How Hard Is It to Build a WordPress Website With Ecommerce?

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) among bloggers around the world, so it’s pretty likely that you’ll encounter it when building a website. With its openness to users and minimalism in design, any business or personal blog can be easily built with it.

What’s more is that with the right ecommerce plugins, shopping cart, and payment processing gateway, you can turn any WordPress site into a fully functioning online store – no matter how tiny the initial audience.

Let’s take a closer look at how hard this actually is, from start to finish.

The Building Blocks Of A Website

While there are many details that must be taken care of when building a website, none of them are more crucial than the structure itself. This is because a well-built website will provide its users with a wonderful experience, which in return, encourages them to come back for more.

When it comes to a business website, you’ll typically encounter three basic sections:

• a header
• a content area
• a footer

A well-designed website will typically have a header and footer that span the entire page.

The header is what you’ll see at the top of the page, while the footer is what you’ll see at the bottom of the page. This is where you’ll put the footer for the site. Typically, headers and footers will have basic information about the site, such as its name, description, and so on.

The content area is what the rest of the page is built around. This is where you’ll put the bulk of the content for the site, including text, images, and videos. When designing a content area, you’ll want to keep your eye on the balance between engaging the user and providing them with valuable information. The aim is to have a page that is easily scannable. When a user lands on your site and begins to explore it, they’ll most likely do so by browsing the content on the page. As a result, you want the content on the page to draw them in and keep them there. To achieve this, you can use various techniques, including using text, images, and videos to engage your audience. You can also use key words and phrases in the content to improve your search engine rankings.

If you’re looking to create a blog, you may also want to include a sidebar with content that is relevant and interesting to your audience. When designing a blog, you have the option of using either images or text to engage your readers. Although there are no set rules, using either one or the other is common practice when engaging with your audience via a blog.

Choosing A Host

When choosing a website host, you’ll want to take into consideration various factors, including price, ease of use, features, and customer support. Typically, you’ll encounter the following types of hosts:

• shared hosting: With this type of hosting, all of the web pages on your website are stored on a single server. As a result, all of your websites are physically located on the same server. This type of hosting is easy to set up and require almost no technical knowledge. However, this type of hosting is limited in terms of features and costs a bit more than the other types of hosting discussed below.
• virtual hosting: With this type of hosting, your website files are stored on a remote server. As a result, your websites are only connected to the server via the internet. This type of hosting has a number of advantages, including a higher level of security due to the separation of files on different servers. However, setting up virtual hosting can be a bit more challenging and requires you to have a basic understanding of server-side programming.
• cloud hosting: With this type of hosting, all of the computing power needed to run your website is stored on remote servers. As a result, you don’t need to worry about having enough computing power to run your website. While the setup process for cloud hosting can be a bit challenging, it has a number of advantages, including a higher level of security due to the remote location of the servers. This type of hosting is especially suitable for ecommerce websites with a large amount of traffic as it automatically scales with the amount of traffic. However, all of these advantages come at a cost – usually, a paid one.
• dedicated hosting: With this type of hosting, your website files are stored on a remote server. As a result, your websites are only connected to the server via the internet. This type of hosting is easy to set up and requires almost no technical knowledge. However, this type of hosting is fully dedicated to your website – which means that no one else can access or use the server while it’s being used by your website. This type of hosting is perfect for ecommerce websites with a lot of traffic. However, as with all forms of dedicated hosting, this type of hosting is expensive.

The key takeaways from this section are to choose a web host that is affordable and has enough features to handle the type of traffic your website is likely to receive.

Installing WordPress

One of the first steps in building a wordpress website is to download and install the WordPress software. As the most popular content management system, it’s pretty likely that you’ll encounter this when building a site. Once downloaded, you’ll need to register for a free account on WordPress.com. Doing this will give you access to the WordPress dashboard, where you can begin the configuration process. From there, you can choose a unique login name and password, as well as activate your free account. Once activated, you’ll receive an email containing information on how to use the dashboard.

To begin configuring WordPress, you’ll first want to choose a theme for the site. This is a matter of personal preference but, for the sake of the example, we’ll say that you’ve chosen a classic color scheme for the site. As a result, you’ll want to download a theme that matches this color scheme. If you’ve chosen a white theme for your site, for example, you’ll want to download a white theme.

After downloading the theme, you’ll want to unzip the file and locate the contents within the folder. When unzipping the theme, you’ll encounter a file structure that looks like this:

• style.css: This is the style sheet for the theme. When a user visits your site and sees the header, for example, they’ll see text presented in Arial, Verdana, or Helvetica. These are the fonts that the style sheet uses to display text on the page.
• images: This is where the images for the theme are stored. When a user visits your site and sees an image of a lion, for example, they’ll land on a page with this image. When an image is displayed, it’s typically presented in a box that is 120 pixels high and 80 pixels wide. This is the basic unit that the WordPress platform uses to display images – known as an image tag.
• js: This is where JavaScript files are stored. When a user visits your site and sees a button that says “Buy Now” they’ll be presented with a pop-up that contains a form to enter their email address and name to receive an email containing information on how to purchase the product that this button links to. JavaScript is a programming language that allows for interactive elements to be displayed on a website, including pop-up notifications, video playbacks, and so on.
• inc: This is where all of the source code for the theme is located. When you visit your site and see various HTML code, such as headings, paragraphs, and so on, they’ll all be contained within this folder.

When you’re finished configuring WordPress, you can save the file and close the dashboard. From there, you can either return to the previous page or you can click the Log In button in the top-right corner to log in to the WordPress dashboard.

Getting The Other Bites

Once you’ve gotten the WordPress dashboard, you can begin to configure the other aspects of your site. These aspects include installing the plugins that you need to have and setting up any shopping carts or payment processing gateways that you may need. Typically, you’ll encounter the following types of plugins: