How To Create A Free Website In Kenya (Helpful Illustrated Guide)

Wondering how to create a free website in Kenya?

In this article, you will learn step by step how to build a website without hiring a designer or spending any money.

I know what you are thinking; that is not possible! Well, it is possible. You can build a website without money and coding skills, thanks to website builders.

What is a website builder?

According to Wikipedia, a Website Builder is a tool that allows the creation of a website without the need to edit code.

Even from its name, you almost get an idea of what it is all about; website and builder. Giving you an idea of a tool used to ‘build’ websites, right?

This tool is often a program or a tool that helps you create a website in Kenya. As you will see later on, a website builder is nothing but a ‘site’ that you can easily sign up and start creating your website.

Which brings us to our next point. There are two types of website builders out there.

Types of website builders in Kenya

There are two popular types of website builders in Kenya;

• Offline website builders

These types of website builders often come in form of software that you need to download and install on your computer. And whenever you want, you can build a website and save the files on your local hard drive. Then, when you are ready, all you have to do is upload the site files onto your host.

One good thing about such builders is their ability to work without an internet connection. It means you can work offline, save files, and upload when you are ready to launch.

But that is something as well.

The fact that you need to upload the files directly to your host means two things:

One, you need some technical knowledge to do so, and if you don’t, you are forced to hire someone who does.

And secondly, you need to purchase the web hosting package to get an account. As you can guess, the budget can skyrocket really fast.

A good example of such a website builder in Kenya is Rapidweaver.

• Online website builders

Online website builders are web-based. Unlike offline builders, you don’t need to download any software. All you need is a web browser such as Chrome or Opera and you are good to go.

Being an online builder means two things;

First, it runs on the provider’s servers and thus you don’t need an extra hosting account for your website. Secondly, you can work on your website anytime and anywhere you are, as long as there is a good internet connection.

Now, the online website builder is the most popular one in Kenya. Why? Because of the reasons, we have mentioned and more others we will see.

An example of an online website builder is Olitt.com.

How does a website builder work?

How can I create a free website in Kenya?

This is a question many people struggle with and for a good reason. Most web designers rip you off and deliver low quality work. That ends today.

In this article, we will be looking at an online website builder in Kenya, specifically, Olitt.com.

The tool has been designed with you in mind; no technical knowledge and easy to use. All you have to do is drag and drop elements anywhere you want.

This means that you can instantly create a site design of your dreams without any help in less time than can prepare ugali.

To show you how it works, we will create an events website.

Ready?

#1. Go to Olitt.com

To access Olitt free website builder in Kenya, use this link https://www.olitt.com/.

Once there, click on ‘create a free website.’

That should take you to a place where you are required to pick a template. Now, this is where your free website creation starts.

#2. Pick website category

First, you need to know what you want to build. A category gives you all the templates perfectly picked for your type of website.

For example:

If you are looking to build a website to promote your new book, click on the book category on your left and you will see a ton of templates (ready-made websites) specifically designed for books websites in Kenya. 

On the same note, if you wish to build a marketing agency website, go ahead and click on ‘Marketing.’

Now, in our example, we mentioned we are going to build an events website. Lucky enough, there is the ‘events’ category on Olitt.

When you click on it, we get to see a ton of templates for us to choose from.

#3. Pick a template

If there is something that makes creating a free website in Kenya easy and fast, it is these templates.

With them, you have everything you need to create a website. And since you are not starting everything from scratch, it cuts the whole process by half.

Moving on, what template should you pick?

Well, that depends on your needs and ‘taste.’ I mean, you already have in mind how you want your website to look like, right?

If so, you first need to go through all the available templates and pick the one close to what you had in mind.

By doing so, you eliminate the need to do much editing later on (we will discuss what that is).

Also, there are different types of events, for example. Although weddings and conferences are all events, their websites will look completely different, don’t you agree?

Now, for an event website, we picked the first template because we are building a website for a conference. 

Once you have decided on the most appropriate template, you are ready for the next step on answering, how can I create a free website in Kenya.

