How to build a website, a practical guide part 1.
Adam Jacobs
Managing Director @ Bubblegum Casting & Hunter Talent | Seed Investor, Advisor
How to build a website, a practical guide part 1.
You are looking to start a website for your blog, business, portfolio, store, or forum – but the idea of building the site, with computer code, databases, or software sounds a bit daunting? Whilst the barriers to entry online do make starting a business seems that little bit easier than a bricks and mortar business, it can seem like an exhaustive task. The website platform with the lowest barrier to entry is widely considered to be WordPress. This is because there are thousands of themes/ templates that you can easily install and make slight tweaks. These include online stores, blogs, portfolio sites and nearly anything else you can imagine you might need. The good news is that setting up a self-hosted WordPress website is relatively straightforward and unlike some of the online drag and drop website builders you own the site to do with whatever you see fit.
The first part in a 3 part series part one will show you how to set up a WordPress website from the beginning:
Let’s start by running through a list of terms you are going to need to understand.
Domain: A domain name is simply what people type into their browser to get to your website (i.e. www.onlimeatom.com). You will need a something for people to type into their browser to get to your website.
Hosting: A hosting account is simply a computer server where your website files live, you will need somewhere for your website to live.
WordPress: Your website needs software known as a CMS or content management system and WordPress is widely considered the optimal solution for a small business owner.
Design & More Information: WordPress makes it easy to have a professional looking website – and has the ability to become whatever you want it to be. You’ll learn exactly where and how to learn everything you’ll ever need to know about WordPress and doing WordPress website setup.
How to setup hosting for WordPress website & domain.
If you have already purchased a domain name, make sure you have all the details and then skip down to how to setup hosting.
To save money and make things easier for yourself in the future, we recommend purchasing your domain separately from your hosting.
There are a number of places to get your domains and a simple online search for buying domains will place a number of options.
For this exercise we have listed a few:
Look for a good interface, cheaper long-term prices and any short term promos.
Once you find the site you are happy to purchase your domain from, search for the name you want, and proceed to the checkout.
How to set up hosting for WordPress
This is again something that you should do an online search for. We’ve shortlisted some reputable hosting companies below as well:
This is not the exact process on each but is fairly reflective across the sites above.
Step 1. Select a hosting plan that you want.
Step 2. Then, you will type in your domain name under ‘I currently have a domain’
Step 3. You will go to the checkout page, where you will setup a username and password, and fill in your payment details.
Step 4. You will get an email from the host provider, in the email there is important information so make sure you save it in a place and print it for additional safe keeping. Make sure you write down what your name servers are, you’ll need them for later.
Step 5. Log in to where you bought your domain names. Once logged in you should be able to easily navigate to an area called DNS. Take the 1st and 2nd Name server that your host provider emailed you. Then, replace the current name servers with the ones provided.
Step 6. That’s how to setup hosting for WordPress! Now all that remains is to Install WordPress, which we will cover in the next section.
Please note it can take up to 24 hours for the DNS to switch over completely.
How to install and configure WordPress
WordPress is going to be the software that powers your website. But before it can power your website – it needs to be installed on your hosting server.
Here’s how to install and configure WordPress…
Installing WordPress with quick install
While you can certainly install WordPress manually, HostGator has an excellent, free, secure tool to quickly install WordPress onto your new hosting account.
Step 1. Login to your hosting account with your username and password as given in the provided email.
Step 2. Now that you are logged into your account look for an icon called “QuickInstall” and open it.
Step 3. Now that you have QuickInstall opened, look on the left side and click WordPress.
Step 4. Fill out your information, and click install.
Step 5. Go login to your new WordPress site at https://yourdomain.com/wp-admin
If you have any trouble, most domain and host companies have 24 hour tech support.
Click through to see part to where we show you how to install a template and make design changes to your new WordPress website.
Adam Jacobs is about to finish his employment contract and is looking for a new opportunity in digital marketing. He'll be publishing a post every single weekday until he secures a digital marketing role, and possibly beyond. He's also using this opportunity to test long form posting and its potential. This post was originally published on his often neglected podcast site www.onlineatom.com If you know anyone who needs a passionate digital marketing professional in their business please pass on Adam's details [email protected] Thanks