Unlock Your Creativity: Building Your Own WordPress Site Made Simple

1. Introduction

This section will define what a WordPress theme is and will go into detail about the layout and the static aspects of a WordPress theme. This will be done so when you get onto coding a WordPress theme, you have a better understanding of what each bit does. This section will also show you how to structure the files in your theme to make it easier to navigate when you come to coding the theme. The WordPress core ships with two default themes, these are located in wp-content/themes. Using these core themes, the codex and other WordPress resources to learn from may give you a better understanding of how to create a theme. This section will use the default themes as examples to teach you how to theme. Finally, this section will also focus on images in WordPress themes, which is a topic that is often overlooked. I will show you how to add images to your themes and also how to create an image-rich site using WordPress.

2. Understanding WordPress

WordPress, a highly versatile open source software, is free to use and it allows you to build and maintain a website or blog on your own. Originally intended to meet the needs of the average internet user, WordPress soon became a powerful tool for creating and designing. With countless themes and plugins available, WordPress users can create and customize their website to their heart’s desire. In this modern day and age, a good looking website is no longer considered a luxury. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home”. This number is an impressive testament to the level of features and flexibility WordPress offers.

The beauty of WordPress is that it can be used for such a wide variety of websites. Whether you are a blogger who writes on various topics or a small business that needs a reliable web presence, WordPress can work for you. There are free WordPress themes and plugins that have been specifically designed for all types of websites. The versatility of WordPress also allows you to have multiple users for one site. This is perfect for a small company or a group of people working on a joint project. And to top it off, WordPress has mobile applications so that you can manage your site while on the go. With all of these great features and the many more I have not mentioned, it is easy to see why so many are choosing WordPress.

2.1. Benefits of Using WordPress

Contrary to many beliefs, using WordPress is a very cost-effective way of maintaining a website. With the capability to manage, maintain, update, or edit your own content, there is no need to continually employ a designer to make updates for you. Although WordPress is free to use, many corporations and individuals may consider it as being too simplistic. It is, in fact, highly versatile and is used as a content management system (CMS) by millions of people and businesses, including famous universities, large corporations, and celebrities. While using WordPress, there have been many occasions where a static site has been converted to WordPress, enabling it to be maintained more effectively. This, in itself, shows that using WordPress can save on costs of employing a designer to manually update or revamp a static site, plus it’s much less time-consuming.

2.2. Exploring WordPress Features

Beyond the refreshed interface, WordPress has now concentrated on the admin bar that appears on the front end of your website. The bar that only appeared when an admin was logged in had limited functionality. Now, it appears by default for all logged-in users and has the potential of providing more useful content. In 3.3, the Admin bar is now fully extendable, adding tools and options through custom plugins, and a new query that will allow the location of content from the context in which it appears. This is the start of a feature that is now being updated in the current version of WordPress 3.4. Now the admin bar is responsive in the admin area (meaning it will disappear when scrolling down the page to gain more screen real estate) and the front-end admin bar is improved to be more useful to users while remaining consistent. The development of the admin bar is a major feature that will still be worked on and updated in current versions to improve ease of access to administrative tasks.

WordPress has evolved over the years from its inception. With only a blogging platform, it has given birth to various updates and features that have enabled users to create fully functional websites online. One of the recent updates to the platform was a refreshed WP Admin interface. The new design exudes a simpler, less cluttered feel while managing your build a wordpress site. Some things that played a key role in the development of this new interface were numerous rounds of user testing, development of a clearer mental model by analyzing user behavior, and the development of a functional prototype (sometimes paper/whiteboard based) of new features to gain a better understanding of how users would expect things to work. This new design will surely make managing your site quicker and easier.

2.3. Choosing the Right WordPress Plan

At this point, you may be fairly sold on the benefits of WordPress and recognize that the free version of the content management system would be ideal for you. WordPress’ main website lists every one of the features available from the free system through an extensive chart that allows you to compare the free version on the paid upgrades while offering a method to further compare each feature. The upgrade features at WordPress.com range anywhere from more space for storage and no more ads on your page to the opportunity to have high grade quality video revealed.
The first paid upgrade is frequently regarded as a steal. For $99 a year you possibly can a video press upgrade to make certain that you may have an opportunity to embed videos on the site that are hosted through other services such as YouTube or Vimeo. Now depending on what you would like to carry out with your site by using video this can or definitely won’t be a beneficial upgrade on your behalf but at merely a buck a week the benefit can be significant.

