How to Get a Beautiful Website Page in WordPress

It’s now possible to create a beautiful, fully responsive website in WordPress. No more cramped desktop websites that don’t look the same on a mobile device. With WordPress’ new responsive design features, your blog can look as good as a magazine, right on your phone or tablet! For many designers, it’s the perfect platform for building a business. You can start with a free account, then upgrade to a premium one when you’re ready to launch your website. In this article, you’ll discover all the tools and tips you need to create a beautiful website in WordPress.

WordPress’s New Mobile-First Approach

One of the biggest changes in WordPress’ latest version is the mobile-first approach. Up until now, your web content had to fit a small screen. With WordPress 4.4, it’s possible to create a stunning experience no matter what device or screen you’re on. To ensure the best possible user experience, WordPress now focuses on crafting amazing content for mobile screens first. This content is then enhanced with modern HTML5 and CSS3 techniques to fit the user’s full-sized monitor.

Why should you care about mobile-first publishing? Well, according to HubSpot Blogs research, 69% of users access their favorite blogs on their mobile devices. Further, 48% of those users are more likely to be dissatisfied with the site’s experience if it’s not mobile-friendly. In other words, the design of your blog is almost as important as the content you create. Luckily, WordPress makes it easy enough to create a beautiful blog, even if you’re not a designer.

The Essential Tools For Building A Blog

WordPress 4.4 comes packed with everything you need to get started creating a blog. Whether you’re an experienced WordPress user or this is your first time creating a blog, you’ll have no trouble diving in and getting started. Let’s take a look at the essential tools:

1. WordPress

Of course, you can’t start creating a beautiful site in WordPress without having the software itself. While it’s always nice to have a variety of options when choosing a blogging platform, at the end of the day, you’ll need to commit to one and get used to its quirks. If you’re new to WordPress, you should opt for the classic version. Even though it’s a bit old, the classic version is still one of the most popular options whenever you search for WordPress. Don’t worry, you can always upgrade to the latest version later when you’re feeling comfortable with the platform. The best thing is that you can test out the software’s basic functions for free.

2. A Web Host

Just like with any other website you create, you’ll need a web host to make it live. Unlike traditional websites, with blogs you’ll need a dedicated server to ensure optimal performance. Fortunately, the costs associated with a dedicated server are almost always included in your web host’s monthly plans. In fact, with most web hosts, you’ll never need to pay extra for a server. Instead, you’ll have the option to purchase additional features, such as a content delivery network (CDN) or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Let’s say you have a corporate website with a lot of images. With a CDN, your images will load a fraction of a second faster than usual because they’re being served from a far away server. In case you’re wondering, a SSL certificate binds your website to a trusted security organization, such as Comodo, Symantec, or GoDaddy. Since the general public doesn’t always trust security certificates, they often wonder if your site is truly secure. With an SSL certificate, all you need to do is point your domain’s URL to https instead of http to give the impression that your website is secure.

3. A Custom Domain

If you’ve been following the DIY (do it yourself) or SMOQ (self made only when you ask) trends, you may have noticed that a lot of successful bloggers opt for custom domains. Instead of using a subdomain, like you’d typically see on a traditional website (blog.example.com), these bloggers will sometimes use their own name as their domain, such as NicoleBishop.com. When people click on your domain, they’ll be directed to your site automatically.

While you don’t necessarily need to use a custom domain to create a beautiful blog, it’s certainly an option. If you opt for this route, you’ll need to purchase a cheap domain name from a private registration service like Namecheap or GoDaddy. Alternatively, you can use a free domain name registrar like Google Domains to get started.

4. A Theme Suitable For Blogs

WordPress comes with a variety of built-in themes. While many are suitable for personal use, you’ll need a distinct theme for your blog. When choosing a theme for your blog, make sure it’s one of the following:

• modern
• retro
• classic
• dark
• light
• responsive
• mobile-friendly

If you want to create a beautiful blog, you don’t necessarily need a custom theme. However, the options above are among the most popular choices when it comes to personal blogs. While you don’t need to buy a theme to get started with WordPress, opting for one of the above will guarantee you a beautiful site.

5. SEO-friendly Content

If you want your blog to appear in Google search results, you’ll need to incorporate SEO (search engine optimization) techniques into your content. Fortunately, WordPress makes this process simple enough for a non-professional. First, you’ll need to install the Google Analytics tracking plugin. Once this is done, you can view your site’s traffic in Google Analytics. From here, you can determine which articles are performing the best and which ones require some work. Once you’ve got that data, you can work on enhancing content that performs well and eliminating the ones that don’t.

This is also the place where you can start getting familiar with WordPress’ debugging tools. WordPress comes with a built-in developer toolbar that makes it easy enough to edit HTML, CSS, and other aspects of the website’s code. When something’s not working as expected, you’ll often need to use the debug tool to identify the source of the problem. For instance, if you’re stuck with a dark gray background on a light page, you can use the developer tools to change the color of the page’s background to white.

6. Social Media Integration

WordPress can automatically pull in your social media accounts, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, when you install the Connectors plugin. This plugin allows you to link to various social media accounts from your blog posts, enabling your readers to follow you on social media.

7. Analytics

Last but not least, we’ve got analytics. Without analytics, it’s nearly impossible to track the success of your blog. Luckily, WordPress comes with a built-in analytics platform, making it super easy to get started. Just click on the Analytics tab at the top of your WordPress dashboard to get started. From here, you can track the success of your blog posts, identify popular topics, and gauge the effectiveness of your various social media accounts.

Hopefully, this article has provided you with a good overview of the tools you need to create a lovely blog. From here, all you need to do is populate it with content and begin promoting your site to increase traffic.