In this article, I am going to talk about how to build a WordPress site from scratch. To be honest, WordPress is not my favorite when I first started out online in 2008. Blogger is.
However in the wake of Google changes and listening to other successful marketers be it their videos, webinars and courses, I acknowledged I was wrong and decided to learn how to build WordPress sites despite the fact that it took me 3 years from 2010 – 2013 since I was a slow learner and non-technical person when it comes to web design.
With that said, here are my 17 steps on not just how to build a site but the one that Google and most searches want to see.
1. Upon installing the WordPress into my domain I connected to my hosting, the first thing I will do is to take note and save my login details to the admin dashboard before actually logging in.
2. Next, I will look for General Settings. Under it, I will delete the words Just Another WordPress Blog from it.
3. The third thing I will do is to go to permalinks and type in the characters /%postname%. This is so that my page and post will look like domainname.com/topic-of-whatever-you-want-to-write rather than domainname.com/?=id=1234 which looks like spam link in Google eyes.
4. I will change the default Uncategorized into Articles under Categories.
5. I will convert Hello World into a Welcome To Site post in which I will add the message on welcoming my web visitors before telling them what my site is all about and what they can learn from them.
6. I will transform Sample Page into About Page. Here I will share briefly about myself as in my background, what I do and why I build this particular site.
7. Once that is done, I will proceed to Plugins. Except for Akismet which I will activate to prevent visitors from spamming, I will delete the rest before the adding my replacements as in All-In-One SEO Pack, CKEditor For WordPress, Contact Form 7, Pretty Link Lite and WP Super Cache.
8. Upon activating those, I will head down to All-In-One SEO Pack to add heading, brief description and keywords. This will be shown in Google results when someone type in those keywords to look for answers.
9. CKEditor For WordPress is optional but I choose this since I do not like the default editor which does not provide the option for you to change font size and style.
10. Contact Form 7 is for me to create the box for visitors to type in their name, email and any feedback or questions they may have about my membership course
11. Pretty Link Lite is for cloaking my affiliate links so that it looks more presentable like mydomainname.com/name-of-product-or-service-I-recommend instead of the long ugly one you see in most marketplaces such as ClickBank.
But if I am creating and recommending my own products, that will not be necessary.
12. WP Super Cache is to enable the site to load faster.
13. Once I got the plugins done, I will proceed to Themes under Appearances. The type of theme I have in mind is the one with image sliders and three columns representing one sub-topic within the main topic site.
In the past, I could have gone for free elegant themes but now I prefer Ink Themes as they are more affordable and I know the owner well since I am his regular customer as compared to say Theme Forest.
14. After installing the theme, I will learn to do the necessary configurations to enhance my site look.
15. I will then go to Widgets and delete the unnecessary ones. They are what will be displayed on my sidebar. The ones I want and have in mind are HTML text for inputting banner codes and recent posts.
16. Finally I will create the top and bottom menu while at the same time adding new categories. I do not know about you but my standard site navigation menu consists of Home, About, Topics, Articles, Products and Contact Us pages.
17. Once I got this whole structure set up and ready, I am ready to add in more posts and pages.
