Building
a business website or personal website was challenging enough,
especially if you are not a tech-savvy person. The good news is, with
all the different options available on the internet today, starting a
website is very easy even for ordinary users who don't understand
technology!
Basically,
if you know how to read, navigate and click with a mouse, then you
can create a website in less than 60 minutes.
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By
creating a website, you can expand your reach to a wider audience and
connect with like-minded people all over the world. With the right
strategy in place, your website can also help you build a stable
online income stream.
In
this article, I will show you how to start a website step by step
without requiring any technical knowledge.
I.
Creating a Website with WordPress -
WordPress
is the most popular website creation platform available on the
internet. It controls more than 30% of all websites today.
WordPress
makes it very easy to create a website from scratch. You can easily
customize the appearance and features of your site by installing the
appropriate themes and plugins (applications) respectively.
The
best part is, you don't need to know any code or be a technologist.
Because I will help here to make your WordPress website active and
running in less than an hour. All you have to do is follow the step
by step guide below.
Step 1: Choose a Platform - Hosted WordPress Yourself
Because
there are many different website makers to choose from, it's easy to
get confused. Although there are many web platform platforms that you
are free to use, blogging experts always recommend starting a website
on a self-hosted WordPress platform.
WordPress
With
a free website builder, you cannot prepare a special domain name that
is easy for your visitors to remember. Free website builders also
display irrelevant advertisements, making your website look
unprofessional. If you want to create a special domain name and
delete the ads, then almost every website maker requires you to
subscribe to a premium package that is quite expensive (except
Blogspot). Another disadvantage is that most website builder's
interfaces come with a lot of swell options that you might not need.
This makes making a web site a boring task for novice users.
On
the other hand, the self-hosted WordPress platform gives you complete
control over your site. A neat interface, and you can easily expand
your site's features by only installing the plugins that are needed.
In addition, you can find thousands of free WordPress themes from the
official theme repositories that allow you to easily customize the
appearance of the site as you wish.
Step 2: Buy a Domain Name and Hosting Account
To
start a website on self-hosted WordPress.org, you must have a domain
name and web hosting account.
Domain
name: Your domain name is the address of your website (URL) on the
internet, such as Google.com. This is what your customers type in
their browser to access your website. Domain names usually cost
around $ 14.99 per year.
Web
Hosting: Your hosting account is where your website content and files
are stored online. Think of it as physical home. When visitors try
to access your website by typing in your web address (domain name),
they will be directed to the website that you have set up on your web
hosting server. Web hosting usually costs $ 7.99 per month.
The
combined costs of domain names and hosting can be very expensive,
especially if you are just starting out.
That
is why Bluehost is the best choice to get started because they offer
a FREE domain name.
Bluehost
is one of the biggest hosting companies in the world. They have been
working with the WordPress community since 2005, and they are the
hosting provider that is officially recommended by WordPress itself.
To
start the WordPress site, visit the Bluehost website and click the
Get Started Now button
On
the next page, you will be asked to choose a plan. Since you are just
getting started, you should choose a basic package. This includes
free domain names and free SSL. You can always upgrade later as your
website grows.
Bluehost
Plan
On
the next screen, you are asked to choose a domain that you own or you
can buy a new domain for free. Go ahead and buy a new one because
it's free.
Bluehost domain Purchase
You
will now be asked to enter your account information. For easy
registration, you can enter with Google with just a few clicks.
Bluehost
account creation
After
entering your details, scroll to the bottom of the page until we find
the package information box. You can choose a basic plan for 12
months, 24 months or 36 months. You can also see that some add-ons
have been selected previously, adding to the total price. It's best
to uncheck addons because you don't need them now. You can always buy
it later if your needs change.
Choosing
a 36-month plan will give you the best value for your money.
Bluehost
package information
After
you have finished choosing your package, scroll further to the bottom
to enter your payment details. You must agree to their Terms of
Service and then, click Submit.
There
she is!
Now
you have successfully subscribed to a hosting package. You will be
asked to create a password for your account.
Next,
you will receive an email with details about how to enter the web
hosting control panel (cPanel) where you can manage everything, from
hosting files to email and support.
Step 3: Install WordPress on Web Hosting
With
Bluehost, you don't need to go through a separate WordPress
installation process because Bluehost now installs WordPress by
default. All you have to do is choose your WordPress theme, specify a
name and slogan for your website, and you will be ready to get
started with WordPress.
After
subscribing to the hosting package, you will be asked to choose a
WordPress theme. You can choose anything during this step because you
can always change the theme later (I will show you how to do it in
the next step of this tutorial). The most important part is starting
to build your site so that any theme will do the work for now.
