creation tool

How to Build a Website

There are so many options and companies that can help people and businesses build a website that I probably can't even list them all. For this article we are going to focus on seven of the most popular ways people build a website.

1. WordPress, this is probably the most popular way people use to build a website. Not only is WordPress easy to use, but it is a very efficient content management system (CMS) that gives you many benefits over its competitors. There are two main benefits you get from WordPress. One you get a huge community that supports further development and third party plugins, themes and give excellent assistance to those who ask. Two you get exceptional search engine optimization capabilities due to WordPress being a CMS. This allows for higher ranking in search results on Google and Bing, which can bring you all kinds of free traffic.
2. Weebly, this drag and drop website builder has a couple of wonderful features. One it is touted as the easiest way to create a website. Two you get a fully functional website builder that gives you all of the options and features you need to build a website. Weebly uses elements from a toolbar that you can drag onto your webpage and then edit to create your website. This allows you to build a website very quickly while maintaining a professional feel and look. Weebly is a relatively new company, but every year they feature new additions to their website editor.
3. Webs, is another fully functional drag and drop website builder. With an ease of use and a multitude of elements and tools that you can use to spruce up your website, Webs is a great choice for anyone to build a website. Webs has added ability for placing elements onto your webpage and the ability to tweak your theme and customize it with out knowing the technical stuff.
4. Jimdo, a great choice for any individual, or business you can build a beautiful website with Jimdo. Jimdo features a very easy way to add elements and has more elements than other website builders. Not only do you have more features to add, Jimdo has done an exceptional job of providing their subscribers with professional website tools for search engine optimization, content creation and more.
5. Yola, another great choice for beginners Yola will build a fully functional website. While I would not recommend it for a business, Yola can be a great personal website builder. Yola also feautres a drag and drop website builder that will allow you to quickly and easily build a website.
6. Drupal, another CMS web builder Drupal is a great choice to build a website. While I have not personally built a website with Drupal, the little time I played around with it showed me that it was a CMS that could compare to WordPress.
7. Joomla, is another CMS and is very similar to Drupal. You can build a fully functional website and it is known for building membership websites.

Of all of the website builders above, my favorite are WordPress and Weebly. While the others provide great service and exceptional ability to build a website I have had great experiences with bot WordPress and Weebly. If you need help finding the website builder of your choice you can simply Google "build a website free", the top two pages have a plethora of builders.

Website Hosting

Five of the seven ways you can build a website listed above do not require hosting. Weebly, Webs, Jimdo, Yola and WordPress all have hosting at their individual websites. WordPress however can be installed to a separate hosting provider along with Drupal and Joomla as well.

Finding a good host to run your WordPress website on is a must for any serious business, or website owner. Hosting provides the speed, reliability and support that you should demand when owning a website and can go a long way toward a better experience for your visitors.

Don't be intimidated by this approach, good hosting will help you in the long run and give you more benefits as well. For the time it takes to learn your hosting providers website and services, it takes equally the same amount of time to learn a website builder that provides hosting with it.

My Two Cents

In the end the builder you choose is up to you and the choices that I have listed above are some great places to get started. While I am a proponent of WordPress and Weebly, I do suggest at least trying all of the options above. Weebly, WordPress, Yola, Webs and Jimdo all provide a free service so you can try their builder before you decide to purchase.

Have fun building your website and good luck!