A Guide to Getting Started with WordPress

WordPress’s growing popularity: Background

Nowadays, everything you do has an impact due to the accessibility of free information, the main source of which are websites. These days, branding is important when getting a website built, whether it’s for a large corporation or your own personal blog.

The conventional forms of branding and marketing still remain, but since the advent of the internet, everything has altered drastically. Websites were used for everything, including informational purposes, education, work from home opportunities, and shopping.

This led to an expansion of the website design and development industry. WordPress emerged as a victor from the maze of website creation tools that are currently available. W3Tech’s most recent data show that more than 40% of all websites now active on the Internet are powered by WordPress.

Read More: A Guide to Getting Started with WordPress

Interesting right?

What makes it even more intriguing is that it continues to be an open-source platform, which means that the technology is constantly changing as a result of the growing number of tech enthusiasts working to improve its platform and make it more superior to other website technologies in terms of speed, security, and dependability.

The statistics are remarkable, but why is it so well-liked remains a mystery.

It is for the reasons listed below:

• It is an open-source platform with 9,000 free themes and more than 60,000 free plugins. Even the more expensive premium themes and plugins—which start at $60 per year—are worthwhile.
• WordPress is the most effective tool in the battle to rank on search engines since it is user-experience-focused, has built-in tools for image optimization and mobile friendliness, and the themes are SEO friendly.
• In case WordPress emergency assistance is needed, there is a sizable forum where specialists can be contacted to respond to any questions and address any problems.

What more justification do you need to begin using WordPress to create your website? We’ll explain how to start using WordPress in this blog.

Steps to Getting Started with WordPress

Simply follow these simple instructions to begin using WordPress to design your website, and you will soon have one live. Fair warning: these instructions can only help you put up a basic website; any upgrades call for bespoke coding, which requires WordPress specialists.

So let’s get going.

• Step 1: Select a WordPress platform

You can pick between two distinct platforms for WordPress:

1. WordPress.org 

This is the platform to use if you are an expert in WordPress and want to construct a unique website. Installing, configuring, and overseeing everything will be your responsibility.

2. WordPress.com

In contrast, this platform provides you with a ready-made platform where everything is already provided; all you need to do is input the data. It comes in both a free and a premium edition. You can select either option based on your needs.

• Step 2: Set up hosting provider and domain name

After making your platform choice, you must decide which hosting platform you wish to use to store or host your website. You should examine the following factors while selecting a hosting platform:

• How quickly will my website load using this platform?
• Does this platform offer sufficient security measures?
• In terms of service, storage, and customer response time, is this platform dependable?
• What version of PHP is it running?
• What version of the server is it?
• Is HTTPS supported by it?

Some of the top hosting services that answer all the questions include:

• WP Engine

• Bluehost

• Kinsta

• GoDaddy

Additionally, you must register for a domain name that is similar to the address of your website, such as “www.insertyourname.com”. Your domain name can be registered directly on the hosting platform.

Both of these services have a cost associated with them. The cost is determined by the bundle you select based on your demands.

• Step 3: Install WordPress as a website builder

You must begin creating your actual website after choosing the hosting server and domain name. You won’t need to do this step if you are using WP Engine and Kinsta as your hosting company because it is already installed with WordPress.

You must manually install WordPress for any other hosting provider before you can begin building and developing your website. We’ll use GoDaddy as an example to help explain things.

Go to “Web Hosting” under “Manage” in your GoDaddy account.

You may either use the provided choices to find WordPress Apps or the search bar to conduct a direct search. The moment you click on it, installation will start instantly.

After that, a screen with questions about your domain name, admin access, and installation directory for WordPress will appear.

You will be contacted via email once WordPress has been installed, which takes between 24 and 48 hours.

• Step 4: Choose a WordPress themeUse the templates or themes now that your domain name is connected to your WordPress portal. WordPress starts off with a default theme that is incredibly basic. To glam it up, you have dozens of alternatives to pick from, both free and paid!Visit WordPress.org and choose your administrative panel. After selecting “Appearance,” select “Themes.” The screen below will appear.

Once you’ve located a theme you like, install it and make any necessary customizations. Every theme has different customization possibilities and a different customizing process, so pay close attention to both.

• Step 5: Add content and do customizations

You can make even more adjustments after installing and customizing your theme. You can accomplish this by heading to the dashboard of your admin panel and selecting the “Settings” option. You can adjust the settings and other features here to suit your needs.

You must begin adding material to your website after the adjustments. In WordPress, this is referred to as creating posts and custom posts. The procedure is easy.

Select “Posts” or “Pages” in the admin section of your WordPress dashboard to get started.

Select “Add New” and enter your text or upload a suitable image. Save it using the “Save Draft” feature, then use “Publish” to post it to the live website.

You can carry on doing this until you have created all the necessary posts and pages.

• Step 6: Install Plugins if Required

WordPress has built-in features that can be expanded with plugins. You can utilize any of the over 55,000 plugins that are accessible (both free and commercial) based on your needs. Yoast SEO, TablePress, and Weglot are the plugins that are utilized the most frequently.

• Step 7: Launch

You will quickly have your ideal WordPress website with all the posts, pages, and plugins. Just remember to “Publish” any changes you make so that buyers can see them.

But along with all of these things, there is a performance issue that you need to look at. such things as

• Your website’s page loads quickly, right?
• User encounter?
• Is the security effective?
• Updated plugins are present?
• Do I have backups in case my WordPress website experiences a problem?

You must perform ongoing WordPress maintenance in order to respond to these and many other queries. This will guarantee that your website is operating at peak efficiency and that users are happy while using it.

How Much Does a WordPress Website Cost?

Actually, there are a lot of variables that affect the answer, and it would be impossible to address them all in this blog post. However, the true cost of the website can range from $500 to $50,000 annually.

In essence, the cost to put up a simple website, such as a blog, is very inexpensive, but as you add features, functionalities, and security patches, the cost starts to rise. Not to mention the monthly fees for WordPress website maintenance, which you must pay to keep it operating at peak efficiency.

Read More: Top 9 reasons to choose WordPress in 2023

Once you start, it Does Not Stop…

Building a WordPress website is similar to going into a candy store with the intention of purchasing a modest item but ending up purchasing a larger one because it was more alluring. Since everything is free when you first start using WordPress, everything seems amazing, but after you get used to it, you want to keep improving it. Building websites is a challenging task, but it’s enjoyable because it allows you to enter the never-ending internet world.