Use WordPress to Build Your Website isn’t just a trending, keep up with the fad, wannabe-hipster, website builder advice. WordPress v0.7 was first released on May 27th, 2003. A few months later in January 2004 v1.0 followed it’s predecessor. Jump to 2017 and WP is running more than a quarter of all websites at 27% of sites on the internet. Needless to say, they continue to improve on an already great thing with each new release. And those aren’t even the real reasons why you should use it to build your first website. And your next website, and the website after that.
Here in 2020 WP is powering over 455 Million websites which is more than 35% of the internet. Not to mention you can build just about any kind of website you want. Along with building any style of website, the platform makes it just as easy to monetize your new WordPress website. Of course, don’t let those last two sentences make it sound too easy. There is a lot of work and quite a bit of Internet know how, like manipulatong traffic to your new site necessary too.
“Use WordPress To Build Your Website”:
- keyword Research is First
- Choosing the Right Domain Name
- WordPress.org or WordPress.com
- Next Your Site Needs Hosting
- Installing and Accessing WordPress
- Use WP to Build Your Website
- Choosing a Quality, SEO Ready Theme
- The Plug-ins You’ll Need to Make $
- Making Sure Security is No Joke
- Lightning Fast WordPress Website
- You’re New Website is Up n Running
So Let’s Get Your Website Building Education Started
Whether you’re a beginner, a professional or a know-it-all, hopefully we have something that will help you. In any case you will be well versed in WordPress when you’re done with this article. Or, at least that’s our goal. So sit back, strap in and get started with our “Complete WordPress Install and Setup Guide”.
In case you know somethings but are lacking in other areas, use the table of contents above to skip what you know. This how to Build a WordPress Website Tutorial will serve as one of two things. Firstly, it’s a great introduction for everyone new to WordPress websites in one case. And a very thorough refresher for those already well versed in WP sites. Or those who might be looking for a WP education on doing things from a paid for stand point.
You’re going to need three things to build your website using WP:
- A Domain Name
- Website Hosting
- WordPress Website Program
- 1 can be found at just about any domain name registrar’s website. There are quite a few to choose from. This is the address visitor’s will put in the URL to find your website. For example our domain is https://carsonkoziol.com. And you’re on the page https://carsonkoziol.com/use-wordpress-to-build-your-website/A quick piece of advice, while it may be easier, don’t register your domain name and host your website with the same company. If you run out of money this gives you the opportunity to at least save your domain name. And if you’ve made back-ups of your website regularly, you’ll be able to re-install it when you can afford hosting again.
- Website Hosting. This is the place where the domain name or address to your website will resolve. All the pages, posts, graphics and other user content that makes up site can be found here. This is the actual server that has your website files located on it. Every time you add a page or a post or upload an image this is where it gets stored
3 You can download the WordPress program in a zip file and install it yourself via FTP. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and you should definitely learn how to use this. There are plenty of free programs like FILEZILLA you should get to know. The aforementioned FILEZILLA is the one we use. And will use for all our website work on this website. You’ll want to know how to use an FTP as being Proficient in WordPress requires it
However, FTP is no longer necessary to install WP and get your site started. Almost all hosts offer a “One=Click Quick Install” version of wordpress from your c-panel. We’ll explain how that works too. So Let’s Get Started, No More Time to Waste!!!
First Let’s Enjoy Some Keyword research
Keyword research is paramount to your success. Especially when it comes to your first website. Make sure you get this part right and you’ll find quite a few other things going smoothly for you as well. First things first, do you know what niche you’re going to start in?
Do you have any sort of skills? Are you a great cook? Can you fix cars no matter what year or what’s wrong? Do you build better model airplanes than anyone else?
What are you really good at? And/or know a lot about? What are your favorite hobbies? Can you practically do it in your sleep? Then that is the niche I suggest you start with first.
Don’t get nervous if you can’t name anything that you’re really good at right off the bat. Sometimes people need time to think about it. This is okay. It’s all part of the brainstorming process that kicks off your keyword research.
