How to Create a WordPress Website from Scratch

WordPress was initially created to be a simple blogging platform. However, the versatile open-source content management system (CMS) can do so much more. With a little know-how and effort, you can take your WordPress site anywhere you want. This article will teach you how to create a functional and beautiful WordPress website from scratch.

Choose A Niche

The first step to creating a WordPress-powered website is to choose a niche. Before you start flocking to create the next big thing, try and find a small segment of the population that are already looking for your product or service. When you narrow your focus on a specific niche, your site can become quite detailed and possess a higher likelihood of succeeding. When picking your niche, make sure that there is enough demand for your product or service in your chosen niche. You can use tools like Google Trends to easily find the popularity of any niche or topic.

Set Up The Required Software

Once you’ve picked your niche, it’s time to move on to the next step and set up the required software. You will need to have a MySQL database and a domain registered with a hosting service to set up the WordPress website. Setting up the software can be a lengthy process, so be sure to do it at least a few days before you start building your site. You could also opt for a free WordPress hosting service from a popular provider such as Bluehost. Make sure to use the same provider for all of your sites as they will all be configured with the same credentials.

Create Your Content

The content that you will need for your site is quite broad and can be split into at least three categories:

• Articles – this will be the content that you will publish on your site. You can take any form you want whether it’s a long-form blog post, a collection of quick-witted essays or a single product review. The only requirement is that the content must be unique and high-quality.
• Images – you will need to have a place to store all of the images that you use on your site. They can be in any form as long as they’re all relevant to the topic you’re writing about. If you opt for a free WordPress hosting service, you will get access to basic image hosting that can be used for your site.
• Videos – videos can work very well for your site if you’re able to find relevant and entertaining clips to use on your site. There are numerous platforms out there such as YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion that you can use to create video content. You can use WordPress to easily upload video content to your site.

Once you’ve created your content, it’s time to move on to the next step and implement a strategy to spread the word about your site. This could be as simple as sticking a link to your site in your social media profiles or as complex as launching a guerrilla marketing campaign across multiple platforms.

Get Inspired

Now that you have content and a design for your site, it’s time to get inspired. While you should always try and incorporate some creativity into your work, it’s important not to get so absorbed in creativity that you forget about functionality. Your site should always try and maintain an optimum level of usability so that anyone can easily find what they’re looking for. If you want to take your site to the next level, start by looking at the most successful WordPress-powered sites out there and try and incorporate what you can from their design.

Organize Your Content

After you’ve gotten inspired and started creating your content, it’s time to organize it. You can start by using a tool like WordPress to create a content calendar. This will help you plan out all of the various content that you’ve created and keep track of everything you’ve published on your site. It also helps you plan out content for the future as things like the blog post schedule is built into the system. You can use the calendar to easily see at a glance the content that you have planned for the week.

Make A Plan

If you’ve followed the above steps and set up your WordPress site with a content calendar, it’s time to make a plan. You can use the plan to scope out all of the various content that you have and to organize it into topics and sub-topics. This will help you to develop an editorial hierarchy for your site and establish a framework for future content.

Launch Your Site

Finally, it’s time to launch your site. Once you’ve made a plan and set up the required software, it’s just a matter of pushing the button and you’ll be landing on the home page of your new WordPress site. You can use any free WordPress hosting service to launch your site and create a stunning landing page to draw in potential customers. Make sure to check out the various free templates that you can use to create a stunning and functional landing page in no time.

Once you’ve launched your site, it’s time to start generating some leads and building a foundation of support. You can use various tools like Google Analytics to easily track the various metrics like traffic and lead conversion. From there, you can start to strategize and grow your business.