3. Getting Started with WordPress

Registering your personal domain and purchasing a hosting package is the first step. A domain is the web address that you would type into the search bar to visit your site, and hosting is the server space where your site files will be stored. Domain prices vary, but typically you should expect to pay around $15/year, and the cost of hosting will vary based on the specifications of the hosting package that you select. I recommend using HostGator for hosting, as they have a simple WordPress installation process, and they offer unlimited hosting suitable for individuals beginning a new site, with prices starting at around $4/month when purchasing a 3-year package. If you would like to explore other hosting options, another popular choice is BlueHost. During the registration for hosting, you will be prompted to register a domain. After completing your registration, you should receive information from your hosting provider that includes a link to your hosting control panel, an FTP address, username, and password used to access your server using an FTP client, and the nameserver information that you will need to provide when you register your domain. Save this email! We will refer back to it later. Installing WordPress is very simple, and many hosting providers also provide 1-click WordPress installation tools. If your hosting provider does not offer an automatic installation option, or if you would prefer to install it yourself, refer to the Codex for a manual installation guide. Upon completion of installation, your domain will be linked to the location where WordPress is installed. This process is easily tested by adding “/wp-admin” to the end of your domain. If WordPress was installed to [Link], that is where you would go to access your WordPress blog.

3.1. Setting Up Your Domain and Hosting

Professional domain and web hosting are keys to offer a sleek and consistent website to the visitors. Usually, a lot of free hosting facilities prohibit using one’s own domain name. What is the domain name? Well, the common description of a domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control on the Internet. A domain is an essential part of giving credibility to a website. Sticking to a free domain for too long will result negatively for the business or identity one is trying to promote. It usually discourages the user from coming as the website is seen as not serious, trying to get away with free stuff.

Once you’ve registered your own domain, signing up for a web hosting account is like renting a room or a piece of land to build a house. There are two types of hosting servers: Windows and Unix-based. If you’re planning to use PHP, MySQL, or Perl, then it’s recommended that you use a Unix server. On the other hand, if your website is designed using ASP, Access database, MSSQL, or VB development environment, a Windows server will be a better choice. Prices vary from each service provider, so it is recommended to do research before selecting the right web hosting for your needs. Other than that, it is a common practice that newer web designers sign up for a reseller hosting package. This is usually due to the large disk space and bandwidth provided compared to a shared hosting package with almost the same price. One thing to note is that the reseller package is designed for reselling only, so if you do not plan to sell hosting services, it is not recommended to stick too long with this type of package.

3.2. Installing WordPress

Before we delve into installing WordPress, it is important for you to understand what web server serves as a platform for WordPress.org. It is a HTML, CSS and PHP project. The reason I say this is simply because you need to ensure your server has PHP and MySQL support to enable you to run WordPress. These features are the bare bone essentials for running WordPress. If you are unsure whether your server supports these features, contact your server administrator or hosting company. They should be able to inform you accordingly.

The actual process of installing WordPress is fairly simple. Many web hosting companies provide users with a fully automated install. If you wish to do it yourself, WordPress can be downloaded from WordPress.org. Download the .zip file and then extract all the files. You then need to upload these files to your web server into a file directory where you would like your WordPress installed, for example, public_HTML. Once these files are uploaded, go to your web server’s directory and locate a file called ‘wp-config-sample.php’. This file is the sample configuration file. Open this file using a text editor and edit the database information with your MySQL database and username. Save this file as ‘wp-config.php’ and then run wp-admin/install.php. This should then load the WordPress installation. All you need to do now is fill in some information about your site and you’re up and running with your WordPress website!

The information so far tends to suit more advanced users. For those who are more inclined to using control panel based apps, there are a series of apps which perform click and install services. An example of one of these apps is Fantastico. These apps create a series of files which perform the entire installation automatically for you. With just a couple of clicks, your WordPress will be fully installed.

