How To Build A WordPress Website.

WordPress is the drive behind a third of sites live now. It is a Content Management System (CMS) and a strong one at that. Additionally, it is free of charge!

Great to understand : WordPress.org is a CMS system, although WordPress.com is a site builder. In this guide, we are going to be focusing solely on building a site utilizing WordPress.org.

Making a site using WordPress.org requires just a little patience, but this manual is here to assist. We are giving you our expertise and knowledge to deliver you something detailed, yet simple to follow. Follow these steps and you will have a website up and running before you know it.

We have broken it down to eight easy steps.

1. Choose a Domain Name

Step one would be buying a domain name, this is the name people will use to find your site. For example www.google.com

Purchasing a domain name is super easy. Just head to a domain registrar , good one to use is Domain.com, then check if the name you like is available.

You can also check the availability using our recommended hosting sites: Top 4 Web Hosting Providers In 2020

A good domain name should be close to the name of your site or business as you possibly can. It ought to be to remember, or even guess, and be as brief as possible.

In Terms of the best domain name extension use .com if possible. It is a safe wager if it is available, and the option we'd recommend.

If you are unable to get .com extension you have some other options to choose from:

.org - accessible to everyone, but especially popular among NGOs and charities

.net - available to everyone, but frequently associated with technology businesses

. co - available to everyone, but often related to startups or cool new businesses

And needless to say, in the event that you just operate on a national level, you can always use your country's domain extension, for example .us only US citizens and entities can utilize .us, but other nations are often more flexible.

Even though Most domains will cost under $20 annually, you might be shocked to observe the first price of several domains reach several thousand dollars.

All these are premium domains, they're very popular because it's expected that they'll bring a great deal of visitors to your site. After the first outlay, however they will renew at the normal rate. If you are looking to get a lot of traffic via google searches, it could be worth splashing out on a top domain name when it contrasts with your company.

2.Sign Up to a Hosting Provider

Step one, choose your plan.

We would suggest that you go for the Choice Plus program to make the most of the free backups, it'll be worth every penny if your site runs into issues!

Step two, link your domain name.

You will then be taken to a display like you can see here, where you are able to enter your domain name.

Step three, set up your details.

At this stage, you will also have to choose the length of time you would like to register for. As you may anticipate, enrolling in a year or longer would work out cheaper than paying a month-to-month basis. Bluehost has a 30-day money back guarantee, so you could always give it a try and change after if you feel the need.

Now you are ready to install WordPress!

3. Install Wordpress

This Is something that you can do straight through your hosting dashboard. Based upon the provider, installation will be manual or one-click.

One-click WordPress setup

With hosting providers that offer one-click WordPress setup, downloading WordPress is that simple.

Bluehost has one-click WordPress install. Take a look at our article about How To Start a Blog With Wordpress which shows Bluehost web hosting in detail. Most hosting providers should be rather similar.

Manual WordPress installation

As you may anticipate, manual installation isn't such a simple procedure. It basically involves downloading WordPress to your own computer, then reuploading it into a web hosting provider.

Obviously, we suggest that you opt for a hosting provider that provides one-click installs to get a hassle-free setup. If that becomes an issue, have a look at this thorough manual to installing WordPress.

4. Pick a Theme

One Of the draws of WordPress, if you are confident with code, or prepared to find out - is that you've got pretty much infinite scope for customizing your website. Nevertheless, every site starts with a theme.

Theme is just like a'template' for your website, a fully-made example site which you may then customize with your own content and tweak to your liking.

WordPress includes it's very own set of themes. You are able to try out each one to find which best matches the purpose and vibe of your site.

To install a theme follow these steps:

• Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

• Hover over ‘Appearance’, then click ‘Themes’. This will take you through to the theme dashboard.

• Click the button above the themes that says ‘Add New’, then browse themes under ‘Featured’, ‘Popular’ etc, or use the search bar to search for specific industries.

• Try out a few themes to get the one you like, then click ‘Install’ under the theme to download it.

• After a couple of minutes, a button will appear under the theme that will say ‘Activate’. Click it, and the theme is ready to go.

For something a bit more sophisticated and distinctive, you can purchase a theme from a trustworthy third party website, including ThemeForest. Just keep in mind that a lot of fancy added attributes could slow your website down, so just go for the things you need, less is more!

Here's how you can set up a premium theme on your website:

• Download the .zip file of your new theme.

• Log in to your WordPress Dashboard.

• Hover over ‘Appearance’, then click ‘Themes’. This will take you through to the theme dashboard.

• Click the button above the themes that says ‘Add New’. This will take you to the WordPress theme dashboard.

• Click the button at the top that says ‘Upload Theme’

• You’ll then be taken to choose a .zip file from your computer. Choose your new theme file which you downloaded.

• After that you’ll then see a success message, with a link to activate your theme. And that’s it, you’re ready to go!

Premium themes vary in cost, we would say the average price is about $55, also this is a one-off price.

Do you recall how we mentioned that a theme was just the beginning of your site? That is because you have got pretty much infinite scope to personalize your website, by editing the code or simply by installing plugins, which we will discuss in more detail a bit later on.

And do not worry, if you opt for a complimentary theme or spring to get a superior one, you could always change it later on.

WordPress is always updating, and themes will need to upgrade accordingly. Any WordPress made themes, or those created by a responsible programmer, will create a theme upgrade before a WordPress upgrade is being launched. You will then need to set up the upgrade yourself to make sure that your website is always up to date.

5. Start To Add Content

You've got your awesome WordPress theme, now it's time to add your content!

Concerning the main types of written articles on the Website, this falls into two main categories.

