Wondering how to create your own school counseling website? Look no further… this article shows the steps to create a school counseling website!

I have been getting a lot of questions lately on how I got started with my website. So, I am going to attempt to give you a very thorough tutorial to help you master the task of creating a school counseling website! Now, I want to start by saying… I am a total newbie at blogging! There are others out there who can help you get going past the point of initial set-up, but to get started, I’m your girl!

Where to start?

Just to get you up-to-speed on website vocabulary, I am going to tell you about two different types of websites, self-hosted vs. web-hosting or paid hosting.

1: Web/Paid Hosting: This is where you create your free or paid account and have a web name like www.aaabbbccc.weebly.com. This is a site where you are “hosted” under their website and you registered your name through them.

2: Self-Hosting: This is where you buy and own your own web domain name. For example, I came up with the name Simply Imperfect Counselor and once I had that name I wanted to make sure the web domain name was not taken. It wasn’t, so I purchased my site through Bluehost (www.simplyimperfectcounselor.com). This way I self-hosted and own my domain name.

Which Way Do I Choose?

Personally, I think it all depends on what you are wanting to accomplish with your website. I have both because they function very differently and have a very different audience. I am going to explain two ways to set up a school site… you get to decide which one might be right for you!

Starting out with Weebly.com

I do a school counseling website for my elementary building through Weebly (web-hosted site). It is super easy to set up and keep maintained. With this being my first site, I loved the easy drag and drop format!

On my school site, I put up information, such as…

• Classroom Lesson Topics
• Contact Info
• Counseling Referral Form
• Small-Group Info
• Community Resources
• Tips for Parents

I chose to do a website through Weebly for several reasons. First of all, I knew it would be linked through our district website. This way I could have the long domain name and no one would really have to remember it or type it in. They just go to our easy to remember district name and find my section! Secondly, with this type of website, I knew my audience would be very targeted and specific. Plus, it’s FREE!

With my audience being so specific, I am not really concerned with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and people being able to find it through Google. Basically, my free Weebly site is so specific to my elementary building and parents that I don’t need it to do much besides getting info to parents when they need it.

If you think a FREE Weebly site is right for your… head on over to weebly.com and get started!

Bluehost & WordPress

OMG! Where do I even start with this one? Ummmm, yes it is doable and so much fun! But, it does take time and a lot of perseverance. I decided to celebrate small victories every day and once I got things up and running, now it’s easy peasy!

First things first, if you are planning on targeting a larger audience by doing a school counseling blog or a hobby blog, this may be a better option. I say “may” because I follow a lot of other counselor friends that do web-hosting under Blogspot and I’m sure do just fine! I decided for my school counseling site, I needed my own domain name.

Take a peek at the self-hosting diagram below to check things off your list!

How to Start with Bluehost

Bluehost is basically where your website lives. I chose Bluehost based on the amazing reviews of other bloggers I follow. Also, the setup and registration of my own unique web name were surprisingly simple! Also, they run this deal where it cost next to nothing to have your own site!

In fact, you can check to see if the site name you like is available! Just type it into the Bluehost box below to check!

Don’t worry if you don’t know what you want to call your site. There is an option to decide later!

Once you sign up and chose the package you like, make sure you click on the small box for DOMAIN PRIVACY, that’s if you want your personal address and other info private (I think it adds like .99 cents a month).

Once the checkout is complete, you are signed up with Bluehost and have your own domain (website) name.

This is the point where you log in to your Bluehost account. You will see several colored tile boxes, one of them says Install WordPress.

WordPress should automatically install with one-click!

Next Up… Themes!

Your website requires a theme to start the layout of your site. There are several free themes out there. These are under your Bluehost account. It will be another colored tile that says WordPress Themes. From my understanding, free themes are somewhat limited and hard to understand for beginners. I decided to go with X-Theme based on their reviews and the convenience of catering to new bloggers. This is totally at your discretion! You may like something totally different than I do… so research themes and just go with one!

A small piece of advice… check out YouTube for tutorials on how to install themes. These videos will become your best friend!

At this point, you have your domain name, you are self-hosted with Bluehost, and you just installed your WordPress Theme.

Now, is the time to start decorating!

Either create your own logo or have one made for you. Just make sure it’s not too busy and it fits nicely inside your website. Also, you might want to think about if you’re going to be putting it on products or anything else. If you decide to do that, make sure it fits that space as well.

I created my logo in Canva.com the first time! LOL! Canva is free (for most things) and l love the easy drag and drop features! The logo I originally created did not fit my website header very well, so, I went back to the drawing board. This time I created it in PicMonkey.com. Another amazing resource you will want to know as a blogger!

To be honest, I researched a TON on Pinterest and YouTube to find out the best ways to set up my web design. Also, if you have the dough, you could hire a web designer to set it all up for you! I’m not rolling in the dough, so I suffered myself through all these steps… which you can too! It just takes determination, patience, and a little research!

Like I said before, there are so many tutorials on YouTube that take you step-by-step creating the look of your website. Just start playing around with it, inside of your WordPress dashboard. I highly recommend createandgo.co. Alex and Lauren helped me so much! I just followed exactly what they said to do! They have a website and a YouTube channel with lots of info!

Almost Set…

Just a couple things to know at this point… is the difference between posts and pages. Posts are your blog articles or your content. Pages are…. well, pages! They take your reader to different places within your website.

Once you create your pages and your site is looking somewhat together, you can start writing some blog posts! If that’s what you want to do with your self-hosted site. When I reached this point, I made a deal with myself that I could launch my site when I had 6 blog posts. This way when people get to my site they have something to read!

A couple of things to research past this point are legality issues and promotion!

It’s hard to make a self-hosted site, but the reward of actually accomplishing it pays off twice as much! I hope this helps you in deciding what site you may want to run and how to go about getting it together!