Set up a WordPress Website!
Setting up a WordPress website does not have to be a complicated endeavor. If you are a new business owner who has limited funds and needs a virtual spot for clients to go, this tutorial will help in those areas. For years, I designed websites. I did not study programming or computer science in college. I taught myself how to program by using SharePoint and a LOT of research before YouTube was filled with tutorial and how-tos. When WordPress came along, I resisted using it until I realized it is the perfect content management system (CMS) for the website owners. To this day, I use a self-hosted WordPress website on all my business and client sites.
Did I lose you when I said self-hosted?
Self-hosting means you pay a company for the space to hold your website. If you are just starting out, set up a site where you control everything! It can be easy and it is the least expensive route. Hosting a website should cost no more than $40 a year! I use my favorite hosting site iPage. They offer
Domain name selection.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of setting it up, you need your domain name the mycompanyname.com where people will know how to find you online (also called the
Some suggestions: follow the K.I.S.S. formula (Keep It Simple Silly 🙂 ). Choose a name that reflects your business and is spelled in the easiest format.
For example: Let’s say I’m an organizing company and I want to call myself Neat Nic. I can search for NeatNic.com on GoDaddy*. I discover that the domain name is already taken. Bummer.
*I get my domain name from GoDaddy , because they are the least expensive domain name company.
I decide that I really like Neat Nic so I’m going to figure out a creative spin so I can get a .com
“Will my customers remember this spelling when they try to find me?”
They may, but if they don’t you risk having them Google Neat Nic and discovering a whole bunch of businesses that are offering what you offer. What ends up happening is they find someone else because that is what shows up in Google.
Come up with a memorable, short, easy to spell domain name.
My recommendations
The two companies I have worked with extensively with both domains and hosting are iPage and GoDaddy.
They are inexpensive and the customer service is awesome! iPage offers free mailboxes whereas in GoDaddy you have to pay for them.
Another popular hosting site is BlueHost. I have never used them so I do not know how they rank with customer service or what extras they offer.
Update on Bluehost: I have set up and created a new website called Create Your WP Site using Bluehost as the hosting/domain company. It was very easy and would work well for a beginner.
If you are
Let’s get set up!
I’ve created two videos that show you the next steps in setting up your website.
If you purchased your domain name from GoDaddy (or any other site that is different from where you will be hosting your website) you need to set up the nameservers FIRST to point to iPage (or wherever you host your site). If you are using the same company for both the domain and hosting, skip this first video.
Twitter: slickplan
on February 2, 2016 at 10:10 am
Hi Anna,
Thanks for posting the video on how to change nameservers on Godaddy. That’s such a confusing step and isn’t all that intuitive when using Godaddy. And thanks, also, for the video and recommendation for iPage. I’m always looking for good hosting companies, and it’s almost impossible to know what you’re going to get, without a recommendation from someone you can trust. Ipage looks pretty user-friendly and inexpensive. That’s a good find!
Twitter: mydebtfreeroad
on February 2, 2016 at 2:24 pm
You’re welcome! Thanks for the feedback!
Anna Herring recently posted..WordPress Website for Business Beginners
Twitter: ProfitBloggerG
on March 13, 2016 at 10:42 am
Hi Anna
Thanks for this great walkthrough. WordPress helps thousands of businesses set up websites and blogs, and saves these business a lot of money when it comes to design fees and web development costs.
Gerhard Homveld recently posted..How To Get Free Website Traffic With These 3 Proven Strategies
Anna, this is a wonderful small handy guide. Lot of newbies will be happy about this one. I would suggest you to add some more details though. 🙂
Jack Stephan recently posted..Easy Peasy Homeschool 5th Grade- Review and Guide
Twitter: roy_c4l
on July 3, 2016 at 2:38 pm
Hi Anna,
Good tips! The videos are very helpful as well, especially for newbies.
Shared on Twitter. Keep up the good work!
Thanks!
Arpit Roy recently posted..Display Last Updated Date for Posts in WordPress
Hey Anna,
I just went through your story of your debt free road and I was amazing. Then I went through this article and came to know, yes blogging can really make money.
This was a simple and informative post on how to start a blog.
Thanks a lot for sharing! 🙂
Nikhil Ganotra recently posted..This Optimizepress Alternative Will Skyrocket Your Sales And Revenue
WordPress is be all the time best CMS tool as ever. Almost all business website is use WordPress and Goddady, BlueHost and iPage are top industry that offers reliable and high optimized wordpress business hosting solution.Thanks for video to explain valuable information. I am using iPage webhosting service from last 2 years and recommendation is bluehost and ipage.
Thanks for valuable information.
Hey Anna,
I came across the problem of setting nameservers on my Godaddy hosting account. I transferred it recently to Godaddy and I had no idea about what to do about it. I know how frustrating it is when you don’t know anything about such simple thing. You provided very precise information in video, it will be helpful for any newbie.
Nikhil recently posted..6 Online Activities You Must Stop to Increase Productivity
I love them! Easy to work with and great customer service, too.
Anna recently posted..Walmart Grocery Pickup Service
Twitter: EagleMediaSEO
on February 20, 2017 at 11:17 am
Great tips Anna! When choosing a domain name, I look at either the brand name or the main keyword. I don’t worry too much about the keyword in the main domain because as you build out your blog posts, you can put your keywords in blog page title and it will still work really well.
Twitter: TouchcoreLTD
on March 10, 2017 at 5:13 am
great article, i particularly like iPage because it is very affordable plus the discounts they offer.
For my wordpress, it is very easy to understand even as a beginner. Can you suggest any social plugin that can be used to automatically share blog posts? i have tried jetpack, i am not very impressed.
thanks