How to Build a WordPress Website | The Ultimate Guide to Build a WordPress Website

Learn to build a WordPress website, fast and easy. 

Discover tips tricks, and secret hacks to create a professional-looking website that looks great provides a great customer experience + converts lookers to buyers.

 

Learn How to Build a WordPress Website.

Congratulations!  You have decided to build a website.   This tutorial will teach you how to build a WordPress Website.

I know the thought of building a DIY website can seem a little intimidating and maybe a bit overwhelming, but by breaking everything down into bite-size steps you’ll have a new website in no time at all.

Great news, this guide will walk you step-by-step through building a WordPress website.  This guide is for all the non-techies out there that thought a DIY website was out of reach because of a fear of confusing technology and acronyms.

It is possible to build your own website in as few as 3 or 4 hours without any coding knowledge, without being a website developer or a design. You don’t need fancy or expensive tools.  A few free or low-cost tools will get your website up and running in no time – WordPress is free, a domain name is cheap ($5-$20/year), good but low-cost hosting is only $120/year, and you can use web-based design tools like Canva free. But try the pro plan for 30 days.  I’m a big fan…more on this later in the article.

WordPress is easy to use so virtually anyone – that means you – can successfully create a unique and professional-looking website for their business, blog, or portfolio. It’s called WordPress.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that makes it easy for you to build professional-grade websites without learning to code.

WordPress is like wordprocessing software on steroids.  It uses themes to control the design – just like you’d use a template in Word. It even has something called a plugin – think app for your smartphone that adds additional pieces of functionality.  All this makes it easy for you to build and customize a website to fit business, blog, portfolio, or online store.

How to Build a WordPress Website – fast and easy.

This guide will cover a basic step-by-step process of creating your own WordPress website + tips and tricks that will make building a WordPress website fun, fast, and easy.

Learn to Build a Self-Hosted WordPress Website

Every article you read on building a WordPress Site details the difference between self-hosted WordPress CMS (confusingly referred to as WordPress.org) or WordPress.com.

To make this super easy I recommend building a self-hosted WordPress site.

If you are willing to trust me just skip to the next section, if not I get it, keep reading.

WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com

The simple difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com has to do with how your site is hosted

Using the free WordPress CMS, you buy your own hosting from a hosting company. Most hosting companies now offer WordPress Managed Hosting at reasonable prices and most will even install WordPress for you when they set up your hosting account. A good host can overcome the technical barrier many people want to avoid.

You will need to buy a domain name and your URL  or web address will be something like www.myamazingwebsite.com.

WordPress.com will host your website for you. but using the free version of WordPress.com your website’s URL be something like this: www.myamazingwebsite.wordpress.com. You do have the option to upgrade to a paid account on your WordPress.com account and then you can use a custom domain meaning your URL will be www.myamazingwebsite.com.

How to Choose Between self-hosted Free WordPress CMS or WordPress.com

My opinion is that there really isn’t a choice here if you are serious about using your website to drive business and convert lookers to bookers.

Bit detailed below are the pros and cons of both.

WordPress.org is ideal if you want full power over customizing and controlling your website. In the past, there was a lot more responsibility that came with managing a self-hosted WordPress website. But today there is great and affordable managed WordPress Hosting that does most of the heavy lifting for you.  In most cases, your host will manage the servers, keep them configured properly and update.  You do not need to understand coding to use the free self-hosted version of WordPress (no matter what other sites say).  WordPress CMS is free to use, but you will have to pay to register a domain name and you will pay for hosting.  If you are really bootstrapping it you can run a self-hosted WordPress website for as little as $10/ month.  A typical start-up WordPress website costs between $120 – $560 / year depending on the type of functionality you need.

WordPress.com has a free and paid version. If you stick with the free version, you can’t upload any custom themes or plugins, and you will have a WordPress subdomain. WordPress.com will also run advertising on your site.

However, there is always the option to pay for premium upgrades and other plans that provide you with even more features and control, as well as the option to buy a custom domain through a third-party site.  You’ll spend close to $500 a year to get the same functionality with less freedom as you would using the free WordPress CMS coming in at about $120/ year.

Clear Winner Self-hosted WordPress CMS

I promise you’ll thank me later on.

