Plus, creating a website without a plan is a recipe for frustration and slow progress. With your installation complete, it’s time to set up WordPress so it will work the way you want it to work. With this information and your plan, it’s time to install WordPress.
Without upgrading to a paid plan, you’ll be unable to use custom themes, upload plugins, or run your own ads. You’re also stuck with the web traffic stats from the WordPress Dashboard, as there’s no way to install Google Analytics or another tracker without a business plan. The tools section of what is wordpress used for the dashboard offer features to manage and maintain your site. The next set of tools allows you to add pages to your website. Although pages are created much like posts, there are some differences. These pages will appear in the main navigation, allowing visitors to browse your content easily.
Step one – Read
With WordPress.org, you’ll need to find a hosting provider before your website can go live. WordPress.com already acts as a hosting provider, meaning you can design your website and have it running in minutes—without having to worry about back-end details. While this second option may seem more appealing, there are some limitations. When you use this platform, you’ll have access to a wealth of expert knowledge and friendly assistance. If you are interested in building a website on WordPress, consider whether you would like to use WordPress.org or WordPress.com. I always change this to the “Post name” option (/sample-post/) to add the title of the post by default.
Using an activity log plugin, such as WP Activity Log, will give you more clarity into what went wrong so you can troubleshoot the issue easier. The steps to installing a plugin from the WP directory are similar to installing a theme. Search or browse for the plugin of your choice, then click install to download the plugin.
Divi Theme & Builder
Alternatively, you can check out some of our other time-saving resources. This lets you see how your site will appear to visitors, and gives you the opportunity to make further changes. Whenever you make changes to your WordPress site, it’s important to test them out before publishing them.
On the next screen, you’ll be asked to select a new domain name. This will bring you to a pricing page where you will need to choose a hosting plan for your website. They have been working with WordPress since 2005 and are committed to give back to the community. Thankfully, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.
Special Offers
As mentioned, you can create as many free sites as you like, and you can purchase different paid hosting plans for different sites as needed. If you already have a WordPress.com account you can add additional sites any time. To add a new site to an existing WordPress.com account, go to your your Sites screen↗︎.
Many people make the mistake of winging it when it comes to building a website. Because website creation uses some of the fastest growing and changing technology in the tech world. What you knew yesterday could very well no longer apply a month from now.
No-Code Design
After that, all you have to do is select Insert into post or Insert into page (as relevant), and you’re done. At that point, you’ll be presented with the WordPress Block Editor, which is how you’ll create your content. In fact, your About page can become a pretty important part of marketing your site. It’s likely the first place a customer will go to find out more about your business, so it’s important to make sure this page reflects your mission and core values. Build faster, protect your brand, and grow your business with the #1 WordPress platform to power remarkable online experiences.
WPBeginner is a free WordPress resource site for Beginners. The main goal of this site is to provide high quality WordPress tutorials and other training resources to help people learn WordPress and improve their websites. We hope this guide helped you learn how to make a website without hiring a web designer or overspending money. You may also want to see our tutorial on how to create a professional business email address, and our comparison of the best business phone services for small business. Now that you have created your new website, it’s time to grow your online presence and get more traffic. Yes, you can easily create a website like eBay using an auction plugin for WordPress.
Another benefit of WordPress is how easy it is to customize. WordPress is for beginners, so you can easily change the layout, colors, fonts, and other design aspects. If you’re a seasoned developer, you can use custom code snippets and webhooks to make WordPress function any way you want. WordPress comes with a default theme, currently named Twenty Twenty, and it features full support for the new WordPress block editor Gutenberg. It might not look as fancy or have the same functionality as some other WordPress websites, but it can serve a purpose for the time being.
The plugins tab reveals a list of plugins currently installed (1) on your website. The Add New (2) option enables you to search for and install new plugins available in the WordPress repository or install new ones in a few clicks. Depending on the theme you have installed, a plugin editor option allows developers to make coding changes to activated plugins.
For a detailed breakdown of how to go about deciding on the best plan for you, check out the Choose a Plan lesson in our Create Your Site course. Downgrading is also possible with assistance from our Happiness Engineers. Start with where you are now and adjust as needed down the road. Every WordPress.com site gets a free domain with “.wordpress.com” in its URL.
- Start by clicking the set up site button at your screen’s top center.
- We recommend using SeedProd because it lets you create completely custom WordPress themes from scratch without any code.
- This is where your users or customers will go to ask you questions or get in touch.
- Fortunately, the SSL certificate is cheap and offered by many hosting service providers as part of the hosting plan bundle.
- You’ll almost certainly want to add images to your site as well.