How to make business website Free?

Yes, you can make your business website free of cost, first of all, you need a domain.

Basic need to create and live your website

1 Domain

2 Hosting

What is the domain?

A custom domain name is necessary to help your customers find you, and for credibility online. As an accredited domain provider, Domain.com allows you to choose from all the major top-level web domains.

I’m pretty sure you won't find a popular top-level domain like .com, .in, etc for free and if you happen to see some ads online they’re mere click baits or temporary ones with hidden terms and conditions to lure viewers into their website.

Opt for free domains through Freenom (http://www.freenom.com) which offers many top-end domains like .tk, .ml, .gq for free, which can be registered for up to 12 months, post which you can renew for free. Enter the desired website domain name and check for the availability. Select the domains you like from the list of free domains offered by Freenom.

Web hosting server where your files would reside.

One of the best and easy to use Shared Virtual Private Server hosting services is Awardspace ( awardspace.com ). Opt for their “free web” plan which offers 1GB storage, 5GB data traffic/mo, 1 DB and you can only host one domain per account. Fill in your details, desired password, and checkout. Upon logging in you’d get a panel like this. Select “domain manager” and host the domain.

Visit Freenom ( freenom.com ) and Sign in to your freedom account. On the top main menu Services -> My domains. Click “ Manage Domain”.Then select “ Management tools ” -> Nameservers . Under Nameserver, check the “ Use custom nameservers (enter below) ” radio button and ensure that all the 5 fields are empty.

Enter the following in the first two fields:

NS5.AWARDSPACE.COM

NS6.AWARDSPACE.COM

And leave the other fields blank.

Freenom domains could take up to 48hrs to migrate as opposed to usual ones which take a maximum of 24hrs. Try to visit your domain.

Directly and if the migration is successful you’ll be able to see a page from Awardspace.

Now in the Awardspace panel, as shown above, click “ Zacky Installer ” -> “ WordPress ” -> Select some template that you like -> Select plugins (optional)-> Under “Use an existing domain” select your domain from the drop-down list and do as directed on the page. Wait for 5mins, don’t bother about the status as there are minor technical glitches in displaying the status of the installation.

After 5 min place yourdomain.com/wp-admin

Enter the login details you had provided while installing WordPress through Zacky installer. You’ll have an admin panel with all the options that help you in installing new themes, plugins for extended functionality and customize your webpage.

Please note that wordpress.com and the above-mentioned WordPress CMS aren’t really the same. The former is powered by Automattic using its own servers which don’t let you use custom domains other than WordPress domains for free and is primarily used for blogging. The latter is an open-source initiative for CMS( Content management system) which can be installed on servers and the code can be modified to suit the user’s requirements.

Note: I don’t work for either of the above-mentioned companies and this is not a content marketing effort. You are free to choose other service providers as you like.