How to create a Wordpress website for beginners in 10 steps ?

 

Creating a WordPress website is still a dream for many in this article let us see how to create a WordPress website in 10 steps

How to create a wordpress website for beginners in 10 steps?

10 Steps to create a WordPress website for beginners

Step 1: Choose a domain

Before you get to grips with WordPress, you need to decide on a domain. This is the address where your website can be found later (www.example.com). This should be as concise as possible and represent your company or project.  If possible, avoid hyphens (which are difficult to type) and umlauts, which are not found on English keyboards.

Step 2: Choose a hosting provider

Next you need a web space for your future jewel. You get this from a hosting provider who provides you with server space. You order your domain from the provider, install WordPress and the content of your website is also stored on a database here.

Don't be too hasty when choosing a host, because switching to another provider later is possible, but involves a lot of effort. In addition, there are sometimes long contract periods. It's basically the same as with your mobile phone contract: a little more research at the beginning saves trouble in the end.

Shared vs private hosting

I don't want to go too deep into the topic of hosting here, but I do want to point out the basic differences:

Shared hosting:  Here you share a server with other websites and with it all associated resources. A kind of “web flat share” so to speak.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting : You get your own space on a server. That would be like the condominium.

VPS hosting has a number of advantages, including the speed of your website. If you're targeting a large website that's going to generate a lot of traffic, it's worth thinking about VPS straight away. However, for a small blog or a simple business website, shared hosting is usually perfectly adequate. Here you can book a package including domain(s), web space, database, and email. Recommendable is eg all inclusive   (opens in new tab). The value for money and the user interface are very good here and there is no minimum contract period!

A small note on storage space

many hosting providers advertise in their packages with a lot of storage space from 50 GB upwards. That sounds all well and good but remember: it's like too many free text messages on cell phone plans. In most cases, you don't need that much headroom, and a smaller package of 50GB of storage space or less will do just fine. You can always upgrade!

Step 3: Create a database for WordPress installation

If you do not already have one, create a  MySQL database in the customer menu (“Database” menu item) of your hosting provider.

Make a note of the access data: database name, username, and password. You will need this in a few minutes for the WordPress installation.

Step 4: Create FTP access

You also need a  File Transfer Protocol  (FTP) program to transfer files from your PC (like WordPress) to the host server.

Get FTP access to your web space from the hoster's customer menu (menu item "FTP access") and create a user name and password for it. Open the FTP program and set it up using your access data. You can find out exactly how this works here. (opens in new tab)

Step 5: Download WordPress

If you haven't already,  download WordPress from https://en.WordPress.org/(opens in new tab)down . The software is absolutely free. You will receive zip files that you have to unpack on the PC.

A little info on the side: WordPress.org is not to be confused with WordPress.com.  The former is the free software of the CMS, which you can then use for a self-hosted website. At WordPress.com you can create a free blog directly and after registration you will receive a subdomain (examplesite.WordPress.com) and a small web space. However, this variant is really only suitable for hobby purposes. The sites are not very flexible, they always have the word "WordPress" attached to their domain and there are no plugins (extensions). If you want to raise a professional site, this is not for you.

Step 6: Prepare WordPress file

Before you can start the installation, you need to make a few small changes in the WordPress file:

Copy the file "wp-config-sample.php" and name it "wp-config.php"

Open this file with a text editor and enter the previously noted access data for your database in the appropriate places:

Your database name instead of "database_name_here"

Your username instead of "username_here"

Your password instead of "password_here"

and the database server address instead of "localhost" (sometimes "localhost" is enough here. With some providers, however, a different URL must be entered, e.g. with Strato. You can then find this with the respective provider.)

Now you need a security key. You can either think up a combination of numbers yourself or you can use the link https://api.WordPress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ to generate a key. Copy this and place it in the corresponding placeholder in the wp-config.php file.

Save the modified file

Step 7: Upload WordPress to your web space via FTP

Now open the FTP program and log in with the FTP access data. 

Once the connection is established, the FTP program displays two windows: the "Server window" and a "PC window". Upload the contents of the unpacked WordPress folder to your web space via FTP. This works by right-clicking on the downloaded WordPress folder in the "PC window" and selecting "Upload".

Step 8: Install WordPress

The actual installation of WordPress runs automatically :

just go to your domain (www.beispielseite.de) or if that doesn't work "www.beispielseite.de/wp-admin/install.php" and follow the instructions that appear in the window. Here you also set your username and password for your WordPress site. And that's pretty much it. You can now access the backend via www.beispielseite.de/wp-admin/.

Step 9: Select the theme and upload

Now feel a little proud of yourself that you managed to install WordPress manually on your own! 

You can then start designing the website as you wish.

First of all, you need the right theme – that’s what the design templates in WordPress are called. You can definitely plan a few hours here, because the selection of themes is huge! It even took me days, but I also have a chronic inability to make decisions...

Basically, there are free and paid themes. Some of the free ones can be selected directly in the WordPress backend. They are sometimes very pretty, but often not flexible enough to customize them. If you are planning a professional website, you should rather browse the paid premium themes directly, for example at Themeforest (opens in new tab).

Step 10: Design the page and add content 

Now it's time to get down to business: You  design your page  and fill it with  unique content . In addition, you will certainly install one or the other plugin.

By the way, you will never get out of this step again.  Because as long as you have your website, there will always be something to improve and add. I can assure you: you never get done. But that would be boring, wouldn't it? Have fun designing your first WordPress site!