3.3. Navigating the WordPress Dashboard

From here, WordPress practically takes the reins. Once installation is complete, you can navigate to your blog by logging into the WordPress dashboard using the details you provided during installation. Upon logging in, you will have access to a vast array of features for customizing your WordPress site exactly as you envisioned. In order to access a majority of these features, you will want to focus your attention to the column to the left of your screen. This is where the tabs are located. The first tab is labeled Home and is often referred to as the “Dashboard”. This is typically the default page after logging in and to be honest, it is a good starting point. It is a general overview of your blog and is split up into certain modules which can help you monitor your blog’s activity and performance. I will not go into all the details but a couple of the modules include a WordPress and server information summary as well as a recent activity module which shows what the most recent changes to your blog are, including what posts have been made, what pages have been added, as well as what links have been created and/or deleted.

4. Designing Your WordPress Site

Having decided on the look and feel of your site, it’s time to make that vision a reality. In this section, we’ll be exploring the WordPress Theme System from a site owner’s perspective. We’ll take a look at how to find and install a theme, activate and preview it, and how to customize your theme with the theme customization API. With a solid understanding of themes, we’ll begin to work on more advanced customization through the use of child themes. Finally, we’ll go through a comprehensive guide on theme security and accessibility.

Before you select a theme, however, there are a few things you’ll need to consider. Understand what your site is about, who it’s aimed at, what you’d like to achieve from it. This information will be crucial when looking at theme features such as the color scheme, column or page layout, and the relative importance and placement of design items such as the header and navigation menu. If you’re not sure, try writing a list of what you’d like from your site and referring back to it as you look through themes.

There’s a number of places where you can find a WordPress theme. The official WordPress.org themes directory is a great place to start. All themes in this directory have been checked and meet certain quality guidelines. They are free to download, and it’s easy to see which themes are compatible with the latest version of WordPress. If you’re after something a little more professional or of a specific niche, you might like to try a Google search or browse one of the theme shops out there. Finally, if you have a clear idea of what you’d like and the money to spend, you might consider hiring a web designer to build a custom theme for you.

4.1. Choosing a Theme

There are thousands of free and premium themes available on the web for WordPress sites. A theme is the overall design or template of your site. It will produce your site’s appearance. A great theme can also add great design to poor content, while a poor theme can detract from great content. Considering the thing that your theme represents the elements of your site’s look and feel, this should be a step handled with great care.

The main benefits of free themes are the cost, and of course, many are very nice, high-quality themes, although there are also plenty of low-quality themes. Many free themes are released by the designer simply for the sake of their own satisfaction or as a way to build a link portfolio by having a couple links within the theme, in order to later obtain higher paying work. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for a quality free theme to suddenly disappear with no warning or become unsupported. If you find one you like, it’s always a good idea to download and save it to your computer, although this can also be dangerous if the theme has vulnerabilities from poor code. Always be cautious of your theme sources.

4.2. Customizing Your Site’s Appearance

When customizing your WordPress site, it’s important to understand that every theme is different. As we covered earlier, themes control the overall design of your site. To give you more control over the different design elements, some themes have additional customization options built-in. These can be found by going to Appearance -> Customize in the admin panel. If you don’t see this option, it means your theme doesn’t have extra customization options and you will need to edit the theme’s files directly, which we’ll cover more in the next section.

In the customize menu, you will see a left panel with different options allowing you to change various things like the colors, layout, and content being displayed. As you make changes, you will see them being reflected live on a preview of your site on the right. This is a great way to experiment with different changes and see the results before making them live on your site. If you decide you don’t want to keep a change, simply click the X button next to a specific change, or click the discard button at the top to go back to how things were. If you do like the changes, click save and they will go live on your site.

Changing your site’s header image can be done by going to Appearance -> Header. An easy way to make your site look more professional is by adding a custom logo. This can usually be done by going to Appearance -> Logo. Finally, you can often change the background image and color by going to Appearance -> Background.

4.3. Adding and Managing Plugins

Plugins are a feature that can add various kinds of additional functionality to your WordPress site. If you need a specific feature or function on your site, there is a very good chance that a plugin will allow you to do it. They are generally very quick and easy to install and can be activated/deactivated as and when required.

