Do you know how to build a WordPress website from scratch?
Nowadays online presence is essential for your business growth. No matter what type of business it is, you need a website for your business. If you don’t have a website, then your competitor will surely beat you up easily. When it comes to building a website, WordPress is a perfect choice.
Why? Because it is a ready-made platform to do almost everything a business needs. For example, let’s say you want to build an eCommerce site for your apparel business, just like Walmart or Amazon. No worries, you can easily do it with WordPress. If you have a consulting business, then you can create a service related site.
If you do not have a business, just want a personal blog, then WordPress is the best choice. Thus, as you can see, WordPress is a widely used platform to build almost any website you need. Need some inspiration? Here, it is – BBC America, Sonny Music, Microsoft News, etc. there are hundreds of large businesses currently using WordPress for their website.
Okay, hope you are inspired enough & want to learn how to build a WordPress website. In that case, this beginner guide is for you. I will demonstrate 7 simple steps, how to build a WordPress website from scratch. So, stay tuned & let’s go.
Choose a Web Hosting Service & Domain Name
Before we start, you need to buy a web hosting service for your new website. You must have to choose an excellent quality & reputed service as it will determine a lot of important factors. For example, if you choose a web hosting service that is not fast enough then surely no matter what you do, your business performance will drastically reduce as it affects so many things i.e. SEO, audience retention rate, etc.
Therefore, I suggest you choose a web hosting service wisely. However, if you have budget issues then you can choose a cheap shared hosting service for now. But, after 6-12 months later when your site starts to grow you may have to upgrade, thus keep this in mind.
The next thing you need is a domain name. Most of the time you can purchase a domain name directly from a web hosting service provider.
Recommended Reading: Best Web Hosting Service for Personal/Business (Review)
Step 1: Install a WordPress Platform
After you have purchased a web hosting service, now it is time to set up a WordPress platform. The good news is, almost all web hosting services have a 1-click WordPress install option available. In that case, you won’t have to do anything except click a button to install.
Yet, I am going to show you how to do it.
First, log in to your cPanel. Then search for “Softaculous Apps Installer”.
Here, you will find many website building platforms available to choose from.
Click on WordPress then select the Install button to begin the installation process. Afterward, you have to choose some options.
Choose Protocol: either http:// or https:// if you already purchased an SSL certificate then you should choose https:// otherwise choose http://
Choose Domain: type your purchased domain name here
In directory: leave this blank
Site name & description: choose wisely, though you can change it later yet it affects your SEO
Admin username & password: choose wisely, better to use complex character combination i.e. FvY78O&df$
Quick Note: my suggestion is – try to use a complex combination of characters for both password & username for robust security. Choose at least 16+ characters for password & 8+ characters for username.
After you have done all of it, click install & it will take some time. Then a message box will appear with details of your new website.
Congratulations, you have successfully installed a WordPress platform on your site.
Step 2: Log in to Your New Site
In the 2nd step, you will learn how to login to your site to get started. For that purpose, visit your admin URL, i.e. https://xyz.com/wp-admin
Remember, your website address & login address is not the same. Most of the time the default login address will be “wp-admin” just after your domain name.
Anyway, you will see just like this when you visit your admin URL. Type username & password to log in.
Step 3: Familiarize Yourself with WordPress Dashboard
This is your new office room. It’s called WordPress Dashboard. From now on, you will spend most of your time here. Thus, it’s better to familiarize yourself with it.
Roughly your dashboard will look like this. However, I have customized my dashboard with several plugins/add-ons, but in any case, it looks like this.
Let me help you with some very basic elements before you start to roam by yourself.
For instance, let’s check out these 2 tabs “Posts” & “Pages”. In the post tab, you will allow creating a new blog post. And in the page tab, you can create a new page for your site.
Then take a look at the “comment” tab, here you can see all the comments from your visitors.
In the “Appearance” tab, you will have the option to install & edit new themes or create them by yourself.
In the “Plugin” tab, you can install a new add-on from different developers to make your WordPress life a lot easier.
