How To Set Up Logging On Template Website

Over the years, we've seen people ready WordPress websites for countless reasons. Perhaps they wanted to share their ideas, take a small service-based business organisation online, or run an eCommerce store. Any the reason, a mutual experience was clear. All these things are entirely doable thanks to easy-to-employ website builders similar WordPress.com.

Gone are the days where you needed coding or HTML know-how to ready up a WordPress website. Instead, with WordPress.com's intuitive drag and drop spider web page architect and its hundreds of themes and apps to cull from, WordPress.com is undoubtedly one of the near versatile website builders bachelor. Plus, unlike setting up your site using a self-hosted WordPress.org installation, WordPress.com takes care of web hosting services and security for you.

If setting upwardly a WordPress site sounds like a lot to have in, don't worry. In this tutorial, we're outlining how to gear up upwardly a WordPress website in ten unproblematic steps…

Would you prefer video to text? Just click to scroll down to spotter the setup process.

1. Sign up for WordPress.com

First off, you'll need to sign upward for a WordPress.com account by heading over to WordPress.com and clicking the 'Become Started' push button. This is located on the top right-hand side of the homepage.

From in that location, y'all'll have to provide your e-mail and create a countersign and username. Once you lot've done that, you'll be redirected to a page where you can select your preferred WordPress.com hosting plan.

Information technology's as unproblematic as that. WordPress.com is a fully hosted service, so y'all don't take to worry near installing WordPress yourself or paying for WordPress hosting providers like Bluehost or Siteground.

If you're unsure which packet to opt for, why not get started with the gratis programme? This is great for familiarizing yourself with WordPress.com'southward interface and for creating a personal site and weblog. Then, if you demand more features afterward, you can upgrade your bundle to do good from extra functionality and customizability.

That said, the best WordPress plan to employ from the get-get is the Business package. This provides all the tools needed to create a professional-looking website from scratch.

2. Establish a Brand Identity

Creating an identity for your brand isn't an easy process, merely information technology'due south imperative to give this some consideration before delving into web design. This is crucial for creating consistency and ensuring every aspect of your website appeals to your target demographic. With that in mind, be certain to give these 2 elements due care and attending:

Your Website's Proper name

Your website's name is an important decision. It immediately informs visitors what your site'south about and goes manus in hand with your spider web domain name – the online 'accost' to your site that displays in the browser'south search bar.

Of class, your website's name volition hinge on the kind of site you're creating. For example, if you're launching an online portfolio, y'all might be considering using your own proper name or the name of your brand. Alternatively, if yous're thinking of selling services or products, you might want to foreground the types of services you provide in your domain proper name.

No matter the kind of website you're creating, hither are a few things to keep in mind:

Choose a proper noun that's memorable and easy to spell. That style, visitors tin can hands navigate back to your website from memory lone.
Double-check that your proper noun isn't too similar to an existing site. You might otherwise lose traffic to your competitor and frustrate your audience if they can't find you.
Check if your domain proper name is available. You tin can do this by typing your ideas into https://instantdomainsearch.com/.
If your website's title is doubling as a potential name for a new concern, brainstorm some ideas and pick your favorites. Then, poll these with friends, family, and your professional network to go their input.

Choosing or Changing Your Website Name

After you've selected your WordPress.com plan, y'all'll be prompted to enter your website's name. Then, yous'll be asked to select a domain name. If you're using the gratis plan, you'll be given a WordPress subdomain, which looks similar this:

www.[yourNameHere].wordpress.com

Equally your site grows, you'll likely want to purchase your own domain proper name to appear more apparent and professional. With WordPress.com's Pro plans, you lot'll get a free domain name for a yr. To register your custom domain, make certain you're logged into your WordPress.com account. And then, head to 'My Site' and from the left-hand sidebar select 'Manage,' followed past 'Domains.'

Then select 'Change primary domain.'

If you already take a website up and running and want to change your website's proper name, caput over to:

My Site → Manage → Settings

Here you tin change your site's title (which is the heading for your homepage content), tagline, and your site'southward icon.

Note: Your website's name and domain name don't have to be the same. However, nosotros recommend keeping them the same or at to the lowest degree similar. This helps go along branding consistent and aids visitors with remembering your make'south name.

Choosing The Right Tagline

In addition to your website'south name, your tagline is another manner to help define your make identity to curious visitors. Your tagline should be curt, snappy, and summarize what y'all do and what visitors proceeds from your site. From an SEO (search engine optimization) perspective, it'southward also wise to include any keywords you're trying to rank for.

3. Choosing a WordPress Theme

Your chosen WordPress theme is your website's blueprint that determines its basic style and organization. There are over 100 costless WordPress themes to choose from and even more premium themes to peruse. Search for templates on the theme market place by website type, layout, or features to narrow down your options.

Although picking a WordPress theme is an of import decision, don't worry if you lot're not 100% certain. You can switch templates at whatever time. To do this, just head to 'My Sites,' and so from the left-hand sidebar click 'Design,' followed by 'Themes.'