#4. Editing the template

As we mentioned, website templates are pre-made sites. This means as much as they make it easy to start creating a free website, you also need to have your own ideas.

What does this mean?

By the virtue of being pre-made, these templates come with their own content already added. 

For example;

They come with images, texts, and buttons. If you need a completely unique website, that is well poised for your company or business, you need to remove the existing content and add your own.

You can replace the images with your own, change texts to reflect your business, and buttons linking to your business, make sense?

Moving on;

Once you have selected the template, the next step is creating an account.

If you are an existing Olitt user, go ahead and log in. But if you are a new user, click on Create Account.

Alternatively, you can use your Google or Apple account.

Once you have created your account, the next step is to get the OTP code from your Gmail account, to verify your new account.

But if you are using either Google or Apple accounts, you won’t need the OTP code.

From here, you will be automatically redirected to start editing the template.

This is your welcome message. Click the first ‘Visit’ button to see how the template looks. The second button allows you to connect a custom domain to your new website, that is something we will look at in detail later.

For now, click on the X button to close the window, and let’s start the editing.

To start the editing, here are some things we will be changing;

• Images
• Texts
• Buttons 

Let’s start with texts.

How to change texts on OLITT

To be able to change, double click on the block. That should load up editing tools.

Once that happens, start typing to whatever you wish to change into.

With these tools, you can;

• Bold the text
• Italic
• Strikethrough
• Change alignment
• Change text color

Also, you have another set of editing tools.

Still answering how can I create a free website in Kenya, let’s look at how to change an image on OLITT

How to change an image on OLITT Free website builder in Kenya

Changing an image on OLITT is pretty easy.

All you have to do is click on Open blocks. From the open blocks choose an image or upload one from your device.

That is how to change an image on OLITT.

Next is working with buttons.

How to change or add buttons

Maybe you wish to add call-to-action buttons such as Buy Now, Learn More, or any button, this is how to do that.

First, you need to know how to edit the existing ones.

The same applies, double-click to change the text of the buttons (if you want to retain them).

Otherwise, you can delete it by clicking on the dustbin icon.

Now, to add a button, go to the open block section and select the button. Edit it after it loads on the site.

How to add or remove a section to your new website

Creating or removing a section/element on your free website in Kenya on OLITT is easy.

First, click on the section or element you’d wish to remove.

From your right hand, you can see the editing tools we’ve been talking about.

Click on the last icon (dustbin symbol). 

And it will be deleted/removed from your site.

That is how to delete a section, how about adding a new one?

First, you need to decide what type of element you want to add. Are you looking to add a link, an image, a paragraph, a text area, or a button?

Once you have an idea, choose the location. Is it before or after an existing element?

For example;

You can choose to add an image after a paragraph. To do that, first, add the text area element.

With the text in place, go ahead and add an image element.

Click on the open blocks and then on the image icon. Choose to upload a photo or use the available ones.

Alternatively, you can add your own images. To do that, click on Upload Images.

Here, you have two options;

• Click to browse your hard drive or
• Drag and drop the image file

That is how to create a free website in Kenya.

Why OLITT?

You have learned how to create a free website in Kenya using this powerful tool, Olitt.com.

As you have seen, it easy and straightforward to use. Besides that, here are other reasons why OLITT is the best website builder in Kenya.

• Takes insanely less time to create a complete website 
• Gives you a free plan, meaning you don’t need any money to build a website in Kenya. To facilitate that, you get a free domain (.olitt.com), but you also have an option to connect a custom one even on the free plan. (For the best domain name registration in Kenya).
• All sites created on OLITT comes with free SSL certificates. What this means is your website is secured against hackers and you have higher chances of ranking on search engines, considering they now prioritize secure sites on search results.
• OLITT sites are lightning-fast, thanks to a global CDN network, with over 42 PoPs
• You can easily add custom JavaScript code and integrate your website into any platform of your choice.

The list is long, and we can go on and on talking about it.

Why not try it for yourself?

Get started now for free.