Today I bring you a very special guide. It is a complete WordPress Tutorial that will allow you to create your own website even if you have never used WordPress before. And best of all, you don’t need any prior knowledge.
You will learn to install WordPress on your web hosting or hosting service, to upload and configure a template, to design the sections of your website, to create entries in your blog, to create your personalized menu and much more.
Shall we start creating your website? Let’s go!
What is and why use WordPress?
WordPress is a free tool that allows you to create all kinds of websites, from corporate websites for companies, online stores with payment gateways, thematic blogs, personal brand websites for entrepreneurs and freelancers, etc.
Today, it has become the most popular platform and today, approximately one third of the web pages in the world have been created with WordPress. But, do you know why it is the preferred option for many to create their blog or personal website?
- It is easy to use. Making a website with WordPress is very easy. Anyone can create their own website by following WordPress guides and tutorials like this one.
- It is flexible and allows you to create all kinds of websites.
- It is optimized for SEO. It will allow you to position your content, services and products in Google easily with the help of plugins such as Yeast SEO.
- There are thousands of templates that you can base your design on to speed up and ease your web design task.
- It is a fast tool. The web pages created with WordPress are fast, they do not take long to load and they obtain very good scores in the Google Page Speed test.
- Secure pages. If you choose a good hosting, your website will be out of the reach of hackers. In this WordPress tutorial I will show you which are the best hosting for your website to be secure.
- There is a lot of information on the internet. Because WordPress is the world’s most widely used website builder, there are plenty of step-by-step WordPress guides like this one to help you.
Now that you know the benefits of this platform, let’s get down to work and I’ll teach you how to handle this tool step by step.
I have divided this WordPress manual in Spanish into several sections and steps so that you can easily create your own website with me. Anyway, if you have doubts in any of the points, you can write me in the comments and I will be happy to help you.
Step 1: Choose a hosting and a domain
In order for you to create a website or blog, the first thing you need is a web hosting service, also called hosting. This is where you will host your web page so that it is visible around the world.
You have to keep in mind that hosting is the basis of your website, so if you choose wrong, this will cause you many headaches and the occasional displeasure.
Imagine that after several weeks of hard work creating your website, it suddenly stops working and you don’t know why. If you have a good hosting, in a jiffy you will have it solved. If your hosting does not have daily backups or fast customer service, you will be tied hand and foot.
Often times, cheap is expensive.
Therefore, to choose a good hosting, you not only have to look at the price. Hiring the most expensive hosting does not mean that we are going to have the best service, we may be wasting money. Nor does hiring the cheapest hosting mean that we are choosing the best option. Like almost everything in life, the middle ground is usually the best option.
Don’t gamble with hosting and always hire a quality one
On the other hand, in addition to the web hosting service, you will need a domain. The domain is the name that you are going to give to your website. Mine for example is javierbalcazar.com. The good thing is that if you hire the hosting, the domain is free and you save the $15 that it can cost.
Step 2: Install WordPress on your hosting
There are two ways to install WordPress on your hosting: manual and automatic. If you have chosen a good hosting, the installation process becomes very simple, since they offer you an automatic 1-click installation system. If not, you will have to do it in several steps.
In this WordPress tutorial we are going to see both methods.
Install WordPress automatically
Access your hosting and look for your Active Services. There select the name of the web hosting option that you have hired. Once inside, you have to click a blue button that says panel and then Create WordPress.
Now several installation packs will appear with the template already included many hosting offers you for free. If you are going to buy and install a premium template (recommended option that we will see later in this WordPress tutorial), choose the simple WordPress pack that is at the bottom.
Then, you just have to fill in the installation data as shown below and click on Install application:
You have to give your site a name (you can change this later), select the domain you chose when you hired the hosting, put your email and choose a username and password to enter your WordPress administration panel.
Install WordPress manually
If you don’t have good quality hosting, you will need to install WordPress manually. But don’t worry because in this WordPress tutorial I’m also going to teach you how to do it.
Download WordPress and upload it to your hosting
The first thing you have to do is download WordPress. To do this go to wordpress.org and download the zip with the latest version.
Then enter your hosting, go to panel and look for the file manager of your hosting. Once you have found it, upload the zip file you just downloaded to the root folder of the hosting, usually it is called public_html. When you’re done, unzip the zip and extract all the files.