One time you've selected a theme, y'all can start customizing your WordPress website's design using the drag and drop architect.

4. Design Your Homepage

There's a skillful chance your homepage will be the first web page visitors land on when they click through to your site. So, it's crucial this makes a good impression, exudes your brand identity, and communicates the value you offering customers.

Equally many every bit 38% of visitors volition stop engaging with a site if its design is unattractive.

The moral of the story? Design matters.

Just similar picking your website's proper noun, your homepage's design volition vary depending on the type of site yous're creating. For instance, in the case of an online portfolio, you'll want your prior work front and centre. Or, if yous're running an online store, you might desire to showcase your best selling products. Conversely, if yous're offering a service, brand sure your value statement is the first thing prospects meet.

Thanks to WordPress.com's piece of cake-to-customize themes, you can outset modifying your homepage using a pre-built page layout. Or, if you take a specific vision for your homepage, you could start from scratch with a blank page and allow your imagination to run costless!

Either fashion, WordPress.com makes it uncomplicated to add, change or remove website elements to make your homepage your own. You can drag and drop WordPress.com's 'Blocks' onto your web page to modify the layout of your content.

Popular blocks include:

Images
Galleries
Columns
Videos
Payment buttons

…To name a few.

Once you're happy with your homepage, hitting the publish push button. Then you can set it equally your site'due south static homepage. Here'due south how:

Go to My Site → Design→ Customize

At present, click 'Homepage Settings' → 'A static page pick.'
From there, select the homepage you've just designed from the Homepage dropdown.
At present, a preview window will show your selected page.
Click 'Salvage Changes'

5. Create More Pages

Once you're happy with your homepage, it's time to create more than web pages for your site:

Typically, about websites demand the following:

An about department
A blog page
A contact folio
Service pages (These only employ if you're a service provider)
Product pages (These are merely relevant if you're running an eCommerce store)
FAQs: Create a infinite where visitors tin can become answers to common queries

To add new pages, go to:

My Site → Site → Pages → Add New Page

From there, you can choice from a variety of layouts depending on the type of page yous're creating – 'About, 'Web log,' 'Contact,' etc.

Like the homepage you lot but created, y'all can utilize 'blocks' to quickly shift your web page's layout and functionality.

Note: Whatever page you lot 'publish' on your website will remain individual until you launch your whole site. If you're concerned, head over to My Site → Manage → Settings. Then scroll down to Privacy to ensure your project is visible only to you while y'all're working on information technology.

6. Prepare up Your Menu

Your website's navigation menu is what visitors will utilise to work their way around your site. With a few spider web pages under your belt, yous can now create a menu for your homepage. With as many as 94% of consumers saying websites must be easy to navigate, your menu must boast an intuitive construction. That way, visitors can quickly go to whatever page they want.

Become started past heading to My Site → Design → Customize

Now, select Menus → Primary. From there, you tin can 'Add together items' and reorder the pages.

Here are a few tips on creating an piece of cake-to-use card:

Make sure visitors can find crucial info in as few clicks as possible.
Don't hide of import data away under several dropdown submenus.
The header links in your menu should stand for the almost significant sections of your site.

Notation: Content has to be before y'all tin add it to the carte, so ensure yous do this tutorial in order!

7. Add Extra Functionality with WordPress Plugins and Widgets

The easiest way to vastly expand the functionality of your WordPress.com website is to use widgets. Widgets enable you to extend your site's functionality without writing a single line of code or downloading any plugins. These are content blocks you can add to your website's sidebars, footers, menus, etc. Where y'all can position your widgets largely depends on your WordPress theme.

Here are some examples of pop WordPress widgets:

Sound
Facebook page
Custom HTML
Products
Contact info and map
Video
Categories
Twitter timeline
Calendar

This moves us nicely onto our next indicate, plugins. The plugins listed on the WordPress app marketplace integrate seamlessly with WordPress sites and are easily managed from your WordPress Dashboard. These apps enable you to add together all sorts of features to your site. Nonetheless, to access these add-ons you'll need to opt for WordPress.com's Pro plan (or college), which gives you the power to take your site to the next level.

To give y'all a feel for the kinds of features plugins could add to your site, nosotros've compiled a quick list:

Signup forms for growing your email list (WPForms)
Contact forms that encourage visitors to get in bear upon with you (Contact Form seven)
A calendar for appointment scheduling (Bookly)
A forum where visitors can communicate with you and each other (wpForo Forum)
The ability to accept online payments and donations (GiveWP)
Help desk functionality – like a chatbot (JS Help Desk)
Email marketing automation (HubSpot)
Help with more than granular SEO optimization (Yoast SEO)
Social sharing functionality (Jetpack)
In-depth website analytics (MonsterInsights)

…and much more than!

When first embarking on your WordPress journey, it'south essential to consider the functionality y'all'll need later down the line.

Remember: To install plugins, yous'll have to opt for WordPress.com's Pro plan (or college).

vii.5 Optionally: Add eCommerce functionality

If you want to sell products from your website (physical and/or digital), continue reading. If not, skip to step eight.

