Have you finally decided to create a WordPress website?
Good news for you, there’re various tools out there that make it super easy to launch your own website with just a click of a button.
In this article we’ll go through the 7 steps you should follow to create your own WordPress website.
How to Create a WordPress Website?
1. Taking Inspiration and Idea From the Internet
If you don’t have any idea what kind of website or blog you’re going to make, the easiest way is to take inspiration and ideas from other people.
There’re plenty of great examples out there. Note down things you like from these websites, it could be the font, color, or the layout of the website.
One of the websites that I frequently visit when looking for inspiration is Landing Folio.
Taking inspiration for ideas is one of the most common and basic steps that an individual must do in order to gather some amount of knowledge about what a WordPress website must look like and how it is supposed to function. The more one explores, the more ideas can they gather on their own WordPress website and what it must look like.
So start taking the idea and create something out of it.
2. Lay Down the Groundwork
In the second step, something which is as important or perhaps more important than the design of the website is the result that it yields.
When building a website, it’s important to have a clear baseline metric and the entire website must be built around it.
Amongst some of the most common and popular goals for making a website is stuff like selling a product, generating leads, etc.
Therefore, it is very important for people to lay the groundwork before proceeding with the making of the site.
3. Choose a Domain Name
Next, choose a suitable name for your domain.
Choosing a domain name is one of the most important steps when starting a new website for your business. The name should not only be unique, but it must also reflect what the website is about.
While looking at inspirations for your website, you’ll probably come up with a good name idea for your website.
Your domain or business name could be a hit or miss so spend enough time to pick one name as it will be the key behind drawing attention from people who will be visiting the site.
Remember the domain name is the first thing people see when visiting your website.
4. Use the Right Set of Tools
If you’re comfortable with getting your hands dirty, there’s a bunch of tools that would speed up the WordPress development process.
The first thing you want to do is to set up WordPress on your computer cause you don’t want to make changes to a live website. If you’re not sure which one is best for you, take a look at this article.
If you’re not comfortable with code, you could approach a WordPress development company that could build your website in a short period amount of time.
5. Pick a Theme
Now, it comes to designing your website. The easiest way to get up and running is to install a premium WordPress theme that comes with a suite of features out of the box.
Some of the best WordPress themes are Divi, Avada, X theme amongst many others. These themes are great for multi-purpose websites, it comes with website builders and pre-built layout or templates that you could install and use right away.
6. Install the Right Plugins
Up to date, there’re over 55,000 WordPress plugins you could on your website. But be careful when installing a WordPress plugin as some plugins could be malicious and do more harm to your website.
When you first created your website, installed the necessary plugins to make your website fast, SEO-friendly, and secure.
If you’re gonna leverage on social media to drive your traffic, there’re a few social sharing plugins that could help you improve your social sharing conversion.
7. Set up SSL
Once the WordPress website is live, you should set up SSL on your website as Google favors HTTPS-enabled websites on the search result. This can be done by using applications such as Let’s Encrypt or via Cloudflare.
SSL certificate will encrypt traffic between the server and client, providing an additional layer of security for your users.
How Much Does a WordPress Website Cost?
While building WordPress Websites there is a cost-breakdown that one can keep in mind. This break down includes:
Domain: You could buy a .com domain at $8.88 via Namecheap
Hosting: When starting out, you could choose a shared hosting that’s typically cheaper in price ranging around $2-5 per month, and choose a better hosting as your traffic grows.
Theme: A premium WordPress theme price is around $25-$50 depending on the popularity of the theme and amount of features it provides. If you’re just starting out, you could give a free theme a try to get yourself comfortable. A recommended site to buy a premium WordPress theme is ThemeForest.
Plugin: Though many WordPress plugins are free of charge, there are a couple of premium WordPress plugins that I always install on my website cause it saves me time and it improves my website performance. Take a look at WP Rocket and Social Warfare.
Final Thoughts
Creating a WordPress website has never been easier. By now, you should be able to create your own website.
Apart from building your branding, the next thing to keep in mind is to define your success metric early. Having a success metric would provide you with clear direction on how you should build your website.
