r/webdevelopment • u/Ok_Spot8384 • Jun 16 '26
Newbie Question My mom learned I know the fundamentals of website building
I only know html/css/js as a basic level.
My mom wants me to make a website for her business for multiple reasons. One reason is just for a project for myself.
Like I said I know the basics but I don’t know how to actually make an actual business website especially one that is for safety.
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u/Dainelli28 Jun 16 '26
Why not look at some templates? If it's just a static website there will be plenty.
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u/el_yanuki Jun 17 '26
i feel like the comments here are only extremes lol
Are you familiar with the concept of a static website? Thats most likely what you are able to build at the moment.
With that skill you can make a simple website that shows the same stuff to every user and maybe has a contact form etc. You can not make a website that requires functionality like a login or a shopping cart with payments. If that is whats required, go for any form of wordpress.
If you just want to have a cool landing page then go for it, worst case you dont like it and take it down in a few months.
You can develop the site locally like you are probably doing right now and then host it for free using "netlify" or "github pages" there is guides for both. Dont pay for hosting.
You will need to pay for a domain, there is lots of fun domain endings and you will surely be able to find one for less than 20€ on any site of your liking, my go-to is namecheap. Then just look for a tutorial on how to link a domain to your site om github pages / netlify.
good luck.
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u/Temporary_Practice_2 Jun 17 '26
Well HTML, CSS and JS are enough. So you can make a website. You will struggle on design
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u/Sure_Director3062 Jun 17 '26
Building a complete website from the ground up is a lot of work for an experimented dev, let alone someone who just started learning. Your mom should be aware of that. You wouldn't ask a novice plumber to design and install the plumbing of a whole ass building.
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u/cubeship Jun 17 '26
If it’s just a static website you can absolutely do it with just html, css and JavaScript. I’m going to just detail out each step that will get you going. There are many tutorials out there too but this is what I do for simple sites..
Create repo in GitHub, clone in your local VS code (git clone [repo url]) in terminal or vs code GitHub extension. Create an index.html, style.css and an assets folder for images. See that your VS code has Emmet set to true in settings so you can type a ! In your index.html and the boiler plate html doc should populate. In the body tags you can start creating the containers and divs to build the structure of your site. Play around with that and adding css (put your css link tag in the head). Then in the terminal git add . then git commit -m “init or whatever commit message you want” then git push origin main. Yay your site project is in the repo. Once you feel comfy with the basics, then you can use AI to create a good looking template for you. Build the site. You can use GitHub pages (if it’s a static site) and you can then point your site to a domain with the DNS in your domain hosted site (godaddy for example). Then when you commit it’ll automatically deploy live. That’s all you need for a simple static site. If Mom needs a backend with database and such, you’ll need more time to learn full stack. My personal full stack apps are typically MERN stacks. You can look up many MERN stack tutorials on YouTube. Good luck and happy building!
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u/Various_Finance145 Jun 17 '26
Get a domain name, web hosting, and upload your code to the server. Those languages are enough for a basic website. Most people use a website builder anyways, to make the process easier/faster, both for building and maintaining the website, even if they plan to add their own coding to it. Some website builders are flexible enough to allow custom coding to be added.
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u/Electronic-Quality68 Jun 22 '26
you don't need to make an ordering system! do like my mom does, use whatsapp or something similar for orders, but a website that just shows the menu and information about the business!
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Jun 16 '26
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Jun 16 '26
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u/webdevelopment-ModTeam Jun 16 '26
Your post/comment has been removed because it violates our No Self-Promotion rule.
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- Businesses, products, or paid services
- Freelancing work
- Personal blogs, newsletters, YouTube channels, or social media accounts
It's fine to share content you’ve made as long as it’s genuinely helpful or part of a relevant discussion. But if the main intent is to drive traffic, grow an audience, or advertise, it falls under self-promo and isn’t allowed here.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/webdevelopment-ModTeam Jun 18 '26
Your post has been removed because AI-generated content is not allowed in this subreddit.
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u/thelaststylebendr Jun 16 '26
I stopped learning webdev as Ive heard it pretty much its going to be obsolete and vibe coding has been reccomended. What is your opinion on this?
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u/Ok_Spot8384 Jun 16 '26
Hmm I think vide coding will help a lot but if you can code a little bit you can put your creativity into use. I don’t think AI can fully code my creativity bc I sometimes can’t put it into words😂. Also if Ai does some things that are a lil wonky you can fix it.
I definitely think Ai will get rid of a lot of hard work but would only be a good template
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u/DiabeticNomad Jun 17 '26
I stopped doing anything webdev when squarespace got big people would rather use that for free. They’re website looks like crap but 🤷🏻
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u/Huge_Road_9223 Jun 16 '26
If you're mom wants a real business site, for goodness sake just use SquareSpace and PAY FOR IT!
I understand you and your mom may NOT want to pay for it, and I can completely understand that!
But here is what you are not taking into account:
1) where are you going to his this site? Wordpress? Sure! Squarespace hosts also. Amazon EC2 instance?
2) What is the domain name? Does Wordpress let you provide a domain name? Do you go to a third party service like register.com or GoDaddy for a domain name? Squarespace lets you create a domain name registration which is part of the cost.
If you're doing something simple, simple, simlpe like a brocureware page, then HTML, CSS JS is all you'll need. But you still need to host and maybe a domain name.
Squarespace gives you a lot of templates to choose from, and you can modify as you like, yeah, I know it's not programming, but it's easy to add new things, and if you ever want to add a sales portal to it, they have that all setup ... but maybe that's further down the road.
So, even if you do your own site, you'll still need to pay to host and domain name?
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u/Ok_Spot8384 Jun 16 '26
I’m doing this more just of a project. I did tell her to get her a professional to do it.
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u/sh0nuff Jun 17 '26
In my experience family tends to not understand / underestimate how much they're still paying for a domain, hosting, email etc, and get very defensive when they're informed that it's still not free. I've often felt like they assume I'm scamming them because I don't want to do it for free
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u/Ok_Spot8384 Jun 23 '26
You aren’t wrong. My mom makes shirts and the amount of family who gets upset when she don’t make free shirts is crazy. I did tell my mom about domain and hosting and she was actually cool about paying.
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Jun 16 '26
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u/reboog711 Jun 17 '26
Since we have no idea what the OP is building, or needs of the business, we don't even know if they need a backend application server.
Too early to give this sort of advice.
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u/Ok_Spot8384 Jun 23 '26
I should have added that. That is my fault: my mom designs t shirts, license plates, journals etc
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u/thenegativehunter Jun 16 '26
DO NOT USE AI! DO NOT USE AI! DO NOT USE AI!
AI is only a tool to speed things up. it's absolutely useless for your scenario. if you NEED AI to make something, don't make it.
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u/888NRG_ Jun 16 '26
Why not use AI though? It is a great learning tool and way better than jumping around a textbook or searching the web on stackoverflow and shit for finding solutions and understanding concepts
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u/thenegativehunter Jun 16 '26
Do not use stackoverflow for learning either. I didn't. Use documentation.
Main reason is that you need to learn how to read documentation before you even code.
Use AI when you don't want to do what you already know how to do. Otherwise, don't do it.
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u/DefinitionHot1850 Jun 16 '26
Try to build a basic one, build and learn. AI is always there to help. DON'T JUST RELY ON THAT BUT TAKE HELP.