Choose
a theme
You
will then be asked to choose a name and slogan for your website.
create
a new Wordpress website
After
determining the details, click Next. Bluehost will now install
WordPress for you and, once it's done, the screen will look like
this:
Wordpress
installation was successful
You can enter your site by adding wp-admin to your URL. Here's what your WordPress login URL should look like:
You
can now enter your WordPress site with credentials sent to your email
address.
Step 4: Change your WordPress Theme
With
WordPress, you can easily change the visual appearance of your
website. All you have to do is find the right WordPress theme and
install it on your WordPress site.
The
default WordPress theme is good, but if you want a different look and
feel for your site, then you can find alternative themes from the
official theme directory and install them on your site. Finding the
perfect theme will allow you to make the site truly yours.
If
you choose a premium theme, then it must be downloaded from the theme
vendor's site and uploaded it to your WordPress.
If
you decide to go with the free WordPress theme from the official
theme repository, then you can install it directly from your
WordPress dashboard without a manual download from your computer.
To
install a free theme, navigate to Appearance »Themes in your
WordPress dashboard. Then click the Add New Theme box.
install
free themes
This
will show you some of the featured themes on the dashboard. Before
installing, you can even preview and details by clicking on the
image.
You
can also filter themes based on the layout, features, and niche of
your website by clicking on the button
Feature
Filter.
theme
feature filters
In
the right corner, type the name of the theme in the search bar. After
you find the perfect theme, hover over the image then click the
Install button. Next, click the Activate button to change the look of
your website.
Step 5: Create the First Page
After
changing the look of your site, it's time to create a new page on
your site.
On
the left-hand menu of the WordPress dashboard, you can find two
similar options that are often confusing for beginners: Post and
pages.
Select
Pages if you want to create a stand-alone page on your WordPress site
such as the About Us page, Contact page, Terms of Service page, etc.
Select
the post if you want to make a blog post that appears in reverse
chronological order (newer first) on your WordPress site. Submissions
are also organized into categories and tags.
To
create your first page, visit the editor's page by clicking on pages
»Add New. You need to add a title for your page before you start
writing content in the page editor. To upload images to your website,
all you have to do is drag and drop your images into a text editor
from your computer. Or, you can use the Add Media button to upload
pictures and videos.
add
a new page
Step 6: Prepare the Static Homepage
By
default, WordPress displays your blog's latest post as your homepage,
not a static page. If you want to set a custom page as your homepage,
then just follow the steps below.
After
creating the page, open Settings »Reading in your WordPress admin
dashboard. In the Homepage display options, you must select Static
page and select the page you want to display as your front page in
the dropdown menu. When finished, click the Save Changes button.
static
homepage
Step 7: Add a Navigation Menu
The
navigation menu is at the top of your website, so your visitors can
easily find the most important pages and links, making it easy to
explore your site.
To
add a navigation menu, you must go to Appearance »Menus in your
WordPress admin. Specify the name of the menu in the Menu Name field
(this is especially useful if your theme supports multiple navigation
menus). Then, click on Create Menu.
Create a menu on WordPress
You
can now choose from existing pages, posts, special links, and
categories. After choosing what you feel is appropriate to display,
click Add to Menu. With Drag and drop, you can adjust the menu
structure. Then, you need to determine the display location and click
Save Menu.
position
menu structure
Step 8: Add and Customize Widgets
On
the WordPress website, you can easily add widgets in the sidebar and
other locations that are ready for widgets such as site footers, etc.
Adding
widgets allow you to add customized / dynamic content. This allows
you to add things like menus, calendars, contact forms, galleries,
and other good items in the sidebar or footer area of your
website.
You
can add widgets by going to Appearance »Widgets and choosing from
the available widgets. You simply drag and drop the features of your
choice into the widget area of your WordPress site.
add
widgets on Wordpress
Step 9: Customize WordPress with the Plugin
The
beauty of WordPress is that you can easily improve the capabilities
of your site by only installing the right plugins. Think of plugins
as applications for your website (eg contact forms, galleries, etc.).
Just
like the WordPress theme, you can easily find and install free
plugins from the WordPress plugin repository in your WordPress
dashboard.
All
you have to do is visit Plugins »Add New. Use the search box in the
right corner to find the plugin, and click the Install Now button.
Once installed, click the Activate button to make it work.
install a plugin
II.
Add Important Features (Basic)
Whatever
type of website you want to create, you must add the same important
features (such as the ability to create contact forms, the ability to
easily add SEO tags, and so on).
