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How easy is it to build a WordPress website? It’s Easy Peasy!
WordPress is an easy to use CMS (Content Management System) which is free, open source and has thousands of customizable features for all website building needs. Anyone with no prior knowledge or experience can start building their own site for their personal log, business, portfolio, or eCommerce store quick and easy!
How easy?
Here’s how to build a WordPress website in under 15 minutes with these 5 easy steps:
- Buy a Domain Name.
- Choose your Web Host and get a Hosting Plan for your website.
- Download and Install WordPress.
- Pick a WordPress theme.
- Choose Plugins to give your WordPress website additional functionality.
That’s it!
Building a WordPress website is easier than you might think. In this post, we’ll go over each of these 5 easy steps so you too can get a WordPress website built fast.
Building a WordPress website can be done in as little as 15 minutes. If you’re looking to build your own site for the first time, there are plenty of free tutorials and tools available online to help get you started.
Ready? Let’s get started with the first step, buying a Domain Name.
Step One: Buy a Domain Name.
Domain names are how you brand yourself online and how people can find your website. For example, for this article, the domain name is WPWebsiteTools.com. Pick something that you like (that also reflects what your website is about).
There are some things that you want to consider when buying a domain name.
– how easy it is to remember or how people can go about misspelling or mispronouncing it. For example, WPWebsiteTools.com is easy for customers to remember (I hope so anyway). But you also have to be think about how they might misspell or mispronounce it.
– Before choosing a domain name, it is wise to think about how easy or difficult it will be for customers to remember it or how they might go about misspelling or mispronouncing it.
When buying your domain name go with a well known and secure third party Domain Name Registrar, such as GoDaddy.com and Namecheap.com.
Both are secure and cheap ways to buy a domain name, if you have a credit card or debit card. You can also purchase one from another domain name registrar.
Once you have bought a domain name, you are ready to start building your website. But first you need a place to host it.
So the next step is to buy a hosting account. This where your website files will be stored on the Internet.
You can easily set up a hosting account by using one of the big players such as Hostgator, Bluehost or Siteground (they all offer cheap and reliable hosting).
Step Two: Choose your Web Host and get a Hosting Plan for your website.
Before you can start building your site, you need web hosting. Web hosting is how your website can be accessed online by people.
Open up your web browser and go straight to the big players such as Hostgator, Bluehost or Siteground (they all offer cheap and reliable hosting).
Now it’s time to pick a hosting plan. You can always upgrade or downgrade your account later, so don’t stress too much about the decision now.
In general, if you’re just starting out, you’ll need a shared hosting package. This means your website files will be stored on the same server as other websites which is how web hosting works.
There are usually five hosting options are:
– Shared hosting – Cloud hosting – Managed WordPress hosting – Virtual Private Servers (VPS) – Dedicated servers.
Shared hosting plans are hosted on a server with other people’s sites. Shared hosting plans typically offer the least amount of control over your website, but they allow you to set up a self-hosted WordPress site quickly and inexpensively.
You can choose how much disk space and monthly data transfer you need, how many sites will be hosted on the server, how much memory your site can use, how many emails you send per hour and so on.
As you become more experienced with WordPress, you may want to switch to other hosting options that offer more features or better performance. Also, if your website becomes very popular and other people’s websites on the server slow down your site, you should opt for a better hosting plan.
Pros:
– The easiest and cheapest way to host a WordPress site – You don’t need to monitor the server or install updates yourself Cons:
– Limited control over how your website is hosted and how it performs – Your site may be affected by other sites on the server if there is not enough memory or other resources for your site.
Cloud hosting is the best option if your website becomes popular and needs good site performance. Cloud hosting is hosted on a server with other people’s sites, but it has more resources to ensure that your site can handle lots of users and traffic.
Cloud hosting is also more scalable than shared hosting plans, so you can easily upgrade or downgrade your account as needed – something that usually needs to be done manually with a shared hosting package.
Pros:
– You don’t need to monitor the server or install updates yourself – More resources, so it’s best for popular websites
Cons:
– More expensive than shared hosting
Managed WordPress hosting lets you focus on what’s important: creating great content for your site.
The web host takes care of all the technical stuff, including server maintenance and updates, so you don’t have to worry about a thing.
Managed WordPress hosting is the best option for your self-hosted WordPress site, so keep this in mind when choosing how to host your website.
Pros:
– You don’t need to worry about technical maintenance – Your site will always run smoothly Cons:
– More expensive than regular shared hosting plans – Limited control over how your website is hosted.
Virtual private servers (VPS) and dedicated hosting basically allow you to have a virtual server all to yourself. VPS’s offer more flexibility than shared hostings, while dedicated servers give you total control and stability, and can even allow you to install other platforms on your hosting service.
Pros:
– More control over how your site performs
– Better option for the more experienced users
Cons:
– You have to monitor how your site is performing, install updates and so on
– Can be more expensive than shared hosting plans.
