How to create website with WordPress 2021. A step by step guide on how to create a website with WordPress in 2021.

Introduction

A step by step guide on how to create a website with WordPress in 2021.

You have decided to create a website for your business, client, your brand or even a personal blog. A website is your identity and you have to create it as you want it to be.

Actually creating a website with WordPress is very easy and it’s not complicated and very friendly for even beginners. Anyone who is keen and determined can create a website with WordPress.

WordPress is a content management system. CMS is software which will help you create the website you want. WordPress is the most popular CMS out there and very big websites have created their websites or blogs using WordPress.

This article will take you through how to create a website with WordPress even if you’re a beginner.

Create website with WordPress in 2021

All websites begin with three basic elements. A website consists of a domain name, hosting and a platform.

Domain name is an address in the internet or web. It’s the name that is between “https://www.” and “.com”

Hosting is a space on the web that holds (hosts) your website files including content, images, videos e.t.c. It’s where all your website data and information is kept.

Platform is the tool that you use to create your website.

Domain Name

Domain name is an address for your website. It’s an address people will use to find you on the web. Generally when they go to this address on the web they will end up on your website. It’s a link to your website.

A good domain name should be:

1. Short
2. Easy to memorize
3. Brandable
4. Easy to type
5. And includes niche (business) related keywords e.g a pizza cafe should include the word pizza in their domain name e.t.c

How to create your domain name

Mostly a domain should match with your business name, brand or personal name if you’re creating a personal website. This will allow clients to link to your business easily. It looks like “http://www.yourdomain.com”.

To create a domain name for your website, there are many big domain name providers. In this guide I recommend one big player which is Namecheap. Namecheap is one of the top domain name providers in the world. Just like the name of the company, they are also cheap and trustworthy.

If you don’t have domain name, click here and get one from namecheap. It’s very simple. Or use the link below.

There many domain name extensions to choose from like .com, .net, .org,.life,.club and many more.

Get your domain name from namecheap here.

Hosting

You have bought your domain name (your site address or your site name), now you need a hosting which is a place to put your files of your website. It’s a place on the web where your files, photos, content and information is stored.

Web hosting is done on a server. A server is actually a remote hard drive where all your data and information is stored. And you connect to this remote hard drive using your computer through the internet.

A server holds all your important data, information and files. It’s important to find a reliable web hosting provider that will guarantee security and up time to keep your content live.

Namecheap is a global domain name and web hosting provider. There are other big companies like bluehost, hostgator, godaddy, interserver and many more. In this guide I prefer to use namecheap since apart from being a cheap web hosting provider, they have an option to pay monthly.

Bluehost and interserver are also good and reliable. You can choose one of them. Use the link below.

Get a FREE domain when you buy Shared hosting!

Get web hosting from namecheap

Get web hosting from bluehost

Get web hosting from interserver.

In this guide, I will be using namecheap to create a web hosting account. For a start we are going to use a namecheap shared hosting plan which you can pay for monthly or yearly at an affordable price. You’re free to use any web hosting provider.

  Steps to create a hosting account with namecheap.

1. Go to shared hosting with namecheap

              Get shared hosting with namecheap

2. Click on get started button
3. Select your web hosting plan (Stellar, Stellar Plus or Stellar Business)

I have 2 websites on Stellar plus. I recommend that because it’s affordable and cheap. You have also unmetered SSD, unlimited websites, free CDN, autobackup and free TLDs and some discounted TLDs. 

Kindly choose the plan you prefer and click the “get started” button.

4. Connect domain name with your hosting if you have previously bought before. 

You have the option to create “new domain name” or use “existing domain name.”

            Get your domain name from namecheap here.

To connect with a new domain:

• Select “New Domain Name”
• Search domain in “Search for domains” 
• Select the found domain name and click connect button to continue purchasing the domain and hosting plan and also create an account with namecheap.

             If you have followed the guide and previously bought a domain, 

• Select “Existing Domain Name” check box
• Click the “Sign in” button and sign to your account to connect your domain to your hosting plan. 
• Finish purchasing the web hosting plan.

We have our domain name connected to our web hosting account. The good thing is we have a domain name and hosting plan under one company. Now it’s easy to manage in one place.

