Creating A Website With WordPress In 2022 Made Easy

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Creating a website with WordPress is a task you can complete in a few easy steps, Even if you know nothing about coding or web technology.

That is precisely what this in-depth article promises to show you.

Creating a website with WordPress is a task you can learn in less than 1 hour. But if you will build a website with WordPress without stress, you need a clear, and easy step-by-step walk-through.

If you want to learn how to start blogging with WordPress or you have the goal of creating a website with WordPress for any other purpose, then seat down and relax as we embark on this journey in a few easy steps.

You will be amazed at how easy it is to get your website or blog set up in a few hours.

In this article, I will share everything I know about creating a WordPress website the easy way.

With a WordPress website, you can start blogging, create a professional company or portfolio website, or launch your website-building freelancing business.

Here is a summary of every step I’ll take you through in this course, from beginning to end(you can skip to each topic from here)

What domain name is, how to find a perfect registrar for domain names
Steps to getting a great domain name
Web hosting for WordPress and recommended registrar for domain names
WordPress for free Installation (step-by-step)
WordPress template vs WordPress theme
Best themes on WordPress
How to install your WordPress theme
How to customize WordPress website theme
Adding content to your Website
WordPress plugins
Applying core WordPress settings to your WordPress website
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs) about WordPress websites

Ok, let’s get our WordPress website creation underway.

But before I start, let me clear the air by answering a few common questions that I always hear beginners ask.

I want to build a website but I know nothing about coding

This tutorial is made for people like you. You won’t see a single line of code and yet, you will develop a fully functional professional website that meets the best web design standard.

Can I really set up a website as a newbie in one day?

Yes, creating a website with WordPress in less than 1 day is our goal in this tutorial.

Gone are the days when you need to learn programming languages before you can set up your website. Nobody goes through that hassle again.

WordPress has made life so good that with a simple drag-n-drag format, you can get the nitty-gritty of web design in a few hours, especially if you have access to great training courses like what you are presently reading.

You should also know that the biggest companies all use WordPress to build their websites, so you are a good company.

Having said that, I believe that you are ready to start creating a website with WordPress with me. Let’s get work started!

Registering a domain name

Your domain name is the www that your blog is identified by.

For example, www.google.com is Google’s domain name. A domain name must be unique to a website, meaning that no two websites can use the same domain name.

You want to pick a domain name that you are comfortable with. Also, your choice of domain name should relate to your brand/business/blog niche as much as possible.

But then, you also don’t want to get stuck thinking about “what name is the best?”

Several other things determine blogging success other than having a sexy domain name!

So don’t overthink trying to get a “perfect name“.

Once you’ve decided on a domain name to use, you should go ahead and register it immediately. You will register your newly found domain with a registrar for domain names.

If you delay, someone else somewhere might do so before you! In such a situation, you will have to brainstorm afresh to get another unique domain name.

Buying a domain name is very cheap, so you should not waste any time securing this domain URL.

Steps to getting a great domain name and registering with a registrar for domain names

Get a piece of paper and write down ideas for a domain name that comes to your mind. You should put down as many ideas for a domain name as possible. This is because some of these names may not be available for use as another website owner might have used them before you.
Decide on what domain name extension meets your website goal. Note that most people feel most comfortable with the .com extension

Go to BlueHost Domain Checker here, click the domain tab, and type in each of the domain names on your list to know which of them is available to be used.

I will assume here that one of the names on your list will be available for you to register. If peradventure none is available and you seem to run dry of new name ideas, then you will see the Bluehost domain name generator wizard give you suggestions which you can pick any that appeal to you. You can also use other domain name generators to give you domain name ideas.

Found a unique domain name now? Go ahead and register it immediately.

Note that companies such as Bluehost currently offer a promo that if you host your blog on their platform, they will give you a free domain name and you will use it for 1 full year, free of charge.

You can quickly check it if you want this promo here at BlueHost Promo

Web hosting for WordPress and recommended registrar for domain names

When it comes to web hosting for WordPress, there are many web hosting companies on the internet that offer great web hosting services.

But your choice will depend mainly on factors such as budget and your blogging goals.

Over the years, I have used the services of a couple of web hosting companies to host domain names for my websites.

I have found these ones to be very effective and offer web hosting for WordPress which is cheap enough for anyone to afford.

You can check any of them out, I can guarantee that they will serve you well, especially if you are a beginner.

