How to Create A Website With WordPress

Last updated on: 18th March 2020

Reading time: 15 minutes

Are you looking to create your website with WordPress?

I have been building and promoting websites since 2009. I will teach you how to create a website with WordPress.

Don’t worry if you do not have any experience with coding. I have explained each and every step for creating a website with WordPress.

People prefer building websites with WordPress because creating a website from scratch via coding takes a lot of time. It is a tedious task and the end result can be mediocre. 

Using a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress makes the task of building a website easier. Let’s start!

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create a website with WordPress:

Step 1: Pick a domain name 

The first step to creating a website with WordPress is picking a domain name.

It is very critical to get the correct domain name. There’re various things you will need to keep in mind while choosing a domain name. These are as follows:

• A domain name should be short because it will be easier for the users to remember and type as well.
• It should be catchy so that it can easily describe what you do. 
• The domain name should represent your brand so you need to ensure that it isn’t memorable for the wrong reasons.
• It includes the right combination of keywords. This is optional but it may be good for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Therefore, before you decide to register a domain name, you need to decide on what kind of website you’re creating.

You can use WordPress to create a simple portfolio or a business website.

Also, you need to ask who the website is for and what you want to offer, and then choose a perfect domain name that matches with your requirement. 

Step 2: Register your domain name

Once you have chosen a domain, it’s time to register it so that no one else uses it. To register a domain name, perform the following steps:

1. Buying a domain name is very easy as you just need to contact the domain name registrar, such as Namecheap, GoDaddy, and so on. 

2. Next, search for the relevant domain name of your choice. It is recommended that you choose a domain name that reflects your company name or the service you provide. The cost of domain can range from 10$ – 30$ per annum. 

3. Finally, you need to choose the domain name extension. There are various extensions available but the most common ones are as follows:

• .com: This is popularly used extension by most companies and it is a safe bet if it’s available.
• .net: This extension is available to everyone but its more suitable to technology companies.
• .org: This type of extension is often associated with NGOs and charitable organizations. 
• .co: This extension is also available to everyone but it is associated with start-ups. 
• .<country>: This extension is available if you only operate on a national level. You can go with your country’s domain extension, such as .us, .co.uk, or .in. 

Step 3: Choose a hosting package

This is the most crucial step when creating your website with WordPress.

You need to appropriate package for hosting your website depending upon your requirements. 

A web host is a company that specializes in running servers to host websites. There are various web hosting providers that provide not just fast and reliable service but incredible responsive customer service.

Before you make a decision, you need to ask questions like how much money do you have or what tasks you should pay for before everything else. 

There are three main variants you can choose for selecting the hosting plan. These include:

• Shared hosting: It is the cheapest and most preferred plan for small business owners or those who’re just getting started. With shared hosting, you can share the server and its resources with other websites. Also, it allows you to share bandwidth and storage space. 
• Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting: In this plan, you’ll be provided a portion of server resources. Also, you’ll share the server with other VPS users but there’ll be limited users only. 
• Managed WordPress Hosting: This is an expensive hosting plan that provides WordPress management solutions. It is a dedicated hosting that is exclusively meant for the WordPress platform.

Step 3: Install WordPress

Once you’ve got the domain name and chosen your preferred hosting package, it’s time to install WordPress.

To create a website using WordPress, you need to choose the best hosting provider.

Depending on your hosting provider, you can perform the following types of installations of WordPress: 

Manual: This type of installation involves two steps where you need to first download WordPress on your computer. Then, you need to re-upload it to your hosting provider. 

One-click: This option provides hassle-free installation where you can download and install WordPress automatically via your hosting provider. Most hosting providers, such as Bluehost and Siteground offers one-click WordPress installs.

Here are the steps you should follow for one-click installation:

1. Log in to your web hosting account

2. Go to the Control Panel and look for the WordPress or Website icon 

3. Click the Install WordPress button to automatically install WordPress in your web host. 

4. Log in to Your WordPress Dashboard using the login credentials. If you’re not sure how to type in: https://yoursite.com/wp-admin (replace “yoursite” with your domain). 

Your WordPress dashboard will appear like this.

The WordPress dashboard consists of the following items:

• Dashboard
• Posts
• Media
• Links
• Pages
• Comments
• Appearance
• Plugins
• Users
• Tools
• Settings

Step 5: Choose a WordPress theme 

Once you’ve successfully installed WordPress to your domain, you’ll view only a basic website.

The design of the website doesn’t look very professional. You may want to change the appearance and look and feel of the website to make it look better. 

You can do this using a WordPress theme, which is a design template that tells WordPress how your website will appear. 

There are various professionally designed themes available in WordPress that you can download and use it for free, such as JustFreeThemes, ThemeForest, ThemeIsle, and aThemes. 

You can also purchase a premium WordPress theme to extend the functionality of the free themes as the free themes may have some limitations. 

To install and activate a theme, 

1. Go to Appearance ? Themes from your WordPress Dashboard, and then click on Add New button. 

2. Search the name of the theme in the text field that you want to install. You’ll view the themes displayed in the list below the search field. 

3. Click on the desired theme, and then click on the Install button to install it. 

4. Next, click on the Activate button that will immediately appear once the theme is installed. 

Now, you’ll see your new theme appearing on your website.

You can also install the theme by downloading the .zip file of your desired theme. Then, you need to upload the file and then activate the theme. 