Pros and Cons of Self Hosted WordPress

Self-hosted Word Press (sometimes referred to as WordPress.org)

Pros

Ideal if you want full power over customizing and controlling your website. In the past, there was a lot more responsibility that came with managing a self-hosted WordPress website. But today there is great and affordable managed WordPress Hosting that does most of the heavy lifting for you.  In most cases, your host will manage the servers, keep them configured properly and update.  You do not need to understand coding to use the free self-hosted version of WordPress (no matter what other sites say).  WordPress CMS is free to use, but you will have to pay to register a domain name and you will pay for hosting.  If you are really bootstrapping it you can run a self-hosted WordPress website for as little as $10/ month.  A typical start-up WordPress website costs between $120 – $560 / year depending on the type of functionality you need.

Cons

Even with awesome hosting, you are ultimately responsible for making sure your host is managing your server properly.  With a reputable host, this isn’t an issue.

WordPress.com has a free and paid version.

If you stick with the free version, you can’t upload any custom themes or plugins, and you will have a WordPress subdomain. WordPress.com will also run advertising on your site.

However, there is always the option to pay for premium upgrades and other plans that provide you with even more features and control, as well as the option to buy a custom domain through a third-party site.  You’ll spend close to $500 a year to get the same functionality with less freedom as you would using the free WordPress CMS coming in at about $120/ year.

Clear Winner Self-hosted WordPress CMS

I promise you’ll thank me later on.

Recommended Choice | Self-hosted WordPress.org

 

If your head started to hurt reading that, let WP Design Lab do all the tech stuff for you. We offer premium self-hosted WordPress CMS on our professionally managed WordPress optimized servers as part of our service.  

How to Build a WordPress Website for Beginners

The Beginners Guide to building a WordPress Website

WordPress for Beginners: How to Use WordPress

There are a number of ways for you to create your dream website with WordPress. Users generally find the software easy to use, but getting started can be intimidating if you’re new to building websites world.

Keep reading to learn how to build a WordPress Website the Quick and Easy Way.  You’ll be creating your website in no time flat.

Step-by-step How to Build a Self-hosted WordPress Website

  1. Buy a domain name
  2. Purchase WordPress Managed Hosting with WordPress installed
  3. Choose your theme
  4. Customize the theme to your brand
  5. Create your core pages – home, about, services, etc.
  6. Add Content and Media
  7. Install recommended plugins
  8. Go Live!  You did it!  Go you.

Want Free Premium Hosting For 1 Year?

When you learn with WP Design Lab your program includes WordPress optimized Hosting on a managed Virtual Private Server — FREE for 1 year.

Buy a Domain Name | How to Build a WordPress Website

Buying a domain name made easy

For most people and companies, the web design journey starts with choosing the perfect domain name. What’s your domain name going to be?

This is the web address is the name your visitors will type into a browser to visit your site – [yoursitename].com.

So exactly how do you go about acquiring a domain name?

Purchasing a domain name is a relatively simple process.  The bigger challenge is finding a domain name that will work for your brand that hasn’t already been taken.

Your domain name is the name of your website and it’s important you want to make sure you get a good one, but it doesn’t have to be a perfect one.

What makes a good domain name?

  • A good domain name quickly and easily conveys what you do and who you do it for.
  • It is easy to spell.
  • Short and descriptive.
  • Easy to remember

Where to buy a domain name?

I buy all my domains from Godaddy.com.  I know there’s a ton of upselling going on here but keep your blinders on and only buy and register your domain name.  You don’t want to use Godaddy for hosting or anything else. Namecheap.com is also another registrar I recommend.

I  recommend keeping your domain registration separate from your hosting.  Many hosting services will offer a free domain name when you sign up for a web hosting package.

But keep in mind, however, the free domain name is usually only free only for one or two years, after the free period you will be billed for future years.

Keeping domains separate from hosting makes sense because as your site and business grow you will likely change hosting packages to better serve your customers and many times this means you’ll change companies.  

Purchase a Managed WordPress Hosting Account

There are hundreds of hosting providers to choose from.

Please note – many websites promote certain hosts because they get a nice commission for any customers they send to a hosting company.  Many consistently recommend and promote a very cheap host, that I would never use personally.

I personally recommend and use InMotion for hosting.  You can purchase managed WordPress hosting for as little as $6.99/ month with a 2-year commitment.

They manage multiple virtual private servers for me and have excellent uptime, offer Cpanel, and have exceptional and fast customer service.

Once you’ve selected your hosting company just follow their process to sign up.  Make sure they know you want WordPress preinstalled and you’ll be all set to get building.  Easy Peasy!

