Want to create WordPress website without developer help, but don’t know where to begin? With WordPress powering over 44% of all sites online, it’s no surprise that individuals and businesses worldwide use it to build a website that stands out.
Its intuitive interface, extensive features, and countless WordPress themes make it the ultimate choice for beginners and professionals alike.
Whether you’re looking to build your website for blogging, selling products, or showcasing services, WordPress simplifies the process.
With WordPress hosting, plugins, and tools like a one-click install WordPress feature, even those new to website building can quickly get started. Plus, it’s flexible enough to support any type of website you want to create—from personal portfolios to business sites.
In this step-by-step guide, we’ll show you how to make a WordPress website from scratch.
You’ll learn how to choose a free domain, pick the right hosting provider, install and customise your WordPress site, and optimise it for performance and visibility.
By the end, you’ll have all the tools you need to build a WordPress website that meets your goals and looks stunning.
Let’s get started and make the process of creating a website with WordPress as simple and seamless as possible.
Table of Contents
Let's Move How to Create WordPress Website Step-by-Step
Why Use WordPress for Your Website?
Here are some of the key advantages of using WordPress for your website:
- It’s user-friendly – WordPress is designed to be easy to use, even for beginners. You don’t need any coding knowledge.
- Open-source & free – WordPress is open-source software that’s completely free to use.
- Flexibility & control – Tons of design options and full control over the contents.
- Scalability – It can power sites from simple blogs to enterprise-level websites.
- SEO optimised – WordPress makes it easy to optimise your site for search engines.
- Top-notch security – Regular updates and patches ensure optimal security.
- Own your data – You retain full ownership of all your website data.
- Great support community – As the world’s most popular CMS, you’ll always find help.
With WordPress powering over 35% of all websites, you can rest assured that it’s a great choice to build your own site.
Now let’s see how to make a WordPress website step-by-step.
Choose the Right Domain Name
The first step is choosing the right domain name for your WordPress site. Your domain name is your website address that people will type in to access your site.
Here are some tips for choosing a good domain name:
- Make it short, simple, and easy to remember. For example, wpbeginner.com.
- Use keywords relevant to your niche if possible.
- Avoid hyphens and numbers.
- Pick a .com extension if available to look professional.
You can purchase your domain name from any domain registrar, like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost. Generally, it will cost $11-15 per year. Make sure to register your domain for at least 1 year.
Once you’ve purchased your domain, it’s time to set up web hosting for your WordPress site.
Finding the Best WordPress Web Hosting
Your WordPress site needs web hosting, which is a service that hosts the files and databases required to make your site work online.
Here are the requirements for a good WordPress hosting provider:
- Fast server speed and minimal downtime
- One-click WordPress installation
- Managed WordPress plans
- SSD storage for better performance
- Free site migration
- 24/7 support
You can purchase your domain name from any domain registrar, like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost. Generally, it will cost $11-15 per year. Make sure to register your domain for at least 1 year.
We recommend going with Bluehost as they are the officially recommended WordPress hosting partner.
Their managed WordPress plans include everything you need to host a fast and secure WordPress site.
You can get Bluehost hosting starting at $2.75/month. It includes:
- FREE 1-click WordPress installation
- Unmetered bandwidth and SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- Daily backups
- Staging environment to test changes
- 24/7 support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Their WP Pro Plus plan also offers site migration, priority support, and spam protection.
Installing WordPress Automatically with Bluehost
With Bluehost, installing WordPress is a breeze. You can have WordPress installed with just the click of a button.
Here is how you can install WordPress automatically:
- Sign up for Bluehost shared hosting and create your account.
- Verify your account via email. Then log in to your Bluehost dashboard.
- Click on ‘My Sites’ and then select the ‘Create Site’ option.
- Enter your site name, domain, and account details. Select WordPress from the CMS options.
- On the next page, choose your site type. Pick the basic plan for a single site.
- Now Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you. The process takes just a few minutes.
- Once installed, you will get access to your WordPress site’s login details.
That’s it! Bluehost will install the latest version of WordPress along with your selected site theme.
All you have to do is log in and start building your site. It doesn’t get easier than this.
Logging in to Your New WordPress Site
Once Bluehost has finished the WordPress installation, you can log in.
Your WordPress login credentials are sent to the email you used to sign up for Bluehost. It will include both your username and a secure password.
Here are the steps to log in for the first time:
- Enter yourdomain.tld/wp-login.php in your web browser address bar. Replace “yourdomain” with your actual domain name.
- Type your username and password on the login screen.
- Click Log In.
