So, you decided to go all out and set up an online front for your business or service, and you chose WordPress for it? Good for you!
Choosing the right platform to host your website if you are not a coder may seem like something to be afraid of. But fear not! We’re here to provide you with a detailed guide on how to set up your WordPress website. WordPress is currently the best option to start any online venture, whether an e-commerce store or a service such as in Real Estate.
Setting up a website for your small business may seem daunting, especially if you’re new to WordPress. Fear not – this detailed guide will walk you through each step, ensuring a thorough understanding of the entire process. Let’s embark on this journey together, starting with the basics. But first things first…
Why Choose WordPress for Your Online or E-Commerce Store
WordPress is the most popular website hosting platform in the world. Nearly 43% of all websites on the internet are hosted on WordPress. Ergo, there are plenty of reasons why you should consider building on WordPress before you move on to something that is more tailored to your needs.
You can also build an e-commerce website offering a service, like essay writing service UK. You can then optimize the resource pages therein with SEO. Examples of your offers could be sample dissertations, thesis papers, whitepapers, etc.
Here are some reasons why you should choose WordPress:
Very Affordable
Despite its excellent features, you can get started with WordPress at no cost. WordPress is open-source. The Free version allows you to test WordPress out at no cost at all. However, you must cover the cost of the domain name and hosting, plugins, and premium themes. For a business, a paid plan might help you access more features for less.
Great Low Code Option
For business people just starting out and with no coding experience, WordPress can be a fantastic option. You don’t need any HTML, CSS, or JavaScript background. You can also learn how to use code snippets within your WordPress site as you move along.
Simple Set-Up and Low-Cost Hosting Process
WordPress has a very simple setup and hosting process that anyone can manage. No need to hire devs for this.
WordPress also offers low-cost hosting, and you can make it even lower by choosing the correct web server for your business. You can choose shared hosting if you desire to keep costs low. That’s great if your website has low traffic volumes, or if you’re going for a minimalist design.
Themes might also cost you some amount, and that will depend on the exact theme you choose. Some may cost as little as $50 yearly on WordPress while others may cost as much as $3000 yearly.
Wide Variety of Plugins and Themes
WordPress has the widest variety of plugins and themes for any CMS available online. You can choose from nearly 60,000 plugins and an extended number of themes, all free of charge.
Themes include options for eCommerce, Creative, and even niche (unusual) themes. Some of the best themes include StudioPress, Theme Fusion, Avada, Indigo, WoodMart, and Boldly.
Plugins are available for forms, email marketing, live chat, analytics, and even social media.
Huge Developer Environment
WordPress also exists for developers or folks who are in deep with customizing their WordPress sites. Developers can help you with a bunch of functions. These include creating new products or appearances and improving the appearance and back-end of the website.
You’ll find WordPress devs scattered across the web, including forums such as Reddit, Quora, and even WordPress itself. With a bit of patience, you will learn and develop expertise in your WordPress.
Now that we’ve covered why WordPress is an excellent choice for anyone looking to start an online business, let’s move on to the setup process.
Scalability
The beauty of WordPress is that you can scale it as your needs grow. With the foundation laid, you can continue building and refining your website until everything is perfect.
WordPress Setup and Hosting
Here is a very basic WordPress setup process that you can use for a variety of websites. For this example, let’s assume an eCommerce website, although the process can be replicated for different kinds of websites.
Web Hosting and Domain
The first step is to set up your web host, which is essentially the ‘house’ for your website. For this, you can choose BlueHost, which is one of the more popular hosting sites. Your domain name may look something like “mydomainname.com” or even with the ‘.org’ variant.
Once you set up your BlueHost account, you can install WordPress. You can also use a 3rd-party domain register or your previous one.
Building the Website
Once WordPress is installed, you start building the website. A standard WordPress website might suffice. However, you can purchase themes and plugins to customize your website. For example, if you’re doing e-commerce, you can choose the famous WooCommerce.
You can simplify your design process with the Starter Templates Plugin which integrates with Elementor. It provides pre-designed templates to kickstart your website’s appearance. Always choose a template that aligns with your business vision.
Let’s cover some of the important store pages that you might need to set up. these may include the following for an e-commerce store:
- Shop page – On this page you will display all products.
- Cart page – Here, customers can adjust their order before proceeding to checkout
- Checkout page – Customers can choose shipping and delivery methods
- My Account page – This is a profile page for registered customers that shows them their order history, contact info, and other details.
- Setting up your locale – Your locale defines your country of origin, operating language, preferred currency, and units of measurement. That will also help later if you set up a Google Business Profile.
- Set up payments and Sales Tax modules – You can add VAT to products/services on WordPress.
Let’s now explore what the structure or sitemap of a typical website might look like.
Website Sitemap
For any type of website you build, the below are usually the structure, sitemap, and pages of the website:
Home Page
Your homepage is your landing page and is the default redirect URL for your site. If you don’t do it the right way, you’ll lose site traffic, and Google bots might also flag your site. More on the homepage design later.
Services Page
The service page highlights your services, and may also contain links. Make the services page as responsive as possible and use Elementor to organize your pages into an important resource.
Projects Page
If you need to showcase your visual projects or portfolio, you can integrate images, descriptions, and alt text into your website. The projects page should load responsively and have a good visual feel on both mobile and PC.
Contact Page
Don’t forget to add a Contact page or even set up a contact form through Elementor. Ensure the form works.
Blog Page
Don’t forget to engage your audience or leads with a blog page. This will also allow you to boost your website’s SEO and let Google know that you’re a trusted source of information.
Customize Header and Footer
Finalize your website’s design by customizing the header and footer. Tinker around with Elementor and create a cohesive and professional look across all pages.
WordPress and WooCommerce
For an eCommerce site hosted on WordPress, WooCommerce presents one of the best alternative plugins. WooCommerce provides site extensions including:
- Payment gateways – Accept payment methods more than PayPal and add payment buttons.
- Shipping extensions – Useful if you want to integrate your store rates with the shipping fees from Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and others.
- WooCommerce Subscription – With extensions, customers can pay for a product subscription, such as a monthly eBook.
- TaxJar – Put your sales tax on autopilot so that you don’t need to think about it later.
- Accounting – These extensions allow you to integrate your online store with an accounting tool of your choice.
- WooCommerce Bookings – Customers can book appointments, events, speakers, slots, etc.
WordPress plugins that work well with WooCommerce include Yoast, UpdraftPlus, Contact Form 7, and MonsterInsights.
Finalizing Your Website
Once you have found the right theme and plugins to supercharge your store, you’re ready to go. You can always choose something minimalist to reduce how much work you need to do. And, because minimalist just looks better in general, and works well for creatives who want a focus on their art and work.
For example, let’s say you create a professional writing website. A student looking for an online essay to buy should see great content such as samples surrounded by plenty of white space. That’s minimalist design.
Always ensure that your homepage looks good. That might come with a bit of experience, but keep chugging at it. Keep in mind the key pages that any type of website might need. Also, ensure that all web pages and links are responsive.
Signing Out
Congratulations! You just took the first step towards designing and building your WordPress website for your startup. As a quick rehash, always ensure that your website looks good, is representative of your brand, and has your personality. Test rigorously before going live to ensure that all your links and pages work.
WooCommerce is the key integration covered in this article. It is especially targeted at folks creating e-commerce stores with WordPress. Use that to integrate your payments, add buttons, and convert currencies or link with shipping.
Don’t forget to tell a friend if you liked this article. See you on the next one!