WordPress Plugins are simply files in a folder, they don’t do anything until they are activated in the WordPress dashboard. Depending on what the plugin is designed to do, it will add menu items to the admin panel and may also add features to the existing admin panels. Some plugins may add a widget or add a feature to existing widgets. Plugins can also add features to the front end of the site. Once you know how to manage and add plugins, you will find it a very easy and quick way to add site features.

On your WordPress admin panel, find “Add New” under the “Plugins” menu. This is the plugin installation functionality provided in WordPress and is the easiest way to add a new plugin. You can install a plugin without ever leaving your admin area.

5. Creating Content on WordPress

When it comes to creating content on WordPress, the good news is, it’s incredibly easy to use. WordPress was originally created as a blogging platform and even though it’s now robust enough to be used to create websites of all types, it’s still very simple to add a new post. Follow these steps to create a new post:

– Log in to your WordPress Administration Panel (Dashboard). – Click the ‘Posts’ tab. – Click the ‘Add New’ sub-tab. – Start filling in the blank spaces.

WordPress also has a powerful feature known as “Post Formats” which allows you to use a variety of different types of content such as video, quotes, links, audio, and image galleries. This tab is found on the left-hand side of the Post Editor. This feature isn’t on by all themes (you may need to add it to your functions.php file) but it’s a nice addition for sites that plan to post a variety of different types of content.

5.1. Understanding Post and Page Types

Now that you have a solid understanding of the layout of WordPress and the various tools and settings on the dashboard, it’s time to create some content! This section will teach you how to use each of the different content creation tools and settings. In this part of the lesson, you will learn about the WordPress post editor screen and be comfortable using all of the different editing tools. After you have created and edited some content, you will be shown how to use the content management features and publish your content in WordPress. Step-by-step tutorial on using the WordPress post editor screen to write, edit, and publish posts. This part of the lesson will teach you all of the WordPress content management features.

Posts are the entries that display in reverse chronological order on your home page. In contrast to pages, posts usually have comments fields beneath them and are included in your site’s RSS feed. A post is basically an article and contains information, news, updates, etc. A good way to think of it is that posts are generally news or information, and pages are static and timeless. A page is a static entry and is not an article; it contains information and will remain unchanged. An “About Us” page, contact page, or privacy policy page are good examples of pages.

5.2. Writing and Formatting Blog Posts

Begin by navigating to the “Posts” section of your WordPress Dashboard, and then click on “Add New.” This will bring you to an interface that resembles Microsoft Word or other word processing programs. The first box is where you will input the title of your post, and the second is where you will actually write the body of your post. If you would like to add images to your post, you can click on the “Add an Image” button. Once you click on an image, a new window will open asking you to browse your computer to find the image you would like to use. After you upload your image, you will be given the opportunity to give it a title, caption, alternate text, and description.

It is good to always fill these out to increase your keyword density, and also to give your readers a better understanding of what the image is about. The most recent version of WordPress also includes a great feature which is the autosave, it will automatically save your post for every 2 minutes, so you don’t have to worry if your computer crashes or there is a power outage. The next time you log into your admin section, you will be asked if you would like to restore your last saved post. At this point, you will also notice there is a Post Slug (which is the link to your post), you may change the last part of the URL. When you type the part after the .com, that part is called the “post-slug”. Now press on the “Preview” button to see how your post looks. Always remember to click on “Save Draft” every now and then while making a post. This is to ensure that your new post gets saved.

5.3. Creating Engaging Pages

Creating engaging pages on your WordPress site is essential to attracting viewers, prompting them to stay or return, as well as enticing them to explore and take action on your site. Strong pages may contribute to your site in a number of ways. They can be a source of traffic from search engines and other sites, a means to better organize your posts for easy access and increased reading, or as a landing place to encourage a desired action from the reader. Creating an engaging page is not all that much different than creating a compelling post, although many choose to use static pages and thus miss out on the opportunity to enhance their site with keyword-rich content around a targeted topic.

