How to create a website in 10 minutes using WordPress

Creating a website is probably one of the things that put off newbies in internet marketing. Since I will be building an authority website for my internet marketing journey, I will share how to build a website in under 10 minutes using WordPress. If you don’t understand anything or have questions, feel free to ask in comments or ping me on Facebook.

Here are simple 6 steps to follow to get your first WordPress site up and running.

Step 1: Get a domain name and hosting

The first step to start building your website is to get a domain and a hosting account. I will write a detailed tutorial on how to get cheap hosting and domains but for now, here are some quick tips.

• Search for ‘domain discount coupon’ to find discounts available on various websites and blogs. These coupons will usually let you save up to 20% on various domain registrars.
• Try to get your domain and hosting from the same provider as many offer free domain if you purchase hosting. That way you just pay for hosting.
• Pick a web hosting provider with excellent customer support. This is going to be critical in the long-run. You don’t want to be caught up with unresponsive support when your site needs some technical help.
• Go for Cpanel powered hosting since you can easily install WordPress using Cpanel as compared to other hosting software.
• Buy a .com domain if you can.
• Don’t buy exact-match domains (EMD) since Google isn’t loving these anymore.

So if you are going to build a website about ‘compound miter saw reviews’, don’t buy compoundmitersawreviews(dot)com. Instead opt for something more wider in scope such as woodworkingtools(dot)com or probably toolshop.com.

Step 2: Install WordPress

The next step is to install WordPress. This should be easy with Cpanel powered hosting. If your hosting isn’t powered by Cpanel, you can simply contact your host and ask for WordPress installation. Majority of hosting providers actually let you choose whether to install WordPress or not at the time of purchasing your domain and hosting account.

To install WordPress from Cpanel, look for Scrip Installer or Softaculous. Both will let you install WordPress with just a click.

It is important that you don’t select any directory when installing WordPress. By default, Softaculous installs WordPress in ‘WP’ directory on your site. This means that your WordPress homepage would be ‘http://ift.tt/1ECo556; which isn’t what you want. To install WordPress in your root folder, just leave the directory empty.

Step 3: Choose a theme

Once WordPress is installed, you should receive details of the installation in your email. Simply use these details to sign in to your new WordPress website. Your admin URL will be http://ift.tt/1PWNIRX

Follow these steps once you have signed in to install a theme for your website.

• Once on the admin backend, go to Appearance>Themes
• Choose a free theme that you like and click Preview. Make sure you like the theme before installing it. We don’t want to waste time installing and then uninstalling themes just because we didn’t like one.
• Once you like a theme, click Install and wait for a minute. It will usually take less than a minute.
• After installing a theme of your choice, simply go to Appearance>Theme Settings to change settings of your website. Since last WordPress upgrade, majority of themes are using WordPress’ native customizer for providing customization options. You can access customizer by going to Appearance>Customize
• You can also buy premium themes if you want some premium features for your website. There are tons of premium themes available for WordPress. I will do a detailed article later about some of the best paid and free WordPress themes.

Step 4: Install essential plugins

WordPress offers a lot of functionality out of box but still you can add plugins and make your website even more functional. For example, if you want to add Google Maps functionality in your newly build website, you don’t have to code anything. All you need to do is add a WordPress plugin for Google Maps. Similarly, if your theme doesn’t support Google Fonts but you want to change default fonts, look for a Google Fonts plugin that will let your change fonts in the customizer. Here is a quick list of some essential WordPress plugins that I recommend installing on every fresh WordPress website.

• WordPress SEO by Yoast: This plugin lets you modify keywords, titles, descriptions and few other details for individual posts as well for website-wide meta data.
• W3 Total Cache: This plugin improves speed of your website by offering caching services.
• JetPack by WordPress: Jetpack is probably one of the best plugins out there. This plugin offers various added features for your website such as ability to add a gallery, view website stats, enahnce security and so on.
• Vault Press: This plugin adds necessary security features to your website in order to protect it from malware and hackers.
• AntiSpam Bee: This plugin will help you keep the spam away from your website.
• Disqus: This plugins adds Disqus commenting system to your WordPress website.
• Contact Form 7: this plugin lets your add contact forms to your website.
• Pop Up Pro: Pop Up Pro lets you create engaging pop ups for your website for enhanced user engagement and email list building.

Step 5: Change header and logo

Once you have added essential plugins and have setup a theme of your choice, you will need to change logo and header for your website. Majority of themes will let you change logo in Appearance>Header but if you don’t find an option to upload your logo there, look in Appearance>Customize.

Step 6: Add posts and pages and setup navigation

You can start adding posts and pages in your WordPress website to start filling it up. You can setup different categories for posts and show them on navigation. To add posts, go to Posts>Add New. To add new pages, go to Pages> Add New.

Finally, you will be setting up navigation for your website. You can add pages, posts, categories and custom links to your navigation. To build up navigation menu, simply go to Appearance>Menu and Create a New Menu from there. Once done, choose menu location/placement from bottom and hit Save.

Now visit your website and it should look decent and professional.

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