WordPress Website Development: A Step By Step Guide

Businesses today are moving towards a trend of creating their online presence through the development of their own functional business websites which would help them reach a larger audience and improve their customer engagements. By coming over a website, businesses are able to break their traditional boundaries and barriers and expand themselves on a global scale. But the question facing most of these businesses is how do they start this website they need? Well, the easiest way is that you get web development services from an expert professional or from a good web development company. But there are also platforms that offer you to create a good, functional website for your business and that too in an extremely easy manner, without much requirements for any technical or coding knowledge. And one of the most popular of such platforms is WordPress.

WordPress is an open source CMS that was originally developed as a platform for bloggers. Eventually it expanded its scope and came to become one of the most popular website development platforms. And one thing which makes it a favorite is its amazing ease of use. The platform greatly paid attention to the audience for which it was targeted and considering that not many bloggers would be technical persons, the platform kept an extremely easy user interface which was readily understandable even by non-technical persons. And even with its expansion and diversification the platform took care that it maintained its ease of use thus making the creation of a WordPress website one of the most easy to perform tasks. Here is a step by step guide that you can follow for carrying out your WordPress Website Development project.

How to Create a WordPress Website?

Step 1: Select and Purchase a Domain Name

A domain name is a very critical element of your website. It is the name with which your audience is going to search for you. So, you need to be very creative with this and select a name that could attract your target audience. It should be something like never heard of before so that it could generate curiosity among the people. At the same time, it should be easy to remember, easy to understand, and short. You might not get your preferred domain name in a single go, because there are more than 30million website out there and the domain name you have selected might have already been taken up, so you need to try various combinations. You can find various tools over the web that can help you with selecting a good domain name for your website.

Once you have selected your domain name, the next step is to purchase and register it with a domain name provider. There are many companies that provide your preferred domain name and register it at very nominal costs. You can have your domain name registered with any of such companies.

Step 2: Select and Purchase a Hosting Package

With a domain name, you will also need a hosting service provider to host your website. Usually the companies that provide domain name also offer hosting services. You can take up a hosting package from the company with which you have registered your domain name or from any other web hosting company.

Step 3: Installation of WordPress

Once you have a domain name and a web hosting, you are halfway through from starting your website. Now you need to have the platform for the creation of the website, so you need to install WordPress on your server. This may be offered by your web hosting service provider or you can also carry out the installation manually.

Step 4: Setting Up the Website

After you are done with the domain name, web hosting, and WordPress installation, you can finally start setting up your website. You will have to set up the following things:

1. Set permalinks that decide the URL structure of your website.

2. Make sure that you have taken steps to make your site public. For this, go on “Settings” then click on “Readings”, and uncheck the box stating “Discourage Google from Indexing this Website”. This will give you the chance that google sees your website and indexes it.

There are some other general settings as well which you may or may not want to do, such as setting a title and tagline for the website, setting time zones, enabling or disabling comments, etc. After this initial set up, it becomes easier for you to handle the website.

Step 5: Select Themes and Plugins for Your Website

WordPress offers many themes to select from. Select a theme that best resembles your business because your website theme will be a face for your business. You can also customize the themes as per your needs and requirements, such customization can help you give a personalized look to your website.

Another important thing over WordPress is plugins. Plugins are the add-ons you can use for adding features and functionalities to your website. There are some plugins which are a must-have over a WordPress website. Install all those plugins so that you can give out the best user experiences.

Step 6: Create Your Website’s Pages and Blog

Now is the time you create the pages on your website. Start with creating the basic pages such as the Home Page, About Us page, Services Offered Page, Portfolio Page, etc. Also consider starting a blog on your website and be regular with the blog postings because a blog will greatly enhance your SEO and help you rank your website.

After you are done with creating all your website pages and setting up your blog, you are all set with your functional website and all you now have to do is maintain it so that it keeps serving its purpose.