Remember again that your choice from this list will mainly be influenced by your budget and blogging goals.

There are others, but any of these will be good enough for you.

Web hosting for WordPress: How to host your domain name

Creating a WordPress website starts with you hosting your domain name.

While the process of web hosting for WordPress shares some similarities among all registrar for domain names. I will use BlueHost web hosting to demonstrate web hosting for WordPress in this tutorial.

You can also check this report where I demonstrate how to host your website with another registrar for domain name called Namecheap.

Domain name hosting: Bluehost with WordPress

Bluehost with WordPress makes perfect sense for web hosting for WordPress.

While WordPress itself is free, Web hosting for WordPress requires that you pay a little hosting fee to get your domain name hosted so it can be secured for you and enable your website to become active on the internet.

Apart from Namecheap on my list, Bluehost offers the next cheapest domain hosting for WordPress.

Bluehost with WordPress cost for website hosting is displayed on their website. See Bluehost pricing HERE

As a beginner, I advise you to go for one of their cheapest plans. Note that you can always upgrade your plan at any time without going through any hitch. So why not start small?

Recommended: How To Host Your Website with NAMECHEAP

How to buy your domain name and host it with Bluehost

Secure your web hosting for WordPress with BLUEHOST by following the simple process below. Bluehost currently runs a 1-year free domain name if you host your domain name before their promo runs out.

Click the BLUEHOST home page from here
Once you are on the Bluehost home page, click the “Host your site” button

Choose the plan that you are most comfortable with. Remember that even if you choose the cheapest plan, you can always upgrade this plan at a later time.

Type in your already selected domain name and if you want to use another extension apart from a .com, then click the drop-down button inside the red circle and make your choice. I ADVISE YOU STICK WITH THE .com. Also, remember that each extension comes with a different price.

Click continue

If your domain has NOT been previously bought by someone else, it will be available for you to Go ahead to pay for it. If not, it will be unavailable. So you must either edit it or choose a different domain address till you get your available choice. This is why you want to buy and secure your preferred domain address as soon as possible.

Once your domain name is available, go ahead and fill in the information appropriately. but when you get to the ”Package Extras” section, you can untick the packages you do not want before proceeding to pay. If you are not on a big budget, I suggest that you should untick everything on the Package Extras section of the information.

Go ahead to tick the Privacy Notice button and click the “Submit” button to complete your payment process.

Congratulations, you have just hosted your domain on Bluehost.

Check this tutorial if you want to host your website with Namecheap: How To Host Your Website with NAMECHEAP

WordPress for free Installation (step-by-step)

After your payment has been confirmed, BLUEHOST will walk you through their onboarding process.

Create your Bluehost account

Click the blue create account button
Create your password

Once signed up, click the blue go-to login button

Now log into your Bluehost account

Install WordPress

Click the “Create your website” button

Keep on skipping the next sets of four pop-ups till you get to the Limitless customization pop up

Under the Limitless customization option, click the Get started button

Again, skipping the next 3 processes till you get here where WordPress is successfully installed

Now WordPress has been successfully installed.

The next thing to do now is to verify your email address. Go to the inbox of the email address that you used to create your Bluehost account and you will see a verification mail sent to you from Bluehost. Go ahead and click the verify your email button.

Click on Log into WordPress button by the top right corner

Welcome to your WordPress dashboard!

Anytime you want to access your WordPress dashboard, you can do so from your domain registrar account dashboard(Bluehost in this instance). Alternatively, you can also log into your WordPress dashboard by typing www.yourwebsite.com/wp-admin which will take you to the login tab as seen below;

Type in your login credentials and you will always get into the admin dashboard.

Creating a WordPress website is as easy as it’s going.

At this point, you have successfully set up your website and so, if anyone searches for your website on the internet, it should come out live. Though it will display an ugly sight because your website is still appearing in the WordPress default theme.

The next thing to do is to remove the WordPress default theme and install your preferred theme.

WordPress template

WordPress template is the layout that your WordPress website will model. Templates are determined by the theme you prefer to use to design your website. There are several WordPress templates for free, all depending on the theme you decide to go for.

WordPress theme

The theme is the tool that makes a WordPress website appear the way they do.

Different themes bring about different features to a website user interface.

There are numerous themes available to choose from. But WordPress themes are classified into two categories;

free WordPress themes and premium WordPress themes.