Choose a WordPress Theme How to Build a WordPress Website

Now comes the fun part!  This is when you can begin to see and imagine how your website will look and how it will deliver the best possible user experience.

WordPress automatically provides you with a default theme that looks rather plain. The first thing you are going to do is change it.  There are like a bazillion free and paid themes.

I personally use Divi and the Divi builder, but there are other awesome free and premium (paid themes out there.  I use Divi because they offer lots of bang for the buck.  They have 100’s of layout’s all ready for you to use and customize.

Plus using the custom builder you can literally build anything.

Free Themes I Recommend

Neve

Fast and lightweight.  Clean code. Integrates with WooCommerce.  Works with most page builders.

OceanWP 

Fast and lightweight.  SEO built-in. Integrates with WooCommerce.  Works with most page builders.

Astra

Fast loads. Integrates with WooCommerce and Learn Dash.  Works with most page builders but not my favorite Divi.

How to Change your Theme

Login to your WordPress admin dashboard. Click “Appearance” and then “Themes”.

You will then be brought to another screen where you can browse themes or save yourself time by using one of the recommended themes or purchasing Divi.

Beginner Tip – All WP Design Lab Webdesign Courses and Servces come with a free Divi premium theme.

Simply click add a new theme and search for a theme or choose “Add New” “Install” to upload a new or premium theme.
 
Every them has different steps to customize so look for a well-documented.
 
Take a look at your front end by hovering over the website name on the top left and click visit site to see how things are starting to look.  It might not look like much yet, but it will soon.
 
Next, we’ll customize everything to match your branding.
Keep going you’ve got this!

Spend Money on a Premium Theme

All WP Design Lab Packages include the Premium Divi Theme with the powerful Divi Builder.  We also include a premium lead capture plugin + social sharing plugin.  All the plugins come pre-installed and configured.

Saving you $200/ annually

Customize Your WordPress Theme | How to Build a WordPress Website

We are getting closer to your dream website, just a few (dozen ;_) more clicks and you’ll have your website customized.

Navigate to Settings > Reading and in the left-hand nav area in your WordPress admin page.  Choose a static page.

Most business owners will choose a static homepage to deliver your message consistently.

Customize Your Site Title and Tagline

Let’s customize your site title and tagline.  Navigate to Setting > General.  Now simply add your Site Title and keyword-rich tagline. 

Make sure to click “save changes”

Set Up Site Navigation

Next, let’s add some placeholder navigation. Once you have your pages written we’ll come back and add links all your top bar navigation to make it easy for visitors to find all your valuable information. 

Navigate to Appearance >Menus > Custom links.

Now add simple navigation, such as pricing, about us, contact, service, etc. 

Place the navigation term into the box named “text link”, in the URL box type place a hashtag (#) for your placeholder.

Click “save menu”.

Brand Your Website |

How to Build a WordPress Website

Add Your Logo

Navigate to Divi > Theme Options 

Upload your logo.  Then save changes.

Appearance > Customize > General Settings > Site identity

Confirm that the title and tagline are correct.

The add a site icon.  This is the little icon that displays on the browser tabs.  Create an icon that will look good when viewed as a tiny icon in the browser tab.  Upload a file that is 512px x 512px.

Click Publish 

Navigate to Appearance > Customize > General Settings > Layout Settings

Make adjustments as desired.  Change your theme accent color to match your branding.

You’ll be able to see the changes as you make them.  

Click Publish 

Add Your Brand Fonts

Navigate to Appearance > Customize > General Settings > Typography

Choose your body and header text size.  Text size should be between 14 – 18.  16 is a good compromise.

Add your Brand Fonts for text and headlines.

Select colors that match your brand for text, headlines, and links.

Click Publish 

Header and Navigation

Navigate to Appearance > Customize > General Settings > Typography

Now add simple navigation, such as pricing, about us, contact, service, etc.

Place the navigation term into the box named “text link”, in the URL box type place a hashtag (#) for your placeholder.

Click “save menu”.

Set-up Navigation

Header and Navigation

Navigate to Appearance > Customize > Header & Navigation

Adjust settings each tab to match your brand and create a user-friendly navigation experience.

Click “Publish”.

Layout the Footer

Appearance > Customize > Footer

Adjust settings each tab to match your brand and create a user-friendly navigation experience.

Continue Customizing

Continue following these steps until you have customized your template to match your brand.