In the “User” tab, you can add a new user to your site, especially if you have a team to manage your site. You can set up a different role as well.
Then there are “tools & settings” tabs where you can do some advanced customizations.
Step 4: How to Install a Professional Theme
Now, if you are an expert in HTML coding then you should build your site by yourself. However, for those who have no idea what HTML is, I strongly suggest installing a professional premade theme. It will be easy & fast, and of course, hassle-free.
To begin, visit the “Plugin” tab & install 2 new add-ons.
- Starter Templates – Elementor, Beaver Builder, Gutenberg & Brizy Templates
- Elementor
You need both add-ons & both of them are free.
After you have installed both of them, visit “Appearance > Starter templates”.
They have both free & paid themes available to choose from. If you have no budget issue, then I suggest you choose a paid theme as you will find lots of premium options, to begin with.
When you select a theme, it will show up like this. Here you can see several options.
Preview: it will show you a complete overview of this theme.
Import “Home” template: if you want to copy only the home page exactly as it is then click here.
Import complete site: if you want to copy the entire site exactly as it is then click here.
Quick Note: when you choose “import complete site” it will copy the entire site exactly as it is, all you have to do is edit the text & upload some images according to your likings.
Recommended Reading: 35 Best Professional Responsive WordPress Themes (Massive List)
Step 5: Write a New Blog Post
A blog is an essential element of your site. The day of a static website is long gone. If you do not want to be beat up by your competitors, then you must have to open a blog page & regularly write blog posts relevant to your niche.
To do it, click on the post then add a new post option.
Here you can do lots of things about writing. Click on the “add block” to check out how many options you have here.
Recommended Reading: What is the Keyword Optimization Technique? (Beginner’s Guide)
Step 6: Install Essential Plugins (Free)
Just like you did install 2 plugins for importing a professional theme to your site. Many essential plugins exist that you may need later on. However, I am going to show you some plugins right away so you won’t have to discover them by yourself.
Yoast SEO: one of the most popular SEO plugins. It’s very easy to use. Upon installation, you will see it when you start to write a blog post. It will guide you on how to craft an SEO optimized blog post.
LuckyWP Table of Content: if you want to create an automatic table of content for your blog post then this plugin is a must-have plugin for you.
StarBox: if you want to showcase your author profile just like me then this plugin is essential to you.
WP Super Cache: if you want to make your site faster than before at least 200%, in that case, caching is essential. There are many plugins out there, but I suggest you use this one. It’s free & works best.
Loginizer: to secure your site from being stolen by a hacker, you should install this plugin. It will limit how many times a user can try out before locked for a while. As it will prevent a brute force attack effectively.
WPS Hide Login: to make your site even more robust against a hacker you can change your admin URL. Your default login URL is https://xyz.com/wp-admin which is commonly known by everyone. So, it’s almost like letting your front door be exposed to everyone to attack.
Instead, you can hide the entry point of your site. Therefore, no one knows where to initiate an attack. Change it as you wish, there are no rules.
Step 7: Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a powerful option to make your site even faster than before. If you are about to use a cache plugin, then I suggest you use a CDN as well. As it will make your site even faster than before.
Resource Box: Why use a paid CDN when you can get it for free? Use Cloudflare for your CDN needs. You can upgrade it later if a free plan is not enough for you.
Conclusion
In this guide, I have shown you the essential elements of how to build a WordPress website from scratch. If you want to build a service, agency, education, non-profit farm, content writing blog-related business site, then this guide should be enough.
However, if you want to build an eCommerce site then I am afraid it is more complex than this. Though you can easily choose a pre-made eCommerce theme and edit it according to your choice, yet, you may need some paid plugins for the payment process. Also, a simple shared hosting plan may not be enough. As an eCommerce site requires more processing power & memory than usual.
But in any case, for a basic WordPress site, this guide should be enough. Even after that, if you need further help then do not hesitate to ask me in the comment section or email me. I am always here to help 🙂
Further Reading on Cliobra: if you want to build a simple one-page professional site within just 20 minutes then I suggest you read my other guide “How to Build a Simple One-Page Website (Mini-Handbook)”