WordPress, a leading Content Management System (CMS), powers more than 43% of all websites on the Internet, making it one of the most popular and widely used website creation tools globally. These numbers show how user-friendly this platform has become.
I know starting a website can be overwhelming initially. Things start to turn out more challenging when you realize where to begin. Believe me, I have experienced this before. Thanks to the availability of a book titled ‘Build your own website’ from where I started my career as a webmaster. This book focussed particularly on building a website with HTML and CSS. I had a hard time learning this programming language.
However, this is not the case today. You don’t need to learn any programming language or have coding knowledge to create a professional site for your blog or business website. Our clear instructions and illustrated examples will guide you through every step of building a website without having to learn any coding languages.
I will be using WordPress for this tutorial because it takes just 45 minutes to build a complete website when you do this right and yes, you don’t have to write a single line of code.
Personal websites cost as little as $100 per year, which makes WordPress an affordable choice for beginners. This popular CMS offers more than 59,000 free plugins and countless customization options, helping you create exactly what you want. This step-by-step guide will walk you through the basics, from picking your domain name to launching your site from scratch.
Millions of website owners have already chosen WordPress. It’s your turn now!
Note: If you don’t have the time to read this detailed post about creating a website on WordPress without any coding knowledge, we’ve prepared a concise summary to help you quickly grasp the key points. Search for this post “How to Create a WordPress website in less than 10 minutes.”
- Understanding WordPress Basics for Beginners
- Step-1. Planning Your WordPress Website
- Step-2. Setting Up Your WordPress Foundation
- Step-3. Designing Your WordPress Website
- Step-4. Creating Essential Website Pages
- Step-5. Adding and Organizing Content
- Step-6. Installing Must-Have WordPress Plugins
- Step-7. Launching Your WordPress Website
- Conclusion
Understanding WordPress Basics for Beginners
Understanding WordPress’s foundational concepts begins the journey to creating a website. Before building your website, you must familiarize yourself with some key aspects that will set you up for success.
To fully utilize its potential, you should first build up a clear understanding of what WordPress is and how it works, the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, choosing the right Platform, essential terms, and the various tools it offers for customization and scalability.
In the sections below, I’ve outlined everything you need to know to make a wise choice as you begin your website-building journey. This foundational knowledge will simplify the process and enable you to create a website that aligns perfectly with your goals.
However, if you want to jump straight away to our step-by-step tutorial and learn how to create a WordPress website you can click here.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source platform that makes website creation available to everyone. The software handles everything on your website, from content organization to design elements, through an easy-to-use interface. It also has a vast ecosystem of plugins and themes that help create websites, from business sites and blogs to online stores and portfolios.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
Understanding the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is crucial in choosing the right platform to meet your website’s unique needs, preferences, and long-term goals.
While both platforms share the same name ‘WordPress‘ and provide tools for building websites, they are fundamentally different in terms of control, functionality, and responsibilities, catering to various types of users. WordPress.com and WordPress.org each serve a similar purpose but are tailored to specific kinds of website creators.
Whether you’re starting a blog, setting up an online store, or building a portfolio, understanding these distinctions will help you decide which option aligns with your goals.
WordPress.org, known as self-hosted WordPress, gives you complete control over your website. With this version, you’ll need web hosting and a domain name, but you’ll get unlimited customization, easy monetization options, and full content ownership.
WordPress.com takes a different path as a hosting service. The platform comes with pre-installed WordPress software in a ready-to-use hosted environment. While it’s convenient, free and low-tier plans limit your customization and functionality options.
Choosing the Right WordPress Platform
As I’ve already mentioned, your choice between WordPress.com and WordPress.org will greatly affect your website’s capabilities.
My vote goes for self-hosted WordPress.org. In this tutorial, I will focus on the self-hosted option. Here’s why I planned to use it:
- Technical comfort level.
- Unlimited customization options.
- Full ownership of the content.
- Monetization website without any restrictions.
- Thousands of independent contributors worldwide support WordPress’s growing ecosystem.
- This shared environment makes WordPress perfect for beginners who want to build their first website.
- The platform’s extensive community provides plenty of resources, tutorials, and support for users at every skill level.
Key WordPress Terms You Need to Know
These essential WordPress terms will help you understand the platform much better:
- Themes: Pre-designed templates that determine your website’s visual appearance and layout.
- Plugins: Software extensions that add specific features or functionality to your site.
- Dashboard: The administrative area where you manage your website.
- Content Types: Pages (static content) and Posts (chronological content).
- Media Library: Central storage for your images, videos, and documents.