Note down your username and password to your account. But if you can remember, you can leave it.  It’s always good, so you can remember if you forgot.

Platform

For a beginner, maybe you don’t have the expertise to create a website. But with a little guidance, even a beginner will be able to create a website.

This is where now platforms or site building platforms come in.  There are many platforms you can use to create a website but this guide is all about WordPress which is the king of content management systems (CMS).

WordPress can create blogs, ecommerce websites, personal websites, company websites, and websites with lots of content. For ecommerce, there are options like shopify. Other platforms are joomla, drupal e.t.c

Now the fun part of how to create website with WordPress 2021 starts:

How to install WordPress on web host

With themes and plugins, you can create and customize your website to your needs with WordPress. All this is done within WordPress itself.

Now I hope you have a hosting account that you created with namecheap from earlier steps.

If you don’t have one, kindly get one from namecheap, and follow the guide. Use the link below.

Get shared web hosting from namecheap

How to install WordPress 

To Install WordPress on your web hosting, follow steps below

1.      Go to https://www.namecheap.com

2.      At the far top left, put your mouse cursor on the account menu item. From the drop down click on the dashboard menu.

3.      Put your username and password obtained when you created your domain or  hosting account and log in.

4.      From the menu on the far left side click on hosting list. This will populate the hosting products you have with namecheap.

5.      On the right side of the domain you registered, click on “go to cpanel” button. This will open the cpanel. Cpanel is a graphical user interface and automation tool used to control and simplify the process of hosting a website with a hosting provider.

6.      Scroll down till you find the “SOFTWARE” menu.

7.      Click on “WordPress” or “WordPress manager by softaculous”

8.      Click on install. Select the domain you’re installing WordPress on.

9.      Edit all the fields to your preference including site name, site description, admin username, admin password, admin email, language, plugins, select theme (can be changed later).

Note: Kindly note down the username and password you entered or automatically populated by WordPress.

10.   Enter the email installation details will be sent to.

11.   Click install and let the installation to complete.

12.   WordPress installed. All you have to do is to login using the username and password

How to login to WordPress

1.      Visit “ http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin”

Note: Replace the text “yourdomain” with the domain name you purchased.

2.      Enter your username and password you created during WordPress installation and log in.

3.       You will get a WordPress dashboard with menu options on customization of your new website.

4.      Open a new tab and visit http://www.yourdomain.com to see your website live.

Note: Replace the text “yourdomain” with the domain name you purchased.

WordPress website customization

Login to your WordPress dashboard or user panel by visiting “http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin” on your browser.

Note: Replace the text “yourdomain” with the domain name you purchased.

If you have installed WordPress inside a folder, visit “http://www.yourdomain.com/folder/wp-admin”

After logging in successfully, you will get a WordPress user interface with a “Welcome WordPress” message and links to get you started.

i) Welcome message – “Welcome WordPress” message and links or shortcuts to get you started on creating your website

ii) Current status of your website at a glance

iii) Posts – Creates posts for your website

iv) Media – where you can add media including images, videos and other media.

v) Pages – Used to create pages for your website

vi) Comments – Comments made by users on your posts and pages can be viewed and acted upon here.

vii) Appearance

viii) Plugins – a plugin is a bit of code that adds new functionality or extends existing functionality to your WordPress powered website. This menu allows access to all installed plugins and also to add new plugins.

ix) Users – Where you can add and manage users who access your website 

x) Tools – It has tools where you can do some important tasks like import or export data from your website. You can also check site health. 

xi) Settings – This is a menu you can use to configure your website including general settings, writing and reading settings, permalinks,discussion settings, media, and privacy settings. 

At the end is a link written “Collapse menu” which when you click, collapses all the menu and instead only shows menu icons.

How to add a Post in WordPress

1.      Login to dashboard. Visit http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin using your username and password.

Note: Replace the text “yourdomain” with the domain name you purchased.

2.      From the vertical menu on the left, hover over the “posts” menu and click add new.

3.      Add title, add content, customize, add images, add new category, choose featured image.

4.      Click publish. Your post will be live on your website.

How to add a page in WordPress

Every website has few standard pages you can create for a start. But you can create pages you like.

1. Home
2. Blog 
3. About us
4. Privacy policy
5. Contact us e.t.c 

1.      Login to dashboard. Visit http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin using your username and password.

