How To Build A WordPress Website From Scratch: The Definitive Guide

Choosing a platform that’s just right for building your business site can be challenging. There are many website platforms that you can use that are called Content Management Systems. CMS gives you various easy-to-use tools to create the site and manage the content without any experience in coding.

What is the most popular platform, you may ask? For sure, it’s WordPress. Statistics claim that more than 1.3 billion websites are built using it. The reasons for its success are countless: it’s free, open-source, secure, fast & optimized, can run any kind of site, and is SEO-ready as well.

We believe that the list of the benefits is enough to persuade you what platform to choose for your website. If you are willing to build an application, there is prepared a detailed guide on the mobile app development process. Now, let’s proceed to the primary phases of building a WordPress website from scratch.

Phase 1. Buy A Domain Name

In a nutshell, a domain name is the name of your website, so make sure it’s easy for users to remember.

Before you decide to build a website, you must know what your business is about. The domain name must be corresponding to the very business name. The web address is the way your customers find you. When defining the name of the site, some keyword research can be helpful. If .com is taken, try .net or .co.

Phase 2: Define The Kind Of Site

Understanding the purpose of the site will dictate its interface. What is your site aimed at? You can choose from the most common options:

• Portfolio or “business card” website
• Business/Corporate website
• Blog
• Educational website
• Promotional website
• E-commerce website

Since WordPress is one of the most flexible platforms on the market, you can use it for different purposes. Although, we do not recommend using it for an online store as WordPress isn’t focused on e-commerce. As a result, you may miss out on some crucial features.

Phase 3. Get Familiar With WordPress

With a clear vision of your future site, it’s time to get up and running. If you use a hosting provider outside of WordPress, you will have to install the CMS to connect the newly created domain to your future website. Now that you have your domain established, the next step is to set up your “Primary Domain” within WordPress, so your visitors see your website when they do research.

Phase 4. Design Your Website Via Themes

The next step is to decide on a design for your WordPress site. WordPress provides you with themes that determine the future look and feel of the website. One can choose from ready-made options for business, services, photography, beauty, fashion, education, food, and so on. Each theme includes many layouts, formatting styles, colors, fonts, and other visual options.

There are countless templates available, ranging from absolutely free to the ones worth hundreds of dollars. Due to the number of themes, it is also easy to change how your site looks without rebuilding it from scratch. When picking a template, don’t forget to make sure that it is suitable for both the topic of your site and the layout and content you are willing to publish.

Phase 5. Configure Plugins To Extend Possibilities

A plugin is a program written in the PHP scripting language containing certain features that can be added to a WordPress website. They are used to extend functionality or add new features and tools to the websites.

WordPress plugins provide significant quantities of customization and flexibility to your website. Releasing the site with a ton of plugins used is not necessary. However, the longer you use WordPress, the more you’ll find ones that bring value to your site.

Phase 6. Complete Basic Pages

When it comes to creating individual pages for your site, think through the types of pages that will entirely fulfill the needs of both you and your customers. Every website should include:

• Homepage: whatever theme you pick, it is supposed to provide you with settings for this page.
• Contact page: you will need to install a WordPress plugin to add a form to the page.
• About page: tell the story behind your business.
• Product or services pages: create a dedicated page for each service or product that you’re selling.
• Blog: if you decide to run a blog, ensure to include the form for blog posts.

For example, Smart Tek SAS company provides technology services, and they have additionally included in the website pages blog, portfolio to attract and entertain visitors and clients. There is no rush to release a perfect site: you can start from MVP (minimum viable product) and continue taking steps forward. Thus, you can always create additional pages later.

Phase 7. Publish And Edit Your Content

With the basic administrative pages published, it’s time to start adding exciting content. Whatever your priorities are, make your website informative, intuitive, and visually rich to attract the right audience.

Try to add high-quality pictures to your posts to make your content more alluring if running a blog. A content plan will help you ensure adding new content daily, weekly, or monthly. Remember, a website is a dynamic thing that always demands updates and improvements.

Phase 8. Marketing Is A Must

Marketing your new site requires you to master different channels.

Consider starting a blog and utilizing SEO (search engine optimization) to rank in search engines and make your site more relevant to visitors. For that reason, you need your pages to have relevant keywords in the title, description, and body text.

You also might be willing to promote your site in any way available. The simplest way to start is to use social media sites and email newsletters. Don’t forget about guest posting and commenting on blogs, forums, and communities to declare yourself.

Wrapping Up

At this point, we finish our guide on building a WordPress website from scratch. We have introduced you to the basic steps you need to undertake for your blog or business’s development. Hopefully, this information will help you create a nice-looking and user-friendly site for the pleasure of your readers and customers.