WordPress powers more than one third of the entire Internet. It’s the most popular CMS when it comes to creating your own website, mainly because it’s easy to use, not to mention it’s free.
Thanks to themes like Astra and plugins like Brizy, anyone can create a beautiful WordPress website, no matter what niche their site is in.
In today’s tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to use WordPress to build your own website. We’ll go step by step through the process of signing up for a hosting company, installing WordPress, and using the Astra theme and the Brizy plugin to create a fully functioning WordPress website. At the end, I’ll also share my video tutorial that walks you through the entire process so you can follow along.
To make your WordPress website, you will need a domain name and hosting plan where you will install WordPress. This is needed so anyone can visit your site. You will also need a theme that controls how your site looks as well as a page builder plugin that will make it easy to create pages of your site exactly the way you want them to look without having to know how to code.
While there are many hosting companies online, Siteground is one of the few I recommend. Siteground scored as the best hosting company when compared to 16 other host providers. They offer affordable plans and 24/7 email, phone, and chat support not to mention they have 99.9% uptime guarantee.
As mentioned earlier, you will also need a theme that will control how your site looks. The Astra theme is a free theme for WordPress that offers dozens of premade websites and is compatible with all major page builder plugins for WordPress. It’s also compatible with WooCommerce so you can build any type of website with it.
In addition to the theme, you will also need a page builder plugin. While the Astra theme does have premade layouts and pages you can use, a page builder plugin such as Brizy will give you more flexibility and control over the layout of your pages so you can create them exactly the way you want them to look.
If you want to make sure your website stands out from the competition, you will need a professional logo as well as photos that make it easier to explain what your site is about. Here are a few extra resources:
With resources out of the way, let’s go through the steps needed to make your WordPress website.
The first step in this process is to get a domain name and a hosting plan for your site. Luckily, you can get both with Siteground at the same time. This will make it easy to manage everything in one place. The process is simple: you’ll choose your domain name, select the Grow Big plan, and enter your billing and payment information.
Keep in mind that I recommend the Grow Big plan as it allows you to host an unlimited number of websites which is useful if you decide later on that you want another website.
Once you’ve created your hosting account and you have a domain name, you will need to install WordPress. Siteground makes that process very easy. You will have to provide them with an email address and choose a desired username and password.
Siteground will then take care of the rest. Once WordPress has been installed, you will be able to visit your website’s admin area and you can then proceed with the rest of the steps needed to make your WordPress website.
After WordPress has been installed, you will need to configure the basic WordPress settings. This involves changing the permalink structure, disabling unnecessary plugins, and editing your profile information.
By default, your permalinks will include post or page name along with the date of publishing. This creates a long URL for your posts and pages that isn’t necessary. By changing your permalink structure to include only the post or the page name, you will rank better in search engines and make your links easier to remember.
You will also need to disable the SG Optimizer plugin as it’s not really needed for your site to function properly.
Lastly, if you need to change your information such as your username or your password, you can visit Users> Your Profile section to update it.
With basic settings out of the way, it’s time to create your pages. Go to Pages > Add new. On the screen that loads, enter your page name and click Publish. Repeat that process for all the pages you want on your website, such as About, Contact, and others.
When you have created all your pages, go to Appearance > Menus and create your first navigation menu. Enter the name for it such as Main and click Create Menu.
Then, on the left-hand side of the screen, tick all the pages that you’ve created previously and click Add to menu. Don’t forget to remove the Home page that has the custom link from the menu as we will be creating our own homepage.
When all your pages have been added to the menu, click Save. Next, click on Appearance > Customize and under Homepage settings, choose the Homepage you’ve created as the homepage for your site. Save the settings and you can move on to the next step.
Now that you have your pages, it’s time to install the Brizy plugin. Start by visiting the plugin’s website and downloading the free version of the plugin. Then, go back to your website and navigate to Plugins > Add new > Upload.
Choose the downloaded plugin file and click on Install now. You will then need to activate the plugin.
To install a theme go to Appearance > Themes > Add new. Search for the Astra theme, click Install, and wait for the theme to finish installing. After the theme has been installed, click on Activate.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, take a look at my video tutorial for a more in-depth explanation of each step that shows you exactly how to work with Brizy blocks, configure WordPress settings, and customize your theme. You can easily follow along as you build your site.
As you can see, creating a WordPress website is not that difficult. When you have the right tools for the job, all it takes is five simple steps to get online. Use the steps in this tutorial to make your own WordPress website.
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