Successfully creating a website on WordPress

WordPress is the CMS (Content Management System) most used in the creation of websites, blogs, or e-commerce sites. This platform has been shown to power over 40% of all websites on the Web. This tool, which serves to manage content online, is of great importance for modern businesses. 

Indeed, experienced users of WordPress ensure that it always stays attuned to the latest trends on the Web. Its major advantage lies mainly in its ease of use. Even beginners can create and manage their web pages without much difficulty. However, to successfully create a quality WordPress website, you will need to follow some essential steps. 

In this complete guide, discover how to develop your own blog, e-commerce site, or professional website on WordPress step by step. Additionally, by reading this article, you will learn about the many features, tools, themes, and plugins available and suitable for creating WordPress sites. 

Finally, although this CMS offers a free plan for creating a website, it is still necessary to know that there are paid offers on WordPress. Designed for managing e-commerce sites or for customizing a website’s domain name, paid plans can be advantageous in terms of search engine optimization. In this guide, discover the possible costs associated with operating a WordPress site.

1st step in creating a WordPress site: Choosing an idea and organization

Before starting to manipulate WordPress, you must first follow the most crucial steps in developing a website. Indeed, this concerns the search for ideas/themes and the planning of the creation of web pages. 

Opt for a creative concept for your website

What do you want to create on WordPress? An e-commerce site on which you will sell your products? A business site that will showcase your activities and your area of expertise? A blog to build an online community? Or a portfolio site to publish and share your creations? In fact, the theme you choose will depend on the concept you wish to bring to your website. On WordPress, you will have access to a library with several themes, specifically 8000 themes. It’s impossible not to find one that best corresponds to the image you want to give your website.

Develop a roadmap for creating a WordPress website

Having a roadmap is essential to ensure the smooth progress of creating a WordPress website and, therefore, to guarantee its success. In this document, you will define the objectives and the steps of creation. 

✔ Clarification of objectives: Creating a roadmap facilitates the determination of your objectives. For example, you can include lead generation, increasing sales, or promoting your brand. You must especially define clear and measurable objectives. This will allow you to track the progress of creating your website. 

✔ Planning the creation steps: The advantage of having a roadmap is that you can keep an eye on the different stages of your project: 

• Design phase

• Development phase

• Launch phase

• Monitoring

Identify the target audience of the site

Are you having trouble identifying your target audience? Don’t panic, we’re here to help. Just answer these 3 questions: 

• What type of people is your site aimed at?

• Do you know their needs, expectations, or problems?

• What means will you deploy to attract your target audience and draw traffic to your site?

By answering these questions, you can easily determine personas that are likely to be interested in your website. 

2nd step in creating a WordPress website: Choosing a host and a domain name 

Creating a website on WordPress requires certain essential processes such as hosting and finding its domain name. Indeed, it is wise to host your website so that it can benefit from a large storage space that will preserve all of its information. Basically, web hosting will greatly serve the construction of your web project and its proper functioning. But above all, it offers a secure space to keep your data in one place with a backup history.

Choosing the right web host

One of the main roles of web hosting is also to provide visibility for your site on the Web while keeping it alive with content. Hosting is important, especially for a site created on administrative tools like WordPress, Prestashop, etc. The server of the chosen host will allow you to store and access your data at any time. Additionally, the web hosting service you choose should have a large capacity to accommodate the requirements of your website. This is necessary to ensure its performance.

Carefully consider the domain name of the site created on WordPress

The domain name is highly important when creating a website on WordPress. Indeed, choosing your domain name well strengthens the credibility of your brand or your business. But that’s not all; a domain name contributes to increasing your visibility on the Web. This means you will achieve excellent rankings on search results (SERP). What is the ideal domain name? It should be short (about 3 syllables). Also, favor a domain name that is easy to pronounce and remember for users. This way, it will be quicker to type even on a small smartphone or tablet keyboard. And of course, the domain name of your site should reflect your name, that of your brand, or your sector of activity.

Web hosting and domain name prices in 2024

The prices of web hosting generally depend on your needs. In 2024, the cost of the service varies between 2 € and 6 €/month. EasyHoster, known for its competitive prices in the market (3.99 €/month), is a web host appreciated for the quality of its services. As for domain name prices, if you choose one suggested by your web host, it can cost between 8 € and 20 €/year. However, this will depend on the chosen extension (.com, .fr, .net, etc.) as well as the rarity of the domain name. Good to know: there are hosts like EasyHoster that offer free transfers of domain names.

3rd step: Starting the creation of the website on WordPress 

You need to perform several manipulations before you can launch the creation of a website on WordPress. First, you must install WordPress on a server or locally. If you choose to install the tool manually on a server, the task will be much simpler. You won’t have to set up an environment to host it. However, a local installation may take time, as you will first need to create your environment. Nevertheless, it is a secure option with which you can develop your site even while offline. You will also have a copy of the site on your computer.

Install WordPress in the simplest way

First of all, you need to have a domain name, a database, and a package from a web host or a local environment as prerequisites. Then, you download WordPress from the fr.WordPress.org site in the form of a zip file that you will decompress to obtain the “Wordpress” folder. 

Now let’s start the installation! Using FileZilla (FTP client or File Transfer Protocol), you can upload the elements of your website to your remote server. Then, you need to connect to the server and use the username and password provided by the host. After that, check all the files found in the decompressed WordPress folder and migrate them to the root. You just need to configure WordPress according to your preferences. 

