WordPress is one of the most widely used platform for creating websites or blogs. This platform can be relied upon to create a professional website with an attractive appearance. And the good news is that WordPress is very easy to use by all people, whether beginners or those who have advanced to create a website. In addition to offering a user friendly platform, WordPress is also supported by developers from around the world to build a variety of additional features in WordPress, whether its plugins and templates.
For friends who do not know, WordPress that there are actually two, namely WordPress.org and WordPress.com, but the same developers that Matt Mullenweg and his friends. Well, which I will discuss in this article is how to create a website / Self Hosted WordPress blog. So, we have to have our own domain and hosting, then install scripts from WordPress.org into hosting.
To create a website / blog in WordPress Self Hosting, please follow the steps below.
Some Steps to Make a WordPress Website / Blog
1. Setting up the Domain Name To Website
If we want to create a website / blog we must have our own domain name. I strongly recommend to buy a domain from a registrar that are well known.Actually there are several providers of free domain in the internet, for example co.cc free domain extension, cz.cc, and others. But if you want to build a website / blog more professional or business website, you should buy any domain TLD (top level domain) so that we have full access to the domain, and will certainly look better. Anyway the price for a domain is quite cheap, around 9-10$ per year.
Domain and hosting must be connected so that our website can be opened. If we buy a domain and hosting of different services, we must add the DNS (Domain Name System) to our hosting domain. For beginners I recommend to buy a domain name and hosting from one provider so we don't need to do DNS settings again.
2. Buy / Rent Hosting For Websites
When we create a blog or website, we will definitely need a script or support files to make our website looks good in internet browser. For example WordPress script, image files, video files, text files, and other files. Well, this is the function of hosting as a place to store website data base file that we are building. We must be careful in choosing a hosting that will be used in order websites created can be opened with both process and load it quickly.
Once we buy a hosting package, usually hosting service provider will send some data related to hosting that we buy. Among them is the data the user name and password cPanel hosting (hosting Control Panel), DNS, and others. Save this data well because it will be required at any time. If you buy a domain and hosting in different services then you shall add your DNS hosting domain to which you are buying.
Here are two types of hosting that you can use, think about it before you buy / rent a hosting service:
2.1. Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is a server in which there are several website hosting account and use the services of the server simultaneously. Shared hosting cost less, but the privacy and the performance of a website in shared hosting tend to be less well, especially when large enough website traffic. However, if the data files of your website is small and not a lot of traffic, you can use shared hosting.
2.2. Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated Hosting is a server that is used by the client only. The advantage of using dedicated hosting is awake client privacy because it is not used by the other party, and the performance of the website is much better compared to shared hosting. However, costs for dedicated hosting is more expensive than shared hosting.
3. Install WordPress on Hosting
There are two ways to install WordPress to your hosting script, by uploading WordPress script manually or can also use the software Softaculous. For the installation process easier and faster, we can use Softaculous, this software is usually already on your cPanel hosting.
When first installing WordPress, the default theme and default plugin will be automatically installed to WordPress. That is, we already have a website and can immediately start to fill up the content on the website / blog. However, if we let the default settings with the default theme then most likely the website does not look professional. We need a little 'touches' to make it more interesting, such as installing a special theme, install plugins, and other settings
4. Installing Theme
After successfully installing WordPress on hosting, you can do some settings to make your blog / website better. Set the template WordPress theme or a great effect on the look of your website overall layout.
When installing WordPress, usually the default template will participate are installed into our hosting. This template display standard and not everyone likes the look standard WordPress theme. Well if you want to have a website with a unique look and attractive, then you need to install a particular theme.
This WordPress theme is available aplenty, whether it is free or paid. If you want to use the theme for free, you can look it straight from the pages of your WordPress dashboard, which is in the Appearance> Themes> Add New. You can find a theme that suits your wishes.
If it turns out the free themes available are not in line with expectations, then you can buy a premium theme which is available in some specialized websites selling WordPress themes. But If you don't have money to buy a premium theme, you can download it for free from our website. Check it here !
Here's some premium wordpress theme which I recommend for you:
- iDesign Theme : A cool looking wordpress theme
- CTR Theme : If you have a plan to monetize your website with Adsense, I'm very recommend this theme
- Newspaper Theme : My Favorite Elegant Theme
5. Install Plugins and Make Some Settings
To make your WordPress work more optimally, it would require some settings and also install some important plugins. These few simple settings can have a great impact for your website, for example;- Create a new page to the page About, Contact, Privacy Policy, and other
- Arrange widgets in the sidebar Adjust the position of the link to the category menu
- Adding logos and banners
- Etc.
Installing WordPress plugins is very very important to improve the ability of the blog / your WordPress website. Some essential plugins that you must install on your blog / website WordPress you are;
- WordPress SEO by Yoast
- Google XML Sitemaps
- SEO Friendly Images
- Wordfence Security
- Etc.
6. Start Making Content
After completing all the necessary arrangements, it is time you build content for the blog / your new website. Before building the content, make sure you've done some keyword research. Doing these steps will greatly assist us in building content searched by users of Google, of course choose niche keywords which fit your business.
Build content related to your niche is certainly not something that is difficult because you really master it. You must make sure that the content you create and post on your blog / website will provide a great value to your audience. This will greatly help build your business website will brand for the long term. In addition, build quality content will continually increase the authority of your website for the niche that you aim at, and this is very good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Read this post to learn off-page SEO: How To Build High Quality Backlink
That's how to create a website / blog self hosted WordPress for beginners. WordPress is a popular platform and very powerful to build different types of websites. So far I've built several types of websites (online stores, blogs, portals, and company profile) by using the WordPress platform, and I see no other way as easy to use WordPress. Hopefully this article useful. Thank's for your attention guuys, see you on the next post !