A free WordPress theme allows you to use it for free. Being free doesn’t mean they are not good and professional-looking.

If you choose right, a free WordPress theme can be amazing.

If you can afford it, buying a premium theme is even better and of course, it serves better than the free WordPress theme.

The verdict is that you should go for a premium theme if you can afford it. If you don’t want to buy a premium theme, then a free theme will also serve you well. Just make sure you choose a good one.

Best themes on WordPress

There are over 30,000 themes available on the WordPress repository.

So, what are the best themes on WordPress?

There cannot be an accurate answer to the question about the best themes on WordPress. But one thing you must know is that there are several great themes and then lots of terrible ones too.

I will not attempt to list out all of the best themes on WordPress as that is not the purpose of this tutorial, you can do your research. But I have used some great themes and I can guarantee their effectiveness and how secure they are.

Some of the best themes on WordPress that I have used include Elementor, Divi, Neve, Astra, and Hello Elementor. I also know of some others that though I don’t have a personal experience with them, carry plenty of great reviews by web designers who have used them.

My preferred premium WordPress theme; Divi

My preferred WordPress theme is the Divi theme.

Divi theme is dynamic, fast, cheap, and mobile responsive.

It is one of the best premium themes that you can ever lay your hands on.

Check out the Divi theme here

For creating a WordPress website for this tutorial though, I will be using the Neve theme for this tutorial.

How to install your WordPress theme

Usually, newly installed WordPress will come with the WordPress default theme already installed and activated.

You should change this default theme because it doesn’t have cool features that other free or premium themes will offer you.

So, just as all WordPress designers do, you want to install your preferred theme which expectedly should come with better functionalities than the WordPress default theme.

In this instance, we are Installing the Neve theme. Installing any other WordPress theme follows a similar process.

While you are still in your WordPress admin dashboard;

Go to the Appearance tab and click theme on the displayed sub-menu

Click Add new
In the theme search bar by the right, type in “Neve”

Click install and once it installs, then Click activate

For convenience, it is always a good practice to delete the default theme or any other nonfunctional themes on your dashboard.

Once your theme is successfully installed, you can go ahead to create your first blog page.

Congratulations!

You now have a great-looking blog design that you can be proud of. But then, is your blog now ready for public view? No, not yet!

Now that we are done with the design settings for your website, let’s go ahead and fix the most important functionality issues. We will fix the most relevant ones now, others can be done as you start getting used to your WordPress dashboard.

How to customize WordPress website theme

One important aspect of creating a website with WordPress is customization.

Once you have installed and activated your theme, you can customize this theme to suit your taste by going to the Customize tab under the Appearance menu.

This will launch your website’s live preview in the theme customizer.

Your Customizer will have a similar appearance as this

Customizing your WordPress website from the Customize tab does not really give a full drag-and-drop design experience. And so, we will not be doing much here right now. You will be able to do more after you have content on your website.

Adding content to your Website

Basically, there are two kinds of content on a website; Posts and Pages.

Posts are the blogging features of your website and they are meant to be dynamic. When you write and publish a new article on your website, it appears as a blog post in reverse-chronological order (that means newer items are displayed first).

Pages are more static content that rarely gets changed. Consider pages of a website such as the Home page, Contact us page, About page, Terms and Condition page, etc.

On WordPress, posts are displayed on the front page of your website, though I will show you how to change that default setting so that you can display any of your desired pages on your website front page later on in this report.

You can create a separate page to display your blog articles just like the one in the image above. If you like, you can also customize your website not to have a blog page at all.

Now that you’ve understood the differences between a page and a post, let’s add some pages to our website. Don’t worry if your new pages do not have enough content at the moment, you can always come back to them at a later time to either edit or update them.

Adding WordPress Pages

Return to the WordPress admin dashboard and locate the Pages link on the WordPress main menu and hover your mouse on it. Click the Add New tab.

You should have a display much similar to the one below depending on your theme.

Obviously, you need to assign a title to this page, let’s call this the Home

Then by clicking the ‘Type/choose a block’ display, you can add a text, or click on the ‘+’ box which gives you the option to add images, links, audio, embed videos, buttons, etc.

Once you are done adding up content, you can click the blue Publish button to make your content live on the internet.

You will need more than one page on your website, for instance, on my own website I have pages such as the Home, About us, Contact us, Terms, and Blog pages. Therefore repeat this process to add multiple pages to your website.

