If you’ve been pushing aside the choice to line up a website for your small business because you assume it’ll be complicated or time-consuming, then don’t worry! Creating a personal website or an eCommerce site is very easy to set on a WordPress content management platform (CMS). In fact, most of the people can go from start to end in about half-hour — without any advanced tech skills or special training. WordPress is an ideal drag-and-drop website builder.
Steps to set up a WordPress website successfully:
1. Get a Domain Name –
First, you’ll need to buy a domain name. This is the web address people will use to find you – for example, our domain name is Cloudhostservice.com.
Buying a domain name is super simple. Just head to a domain name registrar – a well-known one is Cloudhostservice.com – then search for the address you want.
A good domain name should reflect the name of your website or business. It should be easy to remember and be as short as possible. In terms of the simplest name extension (i.e. the bit at the top of your domain name), .com is that the most common/popular. It’s a secure bet if it’s available, and therefore the option we’d recommend.
Failing that, you’ve got some other good options:
- net – available to everyone, but often related to tech companies
- org – available to everyone, but especially popular among NGOs and charities
- co – available to everyone, but often related to start-ups or trendy new companies
And in fact, if you simply operate on a national level, you’ll always accompany your country’s domain extension, such as .us or .co.uk. Only US citizens and entities can use .us, but other countries are often more flexible.
2. Sign up for Web Hosting –
Although there are free options, your best bet is to go with a paid host to make sure of quality and control. There are many affordable web hosts to decide from. Since you would like to install WordPress, make sure that the host offers the WordPress script in its library. WordPress may be a popular service, so most include it. Whatever web hosting service you select – will likely offer tiered options. You do not have to feel pressured to choose the more advanced options. However, you’ll start with a basic plan and proportion as required.
3. Link Your Domain and Web Host Services –
After you sign up for hosting, you’ll receive account login information and the address of your host’s nameservers (two series of numbers). Copy the nameserver information, and then head to your domain registrar and add the nameserver info to your domain name. This tells the domain registrar where (which host) the domain should point to. Once these two aspects of your website sync up, then you’re ready to start building.
4. Install WordPress –
Gone are the days once you had to download the script from the WordPress site then upload it to your host. Most hosts offer a fast install option through their script library. Log into your host account (i.e., cPanel) and find the WordPress script (if you’re unsure where this is often in your cPanel, ask your host). Click on “Install” and indicate where you would like the script to put in.
If you would like your whole site on WordPress, then use your name, leaving the directory option blank (i.e., www.yourdomain.com/). If you have already got a website and need to put in a blog during a different folder, then write within the folder name after your domain. Say for instance , if you would like WordPress for your blog, you’ll install it in www.yourdomain.com/blog/ as the install will create the “blog” folder and install WordPress there. During the process of install, you’ll also provide your admin name, blog name, and email, which can be included in WordPress (you can change the blog name and email later).
Upon completion, you’ll tend a link to the newly created WordPress site and a password. You’ll want to vary the password.
5.Browse the WordPress Dashboard –
The nice thing about WordPress is that, even when it’s updated, the essential functions stay an equivalent. Once you learn where everything is and the way it works, you’re good to on-board. Log into your WordPress site using your admin name and password. Once logged in, you’ll be taken to your dashboard.
On the left there may be a menu of all the quality options:
Posts: This is often how you create and edit blog articles.
Media: This the place where pictures, videos, and other forms of media are stored. You’ll add media on to this folder as a standalone action, or while writing a post or page. If you add media to a page, then it’ll get stored in your Media folder.
Pages: Pages host static content like your “About Me” information. If your home business offers a service, then you’d put your service information on a page.
Comments: This is often how you manage, and moderate comments left on your site.
Appearance: How to manage and customize your website theme, to organize your sidebar widgets, to create menus (as allowed by your theme), and to access the theme’s editor.
Plugins: Add, delete, and update plugins here. Some plugins add menu features on to the dashboard menu, while others get added as a submenu item under Tools or Settings.
Users: You’ll manage people that register as guests, also give permissions of those to whom you give access. For instance, if you’ve got a virtual assistant, then you’ll want to permit them to update and make changes to the site. Also, if your virtual assistant quits, then you will need to revoke those permissions.
Tools: To Import and export WordPress data using Tools menu. Some plugin settings also are accessed here.
Settings: This is where you’ll witness how your blog is read, how comments are posted, your permalink structure (how your blog content URLs look), and more. Many plugin settings are accessed through Settings.
6. Choose a WordPress Theme –
WordPress offers default themes, otherwise you can browse and install themes from the WordPress theme library. Click on “Appearance,” then “Theme.” If you wish the default theme but choose the “Customize” option (under the “Appearance” option) to vary aspects like color and therefore the header. You may change the theme by clicking on a different theme, then clicking on “Activate.”
If you don’t just like the default options, then you may add a replacement theme. One method is to click on “Add Theme” where you’ll access a theme library. If you wish any of the themes within the library, simply click “Install” and then “Activate” to use the theme. An alternative choice is to seek out themes from other sources. To use these themes, you would like to download them from the source, then in your WordPress dashboard click “Add Themes” then “Upload Theme.” Use the browse button to seek out the theme you downloaded, click on the file (it’s usually a zipper file), then upload. Once it’s uploaded, click on “Install” and “Activate.” Note that some themes add menu items to your left navigation. Some even have customization options like adding your social media links.
7.Set up Your Plugins –
WordPress comes ready-made with two plugins. There are many plugins that add cool features and functions to your website. Like some plugins will create a storefront on your WordPress site.
8. Add Content to Your Site –
Start by adding your static pages like “About Me”, “Contact”, and whatever other information you would like visitors to possess (such as a media kit). If you’re running your WordPress site sort of a standard website, then you’ll want visitors to land on a selected home page, whether it is your “About Me” page or another section. To do so, goto “Settings”, then “Reading”, toggle “Static Page”, and then select what page or post you would like on your homepage. If you’re running a blog, then you may leave the default setting, which should be “Your Latest Posts.”
Once you’ve got your pages, add posts associated with your blog or home business topic. Then you may click on “New Page” or “New Post” that’s under “Page” or “Post” within the dashboard menu. After doing so, you may add your title to the title box and your content there. WordPress gives you two options to feature your content, “Visual” and “text.” “Visual” allows you to figure on the content because it appears to visitors. “Text” takes away the frills to offer you the essential HTML of the page or post. If you’ve got code you would like to incorporate (such as an affiliate link), then you will need to settle on “Text” to feature it. On the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see options to publish or schedule your post, categorize it (including adding new categories), tag it (including adding new tags), and add a featured image.
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