Learning how to create a website on WordPress is one of the most important skills you should learn as a small business owner. Whether you are looking to create a website blog for your product or services or you are just wanting to start an online business. No matter what the case is learning how to create a website on WordPress will benefit you and here’s why.
WordPress dominates about 35%
WordPress dominates about 35% of search engines which is why is the most preferred website. WordPress’s dashboard has all sorts of a customizable feature that you can use to give you the best-looking website for your needs. In this post, I will be going over the steps that you can take to create a website using WordPress in just 45 minutes or less.
What is a WordPress.com
WordPress is an open-source platform site builder. Open source means that anyone is able to create customization for WordPress using plugins and some coding. For those of you not familiar with coding no need to worry there are great website builders out there like Elementor that you can use to create beautiful websites in less than an hour.
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Table Of Contents
Once you have your ideas jotted down and or a niche to inspire you then follow these steps to help you start building your WordPress site.
- Create a domain name for your website and choose a theme
- Sign up for web hosting
- Choose your plugins & Install your plugins
- Remove default settings
- Create your menu & Rearrange your menu
- Removing “JUST ANOTHER WORDPRESS SITE”
- Start writing your content
Related Post: How to create a WordPress website part 2
Step 1 Create A Domain
In this post, I will be using the Wealthy Affiliate platform as my primary source to complete a WordPress website. Using other interfaces is very similar so don’t worry if you do happen to come across any question or need answers the receive 24/7 support from the community. 7 days FREE trial NO Credit Card required
- On the Wealthy Affiliate dashboard to the far left, you will see a few menus go head and chose “WEBSITE”
- You will then see a sub-menu and there you will go ahead and choose “SITE MANAGER”
- You will then be taken to a menu where you can choose a subdomain or domain and then below your theme.
Make sure that you pick a domain name that is related to the topic of your website. You don’t want your website to be confusing to your intended audience. So choose a domain name that is easy to remember that your readers can identify what the website will be about. Which helps reduce bounce back rate on your website.
CHOOSE A THEME
*NOTE: You can change themes anytime so if you aren’t happy with your chosen theme so don’t worry.*
Step 2: (Sign up for web Hosting)
NON-Wealthy Affiliate Customers Only
Wealthy Affiliate has its own hosting provider that they use so if you are signing up through WA then you can skip this step. There are many hosting companies that you can choose from. For my clients, I use Bluehost or Liquid Web.
Now if you are price conscious like me then I would go with Bluehost.
Step 3 Choose and install your plugins
You will be taken to the WordPress dashboard where you will have access to a variety of menus. Go ahead and update and choose the plugins you will be using for your websites.
Recommended plugins to start
- Yoast SEO <– Helps optimize your blog make it more SEO friendly
- Smush <– reduces image sizes for faster load time
- Elementor <– Website builder I use to build and customize your site
Other recommended plugins not necessary depending on the website you are looking to create please read on
WordPress plugins
When I started dabbling with WordPress I noticed that if you want to customize your site you need to install what is called plugins. Plugins are software created by coders to extend the functionality and customization of your website.
Some of these plugins are free and others you would have to pay for. However, for the most part, the plugins that you need are free. The plugins that I use are Yoast SEO, Contact form 7, Ewww image optimizer, Smush and Elementor. These are basic plugins for a basic post
Because I am not selling any products I won’t be installing any links to receive money such as Pay Pal. However, if you’re creating an e-commerce site then you will be needing that.
NOTE: Adding more than 5 plugins can lower the quality of your site by slowing down the upload and download speed. So if you need to install a plugin and you aren’t using it then you can deactivate it temporarily.
Yoast SEO “Search Engine Optimization”
Yoast SEO helps your site with readability and SEO metrics to help you become higher ranked with search engines. Now keep in my that the longer you have your website the longer it will gain authority.
Yoast SEO is free to download, with the option to upgrade.
Contact Form 7
A plugin that I also use is contact form 7 helps readers send you messages directly from your site to your email so you never miss any communication from your readers. Again this is just the beginning stages of your website creation and may not be necessary for you now.
The contact form 7 is completely customizable where you can request instead of the person’s email address you can ask for their phone number. You can change the color schemes on it as well.
NOTE: To customize your Contact Form 7 you would need to do some light coding nothing crazy. To learn more about customizing Contact Form 7 click here:
EWWW Image Optimizer
EWWW Image Optimizer helps you resize your images to fit your device screen size. This helps reduce load time to make it much faster and efficient for your readers.
Google Analytics for WordPress (Monster Insight)
Monster Insight allows you to connect to Google Analytics so you can see how you’re gaining your traffic and from where.
There is so much that goes into Google Analytics if you want to know more about Google Analytics watch the video below or go to Googleanalytics.com
WP Socializer
WP Socializer is a plugin that allows you to share your website on social media such as Facebook, Google, Linkin, etc.
Visitors that go on your site can also use the icons to share your story with others.
