What do I need to create a WordPress Website?
You only need three things to get started with WordPress
- Hosting
- Domain Name
- WordPress Software
Sounds easy right? Well, it is, let’s dive in.
Hosting
Think of hosting as the home of your website. It’s space dedicated to you on a server where the files that make up your website will live, and your domain name (the address of your site) will point.
Which host should I choose?
How do I register for hosting?
1. Setting up your hosting with Bluehost is easy, click on the ‘Get Started’ button below to go to their website.
Advertising Disclosure: I get a small commission if you sign up to Bluehost for hosting using my link. However, it’s not passed on to you; this commission allows me to keep this page up to date and help me provide other free training resources on my website.
2. Read the featured included in each plan, then choose the one you want and click select, I’ve gone for basic below.
Domain Name
Next, you need to add your domain name. Your domain name is the address of your website on the internet, the URL that you type into your browser to get to it.
Your domain name should be your business name, a shortened version of it, or if your name if appropriate.
The ‘.com’, ‘. net’, and ‘. org’ suffixes are the most popular, but you can also have one relevant to your country, for example, ‘.co.uk’ for the UK or ‘.es’ for Spain. For a full list of suffixes check the ICANN website.
3. Enter your domain name into ‘Create a new domain’ box, then click next and Bluehost will check if your domain name is available.
4. Unfortunately, many popular domain names are already registered, so you may get a notification that the one you’ve chosen is not available. if that happens, it’s not the end of the world as you can;
- Choose a different suffix like .net, .co.uk
- add in a hyphen, e.g. kelly-sparkes.com
- add in your profession, e.g. kellysparkes-learning.com but try not to make it too long
- If all else fails you can try and buy it - some domains will show a for sale advert when you visit the domain.
5. Once you find an available domain name click on next and then fill in your details. When you get to the ‘package’ section, you have a few options.
- Basic 1 month Price - this lets you pay month by month, but you lose your free domain, and it is expensive
- Basic 12 Months Price - you are signing up for 12 months and get the reduced rate stated for 12 months
- Basic 24 Months Price - you are signing up for 24 months and get the reduced rate stated for 24 months
- Basic 36 Months Price - you are signing up for 24 months and get the reduced rate stated for 36 months
6. Next, you need to select the package extras you need. You can find out more about each one by clicking on the ‘more information’ links. I recommend Domain Privacy + Protection to keep your details safe and avoid any sales emails that may come after you register your domain. I have also selected ‘Codeguard Basic’ as this creates a daily backup of your website. You can also do this with a plugin; I like Updraftplus as you can store your backups externally in dropbox or Google Drive – I will go into this more in the next tutorial.
Once you have completed the form, click on ‘submit’.
WordPress Software
7. Click on ‘Create Account’
8. Enter your full domain name (including the suffix) and then create a strong password to help prevent your site from getting hacked. Ensure your password is secure by making it is longer than 12 characters, including numbers symbols and both upper case and lower case letters.
9. Now the Bluehost website wizard will start. The first step installs plugins based on what answers you give. I think it’s better to install plugins based on what you need and automatically installed plugins can cause issues and conflicts. So click ‘Skip this step’.
10. The second step will allow Bluehost to create pages automatically for you. Select any that you want on your website and click ‘continue’ or if you prefer to create the pages yourself then click ‘Skip this step’.
11. Now you need to enter your site details. Your site name should be your business name or your name if it’s a personal website. Your tagline is a description of what your website is about, keep it short and sweet. The tagline shows up in web searches, so it’s worth spending some time to get this perfect, but don’t worry if it’s not right now as you can change it later in WordPress.
12. The last step will allow Bluehost to add a theme for you automatically.
A theme controls the way your website looks, and although adding a theme is a quick way to get your website up if you are happy for it to look exactly like the theme you’ve chosen. If not editing the theme can be difficult.
I like to create my themes using Elementor, a straightforward page builder plugin. It allows you to set up your website exactly as you want it visually without coding. I use Elementor in all my tutorials and what I teach on my course ‘Create a Winning Website‘. If you’re going to use the same method, I recommend that you select the ‘Hello’ theme by Elementor, it’s a free, lightweight theme that is entirely customisable and flexible. So hover over the ‘Hello’ Theme and click ‘Use this theme’.
13. That’s it; you’ve set up your brand new WordPress website! You can link it to your domain in the drop-down box on the left and click on ‘WordPress to see it in action.
I hope this tutorial has helped give you the confidence to get started on your website.
Please feel free to add a comment below if you have any questions or send a private message through the contact form, I’d love to hear from you.
