Launching your first website

New to websites? This guide takes you from a new hosting plan to a live website on your own domain, step by step. Most people finish in an afternoon.

Step 1: Get a domain and hosting

You need two things:

• A domain name, your website’s address, such as yourbusiness.com or yourbusiness.com.ng. See How to order a domain name.
• A hosting plan, where your website’s files live. For most first websites, a WordPress hosting plan from ruachost.com is the easiest start.

If you order both together, your domain is connected to your hosting automatically.

Already have a domain somewhere else? Point it to Ruachost by changing its nameservers to the ones in your welcome email. See How to change domain nameservers. The change can take a few hours to work everywhere.

Step 2: Log in to cPanel

Your welcome email has your cPanel login details. You can also open cPanel from the client area: Services → My Services, click the plan, then Log in to cPanel. See How can I access my cPanel?

Step 3: Choose how to build your site

Option	Best for	How to start
WordPress	Most websites: business sites, blogs, portfolios, online shops	Installing WordPress
Website builder (SitePad)	A simple site built by dragging and dropping, no code	Accessing the website builder
Upload your own files	A site a developer built for you, or a site you made yourself in HTML	Uploading files with File Manager

Not sure? Choose WordPress. It’s free, has thousands of themes and plugins, and grows with you.

Tip

Moving a website you already have from another host? We’ll move it for free. See Moving your website to Ruachost.

Step 4: Build your pages

Start with the pages most visitors look for:

• Home: what you do, and who it’s for, in one or two sentences.
• About: who you are and why people should trust you.
• Services or Products: what you offer, with prices if you can.
• Contact: phone, WhatsApp, email, address and a contact form.

Want to sell online? See Launching an ecommerce website.

Step 5: Preview before you go live

If your domain doesn’t point to Ruachost yet, you can still see your site. See Previewing your website.

Step 6: Turn on HTTPS

Every Ruachost hosting plan includes a free SSL certificate, which adds the padlock and https:// to your site. It’s usually installed automatically once your domain points to us. See Your free SSL certificate.

Step 7: Create your email address

Make an address on your own domain, such as hello@yourbusiness.com. It looks more professional than a free email address. See How to create email accounts in cPanel, then add it to your phone: iPhone or Android.

Step 8: Check everything works

• Visit your domain on a computer and a phone.
• Click every link and send a test message through your contact form.
• Send and receive an email from your new address.

Step 9: Get found on Google

Tell Google and Bing about your new website so it appears in search results. See Getting your website on Google and Bing.

Step 10: Keep it safe

• Keep WordPress, plugins and themes up to date.
• Use strong, different passwords. See Creating a strong password.
• Your site is backed up automatically. See Restoring files, email and databases using JetBackup.

Need help?

Our support team is available 24/7. See Contact support.

Related articles

• Shared hosting quick start guide
• Managed WordPress quick start