 

Add Plugins

Recommended Plugins

 

  • Akismet Anti-Spam – a must-have if you have comments turned on.  This will weed out most of the spam comments automagically – you’ll never have to be bothered by spam again.
  • Bloom (Premium) email opt-in plugin from Elegant Themes with a purchase of Divi or included free with any WP Design Lab web design course or service.
  • Divi Coming Soon – Great for easily creating a coming soon or maintenance page
  • Monarch (Premium) from Elegant Themes with a purchase of Divi or included free with any WP Design Lab web design course or service.
  • Recent Post with Thumbnailsa super, simple plugin that makes it easy to create sidebar widgets with thumbnails
  • Site Kit by Google Site Kit by Google is the official WordPress plugin from Google for insights about how people find and use your site.  Manage your Google Analytics from your WordPress Dashboard.
  • UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore – Sleep like a baby at night knowing your site is backed up and secure.
  • WPOptimize – Clean, Compress, Cache – an all-in-one plugin that cleans your database, compresses your images, and caches your site.
  • WPS Hide Login – a very light plugin that lets you easily and safely change the URL of the login form page to anything you want. It doesn’t literally rename or change files in core, nor does it add rewrite rules. It simply intercepts page requests and works on any WordPress website. The wp-admin directory and wp-login.php page become inaccessible

Create pages and Add Some Content

Pages vs Posts

When you add content to your WordPress website, it’s displayed in the form of posts and pages.

Posts are for timely content. They have a publish date and are by default displayed in reverse chronological order on your blog page (this can be changed based on your needs).

They are content like blog posts, articles, recent projects, press releases, etc.

Pages are for static, timeless content. These are your basic pages like the homepage, services, about us, pricing, contact us, and other pages that are primarily informational and don’t change frequently.

 

Create a Homepage

Navigate to Pages > Add New.

Now you can add a title for your page, format your page, insert photos, and other media, then add your written content.

Remember – use a variety of written text + images, icons, and other media to clearly deliver your message.

Every template will be a little different. but the process for creating pages will remain the same.  Check the documentation for your template for specific instructions for creating amazing pages.

First, add a title to your page.

Next, you can insert photos, embed videos, and add content.

Don’t forget to click “Save Draft” or “Publish”.

 

Follow the same steps to create multiple pages for your website.

Add Posts

Navigate to Posts > Add New.

Now you can add a title for your page, format your post, add media, and written content.

Remember – use a variety of written text + images, icons, and other media to clearly deliver your message.

Every template will be a little different. but the process for creating pages will remain the same.  Check the documentation for your template for specific instructions for creating amazing pages.

First, add a title to your post.

Next, you can insert photos, embed videos, and add content.

Don’t forget to click “Save Draft” or “Publish”.

 

Follow the same steps to create multiple posts for your website.

How to Build a WordPress Website | Tips, Tricks and Secret Hacks

Here are 20 tips, tricks, and secret hacks to make your DIY WordPress Website awesome.

The goal of every website is to deliver information that is compelling, in a user-friendly way that incents conversion.

Keep it Simple – Forget clever copy, be plain and clear.  The best pages are singularly focused on a single call to action.

Make it Easy – make sure it is easy for visitors to buy, call, or whatever action they need to take to satisfy their needs. (not yours)

Focus on the basics and create a great user experience with a WordPress theme that complements your business and website content. 

Speed Counts – Make sure your site loads fast.  Visitors don’t want to wait for your site to load + Google ranks your site higher if you have lightning-fast speed. Neil Patel has a great article on scoring 100% on Google’s SpeedTest

It’s all About Your Target Audience – never has the statement “it’s not about you” been more true.  Everything you put on your website should be designed to solve the problem your visitor needs to solve.

Make it Mobile – Surprisingly between about 50 percent of all browsing is done now done on a mobile device.  For many lifestyle and food blogs that number can be as high as 80%.

Use Plugins Sparingly – Plugins are like apps for WordPress and they do all sorts of great things, but too many can slow down your site. And poorly written apps can create a security risk.

Learn from Experts – There are lots of experts teaching DIY WordPress design.  Learning from an expert can help you gain confidence quickly.  Instead of spending hours trying to build your site free tutorials, it can be valuable to take a course or hire a DIY Web Design guide.

Join Facebook Groups – There are tons of Facebook groups that make it easy to connect with other WordPress users.  Most WP themes have a group where the community can help you find answers to questions.  There are groups for beginners to share the journey with others and get help from Experts.

