Discover that an astonishing 62% of the top 100 fastest-growing companies rely on WordPress for their websites? Such statistics underscore WordPress’s status as a reliable and customizable website building platform, ideal for businesses aiming to optimize their sites for conversion. However, for those unfamiliar with this open-source platform, the process of initiating a WordPress website can seem daunting.
Looking to construct a WordPress website? Our comprehensive guide is here to assist with a nine-step process to get you started:
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To embark on your WordPress website journey, the first step is selecting a domain name. Your domain is integral to your brand identity and serves as the address visitors use to access your site. Choosing the right domain is crucial as it will be the key to discovering your business.
Generate a list of potential domain ideas that reflect your brand and ensure your domain clearly identifies who you are. For instance, if you sell soap products, incorporating the word “soap” into your domain would be beneficial.
When crafting your domain name, consider the following criteria:
– Aligns with your brand identity
– Simple and memorable
– Distinctive to your brand
– Brief and catchy
– Easy to spell, pronounce, and type
– Avoids hyphens
– Utilizes a single domain
– Omit numbers
Once you’ve finalized a domain name, use platforms like Name.com or GoDaddy to check its availability.
Next, register your domain and choose a hosting provider. Opting for an all-in-one provider like Bluehost, which offers both domain registration and hosting, simplifies the process. Alternatively, you can register your domain separately and find a hosting provider, like WP Engine, to link the two.
To install WordPress, refer to your chosen host’s specific instructions. Many hosts, such as Kinsta and WP Engine, offer one-click installations. For others, you may need to install the WordPress app or a similar tool.
Selecting a theme is the next step in building your WordPress website. WordPress offers over 8000 themes, covering various categories like e-commerce and food and drink. Choose a theme that aligns with your business and offers the features you need. Make sure the theme is responsive to ensure a positive experience across all devices.
Add essential pages like the homepage, About Us, product/service pages, and Contact Us to your site, creating an intuitive navigation structure. Customize your pages to maintain a consistent look and feel, using a style guide to outline color schemes, fonts, images, and element placements.
Enhance your website with plugins to add functionality and improve user experience. WordPress boasts over 58,000 plugins to choose from, enabling SEO optimization, contact forms, security, email integration, and more. Ensure plugins are compatible with one another to avoid potential issues.
Monitor your website’s load time using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and optimize it for better performance. Regularly test and improve your pages through A/B testing to ensure continuous improvement.
For assistance in building a WordPress website, consider seeking help from WebFX, an award-winning team with over two decades of experience in web design. We can help you create a website that drives results, having generated over $10 billion in sales and 24 million leads for our clients in the past five years.
Ready to build your dream website? Contact us online or call our WordPress website development company at 888-601-5359 to discuss your project with a strategist!