The main elements in creating a compelling page are in providing great, useful content and doing so in a manner that will help your reader to understand, find, and absorb that content easily. The structure and consistency of your page will be more important in engaging your reader. This can be accomplished with an effective use of page hierarchy, giving a clear indication of the importance of certain page elements with the use of headline styles and other typographic elements. Remember, pages are not posts. Often times, a great page will only have a small amount of content. Don’t try to pad it, simply ensure that the message is clear and well conveyed. A page may comprise any number of different types of information and multimedia. Bringing that information to life with the effective use of multimedia can better engage the reader.

6. Managing Your WordPress Site

Site performance and SEO are important because it allows the customers to navigate easily and it will help increase your site traffic. But it is important that you monitor and analyze your traffic to understand the behavior of your visitors. By understanding the behavior of your visitors, you will be able to improve and make changes to your site that best suit your customers. You can use Google Analytics to monitor your site traffic. It provides tons of information about your site visitors like the keywords they used to find your website, their geographical location, the referral sources, the time they spent on your website and more. After understanding the behavior of your visitors, you will need to make changes to your site to improve your customers’ experience. For example, if you have a high bounce rate, it means that the visitors are leaving your site from the landing page. If you have this sort of issue, it means that the first impression of your site is not too appealing. This requires you to work on the design of the landing page or a better call to action. With Google Analytics, there are many more ways to improve your site and you can learn about it here.

6.1. Optimizing Site Performance

This is a non-optional task! It should be included in the very first phase and is an ongoing one. Users are eager to see what you have to offer, but not so eager that they will wait more than a few seconds! The slower your site, the less visitors will want to stay or return. Google takes site speed into account when ranking sites. A faster site will rank higher. This does not mean you have to cut out all images and animations, but it does mean you should find the right balance between aesthetics and load time. Updating your site regularly, especially WordPress and your plugins, should keep everything running smoothly. Out-of-date versions are more vulnerable to hacking. But major updates could break something on your site, such as a plugin not being compatible with the newest version of WordPress. For that reason, it may be wise to wait a little bit on major updates. When you do decide to run an update, be sure to back up your site first.

6.2. Implementing SEO Strategies

Now that you’ve got some great content on your website and plenty of content to engage your visitors, you can work on increasing your traffic. It’s often difficult to gain traffic right away through advertising, especially if you have a limited budget. If you can get your site to rank well on the major search engines, you will get a lot of free traffic from people who are searching for the exact information that you have. People landing on sites from search engines have a mindset already that they are looking for information on a certain topic. If they find the information on your site to be what they are looking for, they are more likely to buy something, click on an ad, or become a regular visitor.

Search engines use programs called spiders which use algorithms to determine how to rank a page for specific search terms. (For example: your page about dogs would be ranked for the search term “dog” or “types of dogs” etc.) The search terms are referred to as keywords. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of designing web pages and content to rank as high as possible in search engines for specific keywords. SEO can be divided into two main areas. Offsite optimization which is the process of obtaining links from other websites to your site, and onsite optimization which is the process of adding keyword optimized content and adjusting meta tags. For the full beginner’s guide to SEO, read there.

An often overlooked strategy when building a site is to keep the SEO strategies in mind while you’re building it! This will save you from having to go back and change a bunch of content. Ensure that your URLs for your posts and pages are text-based and a good representation of the content. For example, you can change the permalink to this post by clicking the edit button next to it. A search engine friendly and user-friendly URL would be something like mysite.com/types-of-dogs. A URL like mysite.com/?p=332 is much less appealing. This can also be changed under permalinks in the WordPress settings.

6.3. Monitoring and Analyzing Site Traffic

A good method for increasing the traffic to one’s site is learning how and what methods work, and the only way to do so is by monitoring the traffic that comes to the site. Monitoring site traffic involves tracking who is coming to the site, what they are looking at, and how they are getting there. This can be easily done using a free service, Google Analytics. By signing up for Google Analytics, you are given an HTML code to put on your site which will collect various information and display it in an easy-to-read format on your Google Analytics account. Google Analytics does not only show you how many people are visiting your site, but where they are coming from and what keywords are leading them to your site. This is very important information as it will show you how successful your SEO strategies are. If you are getting most of your visitors from a certain article you posted on a forum, you may want to consider doing that more often. If you notice most of your traffic is directed from a certain search engine, you will want to focus your SEO strategies on the keywords used in that search engine. By knowing what is already drawing people to your site, you can get a better idea of what to focus on in the future.

