Building Your First Website
Every business needs its own website. No matter if you offer a product, service, or anything, you have to be able to show it online to customers. A lot of people think that the work will speak for itself, but that’s not enough anymore. Most people will search online for what they need, and you have to be online for them to even consider you.
Building a website was once a difficult task; you had to set up the servers, code the website, design, etc. If you decided to buy a website from a professional, it would have cost you a lot. That’s not the case anymore; there are many ways for beginners to make websites. Without any difficulties, you can set up a website for low costs and to your liking Building Your First Website.If we don’t consider coding the whole website, which is difficult, there are 2 popular ways of making websites. You can use a website builder, or you can use a content management system (CMS).
Website builders offer you a really simple way of making your website; you pick the design and add your content by just dragging it. It is an effective way if you want to only present your products, without too many other functionalities to worry about.
Content management systems offer you way more customizing and functionality. It is a tiny bit more complicated, but it’s still an easy task. With a CMS, you can create a website that fits all of your needs. The most popular CMS is WordPress, and today we’ll be talking about it.
WordPress is one of the most popular tools for making a website. There is a WordPress plugin for everything, so whatever you want to add to the site, you most likely can. Plugins expand the functionality of your WordPress site, you just install them, and you’re pretty much done. There is no more need to hire expensive developers; you can do it yourself rather easily by using WordPress. The best thing about using WordPress is that there are many guides available online, so you can improve your knowledge of WordPress and always keep on adding new things to your website.
How do you start setting up your WordPress site?
Register your domain name
A domain name is the bit of the URL that identifies your website. You can use free domains, but they don’t look professional, and most people don’t even take them seriously. Visitors will most likely see your domain first while visiting your website, so it has to be professional and also relevant to your website. Keep it short and avoid numbers; check if the domain is not taken, and you’re good to go. Most hosts will provide you with a way to register your domain, but you can also go to Domain.com or any other domain registrar and do it yourself.
Buying your hosting
The next step after choosing your domain is picking a hosting plan that can keep your website online. Your website’s speed, reliability, and safety are all impacted by your hosting provider. There are many different hosting providers online, but the most recommended one for WordPress is Bluehost. You just have to choose your hosting plan, register your domain and enter your account data. That’s it. Depending on the WordPress plan you choose, your domain and host can be included in the price.
Creating your website
After you’ve registered your domain and host, you have to install WordPress and connect the domain to your website. Most hosting services provide an easy way for adding WordPress, so don’t worry about that. It’s only a click away! Once you’ve installed WordPress, your site is pretty much online.
The thing that makes WordPress so powerful is the availability of plugins. Plugins are pieces of software that make designing and running a website on WordPress so easy. There is a plugin for your every need. One of the plugins I’d like to recommend you install as soon as you’ve installed WordPress is the Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode plugin. This plugin will help you create a coming soon page for your website. With that, you can advertise your website and already form relationships with your visitors while still working on launching your website.
After setting up your coming soon page, you should start working on the design of your website. For this, you should first install WP Reset. WP Reset is a WordPress plugin that can help you “go back in time” after a mistake. Mistakes while setting up a WordPress website for the first time are a normal thing, some can be easily fixed, and some may be a bit more complicated. WP Reset will help you fix any mistake, be it your mistake or just an incompatibility in the plugins and themes you’re choosing.
Together with WP Reset, you get the Emergency Recovery Script. This tool can help you fix even the biggest errors. Mistakes happen all the time, and ERS might save you from breaking your website and having to start again. Almost any mistake you make can be fixed by using WP Reset and the Emergency Recovery Script.
While making your website, design is one of the most important things. WordPress offers many stylish themes and templates. There is one for everyone. You can also customize any theme to fit your liking even more, and it’s rather easy as well.
Besides the right theme, you also need other elements to make it easier to navigate through your site and to make the visitors see what you want them to see. Making the website nice to look at is important, but it’s even more important for it to be engaging to your visitors. It should be easy for visitors to access the information they need and the information you want them to see.
The plugin WP Sticky might just help you with that. WP Sticky will enable you to make any element on your website sticky. Sticky elements won’t leave your screen even when you scroll past them. It’s a simple way to add a navigation bar to your website, so your visitors have access to the important things all the time.
Website Content
If you’re using the website to advertise your products and your shop, you might also need Google Maps Widget. It’s a simple, cheap, and stylish plugin to add a map to your website, so customers can know your location. If you do not plan on making online shopping part of your website, this is a really great way to improve your product sales. You can make your location known to all of your visitors and boost your sales that way.
If you’re more focused on making content, there are a lot of things to consider. While it isn’t that difficult to do some research and start writing content, you have to consider what you’ll be talking about. You also have to remember to give credit where it’s due. If you give credit to the work of your authors, it will help both your website and them also. For that, you can use Simple Author Box Pro, a simple and good-looking way to give credit to your authors using author boxes.
Conclusion
Creating a new website isn’t as complicated and expensive as it used to be. There are many different tools online that make creating websites simple. You just have to know what you need and what fits you best.
The first step you always have to do is setting up your domain and hosting. After that, no matter if you use a website builder like this one or a CMS, designing your website and planning your content, is the next step.
WordPress makes creating your website so much easier. It’s not as simple as website builders, but it offers a lot more customization and functionality. There is a plugin for everything, for every step in your journey. The only difficulty is finding the right ones, but there are many guides online about all of the plugins you will need. With just a bit of work, you can create your dream website in an hour or two.