Note: Replace the text “yourdomain” with the domain name you purchased.

2.      From the vertical menu on the left, hover over the “pages” menu and click add new.

3.      Add title, add content, customize, add images, add new category, choose featured image.

4.      Click publish.

 How to add images to WordPress website

1.  Login to dashboard.

2.  Go to the “Media” menu on the left.

3.  Click on add new button at the top.

4.  Drug and drop files on the box or click the “select files” button to upload from your computer.

How to add or change WordPress theme 

1.      Login to dashboard.

2.      From the vertical menu on the left, hover over the “Appearance” menu and click themes. Installed themes are populated. You can customize the current theme or add new.

3.      To add a new theme, click “add new” at the top.

4.      Search themes by featured, popular, latest, favorites or through feature filter.

You can also search through the search box on the right.

5.      Click on the new found theme and click install button.

6.      Click the activate button to activate the theme.

7.      Visit http://www.yourdomain.com to view your website with a new theme and look.

Note: Replace the text “yourdomain” with the domain name you purchased.

How to set permalinks in WordPress website

Permalinks define how your URL structure of your pages, posts in your website will  look like.

For instance the URL structure of your website will have a page, post or category title. For instance an “about” page of your website will be like Yourdomain.com/about. 

WordPress offers a custom URL structure for your website.

You can set URL structure by post ID or plain, post name, customized structure and many more options. To set permalinks:

Go to Settings →Permalinks. Choose your preferred permalinks for your website.

Save changes at the bottom of the page.

How to add site title and tagline

1.  Login to website dashboard

2.  On the far left menu, click on settings.

3.  Go to “General” under settings.

4.  Edit site title, tagline fields.

5.  Save changes at the bottom of the page.

How to make your WordPress website public

Go to settings and click on reading.

Uncheck the checkbox before the statement “Discourage search engines….”. Make sure its unchecked

Save changes at the bottom of the page.

How to allow or disable comments in WordPress

Comments allow users or visitors of your website to leave their opinion under your posts or pages. It’s up to the owner of the website to allow users to comment or disallow them.

But there are also harmful users who post spam comments who may you have to deal with them.

To allow or disallow comments:

Go to Settings → Discussion.

Uncheck or check the checkbox before the statements “Allow people to submit comments……”

How to set timezone in WordPress

This setting allows you to set your own time zone where your or where your target audience is or whichever time zone you want for your website.

To set your website timezone:

Go to Settings →General.

Select your timezone under the “Timezone” menu.

Save changes at the bottom of the page.

WordPress plugins

WordPress plugins is a bit of code that adds new functionality or extends existing functionality to your WordPress powered website.

There are many WordPress plugins for almost all functionalities and frequently new plugins are being created by developers.

How to find WordPress plugins

Go to your website dashboard by logging in using your username and password.

On the left menu, go to the “plugins” menu. This will populate all the plugins in your website.

  How to add new plugin

1.      Login to dashboard. Visit http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin using your username and password.

Note: Replace the text “yourdomain” with the domain name you purchased.

2.      Search for plugin using search box, through featured section, popular, recommended or favorites section.

3.      Click on install and wait for installation to complete.

4.      Click on the activate button to activate the plugin for your website.

5.      You can find installed plugins on the left dashboard menu or on installed plugins page i.e. http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/plugins.php

Note: Replace the text “yourdomain” with the domain name you purchased.

 Few of the plugins you should consider installing are:

Yoast SEO– for search engine optimization. It helps to optimize your website for search engine visibility or makes search engines like google, bing, yahoo and more understand your pages and website is all about.

WordFence Security – for improvement of security of your website.

UpdraftPlus – for automatic back up of your WordPress website

LiteSpeed Cache – for improvement of how quickly your pages opens when visited (page speed optimization), image optimization and more features.

 You can check and add more plugins to customize your website.

Please tell us the topics we should cover or would like us to cover in the comments. Thats it on how to create website with WordPress in 2021.

How to create website with WordPress 2021 by Jaldesa Adan Published by Jaldesa Adan Nairobi, Kenya.

https://www.earnmoneyke.com

[email protected]

The name WordPress and its reference are all copyrights of WordPress.org