Is WordPress Website Building So Confusing?

If you’re new to WordPress website development or are just finding your feet, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed. Between choosing a theme, integrating digital marketing tools, and creating engaging content, there’s a lot to take into consideration. Truth be told, developing a WordPress website from scratch can be a pretty labor-intensive process. That being said, it’s not impossible, and with a little bit of research and preparation, you can find the time to get things done. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps of creating a basic WordPress website from scratch so that you can get started quickly and painlessly.

Step one: Choosing a WordPress Theme

As you’d expect, the first step in building a WordPress website is choosing a theme. Just as with any other piece of software or mobile app, there are hundreds of WordPress themes out there, each with their perks and drawbacks. To save you the effort and heartache of trial and error, here’s a list of some of the most popular and well-known themes:

• Twenty Seven
• Divi
• Fancy
• Lux
• Shopify
• Alpine
• Avada
• Clean
• Clairefontaine
• Tetra
• Aston
• Kulio
• Buxton
• Gravity
• Cottage
• Laravel
• Foundation
• Nava
• Besotted
• Optimistic
• Hoodie
• Broadway
• WordPress Classic

As you can see, this list is absolutely massive. With that many options, it can be difficult to know where to begin. That’s why we’ve gone ahead and curated this short list of WordPress themes that we think you might find useful.

Step two: Planning your Web Design

Once you’ve decided on a theme, it’s time to move on to the next step which is planning your website’s design. To do this, you’ll need to consider several important things; color, structure, and content. Let’s dive into each of these points individually.

As for the color, always bear in mind that the viewer’s eye is focused on the text and imagery more so than the overall theme or design of your website. So, if your site is mostly composed of bright, vibrant colors, it may seem appealing to the eye but could potentially detract from the information you’re trying to convey. In most cases, a safe bet is to go for simple, subtle tones that don’t shout out that your site is based on WordPress.

When it comes to content, the old saying ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’ certainly isn’t far off. When it comes to attracting visitors to your site, the key is to provide them with as much information as possible in the easiest, most engaging way. On the subject of content, remember that longer is generally better when it comes to website content. Longer articles typically get more shares and generally more influential. If you have a lot of content on your blog or website, try and split it up into multiple parts. This way, you’ll be able to provide more value to your site’s visitors. Plus, it’ll make things a little bit easier for you to keep track of everything.

Step three: Setting up your Shopify store

No discussion of building a WordPress website would be complete without touching on the matter of setting up a Shopify store. As you may know, Shopify is a very popular eCommerce tool that allows entrepreneurs, designers, and developers to easily set up stores, whether online or on mobile, all with the click of a button.

After setting up your Shopify account, the next step is to integrate your store with WordPress. To do this, you’ll need to install the Shopify App to your phone and then set up a product catalog. From there, you’ll be able to add products that you sell directly from your Shopify store to your WordPress site.

The nice thing about this solution is that, since all the backend functionality is provided by Shopify, setting up your WordPress store is incredibly easy and doesn’t require any specific technical expertise. So, if you’ve never done anything with WordPress or eCommerce, this may be the right solution for you. It’s important to note that Shopify provides very high quality support, so if you’re ever stuck or need help, their team will be available to help you out.

The downside to this particular solution is that, in order to take advantage of all the Shopify’s features, you’ll need to pay an annual fee. Fortunately, the cost is quite reasonable and, for some, may even be worth it.

Step four: Integrating Google Analytics

There are several good reasons why you might want to integrate Google Analytics with your website. First and foremost, having a good understanding of website traffic is very important for any business or brand. Using Google Analytics, you can easily see how many people visit your site, how often they visit, and even how long they stay on average. This way, you can track the results of any marketing initiatives you may be doing and see whether or not they’re having the desired effect.

Additionally, having Google Analytics integrated with your site allows you to keep track of the performance of any content you create. If you’ve ever created a piece of content and posted it to your blog or website, you may have noticed that it doesn’t always perform as expected. With Google Analytics, you can take this content and see how many views it’s getting and whether or not this is serving as a good measure of its success.

The last reason why you may want to integrate Google Analytics with your website is that it’s a great tool for gathering detailed information about your site’s visitors. By understanding more about your audience, you can find ways to better engage with them and gain more trust. With Google Analytics, you can collect information such as traffic sources, the locations of your site’s visitors, and interests. This way, you can create specific audiences and target the right people with the right content.

Step five: Setting up your email marketing campaigns

Once you’ve got a good handle on traffic, it’s time to move on to the next step which is setting up your email marketing campaigns. Unlike other solutions listed here, setting up your email marketing with HubSpot isn’t quite as simple as copying and pasting a template and hitting send.

Instead, you’ll need to set up each email’s content, including the email’s subject line, from scratch. To get started, you’ll need a dedicated email marketing tool such as HubSpot. Once you’ve set up your account, the next step is to create one or more email newsletters that you can send to your subscribers. From there, you can set up autoresponders so that every time a new subscriber signs up, you’ll be informed and able to follow up with them individually.

The advantage of this particular solution is that it’s very easy to use and requires very little technical expertise to setup and run. Even if you’re not particularly computer-savvy, you’ll have no trouble understanding and using HubSpot’s email marketing tool.

On the downside, this solution is fairly expensive. Not only does HubSpot cost $10/month, but you’ll also need to spend another $10/month on a domain name. So, if you’re looking for a free solution, it’s not exactly a bad idea to check out open-source tools such as MailChimp or ConvertKit.

Step six: Testing

Once you’ve got your basic website up and running, it’s time to test. Just like you would with any other piece of software or mobile app, you’ll need to use several websites, tools, and mobile apps to test your site’s performance. The following sections contain a list of some of the most popular tools that you may find useful for testing: