How to Use WordPress: A Simple Guide to Starting Your Website

In the current digital era, having a website is essential, whether for an individual or a company. Whether you want to launch a blog, manage an online store, or build a personal portfolio, WordPress is one of the best and easiest platforms available. From WordPress setup to website creation, this article will guide you.

Why Choose WordPress? 

WordPress has become the most popular platform for building websites, and it’s not without reason. More than 40% of websites on the internet are built with WordPress, making it a highly trusted platform worldwide. Here are some of the main reasons why WordPress is so popular:

Easy to use

You don’t need any coding experience to create a professional website with WordPress.

Flexible

WordPress is good for many types of websites, whether you want to run a personal blog, an online shop, or even a big company site.

Many customization options 

With thousands of themes and plugins available, you can create the website you want that aligns with your vision and needs.

SEO-friendly 

WordPress is designed to facilitate SEO optimization, helping a website to be more easily found on search engines.

Interesting, isn’t it? Anyone can quickly create a website using WordPress without having to deal with complex technical issues. If you want to give it a try, follow these WordPress guidelines.

Choosing the Domain and Hosting

The first step in creating a WordPress website is to select a domain and hosting provider. A domain is the address of your website, such as www.mysite.com, whereas hosting stores all of the site’s contents.

Choosing the Right Domain.

Choosing a domain name is a vital step because it will serve as your online identity. Tips for Choosing a Good Domain:

• Short and easy to remember: Make sure the domain name is not too long and easy for visitors to remember.
• In line with branding: If you are creating a website for a business, make sure the domain name reflects the brand or product you are selling. For example, if you are in the furniture business, you could use a name like www.perfectroom.com and avoid using a domain name that has no correlation with the business.
• Use the appropriate extension: The .com extension is the most common, but you can also use .net, .org, or local extensions like .id if relevant.

Choosing the Web Hosting

All website files reside on a server known as web hosting. There are many web hosting providers that offer one-click installation of WordPress, such as Bluehost, Hostinger, or SiteGround. Before deciding, be sure that the web hosting you choose provides the following features:

• Good speed: Fast web hosting will enhance both user experience and SEO.
• Strong security: Hosting providers must offer protection against cyber attacks or hackers.
• Technical support: Make sure the hosting you choose provides 24-hour customer service support, as it is needed in case you encounter technical issues at any time.

WordPress Installation 

After acquiring a domain and hosting, the next step is to install WordPress. Most hosting providers offer a one-click installation for WordPress, which makes it very easy for users. Steps for installing WordPress:

1. Log in to the hosting account.
2. Look for the WordPress installation option, usually found in the hosting dashboard.
3. Follow the provided installation guide, and once completed, you will gain access to the WordPress dashboard. This dashboard is where we can manage all aspects of the site, from adding content to changing the design.

Easy, isn’t it? The installation and usage of WordPress are indeed very easy, which is why many website enthusiasts use WordPress.

Navigating WordPress Dashboard

Earlier, we briefly discussed what a dashboard is; the dashboard is the control center of a site that appears after the WordPress installation is complete. Here are some important menus in the WordPress dashboard:

• Posts: To create and manage blog posts.
• Pages: To create static pages like “About Us” or “Contact.”
• Appearance: Here we can set the theme and design of the site.
• Plugins: To add additional features to the site.
• Setting: Managing basic site settings, such as site name, time zone, and others.

If you are new to WordPress, take some time to explore every part of this dashboard to become more familiar with it. Besides, learning the dashboard is the quick key to knowing how to use WordPress.

Choosing and Customizing WordPress Theme

One of the best things about WordPress is its ability to change the appearance of a site with just a few clicks through the theme feature. A theme is a ready-to-use web design template.

How to choose a theme:

1. Open Appearance > Themes in the dashboard.
2. Click Add New to view the available collection of free themes.
3. Choose a theme that suits the style and needs of the site.
4. Click Install, then Activate to apply the theme to the site.

After the theme is activated, you can further customize it by going to Appearance > Customize. Here, you can change colors, fonts, header images, and many other elements according to your preferences.

Adding Contents to WordPress 

After having a WordPress site, the next step is to add content. A site without content is like a store without products; content is the soul of a website or site. There are two main types of content on WordPress, namely pages and posts.

Creating a website page

Pages are used for static content such as the homepage, “About Us” page, or “Contact Us” page. Steps to create a new page:

1. Open Pages > Add New
2. Write the title and content of the page.
3. Click Publish when the page is ready to be displayed.

Writing blog posts

If you plan to build a blog, you can add blog posts through Post > Add New. WordPress has an intuitive block editor, where you can add text, images, videos, and various other elements.

Organizing content with categories and tags

To make it easier for visitors to navigate and search for content, WordPress can categorize posts based on categories and tags. For example, if you have a food blog, you can create categories like “recipes,” “restaurant recommendations,” and so on.

Adding Features with Plugins

WordPress has thousands of plugins, which is one of its main advantages. Thus, you can choose them with ease to improve the functionality of your website. The following are some highly recommended WordPress plugins:

• Yoast SEO: It helps optimize search engine sites.
• WooCommerce: This plugin changes sites to online stores. 
• WPForms: It creates contact forms. 
• Wordfence: This plugin adds an extra security layer in protecting the sites from cyber attacks.

After that, we provide instructions on how to use plugins on WordPress. First, go to Plugins > Add New, then search for the needed plugin, click Install Now, and finally select Activate. Pretty easy, right?

Optimizing SEO on Websites

One of the keys to a good website is ensuring that users can quickly locate it using automatic search engines such as Google. To accomplish this, we must improve the WordPress site for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

This section also covers how to use WordPress; while it does not go over the technical parts, such as how to develop it, SEO is an important part of building a website.

The following are some fundamental steps to optimize SEO: 

• Use a descriptive title and an engaging meta description.
• Optimize images by providing relevant alt text.
• Create high-quality content that is original and beneficial for readers.
• Use plugins like Yoast SEO for more detailed SEO guidance.

Launching a Website

This is the time! After everything is ready—the content, the design—it’s time to launch the website. However, before that, the final step that must be taken is to ensure that all elements have been checked. What are they? Here are some points that you need to make:

• Check the responsive display: Make sure the site looks good on desktop, tablet, and mobile.
• Test links and navigation: Ensure all links are functioning properly.
• Check site speed: use tools like Google PageSpeed Insight to ensure a site is accessible, fast, and efficient.

After you are sure everything is ready, the site you created is ready to be shared with the world!

So, our discussion this time is complete, covering how to use WordPress, choose themes, use plugins, and optimize for SEO. However, launching a website is just the first step; you still need to ensure that a site remains optimal and secure.

Therefore, you still need to perform regular maintenance, such as ensuring WordPress, themes, and plugins are always updated to maintain security. Backup the site regularly; you can use specific plugins like UpdraftPlus. Finally, monitor the site’s performance and security using plugins or tools like Google Analytics and WordFence.

With WordPress, anyone can easily create a professional website. I hope this brief guide can help you get started on creating a website with WordPress. With a bit more creativity, you can develop the website you create according to your desired vision. 

So, keep working and creating!

Related Post