Getting online is now easier than ever. There are around 200 million active websites, and most of them were made by the regular folk just like you and me.
Today, anyone can want a website design, no matter the level of technical skill. We know it may seem some difficult task, but there are several tools available today making the process easier. This article will take you through designing a website step by step.
There are basically two types to design a website; it may be with the website builder or with WordPress. However, there’s no question to it. Website builders like Square space, Wix, Weebly are the best ways for the tech novices to get on.
Website builders are perfect in case
You don’t know the art of coding
Value inconvenience
Attention on content and strategy
Start selling things online
WordPress is, therefore, a near fit to:
- Scalability
- Independence
- Advanced customizability and backend control
Designing the appearance of a website can be as simple as choosing from some premade templates and later on making adjustments suiting your taste. This may include the addition of some logo, some change in the color palette, or some particular font that you want visitors to relate with the website. Those are some of the easier steps that may be taken to establish the online platform connecting you to the digital world.
Getting started with WordPress, you may decide which option provides the services that you need.
WordPress.com – This option is completely free, but has some limitation on its features.
WordPress.Org – The script in this option is completely free but need to have a domain name as well as web hosting. It offers pure control and customization.
Here in this article, you would learn how easy it is to set up the WordPress self-hosted website for your home business. This CMS can be literally managed from any computer which is connected to the internet. Basic HTML knowledge is helpful however not necessary with WordPress. When you grow more accustomed with the features, more options can be added to your website through the use of some plugins in the CMS. Now let’s see how a website is built.
Choose and Buy a Domain Name
Selecting a business domain name is the most important part of the presence and marketing related to your business. Ideally this needs to be a .com including most experts suggests that keeping your domain name and hosting services depart to make sure that you have ownership and control over your domain.
Sign up for Web Hosting
Though there are many free options, your best bet is, however, to go with the paid host, to ensure control and quality. There are different affordable web hosts to choose from. Take a look at Berkaweb’s budget hosting recommendations for a list of pocket-friendly and reliable providers that offer one-click WordPress installation.
Connect the Domain and Web Host Services
Once you sign up for hosting, you would receive information about logging into your account and the address of your host’s name servers. Just copy the name servers information and then go ahead with your domain registrar while adding the name server into your domain name. This tells the domain registrar Where the domain needs to point to.
Install Word Press
Those days no longer exist when you had to download some script from the WordPress website and then upload to your host. Most of the hosts offer a rapid install option through their script library. Just log into your host account and find the WordPress script. Also, click on install and refer where you want the script to install.
If you want your complete site on WordPress, use your domain name and leader the directory option totally blank. And if you already have a website and you wish to install a blog in some different folder, write in the folder name after your domain name. For instance: if you want WordPress for your blog, you may install it in http://www.yourdomain.com/blog. Install button will create the blog folder and install WordPress there only. During the install, you may also offer your admin name, email, blog name included in WordPress, although you can change the blog name and then email later.
When complete, you would be given a link to the newly made WordPress website and a password. You would want to change the password.
Browse the WordPress Dashboard
One of the nicest things about WordPress is this that even when it is updated, the basic functions remain the same. Once you learn where everything is and how it works, you are then good to go. Log in your WordPress website while using your admin name and password. Once logged in, you will be taken to your dashboard. On the left side is a menu of all the standard options like.
- Dashboard
- Posts
- Media
- Pages
- Comments
- Appearance
- Plugins
- Users
- Tools
- Settings
Choose a WordPress Theme
WordPress provides default themes or you may browse and install themes from the Wp theme library. Just click on appearance then theme. If you like the default theme, you may leave it however choose the customize option to change aspects like color and the header. You can change the theme by clicking on some different theme, and then clicking on activate. If you don’t like the default options, you can add some new theme. One way is to click on “add theme” where you may access a theme library.
Click on install and then activate to choose the theme. Another option is to find out themes from the sources. To use these themes, you need to download them from the source, then in your WordPress dashboard click Add themes then upload the theme. Use the browse button to find the theme you downloaded, click on the file and then upload. Then also click on install and activate. Note that some of the themes add menu items to your left navigation. Some have customization options like adding your social media links.
Set up your Plugins
WordPress comes ready-made with two plugins. An anti-spam plugin you would want to activate by getting some free activation code. Simply click on the link to get one. There are millions of plugins adding cool features on your WordPress website. But many plugins run behind the scenes in order to keep the site safe and running it smoothly. Basic plugins you need to include security, backup, cache, and SEO.
Plugins can be added under the Plugin option of the menu. Like themes, you can search for different plugins within the WP library, or get them from other sources and upload them to your WP site.
Once you have your pages, add posts related to your home business or blog topic. Both posts and pages work the same way. Click on a new post or new page under the page or post in the dashboard menu. Add your title to the title box and your content. WordPress offers you two options to add your content. One is visual which is what you see what you get and text. If you have the code you want to include in the page or post, click the text tab to add it. On the right side of the page, you would see options to publish or schedule your post, categorize it, add featured image or tag it.
