7 Easy Steps: How to Build a WordPress Website from Scratch

Last Updated on November 14, 2022 by Arif Chowdhury

Do you know how to use WordPress to create a website?

Nowadays, an online presence is essential for your business growth. No matter what type of business it is, you need a website. If you don’t have a website, your competitor will beat you up quickly.

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. Likewise, you can create a service-related site if you have a consulting business.

WordPress is the best choice if you do not have a business and want a personal blog. 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.- hundreds of large businesses currently use WordPress for their website.

Okay, I 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 seven simple steps on how beginners can create a site using WordPress. So, stay tuned & let’s go.

Choose a web hosting service & domain name.

Before we start, you need to buy a WordPress hosting service for your new website. You must choose an excellent quality & reputed hosting provider as it will determine many essential factors. For example, if you select a web hosting service that is not fast enough, then indeed, 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, choose a hosting web service wisely. However, you can select a cheap shared hosting service if you have budget issues. But, after 6-12 months, when your site starts to grow, you may have to upgrade. Thus keep this in mind.

Also, how long it takes to build a WordPress website? Well, if you are a complete newbie, it will take 2-3 hours at most, while experts can create within 30 minutes.

Anyway, 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.

Quick Note: WordPress offers one of the best website builders, which is also open source. You can install as many WordPress plugins as you like to customize your website. A newbie without experience can build a website using the drag-and-drop page builder feature. In addition, you can integrate Google Analytics to monitor your site performance. You may also use social media share buttons to increase your organic views. However, remember to write high-quality search-engine-optimized content; otherwise, it will be hard to rank in search engines.

Recommended Reading: 8 Best Web Hosting for Small Business eCommerce (Reviewed)

Step 1: Install a WordPress platform.

After purchasing a hosting web service, 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 the 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 combinations, i.e., FvY78O&df$

Quick Note: Two types of WordPress exist. The first one is WordPress.org and the second one is WordPress.com. If you want managed WordPress hosting, choose WordPress.com service, and if you want complete control, select WordPress.org.

After you have done everything, 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.  

So as you can see, the cost of building a WordPress website is minimal. However, if you can do it yourself, you must invest a decent amount in developing a WordPress site by hiring a web developer.

Step 2: Log in to your new site.

In the 2^nd step, you will learn how to log in 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 are not the same. Most of the time, the default login address will be “wp-admin,” just after your domain name.

You will see it just like this when you visit your admin URL. First, type your username & password to log in.

Step 3: Familiarize yourself with the WordPress dashboard.

It 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 fundamental elements before you start roaming yourself.

For instance, check out these two 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 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 much easier.

In the “User” tab, you can add a new user to your site, especially if you have a team to manage your site. Of course, 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 WordPress theme.

You may build your site if you are an HTML coding expert. However, I suggest installing a professional premade theme for those without any idea what HTML is. It will be easy & fast, and of course, hassle-free, as you do not have to do any web design by yourself.

To begin, visit the “Plugin” tab & install two new add-ons.

1. Starter Templates – Elementor, Beaver Builder, Gutenberg & Brizy Templates

2. 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 issues, choose a paid theme, as you will find many premium options.

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 precisely as it is, click here.

Import complete site: if you want to copy the entire site precisely as it is, then click here.

Quick Note: when you choose “import complete site,” it will copy the entire site precisely as it is; all you have to do is edit the text & upload some images according to your liking.

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 want to avoid being beaten up by your competitors, you must 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).

As you did, install two plugins for importing a professional theme to your site. Many essential plugins exist that you may need later on. However, I will show you some plugins; thus, you can use them immediately.

Yoast SEO: It is one of the most popular SEO plugins. It’s straightforward 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: This plugin is essential to showcase your author profile, just like me.

WP super cache: if you want to make your site faster than before by at least 200%, in that case, caching is essential. There are many plugins, but I suggest you use this one. It’s free & works best.

Loginizer: You should install this plugin to secure your site from being stolen by hackers. It will limit how often a user can try out before being locked for a while, as it will effectively prevent a brute-force attack.

WPS hide login: You can change your admin URL to make your site more robust against hackers. Your default login URL is https://xyz.com/wp-admin which everyone commonly knows. 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 faster. If you are about to use a cache plugin, use a CDN, as it will make your site even more quickly.

Resource Box: Why use a paid CDN when you can get it free? Use Cloudflare for your CDN needs. You can upgrade it later if you need more than a free plan.

Conclusion.

In this guide, I have shown you the essential elements of how to build a WordPress website from scratch. This guide should be enough to develop a service, agency, education, non-profit farm, or content-writing blog-related business site.

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 premade eCommerce theme and edit it according to your choice, 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 primary WordPress site, this guide should be enough. Even after that, if you need further help, 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 Create a One-Page Website for Free (Mini-Handbook).”