Step-1. Planning Your WordPress Website
A clear roadmap will keep your WordPress website project on track and help you achieve your goals.
Defining Your Website Goals
The foundations of your website’s success lie in setting specific goals. Your goals should fit the SMART framework:
- Specific: Define clear objectives (e.g., generate leads, sell products).
- Measurable: Set trackable metrics.
- Achievable: Keep goals realistic.
- Relevant: Match your business objectives.
- Time-bound: Set deadlines for achievement.
Your website’s main goal might be providing information, generating leads, selling products, or booking services. These goals must translate into measurable outcomes that you can track with tools like Google Analytics.
Creating a Website Content Plan
A well-thought-out content plan helps you connect with your target audience effectively. Conduct thorough keyword research to understand your potential visitors’ search patterns. Tools like Google Search Console help you discover phrases people use to find similar websites.
Your content strategy should include:
- Target audience analysis.
- Content types and formats.
- Publishing schedule.
- Performance monitoring.
Analytics tools help track visitor engagement and shape your strategy. Keep an eye on your top-performing posts and update them regularly to prevent content decay.
Documenting your website goals, platform choice, and content strategy creates a valuable reference point. This documentation helps you stay focused throughout the development process.
Step-2. Setting Up Your WordPress Foundation
Your WordPress website needs three significant elements as its foundation. Let’s look at each one to get your site started right.
Selecting a Domain Name and Hosting
As you have opted to create a website using a self-hosted WordPress, you must buy a domain name and web hosting services from any web host such as Hostinger, Siteground, Bluehost, Godaddy, etc.
Suggested reading: How to register a domain name for your website (For Free)?
Your hosting is the digital space where all your website’s files, content, and functionalities are stored, making them accessible worldwide. Meanwhile, the domain name serves as your website’s digital address, guiding visitors to your hosting server.
When someone types your domain name into their browser or clicks on a link, they are directed to your website. Once there, they can explore your products or services and, ideally, purchase or engage with your offerings.
Pick a domain name that shows off your brand and helps people find you easily. Here’s what makes a domain name work:
- Keep it short and memorable.
- Avoid numbers and special characters.
- Use relevant keywords that match your offerings.
- The .com extension adds better credibility.
To learn more, see this article on how to choose a perfect domain name for your website.
Many hosting providers give you a Technical Configuration with yearly hosting plans. This lets you handle both services from one dashboard. Check out our handpicked list of the best web hosting services for beginners.
Installing WordPress Step-by-Step
Once you have your domain and hosting ready, here’s how to install it:
- Download WordPress from wordpress.org.
- Create a database for your WordPress site.
- Upload WordPress files to your server.
- Run the installation script.
- Configure your site title and admin account.
You’ll get login details for your WordPress dashboard next. Some hosting providers offer one-click WordPress installation that makes things much easier. If you don’t want to rely on a hosting provider for the installation, no need to worry—we’ve created a detailed, step-by-step guide to install WordPress effortlessly.
Configuring Essential Settings
Your WordPress dashboard needs some basic setup. Here are the key settings to adjust:
- General Settings: Add your site title, tagline, and timezone.
- Reading Settings: Pick between a static homepage or blog post display.
- Discussion Settings: Set up comment moderation options.
- Permalink Settings: Choose a URL structure that helps with SEO.
Privacy settings need extra attention – you can set your site to “Coming Soon,” “Public,” or “Private” while you build it. Your site’s search engine visibility should match your launch schedule.
The admin email address needs updating since it gets important security and performance alerts. These basic settings are the foundations of your WordPress website’s growth and success.
Step-3. Designing Your WordPress Website
You can create an appealing website design by picking the right visual elements for your WordPress site. Let’s see how we can turn a simple website into a professional website.
Choosing and Installing a Theme
The WordPress theme directory offers a vast collection of free themes, providing users with diverse options to customize their website’s design and functionality. A dedicated team reviews each one to ensure security and quality. We need to assess potential themes based on these key factors:
- Your brand’s design arrangement.
- Mobile responsiveness capabilities.
- Update frequency and ratings.
- Loading speed performance.
- Customization flexibility.
Pick a theme that supports the latest WordPress version to keep your site secure and compatible. Once you’ve selected your theme, install it through your WordPress dashboard by going to Appearance > Themes > Add New.
Note: It would be smart enough to create a child theme for your website. To understand why this is beneficial, check out this post that explains why installing and activating a child theme is a wise choice.
