WordPress is the fastest growing and most used blogging CMS around the globe with millions of users and billions of daily reader. It gives you the flexibility to create a simple blog or a fully functional e-commerce store, limit is your thinking. So, if you are deciding to create a blog this is a quick and complete guide.
Why Choose WordPress?
This question may pop-up in your mind while deciding about your next blogging CMS. The answer is quite simple: WordPress is the best! But to further eliminate your concern here are few quick points:
Versatility
WordPress is the most versatile platform you will ever find. It gives you the ability to create whatever you want and more over you can add functionalities on the go through wordpress plugins.
A wordpress plugin is type of add-on which adds a certain feature in your site without bothering you to change the entire site code.
Community
Since wordpress is the most famous CMS it has well established community of thousands of developers which can help you if you are in trouble or want to seek guidance about something.
Since the community is such large, you can easily find tutorials, lectures and courses to enhance your wordpress related skills. You can also find the developers which are ready to fix, create or update your wordpress site at very economical rate.
Themes and Plugins
Themes are ready made wordpress site templates that you can use to create your site without writing even a single line of code. More over professional themes are fully customizeable, meaning that you can modify your site according to your taste and requirements and that too without writing a single line of code.
There are well known marketplaces where you can find wordpress themes and plugins at very economical price. Or you can hire someone to create a custom theme for you. Some famous marketplaces are Themeforest (for themes) and Codecanyon (for plugins).
Plugins are piece of code that you can install in your wordpress site to enhance performance, security or functionality. There are tons of free as well as paid plugins available that you can use to:
- Create Contact Forms
- SEO Optimize Your Site
- Enhance Security
- Implement SSL
- Secure Your Site
Here is a list of must have plugins for your wordpress blog.
Security
WordPress is secure and safe. It has built in feature that can save you from brute force attack and malicious login attempts etc. Moreover wordpress is being updated continuously, and with every update comes the security fixes and more enhancements.
Enough with benefits of creating your wordpress blog. Lets dive into the procedure.
Creating Your WordPress Blog
To get started you will need a Domain name and a hosting.
If you are struggling on how to find an effective domain name here is a complete guide on how to choose a catchy and effective domain name.
Once you have purchased domain and hosting login to your cpanel. You will find the cPanel login details inside the email that hosting provider sent you.
Once you are logged into cPanel there are two ways to install wordpress.
1. Easy Method
Look for Softaculous Apps Installer in your cPanel dashboard. If you find it click on it else skip this method and go to method two.
Clicking on App Installer will take you to a new page where you will several apps listed. Hover Over WordPress and click Install.
On the next page against the “Choose URL” field select the domain name against which you need to install the wordpress.
Site Settings
In the “Site Settings” tab insert the Site Name say your site name is AskShafan or whatever. Next goes the tagline: ONE Stop Solution for Your Every Problem.
Don’t check the multisite option.
Admin Account
Under the admin account tab select a username and password. These details will be used to login to your WordPress dashboard every time you need to update, add or delete something from your site.
You also need to enter a valid email address. This email address will be used to reset the password in case you forget it.
Keep rest of the settings as it is but Under Select Plugins Tab uncheck all the fields.
And finally at the end click INSTALL.
This will take a while but once ready it will show you the admin link of your WordPress site it will be something like yourdomain.com/wp-admin. Save it or remember it by heart.
2. Manual Method
If you don’t find Softacolous Apps Installer in your dashboard don’t worry there is a manual method to install wordpress as well.
First go to WordPress.org and download the latest copy of wordpress.
Uploading WordPress
Now login to your cPanel and go to File Manager > Public_HTML (or your domain root folder) > Click Upload and start uploading the wordpress file you just downloaded.
Once uploaded go to your root domain folder (typically PUBLIC_HTML) and there you will see the file you just uploaded. Right click on it and extract the files.
Refresh the directory by clicking Reload.
There you will see all the extracted files. If your files doesn’t appear there than there should be a folder with same name as your wordpress file. Go to this directory and select all files inside it by clicking SELECT ALL (just beside Reload).
Now click Move (highlighted in Yellow) from the top menu and remove the word WordPress(highlighted in Blue) from the pop-up that appears.
Click Move Files.
Click One Level Up (this will take you to root directory).
Installing WordPress
Now enter your domain name in browser’s address bar (yourdomain.com). A new page will appear. Select English as your language (or any else you want to choose).
Click Continue!
Click Let’s Go!
Now again go to your cPanel dashboard and find “MySQL® Database Wizard” open the wizard.
Input your new Database name. Say (DomainDataBase) and click Next Step.
Enter Database username (can be your name or any abstract name) and enter password. Click Create User.
Remember all these credentials we will need it later.
On the next page check “ALL PRIVILEGES” checkbox and click Next Step.
Now go back to your website and fill-in all the details. Your Database Host is localhost and Table Prefix: either leave as it is or change it with your own.
Click Install and than Run Installation.
Site Details
Site Title is typically your DomainName but can be different. Username and password will be used to login to your WordPress Dashboard so remember these as well. Enter a valid email that you can access because it will be used to reset password in case you forget it.
Click Install WordPress!
Congratulations your WordPress blog is ready now you can start posting and using your site.
You can access your WordPress dashboard by visiting yourdomain.com/wp-admin or /wp-login.
Installing Theme
Though WordPress come with a default theme but it is not much professional and attractive. So, I would suggest either to buy your own theme from ThemeForest (they have quality themes) or download this free theme.
Now go to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme
Now browse the theme you just downloaded and click Install Now!
On the Next Page Click Activate!
Tada…………..! Your WordPress Blog is ready!
Customizing Your WordPress Blog
Now that you have setup your blog successfully it’s time to start customizing it to give it a professional touch.
For this purpose go to Appearance > Customize > Theme Settings
Favicon: It is the little icon that shows in the browser address bar. It should be 512×512 px.
Primary Color: Main color of the site. You can easily change it by clicking on the color picker.
Keep Rest of the options as it is.
Scroll Down and add your social profile links (optional) and check the box “Display social icons on site header“. At the end you can change the footer copyright text. Simply remove all the text there and type in “© 2019 All Rights Reserved – SiteName“.
Close the customizer.
Setting Pretty Permalinks
Pretty permalinks, as the name suggests are the links which can be easily remembered. WordPress gives you several permalink structure options to choose from but recommended are the Pretty Permalinks.
To setup pretty permalinks goto Settings > Permalinks
Select Post Name as your permalink structure. In the Category Base field input category and in Tag Base field input Tag.
Adding Post to Your WordPress Blog
Want to publish an article? It’s simple as ABC.
Go to Posts > Add New and start writing.
Title is the topic of your post. Add a catchy title so user clicks and reads your post.
In the Right Sidebar click on Categories Dropdown and click Add New Category type in Category name and click Add New Category Button.
Similarly in the tag field you can add relevant tags.
Featured image is the image that will appear as the thumbnail in your site as well as when you share the post on social media.
After you have written your post click Publish in the upper right corner of the dashboard.
That’s all. You have successfully setup your WordPress blog.
Need further guide? Check out these WordPress Basics tutorials.
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