How to develop a website in WordPress?

WordPress is the simplest, most popular way to create your own website or blog. In fact, WordPress powers over 39.5% of all the websites on the Internet. Yes – more than one in four websites that you visit are likely powered by WordPress.

A Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Website With WordPress

Step 1: Pick a name and find a domain for your website

Time for a tough truth: A lot of the good domain names have been taken.

Here’s how a naming session might go for you:

1. In a moment of inspiration, we think of an amazing name.
2. We hold on to this name for months, maybe even years.
3. It’s time to start the business, so we go to purchase the domain.
4. The domain is taken.
5. We try a dozen small variations of our original idea, all taken.
6. No biggie, we thought of one brilliant name, we’ll think of another one.
7. Backup idea #2 = taken.
8. Backup idea #3 = taken.
9. Backup idea #4 = taken.
10. Despair sets in.
11. We start considering names that we don’t actually like, hoping that anything is available.
12. We come up with 2 or 3 options that we don’t like at all.
13. Then we spend a week trying to come up with a name that’s both available and a name that we can live with.
14. Finally, we find one.

Websites have also become so embedded in our day-to-day lives that it’s better to change the name of the business to match an available domain than it is to pick a poor quality domain. Through this process, I almost always end up with a completely different name than I originally intended.

This is why I consider the “naming my business” and “buying the domain” steps for creating a business to be the same step. I try to only lock myself into a name once I have the domain.

Step 2: Register your domain name

First you need to know the difference between a domain registrar and a web host. A domain registrar is a company that specializes in buying and registering domains. A web host, on the other hand, specializes in running servers that host websites. This is where your website “lives.” Every web host will desperately try to get you to also register a domain through them. After all, it’s more money for them. They’ve spent most of their resources building out a hosting service, then they offer domain registration as a convenience, increase the price a bit, and collect a nice chunk of extra profit from you.

Step 3: Decide what kind of site you are creating

Most guides on creating a website will push you into using WordPress. It’s the most popular and flexible website builder. And that’s usually a good recommendation. But there are a few situations where I recommend different options.

Many businesses need a simple website that tells people a few things:

• Who the business is for
• What the business does
• Sometimes a portfolio that shows off some work
• Contact info

You need to communicate basic info—and that’s all. If this is what you need, Wix is your best option for creating your website. It’s incredibly simple to use and will give you a professional site at a very low price. It’s perfect for small businesses.

Step 4: Get a host for your website

Now it’s time to get into the weeds a bit. The next steps really depends on your actual goals. If you want an ecommerce site, skip the rest of this guide and follow our guide on creating an ecommerce site. For everything else, keep following this guide!

So WordPress is the tool that you’ll use to build your website. But you also need a web host. That’s the actual server that will store your site and make it available to anyone who visits. Every website on the Internet is on web host. And the best place to go for most people is Bluehost.

Step 5: Install WordPress

Bluehost offers a great one-click installation feature for WordPress. The benefit is it’s incredibly simple to integrate the web host with WordPress. It should be clearly available when you log into BlueHost.

Step 6: Point your domain to your host

Let’s do a quick recap.

• You bought your domain using a domain registrar.
• You signed up for a hosting plan.
• You installed WordPress on your host.

Now you’re going to connect all that stuff together by pointing your domain to your host. Then when people go to your domain, they’ll end up on your website.

There are a few technical settings you need to apply. This involves configuring a few nameserver settings on your domain registrar for your domain. Your host will give you the correct settings; you’re looking for their nameserver settings.

If you get stuck, contact your host and they’ll give you all the info you need.