Where to start when building your WordPress website

Do you need a website but are unsure of where to start? Building a website can be a big and daunting task but it is not an impossible one. In this article, we’ll walk you through way to make it an easier and more enjoyable, so you can start working towards the website that you dream off.

Why choose WordPress?

There are many different ways to set up a website nowadays and many different companies that help you on your way. One of them is WordPress.

WordPress is more of a ‘do it yourself’ way of setting up your site. This will make a little bit more work from you, but will also give you a lot more freedom.

One of the good things about WordPress is that, since you do a lot of the work yourself, it is a very cheap alternative to a lot of the more hands on companies out there. The only permanent cost is the hosting and domain fee. This doesn’t mean that you can’t end up paying anything. There can be a lot of hidden costs as you start to add plugins and themes.

WordPress gives you a lot of freedom to do what you want. It is easy to customize and make your website look just how you want it to and make it fit your brand and aesthetic.

It is also a format that can easily grow with you as you grow your site or your business grows. It is also SEO friendly which will help facilitate the growth of your user base.  There are a lot of different SEO plugins that can help you improve your SEO ranking.

How to get started

One thing is deciding which company to use for your website but another is figuring out just how to build your actual site. It can be a difficult task to get started on and seem a bit of an overwhelming process to begin. But there are things you can to make that process a little more simple.

Start with a simple design

One of the things about your site that you probably picture the most is the design. Everyone wants their site to be beautiful with a detailed and complex design. You probably have some idea of what you want it to look like. It is important to here to actually figure out what you want but also what you can achieve.

A lot of big websites have these very complex and beautiful design but it isn’t always something that you can create in the beginning , especially if you don’t have a lot of experience. If you don’t want to risk getting in over your head before you can even fully realize your site then it might be a good idea to start with a more simple design that mainly focuses on functionality over extravagance.

Set your expectations after what your skills and capabilities are. Being realistic is a great way to get started. Then when you get started you might realize that you are capable of more or find a great solution that you can add immediately or later on as you update your site.

WordPress has a lot of different themes that can be a great way to take a lot of the burden of the design process away from you.

You can always redesign your site later on. No design has to be permanent.

Find solutions to the things you don’t know

WordPress leaves a lot of the setup up to you. This means, depending on your skill level, there can be a limit to what you can do yourself.

If you don’t have a lot of coding experience – or you do, but still want to take an easier route – then there are a lot of plugins out there that can help you set up a functioning site with a lot of features. Some of them might come at a monthly fee, so it is a good idea to do your research about the plugins you use.

There are many people who use WordPress and has been for a long time, so you will most likely not be the first person to have a problem. This means that there are probably a lot of help to find if you do end up needing it, either from a plugin or a guide.

If you end up with a problem always look it up! There is no need to lose hope if someone has already written the solution for you.

Small parts make a whole

The process of creating a website from scratch can be very daunting. Sometimes it can seems too big for you find out where to even start. A way to make it less overwhelming is to split it into smaller parts.

There are many ways to split up the process of building your website.

• Setup: It is important to start by setting up your WordPress and get familiar with how it works. Once that is done then you can move forward with the actual site.
• Website type: Figuring out what type of website you need to make is a great way to determine what other steps are important. Is it a eCommerce website? Is it mostly for information? Do you have products you need to display? Or do you need a blog format? All of these are important to figure out as there are a lot of different elements between setting up a store or a site with information about your business.
• Design elements: Then it is important to decide on a few overall design elements for your site. This is things like colors, fonts, if you want images etc. This can make it easier to design the individual pages on your site and create a cohesive feeling throughout the site.
• Pages: Figure out what kinds of pages you want on your site is a great way to figure out how much you need to do. Do you need a front page, a blog, product pages, a checkout or a support page? This is a great way to actually line up your website.
• Header and footer: the header and footer are important parts of your site as they exists across the different pages. They help your users navigate between the different parts of your site.

These are just some of the possible task you can look at. Be aware that others might come up as you start the process of building your site.

Realistic expectations

Another important part of setting up your site is yourself and your expectations. Managing these can be difficult but it is important so you don’t end up discouraging yourself throughout the process.

The first version of your site might not be as detailed or extravagant as your perfect vision or as other sites’. But a first version can never be as good as a site who has had multiple versions, many developers and a lot of money thrown into it – and that is okay!

Creating a site is a process that will continue as you keep having your site and as you grow so will your site.

Starting off with realistic expectations and keeping to them is an important part of the process and might end being positively surprised instead of the opposite.

Look for help

Don’t be afraid to ask for help or guidance. You can’t possibly know everything and looking for help when your stuck is an incredible skill to have.

This  doesn’t mean that every time you encounter a problem that you should immediately give up on trying to fix it and go look it up, but it can be a good idea to do before you start to give up on the whole thing.

There are many different places to look for help.

• Network: Maybe you know someone around you that might have some knowledge about the thing you are working on. This might be a good way to get help if it is a specific problem you are looking at or if you need someone to show you how to do something.
• Forums: There are a lot of coding or website forums out there that are created to help others fix problems they run into. Maybe someone else has already had the same problem as you or you can ask there and someone will most likely try to help you.
• Support: WordPress and most plugin creators have support workers that are able to help you if you run into a problem with one of their products. This can take a little while, so it might be a good idea to look into the other ways first.

Don’t sit in despair – look it up!

Conclusion

When building a website, it is important to be mindful of the process and where you currently are in it. Expecting too much of yourself on your first try can make the project harder and less likely to succeed.

So, take it in small bites and accept that it is a journey and that you will learn a lot on the way. It doesn’t need to be perfect in the first try – you can change it along the way.