The thought of building a website usually turns into a nightmare for people with no coding experience. But if you’re starting a business, it’s almost essential to have an online presence. With WordPress, you don’t have to be a coder or hire someone to make you a website. In this guide, I’ll show you how to create an awesome, professional-looking site with WordPress without writing a single line of code. In the guide, we’ll cover: Choosing a domain name. Choosing a hosting provider. Setting up your WordPress site. Customising your site.

• Choosing a Domain
• Choosing the Right Hosting Provider
• Installing WordPress Automatically
• Selecting a Theme
• Customizing Your Site
• Adding Content
• Installing Plugins
• WordPress Security Tips
• Launching Your Site

Choosing a Domain

The first thing you will be asked to do to put up your WordPress site is to choose a domain name. Your domain is your site’s address on the internet (e.g., www.yoursite.com). Here are some suggestions for choosing a good domain name:

• Keep it short and simple: A shorter domain is easier to remember.
• Use keywords: If possible, include keywords that describe your business or blog.
• Avoid numbers and hyphens: These can be confusing and hard to remember.
• Pick a good domain registrar: GoDaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost, SiteGround, DreamHost, HostGator, WP Engine, A2 Hosting, InMotion Hosting, Domain.com.

GoDaddy is one of the best known and biggest domain registrars, with a large number of extension types available at very affordable prices. Namecheap is another favourite, with great customer service and very low prices. Bluehost often gives away a free domain when signing up to using their other hosting services. SiteGround, DreamHost, and HostGator are also known to be very reliable and good customer service.

Choosing the Right Hosting Provider

The second step is to find a hosting provider, which stores the files of your website and makes them accessible via the network. This will give you your site’s own address on the internet. Bluehost, SiteGround, DreamHost, HostGator, WP Engine, A2 Hosting, InMotion Hosting, Kinsta, Flywheel and GreenGeeks are a few options. You can choose among their packages and services, and all of these providers offer automatic installation of WordPress (which makes things very easy).

Bluehost, meanwhile, is a favorite of beginners because of its friendly user interface and the most competitive pricing. It includes a free domain for the first year, and 24/7 customer support. Another fine choice is SiteGround. It offers excellent customer service and loads your website quickly. Security is also strong. HostGator is known for its scalability and flexibility. It’s a good choice if you plan to grow your site quite a bit. For premium accelerated hosting and security, you can’t go wrong with WP Engine. Kinsta is similar, but offers premium plans with Enterprise-grade scale, security and support. GreenGeeks offers environmentally friendly hosting. All of these providers offer one-click WordPress installation.

Installing WordPress Automatically

Hosting providers usually have an auto-installer for WordPress, which is what you’d use to get going:

• Sign up for a hosting plan: Sign up for a plan that you like and can afford.
• Access your hosting dashboard: After signing up, log in to your hosting account.
• Locate the WordPress installation option: This is usually under a ‘Website’ or ‘Software’ area.
• Click on the WordPress installation button: Follow the prompts to complete the installation.

This involves filling out some information, such as your site name, username and password, which will then install WordPress onto your site domain, and you’re ready to go.

Selecting a Theme

One of the best things about WordPress is the ability to design your site with themes. Themes control the look and feel of your website. Here’s how to find and install a theme:

• Navigate to the WordPress dashboard: You can access this by going to yoursite.com/wp-admin.
• Go to the Appearance section: Click on "Themes".
• Look for themes: If you want to install a free theme, you can search for them here. If you have a premium theme, you can upload it.
• Install and activate your theme of choice: When you find a theme you like, hit the ‘Install’ button to install the theme. When installation is ready, hit the ‘Activate’ button.

Popular free themes include Astra, OceanWP, and Neve, which are very easy to use, clean, fast and have many customisation choices – you can do lots of tweaks. If you want a premium theme, you can have a look on ThemeForest, Elegant Themes, and StudioPress, which also have a good variety of professional themes for different sites.

Customizing Your Site

Once you’ve installed your theme, you can continue ’stylising’ your site until it’s just the way you want it:

• Go to the Customizer: In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to "Appearance" > "Customize".
• Edit site identity: Change your site title, tagline, and add a logo.
• Set your homepage options: Do you want a static homepage or a blog-style page?
• Change the colours and fonts: Almost all themes include ways of changing the colour scheme and typography to fit your brand.
• Add widgets and menus: Organize your site's structure by adding menus and widgets.

Anything you tweak in the Customiser is previewed live. This means you can experiment with settings and see how your changes affect the look of your website before publishing any changes.

Adding Content

Content is queen of the websites, so WordPress makes it easy: you put pages or posts on your site like this.

• Additional pages: Go to "Pages" > "Add New". Pages could include the Home page, About page, Services page, Contact page.
• Add a post: If you want to blog, go to "Posts" > "Add New" to write a post, add pictures, and publish.
• Insert media: Add images, videos and other media to your site through the 'Media' tab.

Keep your content fresh, interesting and informative. Use headings, bullet points and images to make your posts look good and capture the reader’s interest. Keep your content and your site fresh and up to date.

Installing Plugins

Plugins provide additional functionality to your WordPress site. Consider the following plugins:

• Yoast SEO: A plugin that helps with search engine optimisation. Read this guide to learn more about the best WooCommerce SEO plugins.
• Contact Form 7: Adds a contact form to your site.
• WP Super Cache: Improves your site speed by caching your pages. For more performance optimisation plugins, you can check this ultimate guide there.
• Elementor: A drag-and-drop page builder that makes designing pages easy.
• WooCommerce: Essential for setting up an online store.
• Akismet Anti-Spam: Protects your site from spam comments.

To add plugins, go to "Plugins" > "Add New", search for your plugin, click "Install" and "Activate". Check back regularly to make sure they’re up-to-date and secure.

WordPress Security Tips

To keep your WordPress site protected from hackers and malware, you must follow these best practices:

• Keep WordPress updated: Always update WordPress to the latest version.
• Use strong passwords: Ensure your passwords are complex and unique.
• Install a security plugin: There are some great security plugins, like Wordfence and Sucuri. Check out this awesome guide for more tips on securing your WordPress site.
• Enable two-factor authentication: Adds an extra layer of security to your login process.
• Regular backups: Use plugins like UpdraftPlus to regularly back up your site.

Integrating these next points will lessen your chances of having a compromised site:

1. Only download themes and plugins from trusted locations, and keep your WordPress core files and plugins up to date.
2. Use only secure and legitimate themes and plugins.
3. Remove plugins that you no longer use.
4. For plugins that offer a simple upgrade option, choose this option.
5. Always update your themes and plugins immediately after receiving notifications.
6. Password-protect the site’s admin directory.

Launching Your Site

Once you’re happy with your site, it’s time to launch it:

• Review your settings: Double-check your site’s settings under "Settings" in the dashboard.
• Test your site: Before you send out your emails and start marketing your site to the world, be sure to check that all links work, and that the site displays correctly on different-sized devices.
• Launch: If all looks good, then your site is ready to deploy. Announce it on your social network and start sharing it.

The WordPress theme, coupled with the support it gets from hosting providers, makes creating a small (but professional-looking) website no more complicated than walking a dog. Here’s how to go about it:

1. Visit WordPress.org to get started.
2. Sign up for a domain, such as mydomain.com. You can get this and your hosting (next step) in a bundle for less than $100 a year.
3. Sign up for some hosting. These two steps are a matter of minutes and will give you a site like this: mydomain.com
4. Now download the WordPress theme (you pay nothing) by clicking on the ‘Download WordPress’ button. Create an account with WordPress.org and give your site a name. You’re living in the future.