Create a database
Now you have to go back to panel and look for the section where the databases are located. In hosting panel the path you have to follow is Database > MySQL databases. Here you will have to perform 3 steps:
- Give your database a name and create it.
- A little further down is the user creation area for the database. Create a user with your name.
- The next step is to bind that user you just created with the database. Go to the section Add users to the databaseand put the same username and link it to the database.
When you do this, the WordPress installation wizard will appear and all you have to do is fill in all the fields with what it asks for. When finished, it will ask you to enter the name or email that you have put, and the password you have chosen and you will be able to access your website.
Step 3: WordPress management and configuration
Now that you have your website up and running, the next step in this WordPress guide is to learn what menus and how WordPress works.
As you can see, when you enter your administration panel you will see a side menu on the left with many sections that we will see throughout this WordPress tutorial. When you hover the mouse over any of them, you will see how additional subsections are displayed. You just have to click on the one that interests you.
For example, if you want to create an article or post for the blog section, just go to Posts > Add New and a text editor will open. If what you want to create are pages or sections, you will have to go to Pages > Add new. However, I will explain all this a little below. Stay tuned.
First adjustments you should make in WordPress
Go to the Settings menu on the left sidebar. If you click or mouse over it, a submenu with more options appears. From there, you just have to click on the section you want. We are going to go step by step discovering the most important settings.
Settings> General
Here you can give your website a title and description, put the email address that you want to associate with your page, determine the time zone in which you are, etc. As for the title and description, include keywords for which you want to appear in Google. For example, if you are a lawyer and perform your duties in Madrid, try to make sure that the words lawyer and Madrid are in both fields.
Settings> Writing
From here you can adjust some parameters related to writing on your website, such as choosing to convert the typical ones with signs to image type emoticons, determine a default category for your posts, etc. It is not a very important section to stop at.
Settings> Reading
In this section you must select what you want your home page to be. If you have not yet created a home page, do not worry, since a little later I will teach you how to create pages and sections with Visual Composer. When you’re done, don’t forget to come back here and select it.
If instead of a static page you want only your blog articles to appear on your home page, select your latest posts.
Settings> Comment options
This section refers to the management of the comments you receive on your website. It is very important that you configure it to your liking if you are going to have a blog or news section.
When someone posts a comment on a blog post, you can decide to have it automatically approved or to manually review it before it goes live. I recommend this last option so that you can control what is being commented on your blog.
Settings> Permalinks
Here you have to decide how the URLs of the sections of your website will be built when they are created. To make them user-friendly and contain keywords, select Post Name. In this way every time you build a new section or entry, you can include keywords for which you want to be found in Google in the URLs and it will improve your SEO positioning.
Step 3: Download your Premium Template
Now we are going to go to the Appearance > Themes section. This is where you will choose which template you want to use to set up your website. But what is a template?
They are basically predefined designs that you can use to create your website. The quality WordPress templates come with several examples of complete ready-made websites that you can modify to your liking and that contain demo text and photos.
This will mean that even if you are a beginner in web design, you can set up your page in a simple way and achieve a result at the highest level.
However, using a template does not mean that the design of your website is the same as that of other users who have bought the same template as you. By using a template what you do is start from a good base and have many additional functionalities to modify the styles and appearance of your website.
Additionally, most premium quality templates include a visual layout maker like Visual Composer that will allow you to design your page by dragging and dropping elements. You choose the element you want (text blocks, images, buttons …) and drag and drop them where you want them to appear. That easy.
Best WordPress templates
As a Web Designer and Teacher of the WordPress Course at Alarm, I have tried many templates and I can distinguish which ones are the best. Choosing a template well is a key point when creating your website. Therefore, in this WordPress tutorial, I want to emphasize its importance and provide you with a series of tips and recommendations for you to choose wisely.
A template not only has to be beautiful and offer you multiple designs, but it must be fast, it must include a visual layout plugin so you can easily modify it, it has to be responsive to adapt to mobile devices and there must be a support team behind it. In case you ever have a problem.
One of the best templates today is Bridge, a very versatile theme, easy to use, fast, and ready to position well in Google and that offers you many customization options.
