A Beginner’s Guide to Setting up a WordPress Website in 2023

If you are struggling with the WordPress website development process, you can hire WordPress Developers or build your own unique WordPress website by reading this blog. 

As you know, if you want to increase your business revenue, then building an online profile is a smart business investment that you definitely need to do to multiply your revenue.

In this blog, we will explain your Workflow that can help you run a WordPress website development process. But before that, let's get some information about the WordPress CMS platform.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a CMS (content management system) that allows you to host and build a website without using codes. Your business, blog, portfolio, or online store can be customized using WordPress plugin architecture and a template system.

Why should you choose it?

There are so many websites using WordPress for building their website, including big brands, namely Sony Music, BBC America, Microsoft News, The Walt Disney Company, etc. 

But do you know why WordPress is so popular for building websites?

Here are some top reasons you can tell what you need to use WordPress CMS to build your website. 

• It is an Open source Content management system, so you can use it free of cost. You just need to buy a domain and hosting to build your amazing website. 
• You can build various types of online portfolios with WordPress.
• WordPress is very easy to use.
• It has a huge support community that can help you in any step of the website-building process. 
• WordPress CMS enables you to scale your website to any level. 
• Multiple themes and plugins give you full control over your website. 
• It has a most flexible and user-friendly admin backend panel for controlling and maintaining your website's performance. 

These are the top advantages that you get by using the WordPress CMS. However, if you want in-depth knowledge about how you can grow your business by using WordPress, you can contact a WordPress Development Company in India. They can guide you in detail about WordPress and also give you consultancy for building your website that perfectly matches your business industry. 

Apart from these, now let's see the step-by-step process of building a WordPress website. 

Step by step process of Building a unique WordPress Website 

As a beginner, if you follow these steps, then you can get a smooth process and an excellent website without wasting your time. So, let's dive in. 

1: Register a Domain Name

A domain name is a string of text that maps to an alphanumeric IP address that is used to access a website from client software. In plain English, a domain name is a text that a user types into a browser window to go to a specific web page.

The actual address of a website is a complex numeric IP address, but with DNS, users can enter user-friendly domain names and be redirected to the website they are looking for.

Think of your domain name as your home address. It shows your visitors are able to find your website on the internet. Your domain name will look something like this: www.example.com.

2: Buying a web hosting 

Your hosting provider is like your house; it's where your website files are actually stored. Without hosting services, you can not list your website on the Internet space. Some of the best WordPress hosting providers include WP Engine, Bluehost, and Kinsta. You can buy any of them. After buying your domain and hosting package, now it's your turn to add the WordPress CMS platform for building your WordPress website. You can also buy hosting services from the official WordPress website. 

3: Install and configure WordPress

If you are using a non-WordPress hosting provider, you will need to install a CMS to connect your new domain to your website.

This time we'll use GoDaddy as an example. If you are using another hosting provider, you don't need to worry about the installation process, as all the steps are the same.

To get started, log into your GoDaddy account, click Web Hosting, then click Manage. You will be taken to your account details screen.

Scroll down then you get options for settings; you will see an area with the name of your favorite app. Click on WordPress to start the installation.

After installing WordPress, you will need to answer a few questions about the domain that you want to use, then about the directory where you want to install WordPress, and at the end your administrator information.

After approximately 24 hours, your website will be installed on your hosting account, and the hosting provider will send you a confirmation email.

Now that you have your domain set up and WordPress installed, you will next need to set up your "Primary Domain" in WordPress so that your visitors will see your website when they search for your domain.

In WordPress, go to My Site and click on Domains. Select a custom domain from which you want to make a primary domain. After that, set a custom domain for your WordPress site and click Set as primary.

Click Update Primary Domain to confirm that you want to make this change. Verify that the update was successful by looking for the green box with a check mark that says Primary Domain.

4: Choose your theme 

You can customize your WordPress website with many WordPress themes and templates, including many layouts, colors, fonts, formatting styles, and other visual options.

WordPress will automatically use a default theme that looks pretty simple. You can keep it, but your website visitors may not be as impressed. A custom WordPress theme, whether paid or free, will ensure that your website looks attractive and professional to your buyers.

There are so many hosting providers available in the market. There are also so many options for themes and web design templates to choose from the WordPress theme library. Besides, you can also hire WordPress developers to build a custom theme for your business. 

A theme suitable for your eCommerce website, portfolio, blog, or business, there's a theme to suit your specific needs. Whether you are looking for a theme that's versatile enough for multiple different types of businesses. In addition to a theme, you can further customize your site with a builder such as Elementor.

Pro tip: If you're a developer, writing code from scratch to create web applications can be a time-consuming and overwhelming task. An efficient way is to use pre-designed, customizable templates that are professionally made and ready to use. Using top-notch templates such as Modernize React MUI Dashboard Theme is a widely recommended practice among industry experts.