Adding WordPress Posts

Following almost the same process while adding Pages, locate the Post link on your WordPress dashboard, hover your mouse on it and click the Add New option.

And just as we did for Pages, add a title and then compose your article. Only that this time, you should take note of a few more features by the right of your page. Again, you should not worry much about them for now. You will get more familiar as you work around your content the more and get more experience.

Once you are done writing your content, you can either Save as draft to revisit later or click the Publish button to launch it live on the internet.

Once you are familiar with creating pages and posts, you are more than halfway successful with creating and managing a WordPress website.

WordPress plugins

Creating a website with a WordPress tutorial can’t be complete without talking about WordPress plugins.

What are WordPress plugins and what do web designers use them for?

WordPress plugins are software that helps WordPress website owners maximize the functionalities of their blogs and websites.

Earlier, we mentioned that creating a website with WordPress is currently the best way to create a fully functional professional website. The concept of plugins is one of the major reasons.

When you blog on WordPress, there is always a plugin somewhere that can easily solve any problem you have.

There are countless plugins available to WordPress website owners. Though you want to make sure that you only install the ones that are absolutely necessary to you.

Stuffing your WordPress with too many plugins can negatively impact your blog speed among several other effects. Also, untrusted plugins can pose security threats to your WordPress website.

4 categories of WordPress plugins most important to web owners

A few WordPress plugins are mandatory for every WordPress website. The need for other types will come as options as you get used to managing your WordPress website.

Below are these important Plugin categories.

I have also indicated my opinion on the preferred ones to use in each category.

If you have other good options, then feel free to use them.

Note also that all the plugin recommendations I made are all free of charge and safe to use. I use them for my blogs too.

1. Security plugins: Wordfence

According to statistics, 30,000 websites are hacked each day. If you want to keep your website secure from hackers, you should secure it with a good security plugin.

2. Back up plugins: Updraft

Imagine that after taking the time to work hard on your blog, something somehow happens that you can’t explain and you lose all the data in your blog!

A good backup plugin keeps your mind at rest. Even if anything funny happens, you can restore your website without losing any data.

3. Performance plugin: W3 total cache

This WordPress plugin helps to improve the speed of your blog.

4. Social sharing plugin: Sassy social share

One very easy way to get traffic to your blog posts is to share on social media, with a good social sharing plugin, you can encourage your blog visitors to help you to share your posts with just a click of a button.

5. SEO plugin: Yoast SEO plugin

This is so key to helping your blog have an excellent SEO score.

Remember that you need a great SEO score before Google and other search engines can push your blog posts to their top search result pages.

A good SEO plugin will help you optimize your blog pages for a great SEO rating. I only know of two such plugins, the Yoast SEO plugin and Rank Math.

All you need to do to enjoy WordPress plugin features is install and activate them. Let’s demonstrate how to go about that.

How to install a WordPress plugin

1. In your WordPress admin dashboard, point your mouse arrow on the Plugin tab on the left tab and click “Add new”

2. On the search bar by your right top corner, type in the name of the plugin

3. Once found, click “Install Now” and wait for a few seconds for the installation to complete and then click “Activate”

The plugin would have been successfully added to your website and then when you go to your plugin list, you will find it in the list.

Applying core WordPress settings

The truth is that you will continue to tweak your WordPress website as you journey along with your web design career.

My aim in this tutorial is to help you begin the process of creating a website with WordPress without getting overwhelmed. I hope it was straightforward enough for you.

Permalink setting

The next thing I want you to do now is to go back to your WordPress admin dashboard.

Remember that any time you are logged out, you can always log back in using www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin. And then enter your Username and Password.

In your dashboard, scroll down to “settings” and hover your mouse arrow on it, In the General tab is where you will be able to edit your site details. But right now, I want you to go and click the “Permalink” tab.

Make sure that it’s the “Post name” option that is selected.

Scroll down and Save your settings

This will assist in optimizing your SEO score as it will give your slug(URLs) a better appearance.

Static front page setting

In WordPress for website design, the default page that your website visitors will land on when they browse your website address on their web browser is your static front page.

You can use any of your existing pages as your static front page though most websites will use the Home page as the static front page. For the Post page, it is normal to use your Blog page.

Let’s use the Home page here as our static front page and the Blog page as our post page.