With
WordPress, you can easily add these features without hiring
developers or writing a single line of code. All you have to do is
find the right plugin and install it on your site.
I
will explain …
1. How to Improve SEO
Want
to attract targeted viewers to your website? The best way to attract
targeted visitors is to drive more search engine traffic, also known
as organic traffic, by increasing the SEO of your website.
According
to OptinMonster, SEO is the practice of increasing website traffic by
making your web pages higher in search engine results. Visitors who
arrive at your site through a search engine are called organic
traffic.
SEO
can get technical and complicated, but, thanks to the free SEO
plugin, it's easy enough to improve your WordPress SEO, even for
beginners.
Although
you can find lots of different SEO plugins out there, WordPress
experts recommend Yoast SEO. This is the most popular SEO plugin for
WordPress (for good reason!).
With
Yoast SEO, you can easily add meta tags and titles to blog posts and
WordPress pages. It also forces you to choose focus keywords for your
blog posts and pages to make sure you use keywords correctly on that
page.
On
the WordPress dashboard, open Plugins »Add New, Search Yoast in the
search bar in the upper right corner. The Yoast SEO plugin will now
appear on the page. Click Install, and then Activate.
Yoast
SEO install
On
the WordPress dashboard, you can now find the SEO menu on the left
taskbar. Just click. If the plugin detects any SEO errors, you can
fix them by following the advice given.
Setting
up Yoast SEO is simple when using the configuration wizard. Just
click on the Configuration wizard to get started.
SEO
Yoast configuration wizard
In the first step, you will be asked if you want to configure Yoast SEO
yourself or hire an expert to do it for you. Choose CONFIGURE YOAST
SEO to do it yourself.
configure
Yoast SEO
In
the next step, you will be asked if your site is ready to be indexed.
You can choose option A. Then, click Next.
Yoast
seo indexing
You
can find many different types of websites on the list. Make sure to
choose the right type, and then, click Next.
Yoast
seo site type
For
Google knowledge chart cards, you will be asked if the site is run by
someone or a brand. If a person is selected, you must specify the
person's name. If the company is selected, you must add a logo too.
Then, click Next.
Yoast
seo company or person
You
can now enter your social media profile URL in the appropriate field.
Then, click Next.
Yoast
seo's social profile
In
the Search Engine visibility step, you don't need to change the
default settings because the settings are to index your posts and
pages. Just click Next.
Yoast
seo search engine visibility
Author
archives might create duplicate content issues for search engines. To
prevent this, you can turn it off if your blog doesn't have many
authors.
You
have many writers
Next,
you will be asked to link your website to Google Search Console,
which is a free tool that gives you a detailed insight into how your
blog content is perceived by Google.
You
can now exit the configuration wizard because other steps are made
only for promotional purposes (such as registering for the Yoast
bulletin).
Start
with Yoast SEO today to improve your blog's SEO.
Want
to start with the free version only? Try Yoast SEO for free.
If
you are looking for some suggested plugins for your website, see
below:
- Improve SEO with Yoast SEO - Pro | free
- Add an extra layer of security with Sucuri
- Make regular backups with Updraft Plus - Pro | free
- Improve WordPress performance with W3 Total Cache
- Prevent spam comments with Akismet - Pro | free
- III. Add Enhanced Features to your Website (Continued)
- Depending on your needs, you might want to add enhanced features to your website, WordPress is very extensible, so all you have to do is find the right plugin that allows you to add enhanced capabilities to your a site without having to make it yourself or hire an expert.
Let's
see how easy it is to add enhanced features to your WordPress
website.
- Add eCommerce storefront
- Add a discussion board / forum
- Make the website available in various languages
- 1. Add an eCommerce Store
- With WordPress, adding an eCommerce storefront to your site is as easy as installing a plugin.
Although
you can find dozens of eCommerce plugins, WooCommerce outshines all
competitions and stays ahead of the curve with unique features and
ease of use.
WooCommerce
is the best eCommerce plugin for WordPress. This allows you to easily
integrate the storefront with your existing website and allows you to
accept payments through PayPal. However, it is in your best interest
to ensure that your WordPress theme is compatible with WooCommerce.
Some
WooCommerce features are:
Enables
you to easily sell physical or digital goods on websites.
Easily
add more payment gateways with the addon plugin.
Supports
many free and premium addon plugins to improve your storefront.
If
you need to hire experts to add special features to your site, it's
easy to find it because WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce
solution for WordPress.
Read
the complete WooCommerce review now.
Want
to integrate online storefront with your site? Start with WooCommerce
today.
