Not so long ago, building a website was a real chore. You either needed to invest in clunky yet expensive software or you were required to learn the ins and outs of "from scratch" site building. Fortunately, things have changed a great deal. Today, it's easy for just about anyone to use some readily available and inexpensive (even free) tools to design a site. Unfortunately, many of those old website building tutorials are still in circulation, providing questionable and outdated information to readers.
If you're looking for guidance on building your site, check the website building tutorials you have under consideration for their date of publication. If they're more than a few years old, you probably do not want to bother with them.
The Internet changes quickly. The techniques that were en vogue a few years ago are now ancient history. The old school methods that many guides outline are no longer necessary or relevant. Few things become more dated quickly than guides and tutorials about building a great site.
After you've ascended adequate recency, become an active reader. That means not taking the contents of the guide at face value. Again, things may have changed. There's also that ever-present risk of getting bad information from a lower quality guide. You want to do your homework before adopting any strategy that might be stated in the tutorials. Make sure the recommendations still hold water by doing online research.
The best website building tutorials will provide you with all the information you need to know, from A to Z, to get the ball rolling with your own site. Check the tutorials you're considering to see if they live up to that standard. Many are laser-focused on certain aspects of design and fail to provide the big picture information you'll want as you take your first website construction program.
It would be nice if every site building tutorial contained solid, timely information. That's simply not the case, however. If you want to learn from a tutorial, you need to be able to discern the guides that have not held up to the ravages of time from those that will provide you with timely, pertinent and actionable information.