Customizing Your Site’s Look and Feel
The WordPress Customizer is your main tool for changing your site’s appearance. You’ll find it under Appearance > Customize in your dashboard. This is where you can adjust:
- Site identity elements like logos and taglines.
- Color schemes and typography.
- Header and footer layouts.
- Widget placements and menu structures.
Modern block themes give you better control over your site’s appearance through the Site Editor. You can change style settings, including site-wide colors and typography, without coding knowledge.
Mobile-Friendly Design Tips
Mobile devices generate more than 55% of global web traffic, so intuitive mobile design is vital. WordPress.com themes are mobile-responsive right out of the box. You can improve the mobile experience even further:
Use relative sizing units (em
or rem
) instead of pixels for fonts to make sure everything scales properly. The ‘stack on mobile’ option helps utilize space better on smaller screens. Your content layout adjusts automatically for mobile viewing.
Your mobile optimization should focus on:
- Navigation menus that display as overlay menus on mobile devices.
- Buttons and menus that wrap to multiple lines for better readability.
- Testing your site on devices of all types to ensure it looks consistent.
The AMP plugin (Accelerated Mobile Pages) instantly loads your pages on mobile devices. However, since WordPress themes work well on mobile devices already, most websites don’t need this feature.
Step-4. Creating Essential Website Pages
Pages are the foundations of your WordPress website. They host static content that defines your brand and direct visitors. We created this guide to help you understand how to develop and organize these pages, which will give you a professional and user-friendly website structure.
Moreover, if you are looking at how to monetize your website with Google Adsense or any other ad network these essential pages are prerequisites.
Building Your Homepage
Your homepage works like a digital front door to your website. WordPress displays recent blog posts by default, but you can create a static homepage to better showcase your brand. To set up a custom homepage:
- Navigate to Settings > Reading in your dashboard.
- Select “A static page” under the homepage settings.
- Choose your desired page from the dropdown menu.
- Save your changes.
This setup lets you keep a professional front page while your blog posts stay separate.
Setting Up Key Website Pages
Every successful WordPress website needs these pages: (Click each page link to see how I have crafted different web pages for my website.)
- About Us: Share your story and build credibility.
- Contact: Enable visitor communication.
- Privacy Policy: Meet legal requirements.
- Terms of Service: Website usage terms and conditions.
- Disclaimer: Disclaimer about content and usage of the website.
- Products/Services: Showcase your offerings.
- Blog: Share regular updates.
Create pages with content organized hierarchically. Your visitors will find it easier to traverse your site this way. You can customize each page’s featured image and status settings through the sidebar options on your screen’s right side.
Adding Contact Forms and Widgets
Contact forms establish direct lines for your visitors. Popular form plugins like WPForms or Contact Form 7 are a great way to get:
- Ready-to-use form templates.
- Customizable field options.
- SMTP email support.
- Response management features.
Widget placement improves your site’s functionality. You can access widget areas through Appearance > Widgets in your dashboard. As with forms, you can add them to sidebars or footers using the form plugin’s widget.
Test your contact forms well before publishing. Set up form notifications to get alerts when visitors submit messages. Adding useful widgets like search bars or social media feeds will help visitors find content and participate better.
Step-5. Adding and Organizing Content
Your WordPress website’s foundation rests on content creation. We need to know how to work with WordPress’s content tools to keep the site looking professional and well-arranged.
Working with the Block Editor
The WordPress block editor is the default content creation tool and gives you many blocks to create media-rich pages and posts. Each block represents a single piece of content like text, images, or multimedia elements. You can add new blocks by clicking the plus icon or using the forward-slash (/) command to find specific block types.
The editor workspace has three main sections:
- Top toolbar for general controls.
- Side panel for block and page settings.
- Central content area for block placement.
Creating Posts and Pages
Posts work as dynamic content that shows up chronologically on your blog – perfect for regular updates, news, or articles. Pages contain static information that stays mostly unchanged. You can create new content by heading to Posts > Add New or Pages > Add New in your dashboard.
Each piece of content lets you:
- Set publication status (draft, pending, private, or published).
- Schedule publication dates.
- Configure visibility settings.
- Enable or disable comments.
- Add categories and tags to stay organized.
Managing Media Files
The WordPress Media Library keeps all your uploaded files in one place. You can handle various file types easily:
Images: Upload them through the image block and adjust alignment, linking, and dimensions. WordPress automatically creates different image sizes that display optimally.
Documents: The File block helps you upload PDFs and other document types while creating download buttons for visitors.
Audio and Video: These files go through their respective blocks with controls to manage autoplay, looping, and playback options.