5: Install Plugins

Plugins are pieces of software that add functionality to your WordPress website and enhance the user experience. With over 55,000 available plugins, there are options for almost every type of website and user.

In other words, with the help of plugins you can extend the standard features and functionality of your site. Essentially, as you are figuring out how to make a website on your own, plugins are how you can get some great features without knowing any coding.

Here are some plugins you should use for WordPress websites. 

• Yoast SEO -- this plugin helps you in creating an SEO-friendly website. 
• Google Analytics for WordPress -- this plugin helps in adding the Analytics features for analyzing the traffic on the web.
• Wordfence Security -- this plugin improves the security of your WordPress website.
• UpdraftPlus -- it can help you in the backup process of your website.
• Optimole -- if you want to add images then this plugin helps you in optimizing your images.
• WPForms -- for interaction with your website visitors you can add interactive contact forms to your website with the help of this plugin tool. 

Also, look through this list of the most popular WordPress plugins of all time. You might find something interesting there as well. The installation process of plugins is very simple.

For adding the plugins you need to login to your WordPress admin panel then in the side menu you can see the plugin option. Now click add new plugin and you get to see the plugin library. From there you can see a search bar. You need to input the name of the plugin that you want into the search field, and then click on "Install" and "Activate."

After installing all the plugins, you can now start customizing your theme to build a unique WordPress website.  

6: Customize Your WordPress Website 

You have created various web pages, posts, colors, logos, typography, and other site front-end designs. All websites should have some pages, regardless of their purpose or goal. But first, how to even create a page in the first place:

To do this, simply go to your WordPress dashboard and then Pages → Add New.

You will see this screen:

(1) Space for the page title.

(2) Body/ main website section - the body section or the main content of the web page has a very similar interface to MS Word. You get all the basic text formatting features like bold, italics, left/right/center text alignment, creating lists, etc.

(3) Click this button to add images.

(4) Switching between text and visual editor. Only use the first if you are at least vaguely familiar with HTML.

(5) Publish section. Here is the main Publish button.

(6) Discussion. Decide whether you want to allow comments. You can leave the "trackbacks and pingbacks" setting unchecked.

(7) Featured image. Most WordPress themes will take this featured image and display it somewhere prominent next to your page.

When you are finished editing the page content, click "Publish".

Now that the tutorial is out of the way, here are the pages you should consider creating:

We have mentioned this a few times now because it's really important. On the About site page, you can tell a story about what your site is like and why people should pay attention to it. This site is a must-have for anyone who wants to learn how to make a website.

• Contact -- here you can display some contact information and a nice contact form for people to contact you directly.
• Privacy Policy - This page has become an extremely important feature on today's web. Learn more about WordPress privacy policy pages here.
• Portfolio - A place to showcase your past work.
• Store -- essential if you want to sell something from your e-commerce. For this to work, you also need the popular WooCommerce plugin -- the best eCommerce solution for WordPress.
• FAQ - If the scope of your new site requires any additional information for potential users.

Once you're done with those, you might check out this list of valuable pages worth having on your site. You can think of this as a beginner's guide to the essentials of a website.

Apart from these page creations, navigation is another important thing you must adjust on your website. With all your important pages, you can add a user-friendly navigation system to help your visitors explore your website.

In the navigation, you need to customize your main menus of your WordPress website.

Menus are the primary vehicle through which visitors navigate your site; thus, they're crucial when figuring out how to make a website.

In terms of menu settings, you will have a couple of options depending on your theme. Here is the process that you can usually do:

First, go to Appearance → Menus in your WordPress dashboard.

Then on the left of the admin panel, you can see create a menu option; after that all the pages you can choose to add to a menu. You can see the menu structure and all its settings to the right. 

Website Templates and Admin Dashboard Templates

You have learned about setting up your website on WordPress. You might be looking for Website Templates, Landing Page Templates and Admin Dashboard Templates for your website.

Modernize Free NextJs Admin Template

Wrap up 

In a nutshell, many steps are included in the WordPress development process. So, if you want to build an amazing website, you need to follow the step-by-step process. These processes can save you time. Here is a quick recap of every step in brief. 

• Register your Domain name
• Buy a Website hosting service
• Install and Configure your domain and hosting with WordPress
• Choose your theme
• Install plugins 
• It's customization time. 

We hope you get useful insight from these. However, if you want help from experts, you can hire a WordPress Development company from India's leading web-development agency like Pixlogix Infotech Pvt. Ltd. 

They have ultimate in-house WordPress developers and design teams who offer top-notch WordPress Website development services to their clients globally. If you want more information, feel free to contact their friendly team.

Also checkout: The Best Web Tools to Create and Run a Premium Website