Building your website is a no brainer these days. Among tens of website builder, we have a powerful content management system - WordPress. It gives you control over your data, design and functionality. Above all, it’s easy to use and learn with it’s large community.
What this post is NOT about?
Let’s clear up a few things before we get started. This post is NOT
- A step-by-step guide to building a WordPress website
- An idiot’s guide to build a $5000/month business
- The definitive guide to be a WordPress Rockstar/Ninja/Champion/Geek or how about Entrepreneur, huh?
- A list of how-tos and tutorials from the web
- A collection of best WordPress e-boooks
As Benjamin Franklin has said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”. In this article we’ll share some basic tips that will turn you from beginner to a WordPress website builder. Yes, we call it “builder” - the one who builds WordPress websites.
1. Learn WordPress
WordPress can be used for anything from a personal blog to an eCommerce website. Understanding it’s functionality will help you in long run.
DIY is the best way to learn. Just install WordPress on local host and build your own website. Keep experimenting WordPress by creating pages, posts, install themes and plugins etc.
You can check our WordPress Guide for more basics of WordPress like how to create WordPress posts, pages, categories etc.
EasyWPGuide is a fantastic resource for absolute beginners. It’s an in-depth guide available for FREE Download.
First Site Guide is another amazing site where you’ll find free step-by-step guides to start personal/commercial blogs.
You can also head over to our last post about the greatest WordPress resources blogs to follow. These tutorial websites will help you to learn WordPress from basic to advanced level.
2. Explore WordPress
Now it’s time to explore WordPress. Once you’ve setup your WP website on localhost, read more about WordPress, its functionalities, plugins and themes.
As per your need start browsing and adding some best free and premium plugin to add more functionality to your WP website.
We’ve posted some of the common WordPress plugins that you should add on your WordPress website like Contact Form plugin, slider plugin, gallery plugin, security plugin etc. You can check our plugins guide to find out interesting WordPress plugins.
Similarly browse the web to find for various kind of themes like business themes, blogging themes, e-Commerce themes etc. to change the look and feel of your website.
You can find business themes, e-Commerce themes etc. here that suits your business identity. This will give you sneak peek into various kind of websites that can be easily build with WordPress.
3. Go online with WordPress
After trying out WordPress on your computer, playing around with it, let’s go live! It’s always exciting to setup your first website on the internet.
You need a web hosting and a domain name to setup your website. A real website.
Recommended Web Host: SiteGround
Recommended Domain Name Provider: 1and1.com & NameCheap
You can move your WordPress site from your computer to your web server. Or build a new site from scratch directly on the server. If you wish to go with first option, then follow the link below:
Check: How to Move WordPress From Local Server to Live Site
4. Troubleshoot WordPress
Now that you have a scooter, why not understand the troubleshooting basics? So that you don’t have to look up to mechanic for minor issues.
Sometimes WordPress can drive us crazy! Whether its the white screen of death, plugin issue or server issue which crashes your site, it’s never fun.
Most common WP errors include internal server error, error establishing a database connection, HTTP error 403- Forbidden etc. Check out a list of other common WP errors and their solutions here.
So it is important for you to know common issues or errors in WordPress and find out their solutions. So if anything goes wrong, you will be aware with the issue or error.
If you need paid help, you can make use of our premium WordPress maintenance & support service - WP Troubleshooter
5. Learn Basics of HTML and CSS
HMTL/CSS is the language of web. This is what makes a site beautiful (or ugly sometimes).
Head over to Codeacademy to start learning HTML and CSS. They have a bunch of interactive tutorials. And I am sure you will be able to understand the basics.
After this, you will be able to tweak your WordPress site’s styling. It’s not recommended to dig into PHP files and start modifying the theme. Instead, you can use a Custom CSS Plugin and play with the theme’s styling. Want to go a step further? Hold on while we work on building an excellent tutorial for you!
6. Theme Customization
Theme controls the look and feel of your site. With theme customization you can take your WP website to the next level.
You just need to learn some basic concepts of HTML and CSS and applying them when you want to customize your theme. As mentioned above, you can learn basic HTML/CSS from Codeacademy.
It is recommended to avoid making changes to themes directly.
Yay! You are Web Builder Now!
No. Wait. You can be a web builder only if you follow these tips dedicatedly. Perfection comes only after practice. Though building a website with WordPress is easy, it’s not the only thing you need to know. If you’re consistently learning new things about WordPress and implement them successfully then it will definitely help you in long run.
These two articles will help you build a better WordPress website:
Check: 22 important things you should know before installing WordPress