Have you always wanted to build a website of your own, but are unable to do so because you do not know where to begin? If this is the case, you are not alone.
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There are plenty of people who have great ideas, but are held back because they fear they will be overwhelmed, and will require extensive knowledge about design and development. Fortunately, that is not necessary.
This article aims to provide you with all the relevant information you need. Without further ado, let’s take a look at how to build a website with ease.
1 Get Web Hosting and Register Your Domain Name
WordPress is known for designing websites. Not only is it easy-to-use but it is completely free, so there is no reason for you to go elsewhere.
With that out of the way, to set up WordPress, or any other site for that matter, you will need a:
- Domain Name – Web address for your site i.e. mywebsite.com
- Web Hosting – A service that will connect your site to the internet
Without web hosting, you can forget about storing your content, images and website files. Your website will not be visible on the internet without it. You should choose reliable well supported hosting companies such SiteGround, WPEngine for WordPress or Bluehost.
Getting your own domain name is a better idea, as having a site on someone else’s domain will not cut it for you. It will not look professional and may cause a lot of problems later on. The good news is that getting a domain name will not empty your bank in the process. If you search around, you will also come across hosting providers who provide domains that are free — for the first year at least.
2 Set Up Your Website
Once you have a domain name and web hosting, you can set up your website.
If you opted for a good hosting service, they should offer 1-click installation for WordPress; this will save you a lot of time.
3 Design Your Website
The one thing we all know before learning about how to build a website, is that all websites have designs. After installing WordPress to your domain, you will have a clean site to work on. You don’t want to have a plain website, so you need to start working on setting it apart from the rest of websites on the internet, which is where a theme comes into the picture. One of the best things about design templates for WordPress is, that there are a ton of options for you to choose from. All you need to do is to choose a theme, and customize it according to your business.
Most of the themes available on WordPress are highly customizable and free to use. They can be found within WordPress by clicking Appearance on the sidebar, and then Themes. Once you have found a suitable theme, click Install followed by Activate.
Integrate Content to Your Website
After installing the theme of your choice, start working on content.
- For About Me and Services related content, you will need to look for Pages > Add New. A screen will pop up where you can enter content with images. You can build pages you want and then publish them when you are done
- To link new pages on your navigation bar, click Appearance > Menus. Select the page you created and add it to the list by selecting the checkbox. Then click Add to Menu
- For blogs, you will need to select Posts. Similar posts can be grouped using different categories. So if you want to create a category for Blogs, all you need to do is to add it to the menu
4 Further Customization and Tweaks
If you think your website is complete and requires no further changes, you are thoroughly mistaken. Your website will need to be updated constantly. To aid you in your cause, here are a couple of tweaks you need to take into your consideration for the best possible results.
5 Modifying Your Title and Tagline
Page Titles are essential for explaining your website to online users. They are also used by search engines to determine your site’s rankings. Your titles must have the keywords you are targeting for your content to be ranked. However, use keywords in a natural way instead of forcing them. For every page and blog you will need a new unique title.
On the other hand, Taglines are required for every page at the very end.
Your Site Title and Tagline can be changed by clicking Settings > General.
6 Disabling Comments
If you do not want visitors to leave comments on your pages and posts, then you should disable commenting.
To disable commenting, here is what you need to do:
While writing a new page, select Screen Options > Discussion Box. Untick Allow Comments.
To disable commenting on new pages by default, click Settings > Discussion. Disable Allow People to Post Comments on New Articles.
7 Set Up a Static Front Home Page
Are you frustrated with how your home page looks? Does it look like a blog post? You can fix this by setting up a Static home page.
A static page does not change at all. With blogs, a new one pops up at the top after some time, but a static page will show the same content every time.
To set up a static home page click Settings > Reading. Select the static page you created. Remember, Front Page refers to your home page, while the Posts Page refers to your blog.
If you have not selected a static home page, WordPress will automatically select the latest posts to be shown on your homepage.
8 Get More out of WordPress
To get more out of WordPress, you can always install new plugins. These are extensions that will allow you to expand your capabilities on the platform. You can add new functions and features that do not necessarily come with WordPress.
These are a great way to get your site to do what you want, that too without having to build features from the ground up.
With plugins, you can add submission forms to photo galleries to your website.
To install plugins, click Plugins > Add New. Explore the vast library of plugins to find one you need and click Install. It really is that simple!
Before you install plugins, here are a couple of things you need to keep in mind about WordPress Plugins.
By opting for WordPress to build your website, you will be able to control a lot of things. To master WordPress in its entirety, you will find several guides online, so take advantage of them whenever possible. For now, you are fully prepared to start building your website from scratch!