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How to make website live on WordPress! Step by step.
Here are the steps to take in order to make a website live on WordPress with WordPress.com:
1. Create a free account on WordPress.com.
This will give you an email and password that will allow you to log in at any time to add new content [or – if you want more style options for your site, such as custom fonts and colors, you can sign up to a premium account for a small monthly fee].
2. Create a post on WordPress.com.
This is done by clicking the button at the top left of your screen that says “Add.” Inside here you will have many options to choose from when writing your post, including categories and tags in order to make it easier for other users to find your content.
3. Add featured image.
This should be the first thing that you do when adding a post, because it will serve as the thumbnail on the front page of your site, and because it’s search engine optimization (SEO) friendly (it tells them what your topic is).
4. Publish your post.
This will make it go live on your website!
5. Add post to “collections”.
Press the “+” sign at the bottom of the page and select “collection.” Add posts to collections in order to group them together, for example if you are writing about different topics.
6. Add new pages.
Click the “+” sign at the bottom of your post and select “page.”
7. Make new categories.
Click the “+” sign at the bottom of your page and select “category.”
8. Add new tags.
Press the “+” button in right corner of screen, on top of every post, and select “tag.”
9. Add a new menu item.
Go to the section on the right side of your screen where you can see two boxes: “Pages” and “Custom Links,” then simply clicking “+Add Link” and choosing a category that would appear in a list or a menu.
You can add text to the menu item, and also add an image if you’d like.
10. Enable comments.
Go to “Settings,” > “Discussion Settings” and checking “Allow people to post comments on new articles.”
11. Get a custom domain name.
You can get a custom domain name for your WordPress blog.
But first you have to upgrade from the WordPress.com “free blog” plan to their paid “Pro” plan.
Then you would have to choose a custom domain name and buy it either through WordPress.com or from another domain name registry like Namecheap.com.
You can also have it redirect from the WordPress.com address to your new address if you want that as well.
12. Bingo! Your WordPress website is now live on WordPress.com!
To view your site, you just have to type in the address of your page and it will appear!
You can also edit your site at any time, so if you do want to change the color and fonts and such on your site, you can do that as well.
Please note: You can only have one website per account on WordPress.com.
If you wish to have more than one, you will have to open up another account with them – but in that case, they will not be associated.
How long does it take for a WordPress website to go live?
It depends how much time and effort you put in it. For a blog, if your articles are already written and published under the [wp-admin dashboard] then usually 30 minutes is enough to prepare the website for publishing on the internet.
If you need to add images or videos, allow some more time depending how long does it take for you.
If you are creating a fully customized website with lots of features, it can take longer depending how many hours your web developer needs to finish the job.
Can I build a WordPress site before going live?
You can build a WordPress site before going live by building it on your local computer.
The idea of building your own website may seem daunting, but it is actually quite easy.
There are many free ways you can do this and they will all allow for the creation of WordPress sites without any hosting services needed!
Here are some posts which go into the details of how to do just that:
- Can I build a WordPress site without hosting? You bet you can!
- How to Work on a WordPress Site without Publishing. FAQs.
How do I edit a WordPress site without going to live?
This post goes into the details of how to edit a WordPress site without going live, “How to Work on a WordPress Site without Publishing. FAQs.”
How do I know if my website is live?
You can simply type in the URL of your website into your favorite browser. If it’s live it will take you there.
However, live and indexed in Google so searchers ca find your content is not the same.
Once you Google your site and it shows up in the results, you know it’s indexed.
To see if your site or any post or page has been indexed by Google simply do a Google search of the site.
To do this type, site:mywebsite.com into the search bar and see if your site turns up in the results page.
To find out if a particular post or page has been indexed by Google, type “Title of post” site:mywebsite.com into the search bar.
If it doesn’t come up in the search results, then Google may not have indexed your post or page.
How can I test my website without going live?
You can test your WordPress site without going live by using a WordPress installation on your local computer.
All you need is to download MAMP or WAMP which are Mac and Windows applications that allow you to install Apache, MariaDB (a MySQL replacement) and PHP onto your computer.
These posts go into more details on how to test your WordPress site without going live:
- How to Work on a WordPress Site without Publishing. FAQs.
- Can I build a WordPress site without hosting? You bet you can!
How to make a website live on WordPress, Summary.
As you can see, there is no real secret sauce to how to make a website live on WordPress.
Generally, you just follow the steps for how to make a website live and allow some time for it to get indexed in Google’s search results as well as waiting for all links and images to be indexed as well.
In the case that a WordPress blog or website is not indexed in Google, you can submit a sitemap to Google by using a plugin, like XML Sitemaps, or this plugin, Google XML Sitemap Generator to help index your site more quickly.
Once everything is indexed and live, you’re done! You can now enjoy how your new WordPress website lives on the web.