
How To Make Your Very Own WordPress Website
WordPress is one of the biggest, most popular blogging sites there is today. It is also the best content management system (CMS) for your website. With its ease of use, security and reliability, it easily nabs the top spot in the race of the best CMS’ available online.
Since it’s relied on by over 50 million websites, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t too. Here are the steps you need to take in order to create your very own WordPress website.
CHOOSE A DOMAIN NAME
Choosing a domain name is the most important step when setting up a website; without a domain name, users wouldn’t be able to find or share your website.
There are four elements in a domain name:
· Top-Level Domain — end of the domain name. The most popular TLD, and probably the one most are familiar with is .com
· Root Domain — the root domain is where you can express your creativity. You have full control of what you want your root domain to be. But, there are two restrictions: it should be unique (not used by someone else) and it should consist of only letters, numbers and hyphens.
· Subdomain — A subdomain appears before your chosen root domain. You can create subdomains at no extra cost.
· Subfolders- these are listed after the TLD, and are proceeded by a forward slash.
CHOOSE A HOSTING PACKAGE
Deciding on your host and package is one of the most essential parts of putting your WordPress website online. When choosing the best one, remember that it should empower you — not limit you and your website’s opportunities.
When choosing a host, consider these three things:
· Limitations: (Does the host support WordPress? How many domains can you host?)
· Company: (How long has the company been in business? Does it have positive reviews by users?)
· Pricing: (How much is the package you need? Are upgrades available if required? Is there a trial period?)
Choosing the best host is not only important today, but in the long term when you have a bigger website, or are receiving more traffic, and you need it load fast and always be online.
UPLOAD WORDPRESS
Download the latest version of WordPress from wordpress.org and unzip the files. Install a File Transfer Protocol program, such as FileZilla. Connect to your host via the FTP program by using your FTP credentials (usually found within the control panel on your hosts website).
Once you have connected to your server via FTP, upload the WordPress files to a folder called public_html, or the name of your website.
CREATE A DATABASE
You need to have a database for your WordPress installation to connect to and store all of your content and it’s associated data. This will contain your posts, pages, comments, configurations and user data.
You can create a database via your hosts control panel (usually within a section called MySql); when creating a database you will need to choose a database name, a database user and a database password.
MODIFY WP-CONFIG-SAMPLE.PHP
This is where you’ll need to do a bit of manual configuration. But as long as you follow these guidelines, you shouldn’t have a problem.
· Use your FTP client to edit the wp-config-sample.php file.
· Rename the file to wp-config.php (i.e. remove sample).
· Using a text editor, open the file and apply the following changes:
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name_here’);
/** MySQL database username */
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘username_here’);
/** MySQL database password */
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password_here’);
· Replace the example text with your own database name, username and password and then save the file.
INSTALL WORDPRESS
Fire up your web browser of choice, and head over to your domain name.
Once there you can complete the WordPress installation. Follow the instructions but remember when setting up your initial WordPress user to chose a unique username (other than admin) and password (use a password generator found online to create something secure).
Once complete you can login to your WordPress website via yourdomain.com/wp-admin. You should also receive an email confirming this.
CHOOSE A THEME
Now it’s time to get creative, after all, your WordPress website’s appearance will be the first thing to capture your audience’s attention. Your WordPress theme will be the foundation of your website.
There are thousands of options for you to choose from: some are free, some come with a price. You can also have your theme custom designed, but of course it’s more expensive and time consuming.
Your theme can be inspired by what your website is about. Most probably, there is already a theme based on your niche. A business website should focus more on what your customers like and what they will respond to rather than choosing because of your personal preferences.
Some of the best places to find a WordPress theme include:
https://themeforest.net/category/wordpress
Any good theme will include documentation on how to upload the theme and import it’s demo content to give you a good starting point before inserting your own content.
CONFIGURE THE BASICS
Once you’ve installed and set up your theme, you can tweak some configurations that will improve your website.
You might like to:
· Disable comments
You can opt out of allowing your audience to leave their comments. All you have to do is go to Settings → Discussion, and uncheck “Allow people to post comments on new articles.” This can be different and changed per post.
· Configure permalinks
By default, WordPress URLs look like a ramble of numbers, letters and symbols. If you want your URLs to look more uniformed or organised, you can enable the custom permalink structure by going to Settings → Permalinks and choosing Post name, your desired URLs will also be much friendlier to search engines.
SECURE YOUR WORDPRESS WEBSITE
Although WordPress is relatively safe and secure, you can never be too sure. No website is 100%, guaranteed secured.
Keep in mind that no matter how much you invest in security, as long as your website is live, there is a chance it will be exploited, which is just one reason why backing up is so important. Hackers can also attack from many angles, and there are cases of hosting providers being exploited, leaving their clients lost and having no one to turn to.
Here are some tips:
· Keep WordPress up to date.
· Do not use ‘wp_’ as the database table’s prefix. Change the prefix to something unique, to make the database less vulnerable.
· Remove the WordPress version from the website’s header.
· Remove admin user name.
MAKE YOUR WEBSITE EASY TO NAVIGATE
The goal is to make your website’s interface and navigation friendly to all of your visitors. If they need to find something, you want to make it easy.
Make sure to set up your:
· Home page
The is the landing page for your website, the default face of your WordPress website.
· About page
Post the information, history and background of yourself or your company.
· Contact page
Where should your readers air their concerns? Should they call, drop an email, or answer a form?
· Products, services or “hire me” page
Be as specific as possible: what does your website offer? Create a page specifically designated for it so your readers can jump straight to it.
OPTIMISE FOR SEARCH ENGINES
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is essential to ensuring that your copy draws as much targeted traffic as possible. Remember, more traffic = more potential customers & sales.
Some themes come with built-in SEO features, but experts advise installing a more uniform plugin such as WordPress SEO by Yoast, especially if you have multiple websites.
SET UP ANALYTICS
Analytics enables you to track visitors, with a ton of useful data on their browsing habits, which you can use in your future marketing and publicity strategies.
The most popular analytics software is Google Analytics and installing it on your website is easy. Create an account, place the JavaScript code you are given just before the</head> tag in your theme’s header file, and then you’re done.
BACK UP
Backing up is undoubtedly the most important item on this list. If something goes wrong and you haven’t set up a back-up system, you could lose all of your online assets.
Use a reliable plugin such as VaultPress, or UpdraftPlus to ensure that you always have the latest version of your website backed up in the cloud.
SET UP CACHING
Set up a caching plugin such as WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache and you can double, or triple your website’s speed. W3 Total Cache also offers features such as ‘minification’, which strips all white space from your HTML, CSS and JavaScript files, and combines code making your pages faster and easier to load.
SUMMARY
By choosing a domain and web host, installing WordPress, selecting a theme, optimising for search engines, and installing Google analytics to monitor your traffic, this 14-point checklist is your go to guide for setting up a decent website without wasting any of your precious time.