Keywords are Your Friends – Keywords are words and phrases that convey the ideas and topics of your content to search engines. They are the words and phrases that searchers use when searching the web for answers to their questions or solutions to their problems, you may hear them referred to as  “search queries”.  Keywords inform Google and other search engines about your content (posts, pages, and media).  They play a significant role in helping your site show up in Google search results.  Learn More.

Get Social – Create social profiles for the social media platforms that are used by your target audience. 

  • LinkedIn is for professional business to business sharing.
  • Pinterest is a visual search engine popular with DIY types, foodies, lifestyle, and work from home types.  About 70% of Pinterest users are female.
  • Facebook allows you to capture the power of your “friends” + manage groups and pages.  Good for most demographics.
  • Instagram is great for connecting in a visual conversation with a younger demographic.  With1 billion monthly active and over 70% are under the age of 35. Users spend an average of 53 minutes per day. 

Use dashes and not underscores when naming your files in WordPress. Google see them as one big word and won’t understand what the file means, therefore won’t be able to serve up your great content.  Correct Example: The-ultimate-guide-to-WordPress-Web-design  Wrong Example: The_ultimate_guide_to_WordPress_Web_design.  Google will see this TheultimateguidetoWordPressWebdesign.  Not helpful to Google.

Optimize your images and always use Image Alt Text to your advantage. Make sure your images are optimized for the web so they load fast and look great.  Additionally, all images should have an Image Alt Text that can help improve your SEO and Google rankings.

Only use a sidebar if it makes sense – it’s not 2004 anymore. A sidebar can be a major distraction from your primary message for the page.  If you choose to use a sidebar keep it neat and clean and make sure everything that’s included ads value.

Back up your website regularly – Try UpdraftPlus Backup/Restore You’ll sleep well at night knowing your content is backed up and if there should be a technical problem you’ll easily be able to restore your site without losing any content.

This plugin allows you to set custom backups to happen automatically.

Store your backups off your website – always store your backups to a 3rd party storage, like Google Drive, DropBox, etc.

Make it easy for Google to Love You always write with Google and SEO in mind, using keyword-rich content.

Get creative with your homepage.  Tell your unique story with a creative custom homepage.  Use words, images, and videos to tell the story and help visitors, know, like, and trust you. WordPress has a default homepage that is basic, but not very attractive. Make your website stand out and look professional by using a theme that helps to tell your story.

Get to know your website’s performance with Google Analytics add the Google Site Kit plugin to your website to make it easy to follow from your WordPress dashboard.

People Buy from People they Know, Like and Trust. Include an “About Us” page on your website to show your visitors you’re a trustworthy person and/or business.  A short video that shows your companies employees and personality is great for creating trust.

Navigation that Works – make sure that your top-level navigation (navbar) enhances the customer journey.  make it easy for visitors to solve their problems with the solutions you offer.

Make it Beautiful + Useful – Use visuals and video content to add context to your content and break up long pages of text. text on your website pages.

Keep Up-to-Date and Stay Current – Update your WordPress site and plugins regularly. WordPress will tell you when updates are released. This will keep your website looking fresh and working efficiently. There is a new feature that updates everything automatically – this sounds awesome but do not enable this feature.  Some updates may cause your site to fail, especially if you are using certain types of caching to speed up your site.

Use social proof and testimonials – Are you getting great reviews on Google? Do you receive grateful emails?  Are people raving about you Facebook?  Do you get repeat customers from word-of-mouth?  Add social proof and a testimonial section to your homepage to help new visitors get to know, like, and trust you.

Keep your site secure – there are lots of ways to keep a WordPress website secure, but there are some simple easy to do security hack you should do immediately

  1. Hide your WordPress login.  It not hard to guess mygreatsite.com/wp-admin.  This can be easily accomplished with a simple plugin.
  2. Use a secure user name and password.  You guessed it p admin is not a good user name (and neither is your name).  
  3. Consider adding a security suite.  Ther is a free and paid version of this plugin.

So is WordPress Really Free?

The answer is the CMS system is free.  You can begin and operate a basic website or blog, including hosting and your domain name for less than $10 per month or about $120 a year.

For your first 6 months or a year, you should be able to use free plugins + a free Mailchimp account.

Additionally, I recommend your purchase a premium theme that will cost between $70-$160 annually.

So the total cost to run a WordPress Website for a year using a premium theme and decent hosting will cost around $200 per year. 

What will you create?

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