7-Step Beginner’s Guide to Creating a WordPress Website

7-Step Beginner’s Guide to Creating a WordPress Website. How to Make a WordPress Website.

If you wanted to build a website in the 2000s, you would need coding skills and a bunch of experience to build a fully-functional website.

Explosive digitization and the introduction of CMS (Content Management Systems) have made creating websites child's play. It is totally cheap, easy and requires no coding skills.

Currently the most used CMS is WordPress. Even if you've never built a website, you've probably heard the name.

Here's how you can build your WordPress website in 7 easy steps:

Outline the purpose of the website
Choose and register a domain name
Choose a hosting provider for your website
Point your domain name to your hosting
Install WordPress
Install a theme
Start adding high-quality content to your WordPress website

Outline the purpose of the website

7-Step Beginner’s Guide to Creating a WordPress Website, What is your website about? Is it a portfolio where you can display your artwork? Is it an eCommerce store for your business? Or are you creating a blog?

Here you need clarity because if you plan to create a portfolio or ecommerce website, there are better options than WordPress.

For everything else, WordPress leads. It is flexible and has already beaten competitors like Joomla and Drupal almost a decade ago.

WordPress sites require zero coding skills. You'll also get a gazillion WordPress experts to help you out if you ever get stuck. It's all beautiful - it's the ideal choice!

Once you know the purpose of your website, it will help you decide on the steps to follow, such as choosing an appropriate theme and an appropriate domain name.

Choose and register a domain name

It can be a sticky wicket.

Why?

It's very likely that the name you've been thinking about for weeks or even months has already been taken!

What's worse, you can try about a dozen variations of the original name - all of which can be taken!

Don't go looking for good wishes right now. Here's what you can do. Try reverse engineering. First find a domain that is both available and you like. If you have it, consider it as a possible name for your business.

Unreasonable! One might argue.

Not really! It's much better to settle for a different domain name than a horrible change to the name you originally thought of.

Believe it or not - this is the hardest part of the guide. Once you're set with a domain name, the rest of the steps are a cakewalk

So, you now have a catchy name for your website. The next step is to register it with a domain registrar like GoDaddy or BigRock. Learn how to register a domain name here.

Choose a hosting provider for your website

7-Step Beginner’s Guide to Creating a WordPress Website, This is where we start getting our hands dirty with some technical details (not too technical though).

You are building a WordPress website and you need to store your website elements somewhere on the Internet. Think of it as a place where your website lives.

This is where a web host enters the scene with a server where you will store your website so that everyone can access it.

My host of choice has always been BlueHost, but you can find plenty of others with a simple Google search.

Point your domain name to your hosting

7-Step Beginner’s Guide to Creating a WordPress Website, Think about it. Your domain registrar has no idea where you host your website. When a person enters your domain name into a browser, where does it take them?

Well, somewhere! If you don't point your domain name to your hosting, your website won't know where to look.

To remedy this, you need to get the nameserver settings from your host. If you can't find them, give your host a call and they'll guide you.

Once you have the settings from your host, configure the DNS settings in your domain registrar account to point to your host. I know, this is a very technical term.

If you use GoDaddy, follow these simple guidelines. Trust me, it's not hard once you do it.

Install WordPress

If you use Bluehost, it should install WordPress with its one-click WordPress installation feature. When you log in, you will see it on the dashboard.

Other hosts such as HostGator and SiteGround also offer easy WordPress installation. As a beginner, I recommend you to choose one of these hosts. If you're feeling brave, here's a guide to installing WordPress yourself.

Install a theme

WordPress themes are powerful tools that can completely transform the look of your website. Although there are free themes available, if you are a serious blogger, I recommend going for a paid theme. Themeforest and TemplateMonster have some really nice themes.

Once you have a stunning WordPress theme, go to the Appearance tab from the sidebar of your WordPress dashboard. Click Add New > Upload Theme and you will see an option to upload your theme. Upload the theme as a .zip file, upload it and click "Activate" to make it live

Start adding high-quality content to your WordPress website

If you sincerely put consistent effort into your website, it will continue to evolve as you add new content or upgrade the theme. What it looks like on day 1 will be significantly different from what it looks like on day 180

Again, it depends on the purpose of creating the website.

Whether you create a blog or an affiliate marketing website, you always need to add high-quality content to your website.

I emphasize high-quality words because your content is the heart and soul of a blog. Provide value to your visitors, and they will keep coming.

final thought

This entire process will take you less than an hour!

Surprised? Well, it won't.

Creating a website is just the tip of the iceberg. All you need to do now is to continuously improve and improve your WordPress website to drive traffic, increase revenue or whatever your end goal is.

You need to experiment with plugins, build an e-mail list, monitor analytics, and countless other things. But don't let that overwhelm you. On the other hand, success awaits you.