Are you a Blogger looking for a free blogging platform to kick-start your blogging journey? If yes, then let us introduce you to “HUBSPOT” a completely free blogging platform form made for beginners to professional-level bloggers.
Hubspot is a self-hosted blogging platform which means you do not have to worry about hosting your website content or managing its content, all is taken care of. You just need to write blogs and publish them.
Yes, that is correct! You just need to write blogs and the rest is taken care of by Hubspot.
What is interesting is, that Hubspot has partnered with Google Cloud further powering the growth of the Hubspot CRM.
Here in this article, we are going to guide you on How you can create a Hubspot Website for free.
Are you ready? Let’s get you going!
Table of Contents
8 EASY STEPS TO BUILD YOUR HUBSPOT WEBSITE
1. GET A HUBSPOT ACCOUNT
Go to www.hubspot.com and create your account. Enter your First name, last name, and the email id you want to sign up with, and then click on the “Next” button.
You can also continue with the Google website (Gmail) since Hubspot is in partnership with Google. If you don’t have a Gmail account click here to create one for yourself.
Else, go ahead and sign up using your Gmail id and password.
After you sign up with Gmail, Hubspot will give you a verification link on your id which you need to confirm, and then set a password for your Hubspot account.
Post this choose wherever you would want to store your data (US or EU server) and hit the “create” button.
2. CONNECT A DOMAIN
To choose a domain for your website follows the steps given below:
- Click on the settings sign on your Hubspot’s home page
- From the left sidebar menu choose Website> Domains & URLs
- Click on “Connect a domain”
- Enter the domain
- Click on “Connect”
Do you want to know more? Click here.
3. SELECT A THEME FOR YOUR SITE
After you have successfully created your account, the next step is to select a theme for your website. A theme is a collection of templates that are customizable as per your brand’s needs. A great theme is necessary to give your visitors a seamless user experience.
You can browse the themes by clicking on the “Browse Themes” button on your homepage as shown below.
Choose a theme, preview it to see how it looks on various devices like desktops, mobile, and tablets and when you are satisfied install it. You can easily customize a theme using the drag and drop feature and edit the settings as per your business needs. Want to learn more? Click here
Also, if you are not satisfied with the themes provided by the Hubspot library then ask a developer to create and modify themes locally with the CLI (text-based editor). Click to learn about the developing tool needed.
Additionally, you can purchase a theme from Hubspot’s Asset Marketplace
4. BUILD YOUR PAGES
Once you have selected a theme, it’s time to start designing your web pages. You can create website pages using the content editor by personalizing your content with images, videos, fonts, or other files that you have uploaded on Hubspot.
With the free version of Hubspot, you have the ability to build up to 20 landing pages and up to 25 web pages, though each of these pages will be marked with Hubspot branding.
Follow these steps to create pages:
Website pages
In your Hubspot account, select Marketing> Website> Pages
Landing Pages
In your Hubspot account, select Marketing> Landing Pages
Now, A Dialogue Box Will Appear As Shown In The Image Below
Click on “Create the page” after filling in the page address and the page name.
Customize the page with the help of the drag-and-drop editor and make it look attractive with images and videos.
5. SET UP YOUR BLOG
HubSpot’s blog tools provide you with the means to produce captivating content that can attract visitors to your website. With features like blog tags, blog authors, and comment moderation, managing your blog content becomes easier. You can also keep readers informed of new blog posts through the setup of blog subscription emails. Here is a checklist of tasks that must be completed before proceeding. Click on each task to learn more:
- CREATE A NEW BLOG
- MANAGE THE BLOG SETTINGS
- BLOG AUTHORS RELATED SETTINGS
- MANAGE BLOG TAGS EFFECTIVELY
- SET UP BLOG SUBSCRIPTION EMAILS
6. SOME ADVANCED EDITING FEATURES
Once you become proficient with HubSpot’s content editor, you can explore advanced website features that can elevate your website to new heights.
Experiment with various versions of each page to determine which ones are effective and which ones are not.
Below is a list of advanced features offered by HubSpot:
A/B PAGE TESTING
A/B page test allows you to try and test two different versions of the same page at the same URL. This enables you to see which performs better.
Wondering how?
Half of your visitors see version A and the rest half see version B so that you can decide which version gets more traction.
Click to know more.
RUN AN ADAPTIVE TEST FOR A PAGE
Different versions perform differently. With adaptive page testing, you can set up to 5 versions of the same page with different features.
Over time, whichever version performs best will be shown to your visitors often. Click to know more.
SMART CONTENT RULES
Smart content rules module display different content to different users based on the viewer profile. For example, for different viewers content will be different based on their country or display different ads to different users based on their viewing history. Interesting, want to know more? Click here.
TROUBLESHOOT DOMAIN CONNECTION
After you have connected your domain it takes up to 24 hours for it to reflect. If your domain has some issues and is not connecting as expected then you can troubleshoot it with a few steps. Click to know more.
7. GO LIVE
To make your website live on HubSpot, you need to connect your custom domain to your HubSpot account. Here are the steps to follow:
- Navigate to the “Domains & URLs” settings in your HubSpot account.
- Click on “Connect a domain” and enter your custom domain.
- HubSpot will provide you with DNS records to add to your domain’s DNS settings. You can do this in your domain registrar’s account or wherever your domain is hosted.
- Once you’ve added the DNS records, go back to HubSpot and click on “Verify domain” to confirm that the records have been added correctly.
- If the domain is verified successfully, you can then click on “Make primary” to set it as the default domain for your HubSpot account.
If you have a CMS Hub subscription, you can also connect your root domain to HubSpot. This allows you to host your entire website on HubSpot, rather than just specific pages or subdomains. To connect your root domain, follow the steps above and make sure to add the necessary DNS records for your root domain, rather than a subdomain. Once the domain is verified and set as primary, you can then build and publish your website pages using the HubSpot CMS.
8. OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE
After you have published your website pages, its time you optimize them to attract more traffic by adding Google analytics to your pages and various other steps listed below:
- Integrate Google Analytic
- Analyze your site traffic
- View SEO recommendations
- Create your SEO strategy
CONCLUSION
Hubspot is a free-hosted blogging platform that is easy to use and functional at the same time. In this blog, we have shared 8 simple steps for you to create your website on Hubspot effectively.
If you have any queries let us know in the comments and we will be happy to resolve them for you. Did this blog post help you? Let us know if it did! It will keep us motivated to keep creating similar content for you. Stay tuned for more exciting content. See You!
