Be sure to check with your hosting provider for specific details on accessing your WordPress dashboard. Now that you’ve got your domain name and web hosting sorted, it’s time to install WordPress and start building your own website. In this section, we’ll go through different methods of installing WordPress, so you can choose the one that works best for you.
Think you need to be a tech genius to create your own website? If you can click a few buttons, you can install WordPress on your site. Most of the time, when people say “WordPress”, they mean the self-hosted WordPress available at WordPress.org. If you want to truly own your website, self-hosted WordPress.org is almost always the best option. Enjoy 2 months of free hosting with an annual WordPress plan. Most blogging tools are either free or come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try them risk-free.
Step 4: Select and Install a WordPress Theme
WordPress is fully translated into more than 56 languages and partially translated into dozens of other languages. Many top WordPress themes and plugins are also available in multiple languages. You can also translate a theme or a plugin that you want to use on your website. Choosing the right niche for your blog makes it easier to create engaging content and make more money online.
Having helped thousands of people start a blog, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about creating a blog. If you’re looking to sell physical products, then we recommend using WooCommerce because it is the best eCommerce plugin for WordPress. It is also the most commonly used eCommerce platform in the world. If you’re looking to sell digital products like eBooks, then we recommend using Easy Digital Downloads because this is the plugin that we use ourselves.
Adding or Removing a WordPress Page
Lazy-loading images, image optimization, code optimization, caching and using a CDN are also important practices for optimizing website performance. An occasional cleanup can help you delete unused or superfluous files that could be clogging what is wordpress used for your database. Of course, whatever you do with your database, don’t forget to back it up first. Themes usually come with preset header and footer styles to pick from, but if none of them work for you, you can tweak them to your liking.
We also have a number of support guides regarding domains that cover every situation you can think of. There are a number of different options for getting started at WordPress.com catered to particular needs. Take a look at the list below and see if one of these fits your project. For now, let’s get started with a bird’s eye view of the steps involved with creating your website. WordPress is the most popular way to build a website for a reason. If you want to build any type of website, from a blog to an eCommerce store, WordPress is a great option.
Domain Name
When you are hosting a website, what it means is that you are renting space on a physical server to store all the website’s files and data. Webhosting providers have their hosting technology for the effective and secure operation of your website. In our example we chose NameCheap and what you can do is follow our tutorial or dive deep into how to purchase and register a domain name in our latest article. Once you’ve added content, assign it to a category (1), add any relevant tags (2), then click the publish button to make your post live (3).
To install Divi, click the choose file button, locate the zipped Divi file on your hard drive, and click the upload button. Analytics is something that needs to be performed regularly. Trends change, and so do algorithms, and the only way to stay afloat is to make analytics a regular task. Whenever you notice a change, especially if it’s a drop in traffic, analytics will help you identify the problem so you can work on fixing it.
Choosing a WordPress Theme
The Add New (2) option enables you to search for and install new plugins available in the WordPress repository or install new ones in a few clicks. Depending on the theme you have installed, a plugin editor option allows developers to make coding changes to activated plugins. The next tab, Updates, allows you to review any plugins, themes, or core files that need to be updated. You need to keep the software updated for functionality and security.
A page builder is a set of tools that enables you to build complete layouts. Select a block, a heading for example, drag it onto the page and into place and then customize it as you like. In this section, we’ll explore the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is vital for increasing your website’s visibility on search engines like Google, helping you attract more visitors, and growing your online presence.
Keeping WordPress, themes, and plugins updated
The average price of a paid theme varies anywhere from $40 to $60 depending on the vendors and options. There are over 10,000+ themes available in the WordPress ecosystem to choose from. You have now built the infrastructure supporting your website (domain name, hosting and WordPress).
- WordPress has a powerful navigation menu system, and your WordPress theme uses it to display the menus.
- In this video, you can see how quickly and easily you can make color changes.
- In short, when you decide which builder to use, you will search for appropriate themes.
- So, theme plus WooCommerce plus plugins or addons of your choice, and you’ve got yourself an online shop.
- If you know the name of the free theme you want to install, you can look for it by entering it in the search field.
After that, the install button will be replaced with an Activate button. The preview of your theme may not look exactly as shown in the screenshot, which is normal as you will get to customize and set it up later. On this screen, you will see optional extras that you can purchase. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you purchase these, but we generally don’t recommend purchasing them right away.
Step 4: Select a WordPress Theme
The platform grew with my ideas and I was able to build a website around my blog in a few clicks. And scale your business with WooCommerce, one of the most popular ecommerce platforms on the planet. Creating and customizing your site is simple, and you control every element of the page. On WordPress.com we use “website” and “blog” as interchangeable terms. Any site you create on WordPress.com can be formatted as a static page or a blog.