#1. Pages

Pages are static, they won't change if you don't edit them. About Us page is an illustration that most websites will have a variant of. Themes will show the different pages in a navigation bar across the top, or you can add the'Pages' widget to list them down the side.

To add a new page, go to Pages > Add New.

#2. Posts

All these are entries listed on the homepage, either in chronological order or in a committed' blog' section. Articles can be placed by you as "sticky posts" so that they remain at the top.

To add a new post, go to Posts > Add New.

Keep in mind that you can’t add posts to a specific page. If you want to group your posts together, you’ll need to set up a category.

After you have added post or a page, you'll need to replicate it with your own content before clicking on'publish' to make it live on the website. The best approach is to put any written material segments in different text blocks. It's possible to add pictures and videos in between (videos may also be embedded in YouTube or similar websites ), also picture galleries (either as a carousel of images or a choice of thumbnails).

6. Costumize Your Site

As soon as you've added some pages and posts, site begins to look like your own. Now it's time to go a step farther, and start customizing your site in order to match the needs of your content.

There are plenty of ways you can customize your site, but we’ll looking at four most relevant ones here.

#1. Site Title And Tagline

When you put up your website, WordPress automatically places your site's title to Just Another WordPress website.

Make sure you clean this up first thing!

• Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

• Head to Settings, then General

• Add your website’s title next to Site Title

• Next to Tagline, add a few words saying what your site is about

• Click Save Changes

#2. Navigational Menu

This is a big step in the making of any website. You might have the best content in the world but if nobody can find it, doesn't not mean a thing!

Themes come with at least one menu choice, while more complicated themes may have several. Adding one is simple.

• Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

• Hover over Appearance, then click Menus.

• Add a name for your menu next to ‘Menu Name’, then select which pages you’d like to add from the list down the left side.

• For themes with multiple menu options, you might see several tick box options under Menu Settings such as Primary, Secondary etc. Your best bet is to tick primary for now – you can always change this if you’re unhappy with the live version.

• Hit Save Menu to put your new menu live onsite!

#3. Set a Homepage

When it comes to your homepage, you've got either a dynamic page, which updates together with your latest articles, or a static page which holds exactly the same content.

Steps to take will be the same both ways.

• Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

• Click Settings, then head to Reading.

• You’ll be taken to a page of Reading Settings, the first of which is Front Page Displays.

• Select either Your latest posts or a static page.

• Hit Save Changes to make your homepage changes live.

If you choose your posts, you can also choose the amount of blog articles that appear on the website at once, and whether you would like to show a summary or the entire text.

If you choose a page, just make sure that you set up a page called blog (or similar) which will hold all your newest articles. '

#4. Change Comments Settings

WordPress includes an integrated comment attribute, which is automatically set to on. Comments are a great way to show engagement and build community on site.

That said, comments don't suit the tone of each website. And even if you'd like to keep them we suggest that you add a spam filtering step.

• Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

• Click Settings, then head to Discussion.

• We’d recommend selecting Comment must be manually approved. That way, you have the choice whether or not to publish a comment (new ones will appear in your dashboard).

• Don’t forget to hit Save Changes!

If you would like more advice on comments and all the possible configurations you can use, there is a excellent WordPress.org service page that we would recommend checking out.

7. Time To Install Plugins

We have mentioned them a couple of occasions already, but let us clarify once and for all, what's a plugin?

Installing plugins is a way of installing features that WordPress does not already have. They are like apps. For some you pay for and some you can get at no cost. There Are over 56,000 plugins available to WordPress users, sufficient for every purpose you could possible desire and then a few. But not all plugins have been created equal!

And what's more, having a lot of plugins will slow down your website. This may frustrate your customers and damage your functionality in the google rankings.

Some of the most popular WordPress plugins include:

• Contact Form by WP Forms - a simple but effective'drag and drop' form builder plugin for adding customizable forms to your website.

• Yoast SEO - a plugin to help optimize your articles so that it ranks well on search engines.

• WooCommerce - include ecommerce functionality (i.e. the ability to market products online) to your website.

Anyone Can upload a plugin into the WordPress library, so it is definitely a mixed bag. Pick a bad plugin, and you can bet that update won't be received by it prior to the new WordPress versions.

Good thing is that all plugins include reviews, as well as a user-generated star score. We'd recommend just going for plugins that have hundreds of downloads with positive reviews.

Here’s how you add a plugin to your site:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

2. Head to Plugins, then Add New.

3. Open the search bar in the top right corner to search for specific plugins, or the feature you’re looking for.

4. When you have located the one you like, look at it's reviews and ratings to check if it seems trustworthy.

5. When you are happy with your choice, click the Install Now button.

6. When WordPress has downloaded the plugin, you’ll get a completion message and be taken to the next page where you need to click Activate Plugin.

7. After that, go to settings to configure your plugin.

For uploading third party plugins, the process is much the same as uploading third party themes. We'd recommend you have a look at WordPress.org's support guide on plugins for more info.

And keep in mind, always keep an eye out for updates and install them right away!

8. Don't Forget To Update

And that brings us to our final step!

You could have the best WordPress site on earth, however and we really can't stress this enough, if you do not keep on top of your theme and plugin updates, then it will all be for nothing!

Not Only will your site stop working properly once a major WordPress upgrade swings around, you'll also leave yourself vulnerable to viruses and hackers. Updating really is a no-brainer!

How to check for updates:

• Log into your WordPress dashboard.

• Choose update options

• Check for upgrades under the various tabs (plugins, themes etc.) or view an overview in General.

From here, it's easy to accept every update one by one, or set them to update automatically.

When the time comes, don't forget that you'll need to renew your domain name and hosting contracts.

And that’s it! Thank you for sticking with us.