Last Updated on November 4, 2022 by Sunny Staff
Without an online presence, businesses are missing out on a potentially worldwide audience and aren’t sticking out from among their many competitors. Now more than ever, it’s essential to have a business website as your virtual headquarters where potential customers can learn all about your wonderful products and services.
WordPress is a great way to get a professional and sleek website at an affordable price. However, if you’re wondering how to create a WordPress website for beginners, you might feel a little intimidated. While creating and managing your WordPress site can seem a bit complicated, we’ve condensed all the important information into this WordPress tutorial for beginners.
Keep reading to learn all about getting started with WordPress.
1. Pick a Website Domain Name
If you’re wondering how to set up a WordPress site, the very first step is to choose a website domain name. The trick is to make the name as simple as possible so potential customers can easily remember it and type it into their browsers.
You’ll need to get a little creative if your chosen name is unavailable. Also, keep in mind that your name should be simple and memorable. Here are some other great tips when choosing a domain name.
It’s often best to purchase your website domain at the same time as your website hosting plan because some plans come with your choice of a free domain name.
A website hosting plan will also be able to give you access to a variety of top-level domains. This will allow you to choose a relevant suffix at the end of your URL, such as .edu, .com, .blog, .net, and more. Depending on the location of your business, you could also have the choice of geographical domain suffixes like .ca, .uk, and .br.
2. Decide Where You’ll Host Your Site
Once you’ve decided on your website domain name, you’ll still need a place to host your website.
You can host your website on WordPress.com servers using one of their several plans, but you can also host your site through a third party. The benefit of third-party hosting is that you have much more flexibility and control over your WordPress site, and some hosting companies have other convenient services that can make managing and updating your site much easier.
Sites hosted by WordPress.com have a limited number of themes and built-in plugins to choose from. Third-party hosts have few, if any, limitations on themes, plugins, and other customizations. In short, if you have a rather simple website that doesn’t need a lot of customizations, WordPress.com may be a great place to start. However, if you need a lot of flexibility (now or in the future), don’t try to save a few dollars a month with WordPress.com. You should look into a third-party host that offers plans with the level of support and flexibility you need. See our handy guide that explains the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
3. Begin the Installation Process
The next step in the creation of your WordPress site is to install WordPress itself. Another benefit of hosting your website through a third party is that you can easily install WordPress with a single click, making the process hassle-free.
If you’ve chosen the simple route, then you’ll have to log in to the account that your hosting provider gave you. From there, you should have access to a dashboard with a WordPress installation button for you to click.
If you have experience designing and configuring websites in general, you can tinker and tailor various options using the other buttons, but it’s not necessary when first starting.
Once you’ve installed WordPress, you’ll have to create your login credentials so that you can access your website at any time.
4. Customize the Look of Your Site
One great benefit of WordPress is that you can choose from many premade themes. Aside from colors, font, and other aesthetics, the themes also change the way your website is formatted and its functionality.
If you have a free WordPress site, your options will be limited, but if you pay to access the other “premium” themes, you’re sure to find something that fits your style and needs perfectly.
The option of previewing and testing out the themes can be helpful when deciding if it will work for you or not.
You can install your theme in just a few easy clicks.
5. Customize the Functionality of Your Site
You can finetune the functionality by choosing different widgets and plugins, the title and number of pages at the top of your site, and more.
You may want to keep things sleek and simple. In that case, you probably won’t have to change much, but it’s still worth knowing what you’re capable of doing when you have a WordPress site.
Popular plugins include video players, contact forms, call buttons, recent post listings, social media icons, and much more.
Each page you publish will appear on the top of your website, such as “Home,” “About, and “Contact.”
From there, you can start publishing valuable content that will bring in waves of potential customers.
Getting Started with WordPress is Simple
When someone asks, “Is getting started with WordPress difficult?” you can tell them everything you know about beginning their first site.
Now that you know how to create and manage your first WordPress website, you’re ready to start tinkering and tailoring, but you shouldn’t have to deal with all of the specifics by yourself.
Sunny HQ can make sure that your WordPress site is beautiful, functional, and always up to date. From hosting to management and beyond, we can handle your business website with care as you focus on running your business.
If you have any questions about our highly-rated services, feel free to contact us. We’re always happy to help!
