How to Make a Free Responsive YouTube Website with a Blog in WordPress
A responsive YouTube website is a type of website that automatically adjusts its layout to fit different screen sizes and devices. Instead of using a fixed width for the entire site, as you would typically do, you use CSS media queries to make the site look good on any device.
Creating a YouTube website is fairly easy, but doing so while adhering to SEO standards and ensuring that the site functions properly takes a bit more effort. In this article, you’ll learn the steps necessary to create a fully functioning and free YouTube website using WordPress.
Step one: Find a catchy name for your YouTube channel
Since you’ll be using the same name for your blog and YouTube channel, it’s important to choose a YouTube channel name that is both memorable and easy to type. Also, make sure that the name you choose is not already in use by someone else.
For example, “thecreativehouse” is a catchy name, but it’s also the name of a YouTube channel that showcases videos about fashion. You don’t want to use a name that is already associated with another entity, especially one that is unrelated to your content.
Step two: Choose a secure and private domain name
A secure and private domain name is more difficult to remember and type than a simple web address like “yoursite.com”. To secure the domain name you buy, add the gTLD “.com”, “.net”, or “.org” to the end of the web address. For example, if your domain is “pinkfloyd.com”, you need to enter “pinkfloyd.com”, “pinkfloyd.net”, or “pinkfloyd.org” when you log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Step three: Install the WordPress dashboard
The WordPress dashboard is the hub from which you can manage all the content on your website. To install the dashboard, navigate to WordPress’ homepage and click on the Get WP icon (this may take a while to load).
Once the WordPress page has loaded, you’ll see a blue Install WordPress button. Click on it and you’ll be taken to the WordPress installation page. Follow the instructions and your WordPress dashboard will be installed on your web server.
Step four: Create your user account
When you log in to your WordPress dashboard for the first time, you will be prompted to create a user name and password. Don’t use the same name or password for your blog and YouTube accounts because you’ll end up with duplicate accounts if you do. Instead, make up a unique user name and password for your YouTube account.
After you log in to your WordPress dashboard, you can access your Google Analytics, which you’ll need to configure to track your web traffic. If you’re wondering where to start, check out our Google Analytics tutorial for the step-by-step guide to setting up your own Google Analytics account.
Step five: Activate your WordPress dashboard
Once you have installed and configured your WordPress dashboard, you can activate it by clicking on the Dashboard button in the upper right corner of the screen. You can add content, edit options, and set up email notifications for blog posts from the WordPress dashboard.
Step six: Create and customize a theme for your WordPress site
A theme is a customized version of the WordPress dashboard’s built-in default theme “as-designed”. You can use a free WordPress theme to make your site look like a professional, branded blog or a fully functional YouTube channel. To create a theme, visit the ThemeForest marketplace and download a free theme that suits your needs. If you don’t have a large budget to spend on customizing your theme, there are numerous free and affordable widgets that you can use to add functionality to your site.
Step seven: Add content to your WordPress site
Adding content to your site is fairly easy. You can use several different tools to add media to your blog or website. The most popular and free option is Yoast’s SEO plugin.
With this plugin, you can quickly and easily set up SEO-friendly post titles, descriptions, and tags. You can also choose whether or not to show certain posts on the site based on whether or not they are tagged with certain keywords. For example, you can choose to show all your posts that are tagged with “SEO” but hide those that aren’t tagged.
Step eight: Configure your WordPress site’s email settings
Your email settings simply consist of the email addresses of people you want to receive email notifications when you post new content to your blog or website. You can use the same email address for both your blog and YouTube accounts, but you should make up a separate email address specifically for your YouTube account.
To ensure your emails are not marked as spam, make sure that you have a SPF record that is valid. Most web hosts offer email marketing services, which can help you with this. When you’re finished configuring your WordPress site’s email settings, click on the Testing email button to confirm the changes.
Step nine: Customize your WordPress site’s appearance
Since you’ll be using the same web address for your blog and YouTube channel, you can use the WordPress dashboard to change the way your site looks. To do this, click on the Appearance icon in the upper right corner of the WordPress dashboard.
This will take you to a variety of tools that you can use to change the appearance of your WordPress site. For example, you can edit the header, body, and footer of your website and change the color scheme, fonts, and other elements of the site’s layout. One of the tools you’ll see here is the Visual Composer, which is a drag-and-drop page builder used to create a variety of web content, including blogs, websites, and online stores.
When you’re finished editing the look and feel of your website, click on the Publish button to publish your new content to your blog or website.
Step ten: Monitor your website’s performance
You can use several tools to monitor the performance of your website. Among these is Google Analytics, which you’ll need to set up to track your web traffic. If you don’t have a Google account, you can create one for free from your existing Gmail account.
Since you’ll be installing Google Analytics on your site, you can learn more about it from their official documentation. Once you’re set up, you can use the Google Analytics dashboard to monitor the performance of your site.
To learn more about how to make a successful YouTube channel in WordPress, check out our step-by-step guide to creating a YouTube channel in WordPress or download our free PDF version which includes more than 80 actionable tips!