Introduction
In this modern world, a website is very important for business. It is a way to reach out to more potential customers and to promote and sell your products or services. A website is a very powerful marketing tool. And WordPress is a very popular website platform.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open source Content Management System (CMS), which allows the users to build dynamic websites and blog. It was released on May 27, 2003, by its founders, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little as a successor to b2/cafelog. The latest version 3.9 “Smith” was released on April 16, 2014. WordPress is written in PHP and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database. Features include a plugin architecture and a template system, referred to within WordPress as Themes. WordPress is used by more than 18.9% of the top 10 million websites as of February 2015
Why you should use WordPress
WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that enables you to create a website or blog from scratch, or improve an existing website. WordPress is used by millions of people around the world, including many large organizations, such as The Guardian, Forbes, and TIME Magazine.
There are many reasons why you should use WordPress. Here are just a few:
1. WordPress is free and open source software released under the GPL.
2. WordPress is used by millions of people around the world, including many large organizations, such as The Guardian, Forbes, and TIME Magazine.
3. WordPress is very easy to use, even for beginners. You can create a website or blog in minutes without any prior experience or technical knowledge.
4. WordPress is highly customizable. There are thousands of themes and plugins available that allow you to change the look and functionality of your site.
5. WordPress is search engine friendly and helps you get better rankings in Google and other search engines.
6. WordPress is mobile friendly and looks great on all devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones).
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The benefits of using WordPress
WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that enables you to create a website or blog from scratch, without having to learn coding. It’s free and open source software released under the GPL license. WordPress powers 35% of the internet and is used by small businesses, major corporations, and everything in between.
Some of the benefits of using WordPress include:
-It’s free and open source: You can download, install, use, and modify WordPress for your site without paying a dime.
-It’s easy to use: Even if you don’t know anything about code, you can still create a beautiful website with WordPress. All you need is some time and patience (or you can hire someone to do it for you).
-It’s flexible: You can use WordPress for almost anything. Whether you want to create a simple blog or a complex eCommerce site, there’s a plugin or theme for that.
-It’s extendable: If you want to add more features to your website, there are thousands of plugins available. And if there’s something you want to do that isn’t possible with a plugin, you can always hire a developer to create one for you.
-It has great support: If you run into any problems, there is an active community of millions of users and developers who can help you out.
How to create a WordPress website
WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that enables you to create a website or blog from scratch, or to improve an existing website. It’s a free and open-source platform that is used by millions of people around the world, including many large organizations, such as The Guardian, Forbes, and The New York Times. In this article, we will show you how to create a WordPress website.
Step 1: Choose your hosting
Hosting is a server that allows you to store your website data and files. Once you have purchased hosting, you will need to set up your domain name (this is your unique website address, e.g. www.example.com).
There are many different hosting providers, but we recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an official WordPress hosting partner. Plus, their plans start at just $2.95/month – which makes them an affordable option for most people.
Step 2: Pick a domain name
Choosing a domain name is an important step in creating your WordPress website. A domain name is the address people will use to find your site (ex: www.example.com).
Your domain name should be:
-Easy to remember
-Short and simple
-Related to your business or website topic
There are many domain name providers you can use to purchase a domain name for your WordPress website. Once you have found a domain name you like, you will need to purchase it and set it up with your web hosting account.
Step 3: Get WordPress hosting
WordPress.com is a type of “managed” WordPress hosting, which means that they take care of all the technical bits for you (don’t worry, I’ll explain what that means in a minute).
It’s the most popular (and easiest) way to create a WordPress website. You can create a free website on WordPress.com, but you’ll be limited in terms of design and functionality.
If you want to create a professional-looking website with all the bells and whistles, you’ll need to sign up for WordPress.com’s paid plans starting at $4 per month.
For the purposes of this tutorial, I’m going to assume that you want to create a self-hosted WordPress website (i.e. not on WordPress.com). That way, you’ll have full control over your website and can do whatever you want with it.
Self-hosted WordPress websites are typically more expensive than those on WordPress.com because you have to pay for hosting (whereas with WordPress.com, they take care of that for you). Hosting providers charge anywhere from $2-$5 per month, depending on the quality and features of the host (more on that later).
Step 4: Install WordPress
Now that you have a domain name and web hosting, it’s time to install WordPress, which is the software that will actually power your website.
To do this, you’ll need to connect to your web hosting account using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is a way to move files from your computer to your web host’s server. To do this, you’ll need an FTP client.