And if you’re still not coming up with any kind of skill or hobby that you’re pretty good at, no big deal. I have a back up plan for people like you my friend. It’s okay to be the guy or gal who isn’t necessarily the greatest at any one thing. You can still find a niche, build a customer targeted website, find products to fit that niche and make money.
The trick to keyword research is understanding the golden goose of KW Research, search intent.
Search intent is the goal of the individual doing the research on google or whatever search engine they use. By targeting certain words with terms from your niche you’re more likely to find buyers than others. Now let’s talk about those words specifically.
Choosing The Right Domain For Your Website
You want to have the right domain name for your first website. It will allow your margin of error to be that much bigger when you get started. Give you a little wiggle room in your keyword research or your SEO. Be it your Technical SEO, On-page SEO or Off-page SEO. Either way a little wiggle room won’t hurt. That way if you mess up a little here and there you can still make money.
The Anatomy of a Website URL
A domain name is used to identify your website. The domain name for this website is carsonkoziol.com as mentioned above. However, DO NOT confuse the domain name with the URL. The domain name is only part of the URL. The entire URL is made up of 6 parts.
Look at This URL Closely, We’re Going to Break it Down:
1. The Scheme – The Scheme tells a web server the necessary protocol to access a page on your site.
2. The SubDomain – The SubDomain in an URL indicates the specific page of your website the web browser is going to resolve to. For example, subdomains like “blog” will provide your website’s blog.
3. The SLD or Second Level Domain – The SLD is the name of your website. It tells people the company, brand or keyword Your website is in relation to.
4. The TLD or Top Level Domain – The TLD tells the world what organization type your registered as on the internet. For example, “.edu” is usually used for academic entities in the United States and “.com” is used by commercial businesses in the U.S..
5. The Sub-Directory – The Sub-Directory usually helps a visitor know what section of the website they are visiting.
6. The Path Resource – The Path resource is generally used to identify the specific resource or “page” on the website the visitor is on.
WordPress.org or WordPress.com
The most important difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com is who and where your website is being hosted.
A big Difference in facilitating your website and Hosting Locale:
- WordPress.org – WordPress.org is what you use when you buy your own domain and pay for your own hosting. This is where you find the free software you download and install or One-Click Quick Install on the host server you’re paying for.
- WordPress.com – WordPress.com handles all the hosting for you for free. You won’t be learning to configure your web server, downloading any software and the best part, you don’t pay a single dime.
Let’s Split up All the Details
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| HOW WORDPRESS.COM WORKS | HOW WORDPRESS.ORG WORKS |
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Next Your Site Needs Hosting
We use Cloudways to host all the WordPress websites we build. We’ve been with a number of hosts over the years and this one has just seemed to work the best with what we do. Our previous hosts include, HostGator, Dreamhost, 1 & 1 and Bluehost before we landed here. And they are all good hosting services.
Installing and Accessing WordPress
No matter what host you have installing WordPress to your domain name is really quite easy these days. They almost all have a feature that goes by a name like “One Click installs”. And literally, in most cases, if you use WordPress to build your website they install it in 1 click. Of course, they do that with a number of other website software programs. But we’re talking about WordPress.
Build Your WordPress Website
Now that you’ve gotten WordPress installed on your server it’s time to build your actual website. The place where visitor’s will be showing up for the internet magic you’re going to making happen.
Choosing a Quality, SEO Ready Theme
A theme gives your site its look and feel. And by picking a light-weight SEO ready theme now, you can save yourself a lot of trouble later.
Make Sure Your WordPress Website is Secure
We use Sucuri Security on all of our installs. The main reason being it’s atop-notch plugin for my favorite price, FREE. And then as you start to make some money you can start out with an appropriate paid plan and they don’t rob you blind. But let’s worry about getting your website installed, built and kept secure for now.
You can worry about bringing home the big bucks after we have the important things done correctly. Plus that plugin gets into some fairly advance topics, especially for a beginner. So, rather than making your head swim lets keep it simple. You’ll get there when you’re ready.