How to Set Up a WordPress Website When You Have Hosting from Flywheel

If you’re looking for ways to improve your site’s performance and want to go the extra mile to make sure your site looks impeccable, you’ve probably considered trying out a WordPress custom-theme. However, creating a fully functioning, responsive WordPress theme is a rigorous process that not many individuals will attempt. In fact, it can take months to perfect and even the most seasoned designers will only agree to take on the project if they’re extremely confident they can do it justice.

Luckily, there’s an easier way. If you already have a website hosted on Flywheel, you can use their services to launch a WordPress website with just a few clicks. You won’t have to worry about any of the technical stuff required to launch your own WordPress site. Simply visit the Flywheel website and click on the Get Started button at the top

This will download a zip file that contains everything you need to get started including a clean, functioning WordPress demo with a custom design.

As exciting as this is, you must first prepare the demo for editing. This means you need to have a basic understanding of how WordPress works and how to make minor edits to the code. Knowing how to navigate the WordPress code is actually quite important if you decide to do this. Not only will it make taking down the site a whole lot easier when you’re done, but it also means you can make future edits yourself and not have to worry about messing things up.

Step one: Install WordPress

Installing WordPress is quite simple. All you need to do is visit the WordPress website and click on the Install Now button. You’ll then be taken to a page where you can enter the desired details for your new WordPress site.

Click on the blue Get Started button to continue. You’ll then be prompted to choose a domain for your new site. You can choose any.com or.net domain you want for your site. Once you do, click on the Continue button.

Installing WordPress is now complete. You can log in to your new site using the login details you provided during the installation process.

Step two: Activate the plugin

Once installed, you need to visit the Plugins page and activate the WordPress plugin named Auto-install for Gravatars. From here, you can edit the plugin’s settings to your liking. When you’re finished, click on the Activate button.

Activating this plugin will make it so that WordPress will look for new plugins as it is updated. This is significant because it makes it so you don’t have to keep checking back to see if the new version has been released.

Step three: Set up your Dashboard

Now that you have WordPress installed, it’s time to setup your Dashboard. Visit the Settings page and click on the Dashboard button located in the top right corner.

Here, you can choose the colors and layout for your Dashboard. Additionally, you can disable any plugins you don’t need.

Flywheel has pre-defined templates for you to choose from. Alternatively, you can use their drag & drop builder to create your own template or choose from one of their many professionally designed templates. Once you make your selection, click on the Save button at the top.

This will take you back to the Settings page where you can now view your new Dashboard. Congratulations! You now have a fully featured WordPress site with just a few clicks. Well done!

Step four: Customize your site

As you can see, your new site is quite basic and doesn’t offer much in terms of customization. However, you can still fully edit the template’s header, footer, and main content. Additionally, you can add an image to the header and change the layout to suit your needs. When you’re finished, click on the Save button at the top to save your changes.

This is truly the simplest and one of the most convenient ways to get a fully functioning, responsive WordPress site without all the hassles of figuring out the technicalities yourself. Not only that, but you can get started with a clean slate and don’t have to worry about messing anything up. Plus, it’s always nice to have a fully functioning website even if it’s just for personal use.

Final step: Test your site

Once you’ve saved your changes and everything is working as intended, it’s time to test your site. Visit the Tools page and click on the Testing button. You’ll then be brought to a page where you can choose to perform a speed test or an SEO analysis to get a better understanding of how your site is performing so far.

You can also set up a fake site with a.com or.net domain just to test the layout and functionality of your new site. Just remember, everything you do on the dummy site won’t carry over to your real site. Once you’re finished, click on the Save button at the top.

Hopefully, this was helpful. Launching a WordPress site from within Flywheel is easier than ever before and allows for a whole lot more customization than previous methods. Plus, you can use their advanced tools to track performance and analyse traffic.