Knowing how to develop any website from scratch is essential for surviving the IT industry and the competitive market. Website development skills can help you in ample ways.
You won’t need to spend money to hire a WordPress developer, and you will be able to develop your website in your own way. It will also enable you to know and follow the latest trends and technologies in the market.
Developing a website by yourself can be an arduous task, especially when you don’t have any idea about it. Instead of hiring a WordPress development company, you can refer to the steps below to develop the website.
Following are a few simple steps to develop an excellent website for your blogs.
Steps to develop a WordPress website
- Step 1 – Sign up for web hosting
- Step 2 – Select a domain name for your website
- Step 3 – Install a free WordPress software
- Step 4 – Select a WordPress theme
- Step 5 – Install essential plugins
- Step 6 – Build your index page
- Step 7 – Don’t miss marketing
- Step 8 – Adjust site navigation
- Step 9 – Support your website
- Step 10 – Check for updates
Sign up for web hosting
Many website platforms are available in the market to choose from to develop your website. The best platforms are Content Management Systems because they provide you with some easy-to-use tools that will enable you to edit your site’s content without any coding.
It is one of the crucial steps in your website development process. Without a platform to host your website, you won’t get your WordPress site online for users to access.
Before selecting a WordPress web hosting provider, you need to check the following criteria:
- The latest version of PHP
- Latest version for MySQL, or MariaDB
- HTTPS support
The hosting provider you choose will need to be clear to decide whether to select for shared or managed WordPress hosting. If you choose shared hosting, you share a server and all its resources with other sites while managed can take the form of VPS or dedicated hosting.
Indispensable details of WordPress:
- It is open source
- It is free
- It is the ultimate solution or website developing
- It is versatile
- It is fast and secure
- It is SEO friendly
Select a domain name for your website
After signing up for website hosting, the next thing you need to perform is to buy a domain name. It is the web address people will use to search for your website.
Purchasing a domain is very easy. First, go to a domain registrar and search for the address you want.
Domain should be excellent and unique as well as it should also be similar to your website or business if possible. It will help your customers to search for your business efficiently. It should be short and straightforward to remember.
If we talk about the best domain name extension, .com is the most common and popular extension. It is safe, but we also have various options for extensions such as .net, .org, .co, etc.
If you only use it for the national level, you can go with your country’s domain extension. Then, only the citizens of that country and entities can use your websites.
Consider the following things before selecting a domain:
- Unique
- East to remember
- Short
- Easy to type
- Related keyword to your business
Read more: How to Choose a Perfect Domain Name for your Website?
Install a free WordPress software
Now that you have got the admin out the way, it is time to install free WordPress software. For installing the software, you can also take the help of a WordPress development company.
For installing WordPress, you can directly install it from your dashboard. Depending on the software provider, the installation will be in one click or manual.
One-click installation
The name itself is a clue with hosting providers who offer one-click WordPress installation; downloading WordPress is that simple and easy.
A software service provider, Bluehost provides one-click WordPress installations. Many hosting providers use industry-standard “cPanel” dashboards, so the process would be similar even if you don’t use Bluehost.
Manual WordPress installation
As you expect, manual WordPress installation won’t be a simple task. It mainly involves downloading WordPress to your computer and then re-uploading it to your hosting provider.
We recommend you select a hosting provider which offers one-click installation for a glitch-free installation.
Select a WordPress theme
One of the significant benefits of WordPress is if you are familiar with the code or willing to learn the code, then you will be able to customize your WordPress website. You can also hire a WordPress developer to customize your website.
The theme is mainly a template used for your website, a dummy of an entirely made website that you can modify by your content and features. For attracting users, you will have to select a unique theme.
WordPress has its in-built set of themes. You can check and take a demo of the theme you like before implementing it on your website. To install a theme on your website, follow the below steps:
- Login to your WordPress website.
- Drift over the “Appearance” theme and click on themes. It will take you through the theme dashboard.
- Click on the button above the themes, which says “Add New,” then you can browse themes under featured or popular, etc., or you can use the search bar to search for a specific industry.
- Take a demo of a few themes to determine which one will choose your business.
- A button will appear beneath the theme saying activate, and you can click on it to activate your theme.
You can also buy a theme from various trusted third-party websites to get a unique theme. But it would be best if you also considered that many features in the theme could slow down your WordPress website.
Steps to install premium themes:
- You need to download the .zip file of your new theme
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- Drift over the “Appearance” theme and click on themes. It will take you through the theme dashboard.
- Click on the button above the themes saying “Add New”, it will redirect you to the WordPress theme dashboard.
- Click on the blue button at the top, which says upload theme.
- Then you will be advised to select a .zip file from your computer. Choose your new theme file.
- Then a success message will appear along with a link to activate your theme.
Install essential Plugins
Installing plugins means a way of installing features that WordPress doesn’t have. But, again, think of the kinds of apps. Like apps, some are free, and some are paid.
Similar to the themes, all plugins featured in the WordPress plugin directory are free. But the third-party ones are the paid version. Over 56,000 plugins are available to WordPress users, which is enough, but you may want to explore alternative Client Portal Plugins if you want to provide a truly unique user experience.
Steps to add a plugin to your website:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- Go to plugins and then add new ones.
- User, the search bar to search for the specific plugins.
- Once you have found your suitable theme, you need to check for the reviews and ratings of the plugin.
- If you are satisfied with your choice, you need to click on the install now button.
- Once WordPress finishes the process of downloading the plugin, you will get a popup message of completion and will be advised to click on activate the plugin.
- Lastly, go to settings and configure plugins.
Build your index page
Some pages are there that all the websites must have to disregard their purpose or goal.
But a question arises of how to create a page?
It would be best to go through your WordPress website dashboard, go to pages, and add new ones to create a page. You can also hire a WordPress developer to create a page.
Once you have completed page editing, you need to click on publish.
List of pages you need to develop
- About
- Contact
- Privacy policy
- Portfolio
- Store
Don’t miss marketing
If you don’t have an idea of SEO, it means optimizing your website and its content to rank high in the search results of a search engine such as Google. Mainly, it means to make your website more search engine optimization friendly.
You can know how to create a WordPress website but managing it regularly is another task. You can hire a WordPress development company to manage your website regularly.
If you want to make sure that your site has a large audience, then your SEO must be good. As a result, if people can’t find your website on Google, you won’t get many users.
WordPress has found a solution for you to the problem, and many amazing plugins are available that you can install to make things easier.
Adjust site navigation
With all of your pages online and your blogs also starting, it is now time to set all your site navigation, making it easy for the users to use your website.
Let us focus on the two main elements of the website menu and widgets.
- Menus
Menus are the elementary part through which visitors will navigate your site, and it is a vital part to consider while developing your website.
Based on your website theme, you will have many options to select from based on menu settings.
You can also develop additional menus by clicking on the create new menu link. Ensure that each menu needs to be displayed in a different location.
- Widgets
Widgets are old features of WordPress. Simpy a widget is a small block of content that can be shown in various places around the whole website.
The actual place of the blocks is in the sidebar or on the footer of the site. To see what it will look like, you need to adjust your widgets, and you need to go through Appearance and then to widgets in your WordPress website dashboard.
If you don’t know how to adjust your site navigation, you can hire a WordPress developer to help you with the adjustment of the site.
Support your website
It is not just essential to know how to create a WordPress website. A necessary thing for running a website is understanding what to do if a catastrophe happens. In such a case, several different options are available for WordPress users.
WordPress is mainly a free and open-source software with a great community worldwide. Because of it, more than thousands of fantastic WordPress resources are there, such as tutorials and documentation online. Additionally, plenty of WordPress experts are there for you who can help you solve the issues.
You can also hire a WordPress development company to support your website from cyber attacks, theft, and hackers. Most companies will provide customer support from where you have developed your WordPress website.
Check for updates
It is the last but most integral step in WordPress Website development. Your website might be the best of all, but it is essential to keep updating your website with the latest trends.
If you don’t update your plugins and themes, it will be easy for hackers to hack. To edit a website is not a headache, but it is an important task.
Steps to check for updates:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard
- Go to update options
- Check for updates under various tabs
Following the above steps will be easy for you to update each tab in a sequence. You can also set it to auto-updates. Also, keep in mind to renew your domain and hosting contracts on time.
Another method is to hire a WordPress developer to update your app regularly.
Final Words
So here is our step-by-step guide to developing a WordPress website efficiently.
Developing a website with the WordPress platform is the best decision to make because it is free, open-source, and budget-friendly. As you can see, the process of developing a WordPress website is quite simple and consists of a few simple steps.
The most fruitful thing for using WordPress as a platform is that even beginners who don’t have knowledge of coding or are not from technical backgrounds can also develop the website by following steps.
We hope the blog will help you develop a seamless website based on WordPress by following the steps.