Once logged in, you’ll see your WordPress dashboard.
This is where you can write posts, and pages, install plugins, change themes, and manage your entire site.
The left-side menu has all the configuration options. Make sure to change your password under ‘Users > Profile’ for security.
Now let’s proceed to picking the best theme for your new WordPress site.
How to Pick the Best WordPress Theme
The right theme brings your WordPress site to life. It controls the overall design, layout, and functionality of the site.
Here are some tips for picking the best WordPress theme:
1. Decide on the Type of Theme
Determine the overall style you want for your site.
Do you want a blog, business site, portfolio, WooCommerce store, etc?
This narrows down the theme options.
2. Responsive and Mobile-Friendly
Make sure the theme is responsive or mobile-friendly. This makes your site adapt to any screen size perfectly.
Over 50% of traffic comes from mobile, so a responsive theme is a must.
Learn about mobile SEO and its benefits.
3. Site Speed
Faster-loading themes improve your visitor experience and SEO.
Avoid bloated themes with too many resources. Check that the theme is optimised for speed.
4. SEO Features
Choose a theme with built-in SEO best practises.
This includes optimised code, meta tags, XML sitemaps, and easy SEO customisations.
5. Design, Layouts, and Functionality
Browse demos to find a theme that aligns with your desired look and site structure.
Ensure it has all the layouts and features you need.
6. Customisation Options
A flexible theme allows you to customise the design.
Look for a theme options panel, custom widgets, page builder integration, and custom CSS option.
7. Documentation and Support
Pick a well-documented theme that’s regularly updated. Check if it has an active support forum to get help when required.
Some of the best WordPress themes based on the above criteria are Astra, GeneratePress, OceanWP, Neve, Divi, and Genesis.
Customising Your WordPress Site with Elementor
Elementor is the most beginner-friendly WordPress page builder.
It lets you create beautiful pages with a drag-and-drop interface and on-the-fly site-building.
Here’s how you can customise your new WordPress site with Elementor:
- Install and activate the Elementor plugin from your WordPress dashboard.
- Create a new page and open it with Elementor page builder.
- Add a header, footer, and other site elements using drag and drop.
- Select from dozens of customisable Elementor widgets.
- Drag widgets into your page and customise the design with options.
- Tweak typography, colours, and spacing with the Style panel.
- Add images, icons, shapes, buttons, videos, etc.
- Save and view the live page.
You can build your entire site exactly how you want using Elementor. No coding is required.
The intuitive drag and drop editor makes site building a breeze.
Elementor templates and themes allow you to import beautiful pre-made designs in just a few clicks. You can easily customise them to suit your needs.
How to Add and Format Content in WordPress
Now that you have set up your WordPress site and theme, the next step is crucial – adding content. Content can include blog posts, pages, media, and more.
Here’s how to add and format content in WordPress:
Creating Blog Posts
Blog posts make up the main content of most WordPress sites. To create a blog post:
- Go to Posts » Add New in your WordPress dashboard.
- Add a title and write the content in the editor. You can use text, images, videos, quotes, headers, lists, etc.
- Format the content using the formatting options in the toolbar. Some essential ones are:
- Bold and Italics for emphasis
- Bullet points and numbered lists to structure content
- Headings and subtitles to highlight sections
- Quotes to showcase testimonials or data
- Images and videos to add visuals
- Add tags and categories to organise your posts. This improves SEO and navigation.
- Hit publish when your blog post is ready.
Creating Static Pages
Pages are used for more static content like About, Services, Contact, etc. To add pages:
- Go to Pages » Add New.
- Enter the page title and use the editor to create page content.
- Use a full-width page template for landing pages to control layout.
- Add elements like text columns, buttons, icons, etc.
- Publish when done. Add desired pages to the main site navigation menu.
Pages can also be built with page builder plugins like Elementor for advanced customisation.
Inserting Images and Videos
Multimedia can make your content more engaging. To add them:
- Upload images to your media library. Then insert them into posts or pages.
- Embed YouTube, Vimeo or other videos by copying the embed code into the editor.
- There are some exciting plugins to optimise images and videos in various ways.
Make sure to optimise images for the web and enable lazy loading for faster loading.
Adding HTML Code
Some customisations like embedded maps, slideshows, or scripts require adding HTML code into the editor:
- Switch to the Text tab in the editor to access HTML.
- Paste your code snippet and switch back to Visual mode.
- The element will now appear on your page as desired.
- You can also add custom CSS code in the editor for quick styling tweaks.
This makes it easy to embed advanced elements without knowing PHP or CSS.