To start building an online shop, install the WooCommerce plugin. This is easily down the most popular eCommerce plugin. Information technology's installed by more than five meg websites, which equates to powering roughly 14% of all online stores.

This plugin provides everything yous need to:

Create and customize an online storefront
Set up a digital checkout.
Set product prices
Manage your inventory
Integrate your store with lots of other plugins to admission a total suite of marketing and sales tools

Note: Edifice a fully-fledged eCommerce store isn't the but mode to monetize your WordPress.com site. Instead, at that place are a range of 'Premium blocks' built into WordPress.com that enable you to take online payments (providing you're a Premium business relationship holder or higher). These make it easy to process both i-off and recurring payments and donations.

8. Beginning Driving Traffic to Your Site

It'due south not enough to create and launch a website. For your site to deport fruit, you lot'll need to bulldoze traffic and abound an audience. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is worth its weight in golden. SEO is the practice of enhancing the quantity and quality of your website traffic by boosting your ranking in organic search engine results.

So, how can WordPress.com help with that?

WordPress.com was developed for online publishing, so its coding is entirely search-engine-friendly. Plus, it comes with several built-in SEO tools and plugins that you can harness to improve your site'south searchability.

Here are a few things you can exercise to better your SEO with WordPress.com:

Add keywords you lot want to rank for to your title and tagline. Yous can exercise this by clicking the Appearance Tab from your WordPress Dashboard.
Add together keywords to permalinks. You can edit your permalinks via the Settings tab of your WordPress.com dashboard. Instead of random numbers, each blog post/spider web page should display its title (which, of class, should as well contain keywords).
Optimize your content for keywords. Similar to the previous steps, add relevant keywords and phrases to your website content and blog posts.
Add together alt tags to your images. This is another chance to include keywords, but it likewise improves your site's usability.
Create a network of internal and external links. Accept you got other blog posts fix to go? Inside their content, link them to each other (where advisable). You'll likewise want to link out to other authoritative sources, as this tells Google your site is packed total of valuable information.
Utilize an SEO plugin. Search engine optimization requires a careful long-term strategy. A plugin, like Yoast, makes the process much easier by telling you exactly what to exercise.

But, above all else, search engines prioritize the user experience. So, the longer people spend on your website and how regularly they come back has a considerable begetting on your rankings. This ways you'll desire an authentic experience for how your website's performing. You tin do this via several statistics plugins, or like 83.five% of other WordPress sites, use Google Analytics.

nine. Institute a Social Media Presence

Another fashion to drive traffic to your WordPress.com site is to establish a social media presence. Your socials are the perfect place to promote your website. In fact, social media now drives 31% of all referral traffic to websites. That's just ane of the many reasons why 92% of small business owners call up social media is essential.

Y'all'll have to take some time to carefully create a social media strategy that engages your target audience. To harness the full power of social media, it's imperative you publish tailored content that meets your customers' needs. Over time, this is a surefire way of building a loyal post-obit as well as an online community surrounding your products, services, or interests.

WordPress.com makes it easy to add social media icons to your site's menu using its 'Social Links' feature. The same goes for your web folio content. Just drag and drop the 'Social Links' block to hitting the ground running.

ten. Frequently Add Content to Your Site by Blogging

Your website should now be ready to launch, but as your site grows, so should your content. Non only is this nifty for your SEO, but information technology also encourages visitors to keep coming back for more.

Here are some stats to back this upwardly:

On average, websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages.
Brands with blogs savour up to 97% more than links back to their websites.
As many as 72% of digital marketers say content cosmos is their almost fruitful SEO tactic.

WordPress users do good from a professional person blogging engine and content management system. This platform empowers you to create high-quality content and provides all the features you demand to create a successful blog. For case, you tin embed media in your posts and categorize them equally yous see fit. You tin can likewise add tags and meta descriptions to your posts to help organize and SEO optimize them.

Pro Tip: Remember to add relevant keywords to your weblog copy and allow your posts to be inspired by any your audition is already searching for. Head to Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends to get a experience for the kind of content your audition wants to see. When you lot kickoff tailoring your content strategy to run into your audience's needs (whether answering their questions, solving their pain points, entertaining them, etc.), you lot'll provide value. Consequently, you'll brainstorm nurturing a loyal audience and establish yourself as an authorization in your niche.

Are You Fix to Set Up a WordPress Website with These Unproblematic Steps?

Now you know everything in that location is about setting up a WordPress site. As we've seen, you can register for a WordPress.com account within minutes, so you tin can focus on populating your site with high-quality content.

With the WordPress.com Pro programme, you tin can install plugins to adapt your website to suit any purpose. Whether you desire to create a profitable blog, a non-profit site, an online store, or an e-learning platform – WordPress.com can make your website dreams a reality.

But, one time you lot're prepare to launch, don't forget to continuously optimize your site for SEO and bulldoze traffic using a thoughtful content and social media marketing strategy.

And then, having read this blog post, are you ready to create your own website? If so, sign upwards to WordPress.com for complimentary today to become started!