Dedicated Hosting Plans allow you to have a server all to yourself and how it performs. This means that your website files will be stored on the same server as other websites which is how web hosting works.
Pros:
– You don’t need to worry about how your site performs – You can choose how much disk space and monthly data transfer you need, how many
– You can install anything you want, such as WordPress and Drupal platforms, apps and other tools and software hosting other plans won’t allow
– Better for advanced users than either shared hosting plans or virtual private servers
– You have full control over how your site performs and how it is configured.
Cons:
– More expensive than both shared hosting plans and virtual private servers.
– Needs a lot of technical knowledge and know how.
Choosing where to host your website can be a difficult decision. You need to consider how popular your site will become, how much memory the hosting plan needs, how much disk space you need and how many emails you send each day.
If too many people visit your site at once, how well your site will perform also comes into question.
Different hosting plans have different features, so make sure you read through their packages before choosing how to host your website.
Step Three: Download and Install WordPress.
Now that you have your domain name and hosting package all sorted, it’s time to actually install WordPress.
The first step is to download your installation file from the WordPress website onto your computer.
This can be done by logging into cPanel and clicking on ‘File Manager’ once again, but this time following the path to where all of your WordPress files are stored. Once there, right click and download the installation file.
Once you have it downloaded, look for your ‘Upload’ button in cPanel and use that to upload it to your web hosting provider (the same place where you uploaded your website files).
Your browser should then bring up a pop-up page asking how you want to open or save the file. Click on ‘Open’ to begin the installation process.
If you successfully uploaded your installation file, WordPress should automatically open and present you with a welcome page (see below).
If it doesn’t, go back and download the file again before uploading it (you may have downloaded a corrupted version).
Once you’ve opened the welcome page, click ‘Next’ to proceed through their five steps of installation. These involve:
– choosing a language
– how you want to connect to your database
– your web site details (including how you want it to be displayed)
– how much control do you want WordPress to have over your files and folders?
– how should URLs be formed for your site?
If you don’t want to use the automatic installation, click on ‘Skip directly to uploading files’ to skip these steps.
You’ll then need to manually upload your WordPress files through cPanel again (uploading in this way also lets you choose how many times it will attempt an upload, how many times it will attempt to connect to the database, how long it should wait for a connection, how fast your internet connection is and how much memory you have).
Once you’ve completed these steps, click ‘Install WordPress’. If there are any errors during installation that prevent WordPress from being installed correctly (for example, if your hosting provider doesn’t provide sufficient disk space), you’ll need to go back and make some changes before you can install it again.
Now that the installation is complete, click ‘Run the famous 5-minute WordPress installation’. Then just follow the instructions until your site is ready for access! If everything has worked correctly, take note of your login details (provided in the final step) and log into your new site!***
Step Four: Pick a WordPress theme.
When you’re ready to start building your website, how do you choose a theme?
Different people prefer different styles. For example, some people are drawn to sleek minimalistic design while others might prefer an eye-catching theme with lots of pictures.
Finding a WordPress theme that matches how you want the site to look is important for making sure that the site is user-friendly and has a modern look.
Do you need to buy a theme?
The biggest advantage of using a WordPress theme is how simple it makes setting up your website.
Themes come with pre-built layouts and can easily be imported into WordPress so anyone can get started with creating their own website in minutes.
If you’re worried that you don’t have the best design skills, using a theme for your website can be an easy way to get how it should look.
If you have a good idea how you want your site to look, how do find a template?
There are lots of places where it’s easy to find WordPress themes. Some resources for free themes include the WordPress theme directory accessible through your WordPress Dashboard under>Themes, on WordPress.org or from a 3rd party marketplace like Template Monster.
I use GeneratePress and love it! It’s fast, clean with all kinds of functionality and widgets built right into it as well as many theme templates to choose from.
But best of all, is its support forum where the developer himself Tom Usborne is still quite active (a great sign of any WordPress theme).
Then simply download the .zip file onto your WordPress dashboard, WordPress will do the rest of the installation. (Note: be careful not to unpack the .zip file yourself and poke around, WordPress needs that intact in order to install your chosen theme onto your site).
Step Five: Choose Plugins to give your WordPress website additional functionality.
Try to identify how WordPress’ features will help you achieve your website’s goals (i.e. how many pages, how many images, how much traffic) and choose plugins that will aid with the task at hand.
For example, if you want to monetize your site through advertisements or affiliate links, then consider installing a plugin that will automatically insert code into appropriate pages or posts.
How easy is it to build a WordPress website, summary.
Building a WordPress website is simple and quick to do. All you need to get started is a domain name and hosting account, and within minutes you can have your very own WordPress site up and running.
The hardest part of building your website is choosing how you want it done while we provide many options for you to choose from. You can choose how many pages to add and how much content you want on each page.
You can also add images rather than text if you wish, although we recommend adding both for the highest chance of ranking well in search engines.
WordPress makes it very easy for you to create a website without any coding or technical knowledge needed at all!
As you can see WordPress is a simple and quick way to build a website. Check it out for yourself!
