Think with WP
This guide is for beginners only, it’s suitable for those people who has no code knowledge and want to make a personal or business website.
Teach you how to make a website – Free guide to create a website for beginners
You may be wondering how to make a website without any code knowledge. I don’t even know how to design and optimize a website, want to create a website in one hour? Are you serious?
If you read my tutorial carefully, you will understand it’s so easy to quickly make a website. I have a friend who was learning literature in college which has nothing to do with computer and programming, but he owns a website and shares his writing with many friends, I asked him how could he build a website, he told me he was using WordPress, and until today he still knows nothing about the coding. Do you feel it funny? But it indeed explains that you don’t have to learn about programming and web design, all you need to do is follow me step by step.
Step 1: To quickly make a website, you need a right CMS
To quickly make a website, choosing a right CMS (short for Content Management System) is very important. Like WordPress, it allows you to create a website which is mobile friendly and multipurpose.
The most popular CMS in the world including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Wix, Weebly, Magento and so on.
What is a CMS
In short, the content management system is used to make a website and manage your own online content, if you compare all web pages to a group of sheep, then CMS is like a shepherd dog, helping you manage your sheep flock.
Why Choose WordPress To Create a Website
As shown in the figure above, WordPress occupies nearly 60% of the market, far higher than other types of CMS, below are the reasons why WordPress is the best choice to make a website.
- WordPress is completely free.
- Very simple and easy to use, best for beginners.
- The user is huge and has formed a complete ecosystem, you can always find a way to solve the problem.
- Innumerable themes and plugins are available for you to choose from.
Step2: Select a Top Level Domain
Just like we people, everyone has his/her identity card, a website is the same, it should have a unique domain name (also called website address), like “google.com”, “youtube.com”.
Getting a good domain name is very important for making a successful website, and it should follow below principles:
Never Use a Free Sub-domain
Most website builder like wordpress.com and wix.com, allows you to make a free website but must use their sub-domain, that means you must get a domain like “YourWebName.wordpress.com”, “YourWebName.wix.com”, it’s not formal and is bad for your branding. So you should choose your own top level domain.
In order to choose a cheap and good top level domain, I recommend Namesilo , their domains are almost the cheapest among all domain name registrars.
If you don’t have any domains and want to get a free To-Level domain, you can go to Step 3, some hosting providers give you a free domain when you choose their hosting.
How To Choose A Good Domain Name
A good domain should be easy to remember and contain your brand name, keywords or product name, for example:
- YourBrand.com
- Keywords.com
- YourBrand+Keywords.com
Step 3, Choose a Powerful Web Hosting
A Powerful Web Hosting is also very important for making a website.
What is a web hosting?
If we compare a domain to our home address, then the web hosting is our home or house, we can put many contents like text, image, videos into it.
Below are the best web hosting for creating WordPress website:
- Bluehost – Top seller web hosting, including a free domain for one year.
I have been using A2 WordPress Hosting for 3 years, it’s really awesome and fast, so I recommend it to you, below are reasons:
- Free SSL & Complete SSD
- 6X Faster
- Build Unlimited Websites
- Unlimited Databases
- Unlimited Storage
- Unlimited Transfer
- cPanel Control Panel
- One Click WordPress Installer and 24/7 support.
- Anytime Money Back Guarantee
Ok, let’s go get it!
- Open A2 Hosting Website and click “SHARED HOSTING”
- Choose “Linux Plans” and “SWIFT”
DO NOT choose Windows Plans unless you are skilled in it, because WordPress using PHP script, and PHP is based on Linux system. In daily work and study, we often use window system, but for web applications, Linux is widely used. Besides, the price of Windows plan is higher than Linux’s.
- Enter your existing domain, you can also select “Register a new domain”, but it’s a little bit expensive, you can get the cheapest domain at Namesilo
;
- Configure the order.
- Review and check out.
- Fill out detailed information.
- Order complete and continue to the client area.
- Click and login to Cpanel.
- Click “Server Information” to find your server IP address.
Step 4, Point your existing domain to your hosting.
Note: It may cost 10 minutes to take effect.
- Login to Namesilo
, click “Manage My Domains” and “Manage DNS for this domain”.
- Delete all default A records and add 2 new records, “www” and “none www” HOSTNAME, input your server IP to IPV4 ADDRESS.
Install WordPress
- Find app installer and select WordPress A2 Optimized.
- Select custom install, fill out your website information and click Install button, if you see errors, please check the box and retry.
- WordPress installation complete! You can open your website now, it’s the default theme and looks like below:
- Click the link and login to WordPress, or you can log in manually by entering login URL like www.yourwebsite.com/lemmein.php
And this is the view of WordPress dashboard.
- If your website is for testing purpose, you’d better discourage search engines. And don’t forget to change back when your website finishes the test! Otherwise, search engines will not index your website.
Step 6, Choose a powerful WordPress theme.
Free WordPress Theme
WordPress contains 3 free themes, you can find them in the dashboard sidebar menu: Appearance -> Themes.
If you don’t want to use any of them, you can also find more free themes: Click on “Add New” button, you will find thousands of beautiful free themes.
Professional WordPress Theme
Free themes are ok, but they have limited functions, some are not mobile friendly, and you can’t remove their brand in the footer.
To make a professional website, you can also choose paid themes, benefits are professional support, fully responsive, SEO and mobile friendly, removing brands, more customizations…
Where to get a premium theme?
You can get premium themes from Themeforest , thousands of powerful WordPress themes to choose from, there is always one for you.
If you don’t know to choose a better theme, you can try to use the filter, like Best Sellers. Click that shopping cart icon to buy, and once you purchased, download it.
Install and Active Your Theme
Go to WordPress dashboard -> left sidebar -> Appearance -> Themes -> Add New -> Upload Theme -> Active and follow the guide.
If you don’t know how to use the theme, you can try to import the demo, this is the best way to learn how the theme works.
Edit Your Website
How to Create a New Page and a Blog Post
Add a page: WordPress dashboard -> left sidebar -> Pages -> Add New -> Enter title and contents -> Click Publish on right sidebar.
Add a blog post: WordPress dashboard -> left sidebar -> Posts -> Add New -> Enter title and contents -> Click “Publish” on right sidebar.
How To Set Up A Home Page
WordPress dashboard -> left sidebar -> Settings -> Reading ->
How to create a menu
Go to WordPress dashboard -> left sidebar -> Appearance -> Menus
If you don’t have a menu, create one, then select pages you want and add to menu, then select display location, and save menu.
Manage Sidebar Widgets
Go to WordPress dashboard -> left sidebar -> Appearance -> Widgets
There are many widgets and you can drag and drop to sidebar or website bottom.
How to Add a New Plugin
Left sidebar -> Plugins -> Add New
There are thousands of plugins but you only need necessary plugins, here is a list of recommended plugins.
Congratulations! You’re successful on making a professional website
Final Summarize
To make a website is not difficult at all, you don’t need to learn how to code, because WordPress is really simple and beginner friendly.
Please also share this guide with your friends who are likely interested in making a website, I would be very grateful.
If you have any questions, just chat with me or leave comments below, I’m always happy to help.
