Building your own business website or blog can seem daunting. But believe me it’s a lot easier today than it was a few years ago thanks to website builders like WordPress . In this guide we’ll help you get to grips with WordPress.
What Is WordPress?
WordPress is website building software that is used to create websites. It allows people with no previous web design experience or coding knowledge to be able to build their own website. Once setup you can add your own content using a HTML editor, It’s like using Microsoft office. WordPress has thousands of free and payed themes to choose from. And lots of extra features can be added to your site using plugins.
WordPress is probably the most used site builder on the web. It’s also free to use, but you will need to purchase hosting. Once you purchase hosting you will need to download and install WordPress onto your hosting account. Once done you can start changing the look and adding your content.
If you are unsure where to get hosting and how to download WordPress you should visit 2createawebsites.com they will even install WordPress onto your hosting account for free when you use the hosting they recommend. There are also lots of articles on how to create a website using WordPress for you to read.
Getting Started
It might seem a bit intimidating at first – but really there’s not that much to worry about. It’s likely that the two areas where you’ll spend most of you time are the “Pages” and “Posts” sections. Why? Because these are the two main areas for adding content to a WordPress site.
A post on WordPress is just an article or content that you add to an existing page. If you’re using WordPress as a blog, a post – once published – will usually be the latest article at the top of that blog.
This is where all of your posts will be listed, as you update your site. The latest post is displayed first, this means that when visitors visit your blog they see the freshest content first.
Creating a page on WordPress is just as easy. Pages are used to build your website.
Planning Your Site
In some ways your homepage is one of the most important pages on your website – it acts as a hub from which visitors can access different points of your website depending on their particular needs.
Here are some things you’d expect to see on a good homepage:
• Product information
• Information on what the company does
• A lead generation form (or a link to one)
• A link to an about us page
• A link (or links) to product pages
• A link to the site’s blog
• Testimonials
• A search box
Be careful of how many images you place on your home page. Images will make the page heavy and slow to load. Lightweight pages rank better on those search results.
Adding Content
We’ve already looked at how to create pages and posts. You may also find that the theme you have chosen has other ways of adding content to your site, or how that content is displayed. In terms of actually writing content, well, that would fill a book on its own.
Here are some brief points to consider.
All content on a webpage, whether it’s words or pictures, should focus on getting visitors to complete the overall aim of the webpage.
Less is often more. Don’t crowd a page with text or images. Only give people the information they need to make a decision.
Have someone else look over everything on your site. You’re bound to make mistakes and no matter how often you proofread your content, you’re bound to miss something. A second or even third pair of eyes will spot things you’ve missed. They may also provide useful feedback on your site.
Test everything. Make sure that your links work, your contact forms work and your ordering process works. And enjoy building your new website using WordPress