5 top tips on building a WordPress website
Building a WordPress website may not be the easiest route to go down when building a website. But it is by far the best. Not only in our opinion but in all the opinions of peole who have built the millions of WP websites out there.
Why WordPress? Because it’s future-proof and also because you can get right under the bonnet and build whatever you want without the restrictions that you get with platforms such as Wix and SquareSpace etc.
Over the years we have had many clients come to us and ask us to convert their Wix or Squarespace or templated website into WordPress. Because they know it’s the best platform out there.
What should a website do?
Building a WordPress Website is one thing, however have you considered what your website should actually do? The answer is simple. Whatever the user wants it to do. Websites need to be flexible so that visitors can find what they are looking for without hassle. There are many things that people want to do on the internet, and there needs to be content for everyone. One of the most important features of a website is speed; users don’t want to wait around for the site to load.
Website building platforms
There are many website builders on the market, but few of them compare to WordPress. The platform has won the respect of its users and experts alike as one of the most reliable and easy-to-use site builders out there, making it an ideal option for individuals looking to build a business website. Do you want to build a WordPress website for your blog, business, or personal use? Have you heard of WordPress but aren’t sure how to get started?
Luckily, there are a few things you can do in order to make the process easier. Firstly let’s look at what WordPress is and why you should use it.
Building a WordPress website for yourself
A website is one of the most important parts of any business, and it needs to be more than just a place that sells your services and / or products. A website should be used to highlight your brand, convey your message, and convert customers.
In order to make a website as successful as possible, one of the most important aspects is making sure that they have a customer-centered design. It’s also vital that a website has an accurate representation of its product or service, and that it has a clear way for people to contact them with questions or concerns.
There are many elements that go into building a great website for your business future.
What is WordPress and why is building a WordPress website better than any other platform?
WordPress is a popular site building software that allows you to create a website with little to no technical skill. With a WordPress site, it is very easy to update and maintain your website, as well as publish beautiful photography and other content.
WordPress is a free and open source software that allows you to create your own website. It’s free and open source meaning that it’s usually just downloaded and installed like a program or software. Website building is an important skill for almost any field, but it can be overwhelming if you’re just starting out.
WordPress is a great content management system for a small business website and it is very powerful for blogging – and in this day and age where good content is so critical for a business to create, we highly recommend making a blog or article an integral part of your business website plan.
When users first set up their websites, they can choose from the many free themes and plugins that are available to use. It’s also very easy to create pages, posts and other content on WordPress.
What is a WordPress plugin
A wordpress plugin is a small software application that extends the functionality of the original WordPress to fit your specific needs. Plugins can be utilised to fit your needs to blogs, e-commerce, and social networks.
They also include security and spam protection tools which are critical to keep your website safe and secure. WordPress plugins are great because they reduce the need for you to create software from scratch and it extends the features that WordPress offers out-of-the-box.
Apart from security and spam prtection, there are many types of plugins including shopping, analytics, plugin managers, SEO, booking facilities, site speed tools, marketing tools etc. You can pretty much find a plugin for doing most things you would want to do on a website.
You just have to be careful what plugin you choose. Read the plugin reviews carefully. Also check how uptodate the plugin is and research the reputation of the plugin developer. If you don’t know how to install a plugin in WordPress, there are plenty of tutorials out there.
WP-Admin makes it easy to manage and monitor your WordPress site. You can see and change the details of your website here on a simple web page.
5 tips on building a WordPress website
Here are five things to keep in mind while building your WordPress website so you can get started on the right foot
The first thing that you should do is set up hosting with a domain name and then download WordPress from the official website. Hosting is a term used to describe the process of storing and delivering information from a website or company’s database to a browser.
When someone visits an internet site, the hosting provider delivers the files to the user’s computer. In order for this to happen there must be a variety of components involved in order for this process to work. Those include: web servers, load balancers, storage, networks, and datacenters.
How to choose a good hosting company
You need to choose hosting that is appropriate to your needs now, but also your needs for the future. It is important to have speed, power and good security. Also it is critical that there is good hosting support. Sometimes when your site isn’t working it could be a hosting issue and you need to be able to contact someone and have this sorted swiftly.
You also need to be able to upgrade things if you need to. Also it’s good to make sure that the company you choose to host your website also keep their hosting up to date.
The second thing you should do is to install a theme. You also have the option of creating your own theme, though that would require some experience in HTML and CSS as well as WordPress development which is not why you are here!
