Build Simple Yet Profitable Website with WordPress
Once upon a time you needed a web developer to build your entire website. Unless you wanted to learn HTML, CSS, MySQL, jQuery and/or PHP, you had to hire someone to do every piece of your site. With WordPress, however, building a site becomes more of an elementary process. Do this, press that, take off those and keep that – your site is built. OK, maybe it’s not *that* simple, so I will take you through the basics.
Build a Website with WordPress
Step One: Buy a domain name and web hosting. Those are two separate things. I recommend Bluehost for small businesses that use WordPress, but there are many other good options as well.
Step Two: Install WordPress, following the famous 5 minute install. Oh, and read about WordPress security at this time as well. Don’t be surprised if it takes more than five minutes. And if you can get stuck, you can always try contacting someone who has installed WordPress many times.
Step Three: Pick a good theme for your site. Since you are starting from scratch, pick a responsive theme – might as well have your site work on mobile as well as a desktop. If you are confused by the oh so many sites available for WordPress, go with WordPress Twenty Twelve.
Step Four: Install some important plugins for your site. For starters, I would make sure I have a good backup plugin.
Step Five: Put some content on at least three pages. If you want a blog, name a category “blog” and publish a few posts to that category. Do you want to allow comments? Now is the time to decide (although, like much else in WordPress, you can change your mind). If you want to dis-allow comments for new posts, go to Settings->Discussion and make sure ” Allow people to post comments on new articles” is no longer checked. You can edit this setting individually for each post.
Step Six: The default for WordPress is to have posts appear on your home page. Many small businesses prefer to have a static home page. You can accomplish this by going to Settings-> Reading and click in Front Page displays A Static Page (and select the page and save your new settings).
Your New Site
Ah, there! You have a new site. Do you like it? Of course, there is so much more one can do. You will probably want to modify the header. You may decide you prefer the bells-and-whistles of a paid theme (paid themes do not cost *that* much and might work well for your business). You may want to add a contact form. Installing Google Analytics is a common practice for businesses, and optimizing for search engines can be done in a variety of ways.
If you get stuck somewhere along the way, you can also contact an experienced web developer to help build some part of your site. It’s OK to ask for help. And if you are self-motivated, you may then be able to resume working on your site on your own.
Your Turn, Please
Do you use self-hosted WordPress for your site? Did you set up yourself? Did you hire someone to help or to do the whole set up? What do you find easy about WordPress? What scares you?
28 thoughts on “Build Simple Yet Profitable Website with WordPress”
When I first moved from Blogger to WordPress it was overwhelming. I still have a lot to learn, but I’m getting there. Self-hosted.
Geek Girl recently posted…Author Interview: Katherine Lowry Logan
Good for you for sticking with it and succeeding! Keep going – it’s great to be online and presentable, isn’t it?
Vividly remember how I started out with my self hosted WordPress blog in 200. Took me some time to figure out what to do. But once I got it I was hooked.
By the way, have you tried the security plug-in WordFence? It’s great, discovers the smallest change that could be malicious and enables you to remove it. Most likely makes a difference.
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Catarina, I’ve read that one is highly recommended (WordFence). I’ve been using Better WP Security for a while, though the plugins may complement each other.
Thanks for the feedback on your own experiences with WordPress.
I have sites set up on WordPress.com. I know it isn’t the good stuff as yet and I haven’t had a chance to even migrate yet. I am a huge slacker, I know.
Sometime in the near future I will be getting it set. Right now I think my first step is going to fall into getting my own domain name.
Jon, we all move at our own pace. If you are on WordPress.com, then you have gotten used to how WordPress operates. Getting one’s own domain name is a good start.
I just moved my site from GoDaddy to self hosted last week. Thankfully, the move was seamless. I loved how you outlined the steps. Sometimes it all seems so daunting but somehow we learn. Thanks for this. I forwarded this and your info to a friend who would find this helpful.
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I really appreciate your forwarding the post to a friend – I would be happy to answer questions.
Word-press is SO much simpler than using HTML 5, CSS, jQuery, or Java Script! I am in an interactive journalism course this semester where I am learning coding for all of these programs in Adobe Dreamweaver and I would much rather just use the simple Word-press but unfortunately that would be considered cheating! e
Morgan, and all of those, HTML5, CSS, jQuery, or Javascript are so much easier than the C programming or assembler language I learned in college! It’s all relative.
Just knowing how to write code is a great skill to have. If you learn the process, it gives you logic and analysis skills. It’s not about the specific programming language.
My WordPress site uses GoDaddy for hosting, and I wish I would have went with Bluehost. I’ve heard it’s not too hard to switch, but it all comes down to finding the time. I’ve found I really like tinkering with my site, and it’s made me want to learn more about coding as well. Someday, I’ll pick a better theme, but right now I am focusing on incorporating better SEO on my past and present posts. My husband is a software consultant, so he automatically gets nominated to help when I really need it 😉
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Maybe I’ll write a post on how to switch hosts when you have WordPress sites. I switched to BlueHost years ago – the time consuming part was transferring pages I had done as a volunteer that were in old-fashioned HTML. Switching a WordPress site is mostly a matter of following WordPress instructions. Someone even recommended a great plugin to help with the process – WP-Migrate-DB plugin.
So nice of your hubby to help! I don’t think mine even knows what SEO is – but he takes good care of our taxes.
You certainly know your stuff. I’m sure this information will help a lot of people and save them time of going through the wrong or less-efficient ways of setting up a website. Thanks!
Thank you, Kelly – I’ve been working on websites for over ten years and on the internet since the 1980’s, so it comes naturally to me.
I have a wordpress site hosted by hostgator and between the two, the whole process has been very easy! I was surprised at the customer service from hostgator and the ease of using wordpress. The support forums on wordpress have helped me fix dozens of glitches as well. Jeri, I’m very jealous that you have an in-house software consultant. Like Leora’s husband, my husband doesn’t even know what SEO is.
Uh, oh, I have to be careful what I say about family members online! Each of my family members has some wonderful virtues, but I’