2. Add Discussion Board / Forum
Adding
discussion boards or forums to the WordPress site really helps to
grow the community involved. WordPress makes it easy to provide a discussion forum where your users can mingle and collaborate
collaboratively with the wider public.
bbPress
is one of the best WordPress forum plugins, and is made by the same
people behind WordPress.org.
Some
of the cool benefits of empowering your website with the bbPress
forum are:
Hundreds
of addon, plugins are available that allow you to easily improve your
forum.
Make
it easy to make your forum active and running with just a few clicks.
Complete
with full features including expanded profiles, group forums,
notification and activity logging, etc.
Want
to integrate online storefront with your site? Start with bbPress
today.
3.
Make Your Website Available in Various Languages
Want
to reach a wider audience by making your website available in various
languages? Creating a multilingual website and reaching a global
audience is very easy with WordPress thanks to the various types of
translation plugins available in the market.
With
WordPress, you can find many different plugins that make it easy to
create multilingual websites.
While
some plugins focus on ease of use and allow you to easily create and
manage multilingual websites, other plugins help you provide
automatic translations based on user preferences. You can also find
plugins that help you
connect
with professional translators from within your WordPress dashboard.
To
easily create multilingual websites, experts recommend using
Polylang, one of the most popular WordPress translation plugins in
the plugin directory.
With
Polylang, you can use as many languages as you want, which are
search engine friendly and also compatible with the WooCommerce
plugin.
Start
with Polylang today.
IV.
Promote and Develop your Website
Before
you start investing, it's worth taking the time to check if your
website provides value to your visitors. No matter how much you spend
on website promotion, your visitors will not survive unless they
provide some value.
For
example, if your site is an online store, you might want to publish
videos that are useful for demonstrating your product and how to use
it. You can also offer large discounts for first-time customers and
package purchases.
Likewise,
if you have a content website, then you can create pillar content
that ranks well on Google so that it attracts new visitors and
backlinks.
After
building a system on your website, such as pillar content that
provides some kind of value for visitors, you can start investing
time and resources to drive traffic.
Keep
in mind that without this system, your visitors will not survive,
making your marketing efforts less effective.
Encourage
Traffic to your Website
Traffic
is the life of every website and, without it, your website will be
worthless.
Some
different ways to drive traffic to your blog are:
Guest
posting: Publish your guest articles on popular blogs and include
backlinks to your site. In addition to directing traffic, it helps
you show your expertise in your field and establish yourself as an
authority.
Email
outreach: Create a list of bloggers in your niche circle. Start an
email outreach campaign to reach out to bloggers and ask them to
provide a backlink to your site. With the right strategy, this tactic
is effective in building backlinks and driving traffic.
Search
engine optimization (SEO): SEO allows you to develop your website
traffic by making your blog posts rank higher in the search engines.
With onsite and offsite SEO tactics, you can drive more targeted
organic traffic to your site.
Social
media: Encourage your readers to share your blog posts on social
media. This can help you direct social media users to your site.
More
Ways to Promote Your Website, unlimited promotion strategies to drive
instant traffic. If you only focus on short-term profits, chances are
you will soon miss profits in the long term.
Want
to know what promotional strategies you can rely on for the long
term? Let's look at some of them below.
1. Start the Email List:
One
of the best ways to keep your visitors close to your brand or website
is to create an email list. In fact, it has been found that 70% of
first-time visitors will never return to your site after they leave.
However, with an email list, you can build connections with your
visitors by regularly updating them about what has happened around
your website and, finally, bringing them back to your site.
You
can register for list building tools such as Aweber or MailChimp and
start developing your email list by adding a registration box to your
blog, you can also check the 10 best tools for developing your email
list.
2. Get Prospects and Customers:
Investing
in online advertising is one of the best ways to get visitors,
prospects and customers. Unlike traditional advertising, online
advertising helps you target potential customers. Therefore, you can
spend your advertising budget efficiently and drive more revenue
through it.
Facebook
Advertising: Facebook advertising is probably the easiest, but
effective enough to drive targeted customers to your website. It
comes with many targeting options that allow you to display your ads
to the right segments of Facebook audiences who are more likely to
become your customers.
Google
AdWords: When done correctly, Google AdWords is the most reliable
advertising method that helps you generate more prospects and
customers for your online business. You can place ads right above the
Google search results to attract visitors to your site and sell your
products.
Resources for Learning and Master WordPress
To
be able to run a website and develop it on the WordPress platform,
mastering and honing your WordPress skills is very important. Even
though you don't need to learn any programming language, you should
be able to fix some common technical problems. It is recommended to
follow some of the top WordPress resources on the web.