Optimising Your WordPress Site for Search Engines
SEO or search engine optimisation is crucial for your WordPress site to rank higher in search engines like Google.
This increases relevant organic traffic to your site.
Here are some tips to optimise your WordPress site for SEO:
- Pick a keyword-rich domain name and use keywords in page slugs for better rankings.
- Install an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO or RankMath. This adds important SEO metadata to pages.
- Write strategic SEO titles and meta descriptions, so snippets look enticing in search results.
- Create XML sitemap and submit it to search engines for better indexing of pages.
- Add alt text to images and enable lazy loading for faster page speed.
- Structure content with semantic HTML tags like H1, H2 tags for headings.
- Include internal links to point visitors to relevant pages on your site.
- Build high-quality backlinks from reputable external sites to boost domain authority.
- Publish new content frequently to keep search engines crawling back to your site.
- Leverage trends and keywords your target audience is searching for.
With the right SEO foundations, your content has a greater chance of ranking higher and driving more organic traffic.
SEO is an ongoing process, but the results are well worth the effort.
Securing Your WordPress Site
Web security is paramount. A compromised site leads to loss of traffic, data, and reputation. Here are some WordPress security best practises:
- Install trusted plugins and themes and keep them updated. Avoid nulled or cracked items.
- Limit plugin usage to only what’s essential. Having too many plugins increases security risk.
- Use strong passwords with uppercase, numbers and symbols. Change them periodically.
- Enable two-factor authentication for all user accounts to prevent unauthorised logins.
- Restrict user permissions to prevent access to site files and settings.
- Take regular backups either manually or with a backup plugin.
- Enable auto-updates for easy one-click updates of WordPress core, themes and plugins.
- Hide the WordPress version and other sensitive information from being publicly visible.
- Install a security plugin to scan for vulnerabilities, block threats, and prevent brute force attacks. Wordfence and Sucuri are good options.
- Use an SSL certificate to encrypt all traffic and switch to HTTPS for added security.
Proactively monitoring and hardening your WordPress site goes a long way in keeping it hack-free.
Speeding Up Your WordPress Site
A fast-loading site leads to higher visitor engagement, lower bounce rates, and better conversions.
Here are some tips to improve WordPress site speed:
- Enable caching to serve static page copies instead of processing requests dynamically. WP Rocket is a good caching plugin.
- Compress large image sizes. Also, enable lazy loading for images below the fold.
- Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML code to reduce file sizes.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute static files from servers spread worldwide.
- Remove unnecessary plugins. Too many plugins can slow down your site.
- Upgrade to PHP 7.4 or higher for faster script execution.
- Switch to a faster web host. Avoid shared hosts with sluggish servers.
- Deactivate pingbacks and trackbacks if you have a busy blog.
- Configure your database for optimal performance via phpMyAdmin.
- Minimise HTTP requests by concatenating CSS and JavaScript files.
Check your PageSpeed score and aim for at least 85+ on mobile and desktop.
This ensures your WordPress site performs well for visitors.
Maintaining and Backing Up Your WordPress Site
To enjoy ongoing WordPress success, you need to properly maintain and back up your site.
Here are some WordPress maintenance tips:
- Regularly update WordPress core, themes, and plugins to stay secure.
- Scan the site for broken links, spelling errors, and other issues.
- Monitor site uptime and speed to catch problems early.
- Clean up bloated database tables and delete unused content.
- Test that forms are working and backed up.
- Refresh old content to keep attracting search traffic.
- Watch server disk space, memory usage, etc. to prevent slowdowns.
And be sure to backup your site:
- Take regular automated backups via a plugin like UpdraftPlus.
- Manual backups before major updates or changes
- Download and store backups remotely in case the server is compromised.
- Test restoration process to ensure backups work when needed.
Proper maintenance and backups give you peace of mind that your WordPress site is running smoothly.
Conclusion
With the steps outlined in this guide, you now have everything you need to create your very own professional WordPress website.
Starting with choosing a domain name and web host, we’ve covered installing WordPress, finding the right theme, optimising it with Elementor and adding valuable content.
Don’t forget to market your new site by promoting it on social media and driving relevant traffic through SEO optimisations.
Update it regularly with fresh, engaging content, so visitors keep coming back. Consider WooCommerce to host an online store next.
SEO Agency In Essex is here to assist further with services like website complete SEO.
Feel free to reach out if you need any help maintaining or growing your new site.
You can claim a free website audit from the SEO Agency In Essex.
Most of all, have fun putting your ideas out on the web and building your online brand presence.
Your website is your home on the internet – enjoy making it your own!