There are many FTP clients out there, but we recommend using FileZilla because it’s free and easy to use. Once you download and install FileZilla, open it up and fill in your connection details:
-Host: This will be your domain name with “ftp” in front of it (example: ftp.example.com)
-Username: This is your web hosting username
-Password: This is your web hosting password
-Port: Leave this blank
Now click “Quickconnect” and you should be connected to your web host.
Step 5: Pick a WordPress theme
Now that you have WordPress installed, it’s time to choose a WordPress theme. A WordPress theme is basically the look and layout of your website. There are two types of WordPress themes: free and premium.
There are many websites that offer free WordPress themes, but these themes usually come with limited features and flexible customization options. On the other hand, premium WordPress themes offer more features and elegant designs. They are also very easy to use and can be customized to match your specific needs.
When choosing a WordPress theme, make sure you pick one that is:
-Responsive (will work on all devices)
-easy to use
-SEO friendly (will help your website rank higher in search engines)
Step 6: Customize your WordPress site
You can make changes to the appearance of your WordPress site by going to the Appearance section in the left-hand menu. Here, you can customize things like your site’s colors, font, and header image. You can also add custom menus and widgets to your sidebars.
To change your theme, hover over the current theme and click on the “Activate” button. If you want to try out a new theme before making it live on your site, you can click on the “Add New” button. This will take you to the WordPress themes directory where you can browse through thousands of free and premium themes.
When you find a theme that you like, hover over it and click on the “Install” button. Once it’s installed, you can activate it or keep browsing for another one.
If you want to upload a premium WordPress theme that you have purchased elsewhere, click on the “Upload Theme” button at the top of the page. You will need to have a .zip file of your theme ready to go before starting this process
Step 7: Install essential WordPress plugins
Now that you have WordPress installed, it’s time to install some plugins. Plugins are like apps for your website. They add new features and functionality.
There are thousands of free and paid plugins available for WordPress. For this tutorial, we will install the following essential WordPress plugins:
Akismet Anti-Spam: Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.
Breadcrumb NavXT: Breadcrumb NavXT adds Breadcrumbs navigation to your site. This is helpful for SEO and makes it easier for visitors to navigate your site.
Gravity Forms: Gravity Forms is a powerful plugin that lets you create, manage, and publish forms.
Jetpack by WordPress.com: Jetpack is a plugin that gives you tons of features for WordPress including security, performance enhancements, social media integration, and more. WPForms Lite: WPForms allows you to create custom forms and surveys for your WordPress site.
Step 8: Create pages and posts
Now that you have a feel for the WordPress interface, it’s time to start creating some content. In WordPress, all your website’s content is organized into two types: pages and posts.
Pages are meant for static, timeless content like your contact information or your biography. You can think of them like the pages in a physical book. Posts are like articles in a magazine: they’re timely, often shorter, and they appear in reverse chronological order on your homepage (the most recent post is at the top).
To create either type of content, click on the “Add New” link under the “Pages” or “Posts” section in your dashboard’s sidebar.
Adding pages and posts is similar: you’ll start by entering a title, and then you can begin writing in the main editor area.
For posts, you can also add tags and categories to help organize your content, and you can set a featured image to display at the top of each post.
If you want more control over how your page or post looks, you can click on the “Screen Options” tab at the top of the page to choose which editor modules to display. For example, if you never use tags or categories, you can hide those modules so they don’t take up valuable screen real estate.
Step 9: Add multimedia to your website
You can add multimedia such as images, videos, and songs by clicking on the “Add Media” button. You can either upload files from your computer or select from the existing media library. Once you have selected the files you want to add, you can edit them further by cropping, adding captions or descriptions.
Step 10: Manage WordPress settings
In your WordPress dashboard, you can access your site’s settings via the Settings link in the left-hand sidebar. This area lets you change how your site works and looks. To begin, select General from the Settings menu.
Here you can control the most basic information about your WordPress website including:
-The name of your website
-The tagline or slogan
-Your timezone and date format
-The language used on your website
-Whether search engines should index your site or not
For most sites, the default settings will suffice. If you want to change any of them, simply modify the relevant setting and then click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.
Conclusion
Now that you know the different types of coffee roasts, it’s time to figure out what kind of coffee you like. If you’re not sure, start with a light roast and work your way up to a darker roast. Or, try a variety pack so you can sample different roasts and find your favorite. No matter what kind of coffee you prefer, there’s a perfect roast out there for you.
