Starting a new website isn’t as hard as you think. While there are many options to consider when building a website, it all begins with choosing a platform that is going to meet the vision you have for your site. Whether you’re creating a website for a small business or starting a blog, WordPress has several tools that create a seamless process for setting up your site. Short on time? Creating your WordPress website can be easily started in as little as 30 minutes whether you’re a new user or an advanced pro.
Why People Choose WordPress
There are countless website options to choose from when creating a website. Here is why WordPress makes for a better website building option than Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace. WordPress currently powers over 34% of the internet and gives users the freedom to build without boundaries. Self-hosting with WordPress gives you control over each aspect of your website from designing your site to added functionality with plugins.
WordPress also gives users the power to add functionality to a site with hundreds of free and premium plugins that can be installed from the plugin directory.
Building a WordPress website also provides you with endless support from contributors and users who work daily to make it accessible and functional for everyone. There is a robust and friendly community ready to help you create a website that is dynamic, unique, and powerful.
Table of contents
Choosing your hosting plan
Choosing a domain – choose now or choose later, you decide
Choosing a theme
Logging in
Customizing Your Themes and Pages
Here’s how to build a WordPress website in 5 quick steps
Step One: Choosing a Hosting Plan
Before choosing the plan that works best for you, head over to Bluehost.com to check out your options.
Selecting a hosting plan is one of the most important choices you’ll make before setting up your website. Hosting plans can offer different benefits and specialized services like keeping your site secure, email, and customer service. At Bluehost, we offer three different hosting options to choose from, and all our hosting plans include a free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, a free domain for a year, and a $200 marketing credit. Here is a breakdown of our three hosting options:
Basic: Our most popular hosting solution that provides everything you need to get started. A Basic plan is an affordable option that is perfect for a user with a single site.
Plus: If you are looking to scale or expect more traffic to your site, then the Plus plan is the best way to go. It also allows you to have multiple sites and features a 30 day trial of Microsoft Office 365 Emails essentials.
Choice Plus: The Choice Plus plan features everything previously mentioned plus daily backups of your data, CodeGuard, and domain privacy – for free.
Step Two: Selecting a Domain
As we previously mentioned, a Bluehost hosting plan does include a free domain and SSL certificate. Once you select your hosting plan, you have the option to select a domain before you continue to build your website. Your domain name represents your website’s online identity and what people type into a browser to get to your website. If you have a domain name in mind, make sure it’s a good representation of your business or brand. If you are creating a website for your business, you’ll want to choose a domain that matches your business name; such as, MyBusiness.com and if you are creating your personal blog, you may want to choose a domain that has your blog name in it; such as, MyBlog.com.
Consider the most important features of your brand like the message it can convey by looking for phrases, words, and keywords that might help express those ideas.
The most memorable sites online typically have short, punchy names that are between 6 and 14 characters long, which makes them easy to remember and type into a web browser. The name you choose is the online representation of your brand, so it’s important to make it stand out from the competition and speak clearly not only of the service or product niche you’re offering, but also of the values and mission behind those things.
Once you’ve selected your domain name, click “Next,” and the system will populate if your desired choice is available. Feel free to choose from a number of combinations to get the right domain for your website. For example, you may want .blog or .us instead of .com. If you are not ready to choose a domain name right now, you can always create one later!
Step Three: Design Your Website With a WordPress Theme
When you select Bluehost as your web host, WordPress is automatically installed for you and features hundreds of themes that can design the layout of your site. Once you click “Login,” you will be directed to select a theme, if you are unsure of the design you want, you can always go back and make a selection at a later time. The WordPress theme library has default, free, and premium themes to decorate your site with dynamic layouts for an easy web building experience.
Once you are directed to the next screen you will choose between setting up a site for Business or Personal reasons. You will make a selection that will help Bluehost give you awesome recommendations to continue building your website.
Step Four: Logging Into Your WordPress Dashboard
The WordPress admin dashboard is where all the building begins for your website. You control each aspect of your website from your design, plugins, and menus. As you continue creating your website, you’ll want to get familiar with all the functions of the dashboard that you will use frequently.
Step Five: Customizing Your Website Theme and Pages
The best part of building your WordPress website is that each aspect of your website is in your hands to design and fine-tune with endless customization options. You now have the ability to add custom colors, logos, and branding that reflect your business or brand. Before you start creating your first post, you want to review the features and functionality of your website.
On the left-hand sidebar of your admin dashboard you’ll find various links that will help you add to or customize your site.
Posts- This where you will create any content or blog entries that can be published to your website. Posts can be listed in reverse chronological order on the site homepage or on the posts page.
Media- Any images or media you want to include on your website will be added to your Media Library. Media will show the date, size, and file type of an image that you can add from your desktop.
Appearance- Under the appearance tab you will have the ability to transform your website design with custom colors, social media buttons, menus, and more.
Plugins- WordPress plugins help add function to your website like creating a contact form, newsletter, or increasing your security features. They can be installed and removed to manage specific kinds of content on your website.
Installing helpful tools like Google Analytics is a great resource to help you collect information t like your website traffic and visitor engagement.
You can create the ultimate WordPress website in just five steps! Are you ready to let your website take off? Take your goals to new heights and start by registering your domain and hosting package with Bluehost!
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