How To Set Up A WordPress Website

WordPress website. Where do you start? First of all, choose a domain name.

• Find a domain name that’s easy to say and spell.
• It should reflect your business name.
• Do not use hyphens and numbers. They can be confusing and are often mistyped.

Find a reliable hosting company. Your hosting company should be able to register your domain name and display your pages on the web. A reliable hosting company will handle all server and DNS related issues for you. Install WordPress. Ask your hosting company if they can do this for you. If not, the following steps apply:

• Download WordPress.
• Set up a database and database user.
• Add the database and user details to your wp-config file in your downloaded WordPress files.
• Upload your WordPress files via FTP.
• View your WordPress website in your browser.
• Follow the instructions. Basically you have to fill in the title of your website, choose if it should be visible to search engines and create your login details.

Choose your theme.

• A WordPress theme creates the look and feel of your site.
• You can choose to use a theme to suit your needs or you can create one from scratch using a skeleton (blank) theme.
• Nowadays themes are created to be responsive, so they should work on mobile devices as well.
• Changing the theme of your website will not affect your content, just the way it’s displayed.

Change the settings of WordPress to suit your needs.

• For example, you can change the Permalinks to URLs that are SEO friendly and easy to read.
• Install the desired plugins, for example any contact forms, SEO plugins, newsletter signup forms… the list goes on.

All the steps up until this point you only have to do once. Phew! Start adding your content.

• Make sure your content is relevant, interesting and fresh.
• Use eye-catching imagery to attract visitors.

And Bob’s your uncle! Enjoy your WordPress website!]]>