There is never going to be any criticism warranted if someone needs to be putting together their business website on the cheap. In fact it’s quite understandable a lot of the time, and there are always plenty of new businesses coming into existence in scenarios where they need to be extremely judicious about where every penny goes with regards to their start up costs. One of the big advantages of choosing a WordPress website is that it won’t cost much to use the product, and with WordPress you can put together a fairly attractive and fully functional website that will do just fine for many business. If that’s the direction you choose to go in then the next step is going to be getting affordable managed WordPress hosting services.
There’s a whole host of reasons why it’ll be best to do that. One is that you’re going to be very busy taking care of everything that comes with starting a business and getting it up, running and profitable sooner rather than later. Then there’s also the fact that better search engine rankings are going to play a BIG part in the profitable part of that equation. Higher SERPS mean a much greater chance you’ll have new customers both finding you and making purchases of whatever it is you have to offer - goods, services, whatever. What’s also good is that that there is Local managed WordPress hosting for Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and other big cities in Canada.
That’s where many of these new businesses will be located, and looking to have maximum visibility with potential new customers in these areas. Local hosting is always better for that aim too, and in large part because the server requests are always going to be answered very quickly if the web host’s servers are nearby. As they will be if it’s local hosting, and so choosing to go with managed hosting from a local host is going to make so much sense for businesses that want the entirety of what’s needed taken care of for them and having pages load quickly when these new would-be customers find the website and then enter it for the first time. As we all know, first impressions are everything.
But we’ll veer back to looking at WordPress and the idea of ease of website construction. What’s equally common knowledge is that a big part of adding perfect functionality to a WordPress site is through the use of plugins. We’re also talking about be thrifty here and saving money at startup, so what we’ll do with this blog entry is explain how to set up a WordPress Site only using free plugins.
Starting Point
What we’ll do here is briefly show you how to make a WordPress website the right way. This will be a good choice if you’re looking to launch a simple blog or a site for your online business, and as we know plenty of people are taking their business online these days and it’s been that way for many years now. You’ll be pleased to know you won’t need any technical skills or coding knowledge. Simply follow our simple instructions, and you’ll have your website up and running today and you’ll be best served if you then have it backed by affordable managed WordPress hosting services.
We will cover everything here, from setting up WordPress to adding your first pages and installing must-have plugins. Along with sharing the tried-and-tested tools and methods we use to build successful WordPress websites. All of this starts with a visit to WordPress.org. This popular open-source software powers just slightly less than one-half of all websites on the internet.
Go this route and you will have complete control over your website, along with the ability to install any plugins and themes you want. And the big gain with affordable managed WordPress hosting services is that updates and site maintenance are overseen by your hosting provider. Yes, WordPress.com is its own hosting service and is a free plan, but functionality is very limited and it’s very likely you’re going to be dissatisfied with the limitations you have for customizing your site.
Indeed, most users quickly outgrow these limitations. And so it’s good that with WordPress.org you’ll have full control from day one. So now you now where to start, and with that we’re ready to get right to step one with building a WordPress business site entirely with free plugins. We’ll assume you’ve already installed Wordpress at this point, and so we’ll move right to next step.
Choose a Website Layout
Some people will be fine with the default layout that comes with WordPress, but if not then this is what you need to do. There is an impressive array of themes available and you will choose the one that has the most visual appeal for you.
But there are going to be performance considerations for the theme you choose to go with. Is it mobile-friendly? With over half of web traffic coming from mobile devices, your theme needs to be responsive and look great on all screen sizes. The next one will be whether or not your web pages are loading quickly enough with that theme in place. A slow-loading theme can hurt your search rankings and cause visitors to leave your site. You also need to make sure it’s compatible with major plugins. Your theme should work well with the plugins you will use to avoid functionality issues later.
Themes that have regular updates also tend to be better too. They provide better security and compatibility with the latest WordPress version. Better website security will also be part of the equation with local managed WordPress hosting Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal too.
Create Essential Pages and Blog Posts
WordPress will provide two default content types: pages and posts. Pages are for static, timeless content like your about page, contact page, and privacy policy. These serve as the foundation of your website and visitors will expect to find them easily. Posts are for your blog content and appear in reverse chronological order, newest to oldest. You may need both types, or you may not. Most WordPress business websites have a blog section, even if their main goal is to sell a product. Blogging allows you to establish expertise in your field, increase traffic from search engines, and connect with your target audience.
To add either a page or post, head over to your WordPress dashboard. Click Pages » Add New for a page, or Posts » Add New for a blog post. Then use the editor below to add your content – you can include text, images, videos, and more.
Customize Your Website
You’ll now have some content in place for your website, so it’s now time to make it look professional as well as having it functioning smoothly for your visitors. Let’s start with some basic but important settings. First up here is to change your site title and tagline. These appear in search results and at the top of your website, so they’re often the first thing visitors see. You can head over to Settings » General to update these.
We’ll also assume you’ve chosen to have a blog section on the site based on what we talked about earlier. This creates the need for a comments section and you can set yours up easily by
going to Settings » Discussion. This helps prevent spam and keeps discussions meaningful. From there you move to theme customization. The exact process varies depending on your theme but the process for this, in order, usually is:
- Navigation menu
- Color scheme
- Custom fonts
- Header, footer, and sidebar
- Widget areas (for classic themes)
There are going to be other considerations for you too as you put the site together using free WordPress plugins. The will include setting your date and time format, setting up 404 error pages, adding social media icons, and creating a custom WordPress login page.
Install Select WordPress Plugins
Most websites that have special features like contact forms, popups, and lightbox photo galleries do so because of the use of WordPress plugins. They are like apps for your WordPress site. They allow you to add features and customizations without needing to write any code and are popular choices for anyone who’s deciding on affordable managed WordPress hosting services. The fact there’s nearly 60 thousand free plugins available means there’s unlimited possibilities with how you can customize your site based on what it needs.
We’ll conclude here by saying that you’ll do best to choose plugins that are regularly updated, well-reviewed by users, and produced by reputable developers. Of course they’ll need to be compatible with your WordPress version too, and most DIY WordPress site builders go through a bit of a learning process where they eventually get better at choosing the ones that best meet their specific needs.