Choosing the version of WordPress

WordPress comes in 2 versions: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. What differentiates them? The first option represents a turnkey solution, while the second is self-hosted, meaning you take care of it yourself.

WordPress.com

There are 2 options to choose from: free and paid (WordPress Pro). With the free plan, you get a domain name (mysite.wordpress.com), 1 GB of disk space, and a user support system. However, you will have to get used to the ads that are displayed. Furthermore, the free WP.com plan does not allow you to monetize your site through ads. As for the paid offer at 15 €/month, the domain name selection is much more advanced (without the wordpress.com extension). You also won’t have to deal with ads and will enjoy ample storage space (50 GB). 

WordPress.org

With this free version, you have access to a large number of unlimited projects. However, you need to purchase a domain name and hosting. As mentioned earlier, purchasing a domain name is a good investment, as it only costs about ten euros per year on average. You can reserve yours on general platforms or obtain it through your web hosting service. 

4th step: The website creation process and choosing the right theme

Choosing the theme for your site on WordPress is undoubtedly the most enjoyable step in the creation process. Here, you will choose the typography, colors, layouts, and many other important elements that will beautify your website. 

3 most used free themes on WordPress

WordPress has 8000 templates, each with its own specifications. To simplify your search, we have gathered in this guide 3 of the best and most popular WordPress themes in 2024!

Astra 

This theme takes first place with over a million downloads. Rated 5/5, Astra is appreciated for its lightweight nature with a page size of less than 50 KB. This detail helps to improve loading speed and therefore optimize the site’s position on Google and other search engines. Most importantly, this Astra theme prioritizes user experience and is ideal for creating e-commerce sites or blogs. 

OceanWP

With over 700,000 downloads, this is a responsive theme that integrates WooCommerce and other free extensions. Online shops, blogs, and e-commerce sites can use it and take advantage of features like social media icons and customizable sidebars. Thanks to OceanWP, rated 5/5, you will have a popup shopping cart, 15 free theme demos, and various payment modes.

Neve

The AMP-ready, SEO, and speed optimization are crucial elements to implement on your website? Then, use the Neve theme on WordPress, with over 300,000 downloads and rated 5/5 by users. Fast and perfect for all types of sites, it benefits from a page size of 32.4 KB aimed solely at reducing loading time. With Neve, you have the opportunity to create an e-commerce site, a video blog, or a portfolio site. 

Customization tips for a website theme on WordPress

The CMS offers a free theme customization mode that involves using customization plugins. No need to write code! WordPress provides integrated customization options for modifying layout, colors, typography, etc. Elementor is often the most used for customizing one’s WordPress theme. There are other customization plugins such as WPForms or Gravity Forms that are equally effective and practical.

5th step: Ensure the effectiveness of the WordPress site with suitable plugins

Know the essential plugins for WordPress sites

Currently, there are about 58,000 plugins on WordPress. Such a quantity demonstrates the richness and diversity of this ecosystem. This large number can be seen as a double-edged sword. On one side, users can benefit from countless possibilities for their site, but on the other, finding the right tools becomes a real challenge. This is especially true if they are not free. Indeed, beginners can quickly be overwhelmed by this ocean of extensions available to them. 

What do plugins represent in the creation of a website on WordPress?

Plugins are like tastes and colors, they can’t be discussed. Some will be appreciated by some, but not by others. However, there are essentials that a large majority of users agree upon. Thus, one cannot overlook the essentials, especially the plugins that will handle security, SEO, performance, and backups. To name just a few, for security, one can use Scuri. This one is perfect against server-level attacks. It is easy to use and requires registration to obtain an API key. This will allow the extension to have deep control over your WP site. 

On the side of natural referencing

When talking about SEO, the first plugin that comes to mind is Yoast SEO, which has currently been installed over 5 million times. It is a simple tool to use for your site’s SEO. It offers some essential basic features for search engines such as title tags and meta descriptions. Additionally, it also allows you to create an XML sitemap. Furthermore, the free plugin can also configure your content types. 

Cache plugins

There is also WP Rocket, which has been used over 3 million times thus far. It is a cache plugin, which will allow speeding up the loading of your WordPress site’s pages. You can also check out MonsterInsights to simplify the setup and functioning of Google Analytics. You will then have a good tracking of your site’s performance. Finally, there are daily backup plugins that are crucial for avoiding any mishap in case of bugs, server crashes, hacking, or others. There are several options for this like UpdraftPlus, BackWPup, VaultPress, or BackUpWordPress.

How to install plugins from the admin interface?

The installation of plugins can be done in various ways, but the most common and simplest way is to go through the admin interface. To do this, you start by logging into the interface and go to the “Plugins” tab on the left. Next, you select “Add New” and enter the name of the desired extension in the search bar at the top right. Once done, click the “Install Now” button and confirm with “OK”. The installation should start with the notification “Installing…”. Once the installation is complete, just activate the extension with the button that carries the same name at the bottom left. Your plugin is now installed and active. 

Final word

In conclusion, creating a website on WordPress requires a methodical approach by following several essential steps. From choosing the concept to planning with a detailed roadmap to selecting a host and domain name, each phase contributes to the success of the project.

The installation of WordPress, choosing the right theme, and optimization with suitable plugins are also crucial elements. With over 40% of websites using WordPress, this platform continues to dominate due to its ease of use and flexibility. This CMS thus offers a powerful solution for all types of online projects.