Custom folders help keep your media library tidy. You can rename files, move them between folders, and add metadata to find things faster. The Media Library provides URL access to share and embed files anywhere on your site, whatever the file type.
Step-6. Installing Must-Have WordPress Plugins
Plugins help your WordPress website do more by adding new features and functionality. The official repository has nearly 60,000 plugins, so picking the right ones needs careful thought.
Essential Plugins for Every Site
Your original focus should be plugins that deliver core functionality. WPForms lets you build contact forms, email subscription forms, and payment forms with drag-and-drop simplicity. We selected plugins based on:
- Active installation numbers.
- Update frequency.
- User ratings.
- Support quality.
- Compatibility with your WordPress version.
Security and Performance Plugins
Your website needs resilient security measures. Jetpack Security delivers detailed protection with features like brute force protection, two-factor authentication, and malware scanning. WP Rocket leads the pack as a caching plugin that’s easy to set up and works well with other plugins.
Cyber threats keep growing, so security plugins are vital. Cloudflare blocks automated attacks and speeds up your site through its content delivery network. The Two-Factor plugin adds another security layer that stops unauthorized access.
SEO and Analytics Tools
Good SEO is key to getting noticed online. Yoast SEO, used by over 3 million websites, packs detailed SEO features including:
- Content analysis for SEO best practices.
- XML sitemap generation.
- Custom page titles and meta descriptions.
- Readability checks.
- Internal linking suggestions (premium version).
MonsterInsights brings Google Analytics right into your WordPress dashboard. The plugin costs USD 99.50 yearly and gives evidence-based insights about your audience that shape your content strategy.
WP Statistics offers privacy-focused analytics that follows GDPR rules by default. This plugin tracks overall trends while protecting visitor privacy through IP address anonymization.
Keep your plugins running smoothly by updating them regularly and removing unused ones. Check plugin compatibility before installation to avoid conflicts that might slow down your site.
Step-7. Launching Your WordPress Website
Your WordPress website’s final phase needs careful prep work and testing before launch. A step-by-step approach will give you a smooth debut without technical problems or user experience issues.
Pre-Launch Checklist
Start by creating a complete backup of your website files and database. This backup works as your safety net and lets you restore your site if something goes wrong during launch. Your pre-launch phase should verify these key elements:
Content Verification
- Review all pages to check the content display.
- Check if media files load right.
- Test navigation menu functionality.
- Test contact form submissions.
- Check email delivery setup.
Technical Configuration Set up XML sitemaps for search engine indexing. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console to boost your site’s visibility. You should also install an SSL certificate to secure your website’s data transmission.
Testing and Quality Assurance
Good quality assurance needs thorough testing of your website’s different aspects. Check your site’s performance with tools like GTMetrix or Google PageSpeed. These tools help you spot ways to speed up your site and give users a better experience.
Cross-Platform Testing Test your website here:
- Different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari).
- Multiple devices (desktop, tablet, mobile).
- Various screen sizes and resolutions.
Your functionality testing should be detailed. Make sure all interactive elements work perfectly, with a focus on:
- Form submissions and notifications.
- Payment processing (if applicable).
- User registration and login.
- Media playback.
- Social media integration.
Going Live Steps
After testing, follow these steps to launch your WordPress website:
- Pick a launch time between Tuesday and Thursday when support is readily available.
- Turn off user-generated content temporarily.
- Clear all cache in themes and plugins.
- Force HTTPS across your site.
- Turn on search engine indexing.
- Set up Google Analytics for tracking.
Post-Launch Monitoring Your live site needs tools to track:
- Visitor behavior and engagement.
- Site performance metrics.
- Security alerts.
- Error notifications.
Watch your website’s performance closely during the first week after launch. Monitor page load times, user engagement, and any 404 errors. Your staging environment should stay intact for future updates and testing.
Google Analytics tracking will help you learn about your visitors’ behavior. This data is a great way to get insights for future website improvements and content strategy.
Conclusion
WordPress website creation blends simplicity with powerful features that work perfectly for beginners and experienced users. The experience of picking a domain name and launching a functional website follows a clear path anyone can manage.
Successful WordPress websites thrive through continuous improvements. Your site needs regular updates and security maintenance to stay fresh and engaging for visitors. Each new feature or change should be tested to maintain professional standards.
WordPress gives you the flexibility to adapt when your needs evolve. You can start with basic features and add functionality through well-chosen plugins and themes. This helps your site perform well while meeting your growing needs.
Start building today – implement security measures and create content that connects. Your WordPress website will become a powerful platform to spread your message, connect with audiences, and grow your business.