How to Create Your Own Website with WordPress – An Overview
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world, and for good reason! The fact that it is free and open source means that anyone can use it to create a website for almost any purpose. In case you are wondering, WordPress is a free and open source platform that allows you to create online stores, blogs, and many other types of websites.
No matter what type of website you are planning to create, there is an option within the WordPress platform that can help you out. In this guide, we will discuss how you can use WordPress to create your own website.
Step one: Install WordPress
The first thing you need to do to get started is to download and install WordPress onto your own server. You can do this through your web host’s control panel or manually via FTP. If you have your own server, this is the best option. However, even if you do not, you can still use the built-in FTP functionality that comes with your web host. Just make sure that you only use this connection to connect to your server and never to upload any files to your website. Doing this manually is very easy and only takes a few minutes.
Step two: Create a username and password
Once you have installed WordPress, you need to create a user account for yourself. This is very simple to do; simply visit Accounts and then click the Create New Account button. You will then be prompted to enter a username and password for the new account. WordPress will also ask you to confirm the password. You can use any username and password you want for this new account; however, if you wish to keep things professional, you might want to use your employer’s domain name or the name of your blog for the username and password. When you login with the new credential, you will be able to access the administrative area of WordPress where you can change most aspects of the site’s functionality.
Step three: Customize the appearance of your website
Once you have logged in and opened the WordPress dashboard, you will see a screen similar to the one below. You can use this dashboard to completely customize the appearance of your website. To start, you can click on the Appearance tab at the top of the dashboard to see the different themes that are available for download. You can also use this area to install additional plugins that will alter the functionality of your site. We will discuss both of these options in more detail below.
Themes
WordPress comes with a large number of ready-to-use themes that you can install onto your website immediately. These themes can be used to change the overall look and feel of your site. They can be used to alter the color scheme, add headers, or create a completely new visual style for your website. You can use the search bar located at the top of the dashboard to search for a particular theme that suits your needs. Alternatively, you can click the Install button on a theme’s page to install it onto your site.
Plugins
WordPress also offers a large number of plugins that can be used to extend its functionality. These plugins can be used to alter the behavior of your site in a variety of ways. Some of the more popular plugins include the All-in-One SEO plugin, which can be used to optimise your site’s content for search engines, and the WP-Security plugin, which provides a variety of security features for your site. You can access plugins via the dashboard or search for a particular one that suits your needs.
When you have finished customizing the appearance of your website, you can click on the Save Changes button to save the new theme and/or plugin settings. You will then be presented with a screen confirming the save of the changes; you can click on the Close button to return to the dashboard.
Now that you have created a WordPress account and installed WordPress onto your server, you can begin creating your own website. However, before you get started, you should consider taking a little bit of time to read over the documentation for WordPress, as this will help you understand what is possible with this platform and how to go about doing certain things. This is especially important if you have never done any web development before and do not understand how plugins and themes work together to create a fully functional website. You can visit the WordPress Support Forums for additional help or read the complete documentation over at wordpress.org.