how to start a WordPress website

How to build a WordPress website: 2024 guide

Bryn Glover,

WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) that allows users and businesses to build and manage a website easily.

Whether you are planning to launch a blog, an ecommerce website or an online portfolio, WordPress can provide the flexibility and ease of use needed to fulfil your website goals.

In this article, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on starting a WordPress site, from domain registration to website customisation and content management.

Table of Contents

Step 1: Choose a domain and hosting provider

The first step in creating a WordPress website is to choose a domain name that reflects your website’s purpose and a hosting provider that can store your website files and make them accessible.

If you’re at this stage, we would recommend that you visit our how to set up WordPress hosting page first before continuing with the steps below. You’ll find our advice there on how you can go about installing your WordPress platform.

You may also want to take a look at our how to choose a domain name page for tips on branding, or our best website builders page if you want to compare different options for getting online. The table below also compares a simple comparison of four top hosting platforms.

BrandNumber of PlansCheapest plan costTrustpilot score
Bluehost4£2.29/month4
SiteGround3£2.99/month4.8
HostGator3$3.75/month4
Hostinger3£2.59/month4.6

Step 2: Choose a theme

Once you’ve handled your domain registration, hosting and WordPress installation, it’s time to choose a theme.

WordPress provides a huge collection of both free and premium themes that can give your website a professional and visually-appealing feel. Bear in mind that premium themes will need to be paid for.

To get started, go to your WordPress dashboard. From there, you can navigate to ‘Appearance’ and then ‘Themes’. Take a look at the options on offer; you can filter by category or features to find the template that best aligns with your website’s style and functional needs.

Once you’ve selected the theme you like, you simply need to install and activate it.

choose a WordPress theme

Step 3: Customise your website

Once you’ve chosen your theme, it’s time to start customising it to suit your needs.

WordPress offers a range of powerful customisation options that will allow you to tailor your site’s appearance and functionality to your liking.

To start, access the ‘Customize’ option under the ‘Appearance’ menu to begin modifying a range of elements. These elements can include the site header, colour palette, typography and more.

Many themes, particularly the premium options, even provide advanced customisation options like drag-and-drop page builders, which can simplify the overall process.

Step 4: Add plugins and tools

Plugins are a part of WordPress that allow users and businesses to extend the functionality on offer within their site. Plugins can be used to add features such as contact forms, social media integrations, ecommerce functionality and more.

Adding plugins is simple. Head to your WordPress dashboard, go to ‘Plugins’ and then click ‘Add New’. From here, you can begin to search for the plugins you need.

WordPress comes with a huge number of free plugins to choose from, as well as more advanced options that you’ll need to pay for. 

Some of the more popular tools include Yoast SEO, which is designed to support your search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts and WooCommerce, a tool which can enable ecommerce functionality if you’re planning to create an ecommerce website.

If you are setting up an online store with WordPress, then you may want to take a look at our how to use WooCommerce page.

Visit our best WordPress plugins page for tips on more top tools to add to your website.

Step 5: Create your essential pages

Every website needs a set of essential pages to provide information to users, as well as points to navigate from. The most obvious example is a site’s homepage.

To start adding your own pages, simply navigate to ‘Pages’ in your WordPress dashboard. From here, you can click ‘Add New’ to get started.

As well as the homepage, you should consider adding an ‘About’ page, to let people know who you are or what your business is doing, as well as a ‘Contact’ page if you want to provide an option for people to contact you.

Step 6: Publish content

Once you have your essential pages, it’s time to think about content.

Typically, websites will keep ‘Pages’ for the core static pages we’ve mentioned above. They will then use the ‘Posts’ option in the WordPress dashboard to add everything else.

From there, you simply need to click ‘Add Post’ to get started.

When adding content, you can use the editor interface to create your content, format it, and add images or media and functional elements. Make sure to check everything to ensure you’re happy.

Once you’re satisfied with the content you’ve created, simply click ‘Publish’ to get it online.

At this stage, we’d also recommend that you consider how you plan to market your website. We’ve already mentioned SEO, which can help you to appear in search results on indexes like Google, but you might also want to consider social media marketing or email marketing if you want to extend your reach or re-engage previous users.

Step 7: Configure your website settings

Now that you have a live site with pages and posts, consider how you want to optimise the website overall to improve performance and user experience.

You can navigate to ‘Settings’ in your WordPress dashboard to explore options like general settings, reading settings and permalinks. From here, you can start to make adjustments based on what you want and need from your website.

How to start a WordPress website: Final thoughts

Creating a WordPress website can seem daunting when you first get started, but does not need to be difficult. 

By following the steps on the page above, you can quickly get a professional and functional website online with everything you need to make it a success.

From this point, you need to make sure that you keep on top of things. Update content regularly to make sure it’s accurate and interesting, update plugins and themes as necessary to ensure they’re up to date and, just as importantly, keep focusing on your marketing efforts to grow your audience.

Picture of Bryn Glover

Bryn Glover

Bryn is the founder and editor of WebsiteJumpStart. He has worked in the digital field for over a decade and was editor for Startups.co.uk - the UK's leading small business website - and for NerdWallet UK before launching WebsiteJumpStart to help people and businesses get online with ease.
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