7. Maintaining and Updating Your Site

Backing up your WordPress site regularly is the best thing you can do for it. This should be your first priority. The most effective backup method is to manually export the database and FTP all your site files to your local hard drive. There are plugins available that can help automate the backup process, however, they should not be fully relied on to restore your site if you encounter serious problems. If your site is large, you may need to sustain a backup strategy that involves daily and weekly backups. Data loss is avoidable if you have a recent copy of everything. It’s worth setting a diary reminder to prompt you to backup your site to make sure it’s done consistently.

WordPress has an excellent track record when it comes to software updates. There may be several updates per month, so it can be vital to keep on top of this. When new versions are available, a message will appear at the top of your dashboard. It’s important to update WordPress as soon as possible after the new release, as the longer you leave it, the more susceptible your site will be to security breaches and errors. Plugin updates should also be done when they are available. If you find that a new WordPress version conflicts with your current theme or plugins, check for updates to these before deciding to revert back to an older WordPress installation.

7.1. Backing Up Your WordPress Site

Whether you are running a personal blog or a business site, it is crucial to regularly back up your WordPress content to prevent any data loss. While WordPress is a relatively stable system, it’s always best to cover your bases. There are a few easy methods which WordPress users can employ to back up their content. This article will cover a few of these methods.

The most obvious method of backing up your content is to use the export tool located in the WordPress dashboard under tools. This allows you to export (in the form of a .xml file) your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags. This may not necessarily backup your WordPress database, but it does give you a file which can be imported into most other content management systems.

Another easy way to back up your content is by using a plugin. There are a number of WordPress backup plugins available, however some of them may be outdated or may not create a complete backup. One recommended backup plugin is VaultPress, a subscription-based service (from the creators of WordPress) which can automatically backup your content and restore it with just a few clicks. Another plugin is UpdraftPlus, which allows you to create a complete backup and manually send the backup file to a cloud storage service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or email.

7.2. Updating WordPress and Plugins

At any time in the life of your WordPress site, there are going to be updates available for your site, themes, and plugins. In some cases, you may need to initiate the update yourself. It is important to always ensure that your WordPress version, your theme, and all plugins are up to date. It is also important to note that not all available updates are going to be compatible with your current version of WordPress. When this is the case, it is safe to say that it would be best to hold off on the upgrade until WordPress and the plugin or theme in question become more compatible. This gives us two questions to answer: why is it important to regularly update WordPress, themes, and plugins? And how do we define compatibility and find out if an update is or will be compatible? The WordPress software itself is updated regularly. These updates are at times for security reasons, at other times to fix bugs and improve general functionality. It is because of this that it is important to make sure that we are always running the latest, most stable version of WordPress. Failure to do so leaves your site at risk of being hacked. It also leaves it open to problems with glitches or malfunctions that have been enabled and then fixed in the new WordPress version.

7.3. Troubleshooting Common Issues

When you run into a problem with your WordPress site, the solution might be simple. A good rule of thumb for troubleshooting is to start with the most obvious, common problems first. Often times, you may not need to look much further. If you’ve recently added new software or a piece of code to your site, it’s probably a good idea to start there. Often times, new software will break something else and this is usually the case with WordPress. Plugins are a great example. At times, new plugins will not be compatible with others. This will cause a chain reaction of problems on your site, everything from the admin not displaying properly to the whole site failing to load. If you know what the last thing you added to your site was, try removing it and see if the problem goes away. Chances are, this was the cause.

TIP: Before you start troubleshooting issues on your site, always make sure you have the latest backup. This could save you many headaches in the near future. There are several services that offer backup plugins or you can use a simple backup service such as VaultPress. Always make sure your solution is compatible with your current version of WordPress. This is a common reason people run into trouble with their website. If you are using a very outdated version of WordPress or an old plugin, eventually this will lead to problems. With how often WordPress updates, it’s best to always be using the most recent version, this is same for your theme and other software as well. If you have confirmed you are using all up to date software, and the problem persists after disabling the latest addition to your site, it might be time to seek help from a WordPress professional.

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