Setting Up Your First WordPress Website
Creating your own website can be an extremely rewarding process. However, it can also be somewhat difficult if you don’t really know what you are doing. WordPress is the most popular option for beginners to set up their first website. In this article we will look at the two types of WordPress websites you can set up, along with how you should go about setting them up.
WordPress.com
If you want to set up a simple blog or informational website, WordPress.com is almost definitely your best option. It is free, extremely easy to set up, and very simple to use. This platform offers everything from free hosting to a free domain name (within reason).
However, there are a few cons when it comes to using WordPress.com over WordPress.org. These include having .wordpress.com attached to the end of your domain name, a difficulty in monetising your site, and a significantly reduced customizability compared to open source website building platforms. Setting up a WordPress.com website can be done in just a couple of steps:
- Head over to WordPress.com and create an account. During the account creation process you will be asked to create a domain name and website name.
- Once you have your domain and website address, you are ready to start installing WordPress plugins and building your site!
- Although limited, WordPress.com does offer a few different ways of customizing your blog, including using different themes and colour schemes. Choose one which suits the image you are trying to create.
- Start creating content, learn some WordPress SEO techniques and encourage people to visit your site!
Yes, it actually is this easy to start designing a website with WordPress.com. This is great for people like hobby bloggers or parents looking to document their family lives.
WordPress.org
However, if you are planning on trying to monetise your website, to have any significant number of visitors, or to upload a lot of content, WordPress.com is not your best friend. It severely limits the things that you can do, which is why most serious website developers instead turn to WordPress.org.
WordPress.org is an open source software which you can use to create and maintain a website. Using it is slightly more difficult than the .com version, but is definitely worth it. Note that there are some costs associated with creating a WordPress.org website. The following steps provide a brief overview of what you have to do to get started:
- First you need to decide on a domain name, find out if that domain is available, and then either purchase or rent it.
- You then need to find a hosting provider. There a a lot of options here, but companies like Bluehost and Hostgator are safe options for relatively inexperienced users. They aren’t too expensive, and they are easy to use.
- You then need to install WordPress on your website to allow you to build and edit it. Most hosting providers offer a one click installation.
- Once WordPress is installed it is time to start creating your site. You can either build from scratch or you can choose to use a pre-designed theme. Customise your site’s appearance and colour scheme, add content, and away you go!
Note that this is a very simple view of the steps involved in creating a WordPress.org website. In reality, this will take you at least a couple of hours if you aren’t an experienced web designer. The best thing to do in this case is to read articles and watch videos on the web explaining how to do it. Good luck!