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Build your first website
This book is 100% completeLast updated on 2026-11-05
Go from a blank file to a real website at your own address, one small step at a time. You’ll write your first page by hand and put it online the same day, then grow it with CSS, Git, Astro and a little JavaScript. No experience needed, and every tool is free.
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Your own website, online, at your own address.
This book takes you from a blank file to a real website that anyone can visit, one small step at a time. You don’t need any experience: if you can use a computer, you can follow it.
You’ll write your first page by hand and put it online the same day. From there you’ll:
- style it with CSS, and learn why each rule does what it does
- lay out pages that work on phones as well as wide screens
- keep a history of your work with Git
- move to Astro, with shared parts and pages built from your own writing
- add a little JavaScript, and check your site works for everyone
Every part ends with a working website, published for free with GitHub Pages. Every step ends with a checkpoint, so you always know it’s working before you move on. Every tool is free.
I’m Steve Hill. I make games, tools and teaching material under the name Phosphene. I wrote this book for anyone who’s wanted a corner of the web that’s their own.
Read Part 1 free at build-your-first-website.phosphene.uk
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Steve Hill
I'm Steve Hill. Typing in programs with my dad and experimenting on a ZX Spectrum left me wanting to make computers do things, and I've been doing it ever since. I build Code198x, a free curriculum that teaches programming on the machines of the 1980s, and publish books under the Phosphene imprint, including Build your first website and Code Like It's 198x.
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