To do so,

Go to WordPress dashboard>>Settings>>Reading

You will see the Front page display options, select A static page.

On the Front page and Blog page options, select the appropriate pages from the pages you have created on your website.

Always remember that the Home page is the static front page that the web visitors will land on when they browse your website while the Post page is the page that will display your published website articles(blog articles)

Always scroll to the bottom to save these changes.

Other things can come later.

At this point, I guarantee that your WordPress blog is ready to be seen.

Go ahead and write your first blog post!

I don’t intend to stop helping you

One way I’m different is that I get to help web designers like you by giving you access to me, you can contact me and ask personal questions. I also make sure I provide prompt responses to comments on the comment sections of my content. You can rest assured that you will never get stuck!

When absolutely necessary, I also provide services just anyone can access, if needed.

Also, I have great bite-sized tips on this blog and my Youtube channel that will continue to assist you, and I keep publishing more relevant ones almost daily.

Soon you will become a pro even without knowing how.

Bonus feature: WordPress niche websites

Already, I have taken you through the process of adding content to your website and customizing your settings.

Creating a website with WordPress skills isn’t enough, you also want to decide on the niche in which you want your website to operate.

WordPress is the most dynamic website content management system. WordPress can create about any kind of website. It all depends on your need, you can tailor your WordPress website to fill this need.

Below is just a highlight of a few website niches that you can create your WordPress website around.

Ecommerce store
Portfolio website
Blog
Membership website
Academic website
Website for podcasting
Web directory
and several others.

Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)

What is the easiest website building platform for inexperienced non-techies to build a Website?

Gone are the days when you need to understand programming languages before building a professional and functional website. While it is true that several web building platforms exist where you can easily build a website, WordPress is by a distance the easiest and best web building platform.

Is WordPress free?

Yes, WordPress is free. But you must also understand that in WordPress for website design, there are two categories; The free hosted WordPress.com and the Self-hosted WordPress.org.

While you can build a website on the free hosted for absolutely no cost, with the self-hosted WordPress, you will have to pay a token for hosting, a very little fee I must confess.

The self-hosted WordPress is usually the more preferred option, but depending on your budget, the free-hosted will also serve. But WordPress itself is ever and always free. You will love to read this piece on WordPress.com vs WordPress.org all explained.

How long will it take for a beginner to master WordPress website building?

You can master WordPress for website design skills in less than 24 hours. It all depends on your commitment and focus.

The good thing about WordPress is that there are abundant sources of help online, just like this blog. You will never get stuck and the more you practice, the better you become.

Can I become a freelancer with WordPress skills and make money?

I believe this is one of the major reasons why lots of people got their hands on this free guide. Surely, if you dedicate the next 2-5 hours to this course, you will have enough skills to launch your web design freelancing career.

As I already mentioned, you will continue to learn as you practice. If you ever get stuck on anything, you can always get back to me via the contact page or email. Also, apart from this blog, there are several other sources of help for WordPress users from where you can easily access help.

Read Also: How To Make Money With A Blog

How can I make money with my newly designed website?

After creating a website with WordPress, there are different ways to make money from the website. But ultimately it will depend on your goals and reasons for having a website in the first place.

Do you own an e-commerce website or a blog? Is it a company website or a portfolio?

There are several ways to monetize your website and I believe that this article will also help you as I discuss a bit deeper making money by having a blog on your website here.

Another one you will love to see is how to make money with affiliate marketing.

What if I don’t want to build my website on WordPress?

Apart from WordPress, several other platforms exist where you can build a professional website.

Some of them include Wix, Squarespace, Joomla, etc. You can use these website platforms too. But in my opinion, you can’t compare any of these platforms to WordPress. WordPress for website design is always the best recommendation.

It will also interest you to know that you can switch your website from some of these platforms back to WordPress website if you already have a website built on any of them in the past.

I decided to end this tutorial with the answers to these questions which I think will help.

I hope to get your own questions if they are not already included here.

Also, I urge experienced web designers to help me provide even better explanations to any of these questions where you feel my answers were not in-depth enough.

WE love to hear from you!

I sincerely hope that this guide has helped you with building your website without hiring a web designer.

Also, I hope it helps you take great web-building decisions without overspending or using the wrong tools to build your website. If this guide has helped you, I will be glad and I hope that in your WordPress for website design journey, you will access other tips on this blog to get even more used to managing your newly designed WordPress website.