So, we suggest using a base theme that you can build on. Some of the more powerful themes will allow you to build your website from scratch and they allow you to pretty much change anything you want on your website.
WordPress theme recommendations
AVADA by Theme Fusion – we have been using this theme since it launched in 2012 and, despite some speed issues, it is now one of the most popular themes out there. And they have completely sorted out the speed issues – so we’re glad we stuck with them. For a one time fee of $74* including tax, you can purchase AVADA here.
ASTRA with Elementor Builder – So AVADA has its own builder plugin but other themes need to use an external builder. Since its launch in 2016, Elementor has grown expontetially and as of January 2021 really gained in popularity and is available in over 57 languages. The beauty of Elementor is speed. It is very slick, easy to use and comes with bundles of features. When you pair Elementor with ASTRA theme you have a powerful yet fast and ‘light’ WordPress building team. Add to this your own creativity and flair and you should be able to build an amazing website.
Select the layout of your website – there are many different layouts to choose from: modern, classic or pure. Many of the powerful themes (as with AVADA and ASTRA) you can take a look at ‘demo’ sites which you can upload and use as a starting point for your website.
We sometimes do this ourselves just to get a layout which a client has shown preference for. We then make the site entirely their own. It’s just a way to not have to start from scratch and keep our prices down whilst still building a bespoke website. But, for you, this could be an amazing starting point to get a professional website build.
Start adding functionality with those plugins we explained before. As I also said, make sure you do your plugin research. If you upload a plugin and it doesn’t quite work for you, don’t panic. Just delete it and pick another one.
Plugin conflicts
Sometimes there can be a plugin conflict. This means that the code from a plugin can conflict with your theme or even another plugin on your site. If this happens then again, just pick another one. We sometimes have to try 2 or 3 before finding the right one that suits our needs and design. Make sure you are backing things up regularly so that if there is a conflict and things break then you can restore easily to how things were before the rogue plugin was uploaded.
Start creating content for your website. Strategies for creating content for a website can be difficult to develop. With so many options and possibilities, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Here are some of the most commonly used strategies: First and foremost, if you already have an established blog or website and you are just re-designing things, you don’t need to create new content. Of course, you can use what you already have available.
Excite, inform and engage
However, if your business is a new business then you may need to start from scratch. Web content is the backbone of any new business. It needs to be engaging, informative, and well-written in order to attract potential customers. There are several ways that owners can create website content for their business. The two most popular methods are outsourcing and writing content yourself.
Outsourcing has many benefits including finding someone with more expertise than you have, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business, and having someone else take care of all the headaches that come with creating web content.
Create great graphics in Canva
To create amazing graphics for both your website and for your social media accounts the absolute best programme you can use for this is something called CANVA. Get the pro account – it’s only about $10 a month and worth its weight in gold! – Sign up for Canva here – you WILL NOT regreat it.
Keyword Research
Whichever route you go down we believe that the most important thing you can do first is your keyword research. If you know your keywords and phrases for your industry, then these will inform the type of pages and images and even videos you need to create. People will ultimately find your website when searching for you. This is the dream. So we need to know exactly how people are searching and then delivering them with the best result for their search. Our website. Easier said than done but it all begins with keyword research and then creating the right content for your chosen keywords.
What to consider before building a WordPress website
There are many things to consider before moving forward with your site but if I had to narrow it down to 4 they would be:
- What will the purpose of the site be?
- Who is your audience?
- How often will you need to update content?
- What type of site do you want to have?
Building a WordPress website – how hard can it be?
Building a WordPress website is not easy or quick – even when you know what you are doing and have been doing it for decades! (I am living proof :-)). The first step is to decide on the plan for the site. This includes what the site will do, what other sites it will be related to, and how frequently you wish to update it.
Next, come up with a title for the site. The title should be catchy, but also represent what the site stands for. Once this has been done, research your hosting options.
Then research your theme options. Then the functionality and plugins you want to use. And so on.
However all that said, once you have got your head around the WordPress platform, your site is built and up and running your business should be cooking on gas and you will be able to grow your website and your business into a profitable future.
WordPress for business
WordPress is one of the best platforms for building a business website. As you now know, it’s open source which means that it’s free to use and anyone can expand on the platform to create plugins. WordPress also has over 20 million active users, so if you want your business website to be seen by as many people as possible, this is the best platform for you!
Regardless of the ease of your chosen website build platform, there are countless aspects that go into building a website, but there are some easy ways to save time, money, and headaches.
If you would like our help building a WordPress Website…
