Are you in the verge of tackling a WordPress site or thinking about it? Maybe you've already tested the waters and left the starting blogs. It can get overwhelming fast. To make the journey to the WordPress world smooth, enjoyable and exciting - and much less frustrating - I am putting together a multi-part series of posts from the start to more in-depth coverage, The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to WordPress.
You'll find out about how to set up WP, about themes, customization, SEO, plugins and much in between. This post is the beginning, which sometimes seems to be the hardest thing to do - to begin.
The only way to do it, is to do it. Buckle up and get started.
WordPress - The (very) Beginning - Part 1
When talking about WordPress, I am talking about the self-hosted WP - or wordpress.org (not wordpress.com)
You will need to get a hosting account and there are a few that have been tried and tested, meaning play along well with Wordpress.
First Things First
A domain name
www.supercoolrealestatesite.com
Use a domain name you already have or buy/register a domain name of your choice from godaddy.com (probably the most well known) or from networkdomains.com etc.
It is suggested to get a domain name that is your name e.g. johnsmithdotcom, even if you don't want to use - but just to have it.
Domain name and SEO
(this could be a post in and of itself)
Google (at this moment) seems to favor domain names that have keyword/s in the name.
E.g. mycityrealestate.com or mycityhomesforsale.com - if city + real estate or city + homes for sale is something you'd like to rank for. Even if the url has - dashes - in - it - google likes it. It may be harder for people to remember it - with - dashes - but there are ways around that.
Shorter url is favored over a lengthy one e.g. mycityrealestate.com and not mycityrealestateandhomesforsalebyareaexpert.com
Note. SEO is a fluid thing of beauty. Things change, Google algorithms change and experts will always have differing views and opinions. At the end of the day, Google wants to give users the best possible results period, therefore spamming will be short-lived and you should always keep the reader in mind first, but not ignore good SEO practices.
Hosting
Decide where you will want to host your WP site. The top guns in the blogging world suggest using one of the following three hosting providers for smooth WordPress hosting.
BLUEHOST
DREAMHOST
HOSTGATOR
Godaddy hosting is not often recommended for WP - actually I can't think of any that have recommended it, quite the opposite!
Do some comparisons and research and pick one that fits for you. See how many domains are offered for each plan, do they come with unlimited GBs of hosting space, e-mail addresses etc.
The cost of hosting is typically around under $100 to about $150 per year.
These hosting providers offer easy often one-click Wordpress installation.
These are by no means the only hosting options out there.
Once you have the hosting account set up you can go to your domain management at godaddy or where you purchased the domain and point the nameservers to your hosting.
I will do a separate tutorial on just that.
These beginning steps are steps to setting up a blog or a site for many other platforms as well, not just with Wordpress.
This is just the beginning - the very beginning.
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