Step 6: Customize your WordPress website

Once you’re done installing the desired theme, it’s time to go a step further and start customizing your WordPress website based on your branding requirements.

There are numerous ways where you can customize the site but the key ones are as follows:

1. Modify the site title and tagline

When you set up your site in WordPress, it automatically sets your site title. A site title is the title of your website that will be displayed on the title bar of the browser once the user types the URL of your website in the address bar.

You need to modify the site title and the tagline to adjust it according to your requirements. To do this, 

1. Go to Appearance ? Themes in the WordPress Dashboard  

2. Click Customize.

3. Modify the Site Title and the Tagline in the text field under Customising ? General Options

2. Add a navigational menu 

Next, you need to create a menu for your users that is a critical step for any website. 

3. Set the homepage 

You can also customize the homepage on your website. WordPress allows you to either set your website as a static homepage or set it as a dynamic page which updates with all your latest pages. 

Step 7: Set up plugins to get more out of WordPress 

Plugins play an essential role when you create a website with WordPress.

A plugin is an extension that is built to extend the standard functionality of your site by adding some much-needed features.

Also, it adds features and functions to your website that may not come as built-in without any knowledge of coding.

There are various plugins available depending upon the action you need to perform, such as Yoast SEO, WP Forms, and Google Analytics for WordPress. 

You can either download a plugin from an external website if you know the plugin’s name or search directly in WordPress. 

To install directly from WordPress, perform the following steps:

1. Go to the WordPress Dashboard, and then click Plugins ? Add New. 

2. Type the name of the plugin or any keyword for which you require a plugin in the Search field. 

3.  All the related plugins will appear at the bottom. Select the desired plugin and then click Install.

4. Once the plugin is installed, click Activate to activate the plugin. 

Step 8: Add content to your WordPress website

Now the fun part begins where it’s time to add content to your site.

Content addition is one of the important parts of creating your website with WordPress.

If you don’t have any content on your WordPress website, it will be dull and boring and it won’t get any traffic, and in turn, may not be able to generate any leads. 

Therefore, you need to produce content that genuinely offers value to your visitors based on your niche or your expertise. You will need to focus on quality content if you want to help your visitors through your website.

You can add content based on two main categories. 

1. Pages

Pages are static that allows you to divide your website into the required number of sections to present the content in an orderly manner. You can add various pages to your site depending on your requirements. Each page has a specific purpose on your site. 

To add a new page, go to Pages ? Add New on the left-hand menu.

You can create the following standard pages in your site:

• Home: This is displayed by default and is usually the front page of your website. 
• About Us: This page tells the entire story of your business and why you’ve started your business. 
• Product or Services: Often, you’ll also include the Product or a Services page or both to add the products or services your offer in your business.
• Contact Us: This page allows your visitors to view the contact information so that they can contact you for any requirements. You can also integrate a form via plugins where they can enter their information so that you can contact them later.

2. Posts

A post is an entry that is listed in chronological order either on a home page or in a dedicated blog section. 

To add a new post, go to Posts ? Add New from the left-hand side of the window.

Why You Should Create A Website With WordPress 

WordPress is the most preferred platform to build your website as it is easy-to-use and flexible to suit everyone from small business owners to online stores, and so on.

According to a recent survey, 52% of users consider WordPress as a preferred CMS platform. It has a CMS market share of 60.3% while it is been used by 33.4% of the websites.  

Here are a few reasons why you should create a website with WordPress:

1. It is free and open-source

WordPress is open-source software that you can use to create or customize a website or a blog. Also, it is completely free to use, which means that you’re free to download, install, use and modify it to match your requirements.  

2. It is user-friendly and easy-to-use

You can start using WordPress immediately as soon as you install it as it has a user-friendly interface. It doesn’t require any configuration besides any customizations to change the look and feel.  

3. It provides storing community support

This is amongst the greatest benefit of using WordPress for building your website as compared to other CMS platforms. There are a lot of websites built using WordPress. Therefore, there is a large community that is used to provide support as many people are using it. This community provides various resources, such as ebooks, blogs, online tutorials, message boards, and so on.

4. It is easily customizable 

You can easily customize your WordPress website without any prior knowledge of designing websites. You can easily change the look and feel of your website such as changing the colors, upload a logo, change the background, and so on based on your requirements without writing any code. 

5. It is secure and safe

WordPress is considered to be a safe and secure platform to run your website. It allows you to reinforce the security of your site and make it hacking-proof.

6. WordPress is easily manageable

You can easily update WordPress within the WordPress Admin Dashboard by simply click of a button. Also, you can automatically create backups and store them in a remote location. This helps protect your data from any accident or hacking.

Final thoughts

Therefore, to wrap up, here is a quick summary of the steps to create a website using WordPress. The first step to create a website using WordPress is to register a domain name, and then you need to sign up to a hosting provider to obtain a webspace.

Next, you need to install WordPress through hosting provider via just one-click or manually, and then select or install an appropriate theme for your website. Also, you need to add some plugins to your site to take it to the next level by adding some extra features.  Now, you can content to the website where you need to add pages, posts, or images and customize the website to undertake some housekeeping.

Finally, you need to keep your site updated by applying some updates as soon as they are available. 

Creating a website with WordPress is not an easy task nor is it a done deal. All you need is time and continuous work to create a perfect site. Don’t worry if you don’t have everything in place at the start while creating a website.