Some of the best free WordPress resources that are considered useful are:
Community:
WordPress masters are scattered in various communities, social media
groups, forums, etc., you can meet them there.
V.
FAQ
After
helping thousands of users start a website, I find that people often
ask the same question repeatedly. This is why I compiled a list of
the most frequently asked questions, so you can easily make your
website active and running.
Can I make a website without WordPress?
Yes,
there are many different website makers out there that help you
create websites. However, experts always recommend starting a website
with WordPress because most free website makers display their ads on
free websites, making it look unprofessional. They also don't even
allow you to choose a special domain name for your site unless you
subscribe to a premium package. Also, if you violate one of their
conditions, they can turn off your website without warning.
On
the other hand, with WordPress, you get complete freedom over your
site. Plus, you can add additional functions without hiring experts
(such as contact forms, online stores, etc.).
Can I make a website on WordPress without coding?
With
WordPress, anyone can create a website without technical knowledge.
You can easily choose from many different WordPress themes that help
you change the look of your website. WordPress also has several drag
& drop page builders such as Beaver Builder and Divi which makes
it very easy for you to create a completely custom website.
What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org (self-hosted WordPress)?
WordPress.com
is a free blog platform that allows you to easily start a website.
However, it comes with many restrictions such as limited theme
availability and limited storage space. Also, the free platform
doesn't allow you to monetize your website with third-party vendors
(like Google AdSense).
WordPress.org,
also known as self-hosted WordPress, requires that you have a domain
name and hosting account to run the site. With a self-hosted the
platform, you get full control over your site, can monetize as you
wish, and this provides themes and unlimited customization options
and unlimited storage space depending on your hosting provider.
How much does it cost to start a website?
To
start a website on self-hosted WordPress, you have to buy a domain
name for $ 14.99 per year and a hosting account, which costs around $
7.99 per month. Overall, starting a site will cost as low as $ 110.87
per year.
You
can find thousands of free themes and plugins for your site. However,
if you prefer premium themes and plugins, the operational costs of
your website can increase.
How to make a responsive website?
Choosing
a responsive theme for your website is the easiest way to make your
website responsive to mobile so that it works on all devices
including desktops, phones, and tablets.
How
do you create a website that Google can search for?
If
you want your potential users to find your site on Google, then you
need to improve SEO (search engine optimization). SEO is the practice
of increasing your website traffic from search engines by making your
web pages higher in search engine results.
Can I start the site anonymously?
If
you want to publish a site but remain anonymous, make sure to protect
your domain with WHOIS privacy enabled. For anonymous sites, people
usually use a pseudonym/nickname to be written below. You can even
create unique emails just to manage the site.
How do websites make money?
There
are many different ways to monetize your website and make money
through it. Some of them are:
Advertising:
Sell advertising space to prospective advertisers directly or through
third-party vendors such as Google AdSense.
Affiliate
marketing: Promote products on your website and start generating
revenue when your visitors buy products through your affiliate link.
Product
sales: Add a storefront to your website and start selling your
products to your site visitors.
Selling
services: Offer services to your clients and generate revenue through
it.
Can I add a blog to my website?
With
WordPress, adding a blog to your website is very easy. All you have
to do is create an article by navigating to Posts »Add New, and
publish it by clicking the Publish button.
Also,
make sure to add a link to your blog in your navigation menu so
visitors can easily find it.
Can
the website be managed by multiple users?
WordPress
comes with 5 default user roles that you can create. Roles and
permissions for each of your site users: administrators, editors,
authors, contributors, and customers.
What are categories and tags in WordPress?
Your
WordPress blog content is organized by categories and tags.
Categories
are basically broad groupings of blog entries. Think of it as a
general topic that you cover or a table of contents for your blog.
Because categories are hierarchical, you can have as many
subcategories as you wish.
Tags
are intended to describe the specific details of your post. They can
be used to categorize your content micro, and they are not
hierarchical. Think of it as an index part of a book.
How can I learn more about WordPress terminology?
See
the Terms of this Terms for Beginners whenever you get confused with
strange terms or abbreviations.
How do I make my website faster?
Choosing
reliable web hosting like Bluehost is one of the recommended ways to
make your website faster. Some other methods are:
Reduce
the image you use on one page.
Improve
your site's performance using cache plugins, such as W3 Total Cache.
Use
a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
How do I make my website safe?
For
your website to be safe, it is recommended to back it up regularly
and use security tools, such as Sucuri so that you can scan it and
fix any problems when found.
That's
it, I hope this guide helps you learn how to start a WordPress site
without hiring a developer.
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