If you want to get into the world of SEO, you need to have a site at least.
Google is very secret about its algorithm, and it keeps changing the finer details so often that unless you are watching all this unfold, you will get left behind no matter the number of online videos and tutorials you follow.
Setting up a website can be costly, especially when you are just trying your hands on SEO.
Lucky for us, we can make a functional website for free in Nepal to test our SEO skills.
Free Domain
You can get yourself a free .com.np domain from Mercantile. Just head over to the register.com.np and check the domain availability of your name. Click on “Register Now” and proceed to create a new account. Fill up the necessary form and submit the application by attaching a scanned citizenship copy and a sample cover letter.
Free Hosting
Next, you need to get a server to host your website. There are a number of free hosting services. You can host a simple portfolio site on GitHub and even Google Drive. However, updating these sites is kind of a hassle, which you will be doing a lot in SEO.
Personally, I recommend using InfinityFree, which lets you host your site completely free with the option for your own domain or a custom one. Create a free InfinityFree account and then a hosting account.
Since we already have a .com.np domain, we will choose the custom domain option and enter our domain. Now, we will need to change the nameserver in our domain provider to point to InfinityFree, and it usually takes a day for .com.np.
Free Content Management System
In SEO, Content is King. So, you will be spending more time creating and optimizing your content than other technical details of your website. For this, you need a Content Management System. The most popular of the bunch is WordPress, with tons of plugins, tutorials, and other resources at your disposal.
To install WordPress on your site, head over to the Control Panel of your hosting account and click on Softaculous Apps Installer. Find WordPress from the available scripts and hit install.
WordPress Theme
Once you have installed WordPress, you need to choose a theme. If you are not familiar with WordPress that much, try sticking to popular, high-rated, and frequently updated themes like Astra. This way, even if you encounter a problem, you will get help more easily. This is the same reason, I recommend beginners avoid block-based themes. While they are more flexible, it can get overwhelming if you don’t know what you are doing.
Plugins
Plugins are packages containing mostly PHP codes that you can add to your WordPress to extend the functionality of your site. There are a lot of SEO plugins, but you only need one of the three to get started: Yoast, Rank Math, and All in One SEO.
Of the three, Yoast is the most popular and my persoal recommendation for starters. Yoast even offers a free basic SEO course on Udemy to help kickstart your SEO journey using their plugins. In addition, you can use other plugins to optimize image assets, enhance the website’s speed and performance, and also
Free SSL
By now, we already have a bare metal website, but it still needs some finishing touch. Security and privacy of users has a significant impact on SEO performance. Thus, you need to set up an SSL certificate before you start driving traffic to your site.
Luckily, InfinityFree also offers free SSL service through Let’s Encrypt and other providers. Likewise, you can also sign up for Cloudfare’s free SSL package. You can check the status of the SSL of your site through the Really Simple SSL plugin.
CONCLUSION
So there you go — you have created a website of your own. You can now start creating content and use your SEO skills to drive traffic to your site.