It is a common misconception that you need to know coding to build a website. That’s not entirely true. With the arrival of the Content Management System (CMS) platforms like WordPress, Wix, Drupal, Joomla, and Magento, you can build a website without any coding knowledge. These content management systems will take care of the coding from the backend so that you can fully focus on front-end aesthetics and functionality.
Out of all the CMS platforms, WordPress is the most commonly used. Almost 43% of the world’s websites are made using WordPress. Big companies like The New York Times, SAP, Vogue, Sony Music, Walt Disney, and many other companies use WordPress to build their sites.
You make a WordPress site by following the given steps:
- Decide on your goals for the website:
Starting with why will give clarity on a lot of things in our lives and a website is no exception. A clear thought process behind the website will make things easier. Do you want a website to bring you leads from your business, do you want readers to enjoy your writings, are you going to build a personal portfolio, or do you want the website to sell your products? Knowing exactly your why will determine the next steps.
- Buy a domain and hosting:
A domain is like your home address. It helps people to find you on the web. Based on your purpose, you can find a suitable domain. If you want to start a company page, you can buy a domain with your brand name. If you want to build a personal brand, take a domain with your name. There are a lot of domain providers like GoDaddy, Bluehost, NameCheap, Hostinger, to name a few.
Once you have your domain, you need to buy a hosting plan. If your domain is your address, your hosting is the place where your home is built. It is a place where all your web files, like text, images, and videos, are stored. Select a good hosting provider like GoDaddy and Bluehost. Hostinger also offers affordable hosting options. You can buy the plans based on your requirements.
- Install WordPress software:
Once you buy the hosting, you have to install the WordPress software. A few hosting providers will pre-install WordPress without you doing it, but you don’t need to worry if they have not. You can easily connect your hosting and domain with WordPress. Based on your hosting provider, search on YouTube for how you install WordPress. Within minutes, you will be able to figure out how to do that.
- Create Pages:
Explore the WordPress dashboard once you install it. You will see an option to create pages.
- You can select to add a new page and create the pages you planned to
- After you have created the “Home” page, you can save and publish it and add another page
- You can complete adding all your pages, like About us, Contact us, Services, Blog, and the rest.
These pages will be placed in your “Home” menu in the next steps.
- Choose a Theme:
A theme decides how your site looks to the outer world. WordPress offers thousands of free theme templates. You can select one theme based on the type of website you want to create. When you are starting, it is better to use simple themes like Minamaze, Astra, Cadence, and Generate Press. They make your job easy.
- Add the menu:
Then you have to design your menu. You can go to the appearance tab in the dashboard and select Add Menu. You can arrange the order of your pages here. A few themes will not have an option to customize the menu; hence, once you select the theme, check whether it has the option to create the menu. If that theme does not offer, find another one.
- Customize the theme:
The next step is customizing your theme. You can add logos, give the site title, and its tag using customization. You can also give your preferred fonts, primary and secondary colors, while you customize. You can select what page you want to be shown on the home page and what page you want to make the posts page. Here, only you can select whether you want your site to be dynamic or static. You can also customize your header and footer.
- Create posts:
In your dashboard, you can see another option to create posts. Here you can create posts, which will be your articles. You also categorize them according to topics. It makes it easy for the reader to find the article on their interested topic.
- Install essential plugins:
Plugins add extra functionality to your WordPress site. There are hundreds of plugins, each offering a special functionality. You can have a plugin for SEO, another for Contact Form. another for making your website fast, another for building your pages, and one for the chat option. You can go to the plugins option in your dashboard and add essential plugins like RankMath, Fluent Forms, Elementor, and others based on your requirements.
- Change basic settings:
Using settings, you can add new users, change the permalink structure, and do a few other things. Explore all options in the settings option.
- Publish the site:
Once you’re ready with all the pages and a few posts and their design, you are ready to publish your site to the world. You can regularly update and improve it. It gets better with time; you might face some problems, but you can learn only when you try solving them. Hence, the problems you come across as potential chances to go deep and learn more about WordPress.
Now you see, it’s not difficult to make a website using WordPress. Even though it feels difficult in the initial days of working on it, within a week, everything on the dashboard seems familiar, and you can start playing with it. Practice making at least 5 websites using WordPress, and you will not look back. Wishing you the best in your learning journey.