What I personally enjoy about WP Socializer is that you can pick how you want the icons to look like and where on the page you want it to appear and there is absolutely no coding required! YAY 🙂
Step 4: Removing default settings on WordPress
Learn how to remove default settings from your WordPress website by going into the dashbaord and removing the sample page. There is no use for it so you can just throw it in the trash. Here is where you will be creating content to your website by clicking on “Add New”.
Step 5: Add Menus
Once you create your menu whatever that might be then you can go ahead and rearrange them in the order that you desire. Please note that when you are creating menus for your websites you want to utilize the “PAGES” from the dashboard since it will be considered a stagnant post.
Rearrange your menus to your liking
If you want to organize your menu then here are the steps to take. Click on appearance then go to Menus
. 
Once the menu is in order to your liking then go ahead and save your settings,
Step 6: Removing the “Just another WordPress site” on your main page
AT the very top of the dashboard Go to customization and click on Site Identity
Go ahead and remove just another WordPress site and enter your customized title.
Now your site should be looking something like this
Step 7: Writing content
Pages And Post
OK, guys here is where you want to start giving the website some personality and writing engaging content for your audience to read.
Whenever I start strategizing content for my website I create the title first then add headings on what I want to write about. This makes it easy for writers to remember what will be discussed in their posts.
I also recommend before you jot down your ideas is choosing keywords that would help your post becoming highlights within the SEO.
Conclusion
Understanding how to create a website on WordPress can be a learning process but hopefully, this provided the necessary steps that you needed in order to get started. Now just keep in mind it does take some time to learn and it will probably take you hours to do. My advice to you is to keep dabbing in every day and eventually you will become a master at it.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to leave your comments below or receive live 24/ 7 access to the community.
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You have made having WordPress for a website look so easy and simple to use and I really thought that it was more difficult than what it was. The wp socializer plugin looks pretty useful and It is something I think that all websites should have, is it effective in people sharing your content?
Hi, Matthew thank you for the comment I think it’s very effective I had a few people share my content from my Google + profile. I would definitely recommend you try it out. 🙂
Interesting article as I wasn’t sure whether WordPress was one of the best programs to use. 30% of the market is huge so they must be reputable.
Yes, it is Glenford I tried other sites like Wix and Square Space this is definitely the better way to go. 🙂
Great information. You are very right about having to put in work with your website. I daily check mine for comments & updates. If you don’t your site will seem stagnant and I don’t think Google would like your site very much.
You have a lot to do when you start one so be ready to put the groundwork in if you want it to have a chance. I love how you showed what to expect.
Thank you, Ronnie, I am glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Wow, this is such a comprehensive guide I can’t thank you enough. I’ve owned a blog for a few months now but haven’t used the SEO plugin you mention, so I’ll be downloading and installing that on my site and see how I go. I’ll be trying out Socializer too because I want more and more shares. Thanks for all this info!
Thank you, Brandon, my pleasure. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it
I don’t know what we would do without WordPress but I’m sure glad it’s available. I love WordPress & what it has to offer. Is there a social media plugin that’s better than the other or is it a matter of personal preference?
Thank you so much for writing & sharing this valuable information about WordPress.
Nice! You hit the nail on the head. You just can’t put up site and not be on everyday taking of all kinds of things. Really nice post and full of value.
Thank you so much Sean 🙂
Having spent several years blogging at Google Blogspot I’m finding the transition to WordPress to be challenging. Thanks for all this info.
Thank you, Marie, glad this was helpful for you 🙂
Hi Viviana,
You make this look so easy. I remember having a hard time when I started off with my two free websites. I found it so hard to get things done, and I had this misconception that I could only add plugins to a domain and not a subdomain.
If I may ask, is it possible for me to create a “baby” theme (using siterubix dot com) to test some plugins before using them on my main website (domain)? I’m not sure whether this is a completely different concept. My apologies if I’m wrong.
Hi Princila no you asked the right question. This website use to be a site.rubix as I was testing out the different plugins, then the more I worked on it the more I was committed into making it look better with adding some valuable information that I learned. It was about 1 month ago when I purchased a domain for it. That’s the best part that you can try it out as a free site and if you end up liking your concept then you can purchase a domain name or start over with a new site. I did that a few times when I first started dabbling with WordPress about 2 years ago. I learned that as I went along, to purchase the domain after, but everyone different. Before I would end up purchasing a domain name for it and had to start all over and exporting was like something out of this world. I hope that this answered helped you.
Thank you for reading and here is the link again for siterubix http://bit.ly/2FqyF7K
Viviana, what a very informative article. I really like the whole step-by-step approach, which is great for
someone who is brand new to the web, content management systems, and even hosting. With this (and your
next post) I’m sure to be up and running in no time!
Thanks for this…
Hi, Dave thank you much for your kind words. I remember when I first started dabbing on the web it was very hard to find the information I needed. In hence is why created this tutorial to get started. Please definitely be on the lookout as I intend to add more lessons. 🙂