At first thought, creating your own website may seem like an overwhelming task.
You might even think that this task is best suited for developers and coders.
But here is the good news: you can build your website! How, do you ask?
WordPress is the answer.
For starters, WordPress is an easy-to-use platform that can be used by anyone to build a unique and professional-looking website for their portfolio, blog, or business.
Basically, it is a content management system that hosts and builds your websites. Equipped with a range of plugins and shortcodes, the platform helps you in augmenting the functionality of your website on the go.
Let’s get started and see how you can build your own website.
Choose your domain name and hosting provider
You are required to choose a domain name and hosting provider for your website typically at the same time.
For starters, domain name resembles your home address. This is the address through which your visitors are able to locate your website on the internet. But where will your website reside? Where will you store all the related files? This is where a hosting provider comes to your rescue.
It is important to mention here that domain names are important, and therefore, you must choose them properly. Ideally, your domain name should be short, precise, catchy, and reflect your business type.
When it comes to choosing a hosting provider, here are a few factors that you must keep in mind:
- Ensure that your hosting supports PHP version 7.3 or up
- Check if it provides HTTPS support
- Verify if it supports MySQL version 5.6 or up
Once you have taken care of all these aspects, it is time to move ahead.
Install WordPress
The next step here is to install WordPress. For this, head on to the control panel of your hosting provider and click on Manage or other similar options.
Look for an area titled Popular Apps, and locate the WordPress icon to begin the installation.
You might be asked a few questions related to the working of WordPress but that varies from hosting to hosting.
Once WordPress is set up, you will need to link your primary domain to WordPress. For this, log in to your WordPress dashboard and click My Site > Domains. Select the domain name and make it primary.
Choose your theme
Now that the basic set up is done, it is time to move ahead and beautify your website. Not to mention, your website looks very dull and boring at the moment.
Thankfully, you can easily customize your website with the help of WordPress themes and templates. Although WordPress offers a range of theme options for you to choose from, you can also explore an array of other options on third-party websites and platforms.
To explore your existing options, click Appearance > Themes. You can then browse the available themes and click on Install to activate them.
Add posts and pages to your website
By activating the desired theme, half of the battle is won. Now it is time to add content to your website. For this to happen, you will need to add pages and posts to your website.
But before you move further, it is important to understand the difference between posts and pages. Generally speaking, posts are used for blogs and portfolios such that the newly added content always appears at the top.
On the other hand, pages are static which means that the added content always stays in the same place.
Thus, decide whether you want to add a new page or post. If you want to add a new page, navigate to the left sidebar on your WordPress dashboard, click on Pages > Add New.
In case you want to add a new post, navigate to the left sidebar again, click on Posts > Add New.
Add content to both your posts and pages and click on Save Draft or Publish.
Customize your website
Your website is almost good to go. However, you can further personalize it and reflect your branding. You can change the logo of your website, add website title and tagline, choose the fonts of your links, customize the navigation bar, and more. For this, you will need to head on to Settings from the left sidebar and make the required changes.
Install plugins
To further enhance the functioning of your website, you can install appropriate plugins. Some plugins that are worth installing include Yoast SEO, WordPress Contact Form, and JetPack. To install a plugin, click Plugins on the left sidebar. Explore the available plugins by clicking on Add New. Next, install the desired plugin by clicking on Install Now.
By following these steps, you can make your WordPress website like a pro.
WordPress tips and tricks
To help you make the most out of your website, here are some additional tips that will help you out:
Focus on the basics
The best WordPress websites are the ones that offer an amazing user experience. Thus, ensure that your chosen theme is extremely user-friendly and responsive.
Use Image Alt Text
While uploading images, make sure that you provide an appropriate alt text to each of your images. This will help search engines understand what the image is all about, which, in turn, will make your website SEO-friendly.
Take regular backups
Accidents happen, and you could end up losing your website data due to malware or for any reason whatsoever. This is why we will highly recommend you backup your website from time to time.
The wrap up
This brings us to the end of this article. We hope you were able to build a WordPress website on your own. How was your experience? Do you have any queries? Let us know in the comments below.