This Is a Step-By-Step guide to setting up a complete website with free web hosting.

We are
going to be using something called Google Cloud Platform(GCP).
The first step is that you are going to have to have a google account with a credit or debit card
registered on it. This is because they are giving a free $100 credit to everyone who signs up on
google cloud platform for the first time.
Now I’m assuming you already have a domain because the domain is not free(not everything
is). If you don’t have a domain, head over to any domain name sellers like godaddy, namecheap
or google domains and purchase a domain.
So, head over to console.cloud.google.com and create an account.
1. After you are done with that, head over to your dashboard. It will look like this:

2. Go to the hamburger menu on the top left and select marketplace.

3. On the marketplace, there is a search bar, type in Wordpress and you will see a list of
Wordpress versions. We are going to be using Wordpress Certified By Bitnami because
it is easier to work with, for some reason.
4. Make sure it is Wordpress Certified By Bitnami, not the multi-tier version.

5. In the deployment name,input a name for your project(website).

6. In the zone box, we are going to use one of the three free zones google has graciously
offered, so it’s either going to be US-CENTRAL-1, US-EAST-1 or US-WEST-1. You can
choose which ever one you want in other to minimize wasting our free credit.
7. Next in the machine type we are going to choose the f1-micro. That is the first machine
with a memory of 1gb.
8. In the boot disk type, just leave it in the default.
9. Leave everything as it is but there is one option that has to be selected in order to
enable SSL, that is if you want to enable SSL.
● If you don't know what an SSL certificate is, it is a verification that a website is
secured, it is represented by a padlock close to your domain name in the search
bar of any browser.
10. These options are the enable http and https request. Make sure they are selected.
11. After everything is done, I would recommend cross checking everything. Click Deploy. It
usually takes between 1-3 minutes and when it’s done setting up your website, the
screen will look like this:

12. And now to check out your website, click on the site address, yes the one on the top
right pane of the screen under the Wordpress Certified By Bitnami and Automattic
Inscription. You will be directed to a page like this:
 just click the link and you will see the default wordpress website with the default
wordpress theme.

13. The next thing you might want to do is to update your password by logging into your
Wordpress admin dashboard. How to do that? Let's continue.
14. You are going to go back to the google cloud tab where you got the link of your
Wordpress website and you will see that it has automatically generated a username and
password for you to log in with. I have indicated it by putting it in a square picture in the
screenshot below along with the admin url you will use to go to the login page.
15. Click on Users on the left tab and click new users.
 16. You will see only one user. Click on edit and scroll down all the way to the bottom.
17. Click on generate password and type in a new password of your choice. Make sure you
are able to remember it, then click on update. Congratulations, now you have a website
completely free from paying $7 a month for hosting.

Next Is Connecting Your Domain To The Wordpress Website:

1. The first thing we are going to do is go back to the google cloud tab where you deployed
your website and highlight the first ip address you used to visit the website, not the
admin link.
2. Next thing you are going to do is to go to the hamburger menu and scroll down to look
for network services, if you’ve seen it, do not click it, just hover on it with your mouse and
then you will see cloud DNS, click on that.

3. Now click on the create zone.

 4. For the zone type, make sure to click on public.

In the zone name, type in your website name. If your website name is
www.electrolysis.com, just type in electrolysis.
In the DNS name, type in your website with the dot com. Example, electrolysis.com.
Make sure the DNSSEC is set to OFF and click create.
5. Now that we have created a DNS zone, click on Add record set to add a new record.

6. For the DNS name, leave it at that. On the resource record type, leave it at A. On the
TTL box, change it to 30 and in the IPV4 address paste the IP address you copied(i.e
the wordpress link you highlighted earlier) and click on create.
7. Add another record set, this time we are going to choose CNAME instead of A in the
resource record type. In the DNS name, just add www to the beginning of whatever is
there, and in the canonical name, enter your domain name without www. Click create.
8. The next thing to do is point these nameservers to your domain name. Now this setting
is inside your domain name provider under DNS settings/manager and click on
edit/change nameserver, in my case, its google domains so;
 Once that is done, click save and wait for about 48 hours for the domain name to properly
point to the google cloud platform Wordpress website you just created. It usually takes between
30 to 2 hours for it to properly work. If you want to test it, just go open a new tab on your
browser and type in the domain name you just set up/connected to the Wordpress deployment.
If you have reached here and everything is working perfectly, click on this link to set up SSL for
your website and to remove the weird Bitnami logo on the bottom right of your website.