How to build a WordPress website or blog in Nigeria

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We received lots and lots of emails from our site visitors and community members on WordPress website development and also on how to build a WordPress website from scratch.

The truth is:

I’ve not prioritised website development emails due to my engulfment in digital marketing training and campaigns.

But what some of you don’t really know is, to be a complete digital marketing guru, you will need a basic knowledge of how to build, update, tweak and manage a WordPress site.

In one of my recent post, I explained the 10 digital marketing skills you need to succeed with WordPress development capping it all.

After in-depth consideration…

I thought it’s wise to dedicate a whole page for step by step process on how to build a WordPress website from scratch. Keep in mind that it shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes to an hour to completely build your website yourself.

Simply follow the steps below

Step by Step Guide on How to Build your Own WordPress Website From Scratch

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One of the reasons that forced me to put together this Build Your WordPress Website Guide was quite simple – I just didn’t want to see people spend a lot of money hiring web developers and designers.

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I’ve been involved with many different designers and developers in the past years and I can truly say that 90% of them just install a premium.

[bctt tweet=”One of the reasons that forced me to put together this Build Your WordPress Website Guide was quite simple – I just didn’t want to see people spend a lot of money hiring web developers and designers. I’ve been involved with many different designers and developers in the past years and I can truly say that 90% of them just install a premium.” username=”@DMSInstitute”]

I’ve been involved with many different designers and developers in the past years and I can truly say that 90% of them just install a premium.

Click here to join our next batch of digital marketing training to learn how to grow your business.

I’ve been involved with many different designers and developers in the past years and I can truly say that 90% of them just install a premium theme and ask for a lot of money for it (They still disappoint you) – not magic.

 

When you follow my WordPress guide below, you’re doing the same thing they did – only for less. That said, if you can’t find 5 minutes to an hour to put together your own website, it’s best to hire someone to do it for you.

Why WordPress websites are better than the rest?

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  1. Because at this point there is no better/easier way to build a website… But more importantly;
  2. It’s totally FREE, with loads of layouts/themes to choose from.
  3. WordPress doesn’t cost a dime to download or install, and there’s a huge community who have 1000s of designed beautiful themes and templates, making it easy to get going fast.You’ll never run out of uniqueness.
  4. It’s VERY beginner-friendly.
  5.  If you know how to use Microsoft Word, you already know how to add your own content. WordPress can be expanded with free plugins to handle just about any site you can imagine – from gorgeous business pages to social networking sites.
  6. With “plugins” you’ll be able to add contact forms, subscription forms, image galleries and so on for your website – pretty simple, huh?
  7. Small or Big site? Doesn’t matter…
  8. From basic blogs to beautiful business sites and online stores, WordPress can handle just about any kind of website. WordPress is used by eBay, Mozilla, Reuters, CNN, Google Ventures, BBC and even NASA.
  9. Your site will be mobile & tablet friendly.
  10. The website you build will instantly be responsive, looking great on every mobile device, smartphone and tablet. No need to hire a web developer for that.
  11. There’s a HUGE support community available to help.
  12. With so many people using the platform (Webmaster, Bloggers, Theme developers and Plugin creators), it’s easy to find QUICK help when you need it.
  13. In addition, WordPress has lots of free resources both available on Youtube and their support forum. It’s the easiest platform I’ve ever worked with, but it’s flexible enough to suit everyone from small business owners and freelancers to creative artists and bloggers.

Let’s get started and build your WordPress website

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STEP 1: CHOOSING A DOMAIN NAME AND A WEB HOST FOR YOUR WEBSITE.

To get a new WordPress website online, you’re going to need two things:

  • A domain name (a web address like yoursitename.com)
  • Hosting (a service that connects your site to the internet)

The WordPress platform itself is free, but a domain name and hosting will cost you around $80 – $120 a year, but I’ll show you how to get a domain name for free for the first year.

However, it costs less than the amount to hire a developer, so it won’t break the bank.

Owning your own domain name looks far more professional than having your site on someone else’s domain (like your business.my-free-website.com), and you will get it for FREE for the first year with this guide, too.

Plus, having your own hosting will also make sure your website loads quickly and won’t go down for hours at a time (pretty important for everyone who visits your pages.)

Price and Value for Money

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If you value your WordPress website, then the cost alone shouldn’t be the deciding factor, it should only be a deciding factor.

If you want a cheap web host just to mess around with a website you’re not serious about then, by all means, choose the cheapest one you can find.

However:

If this is going to be a website that you want to take pride in or rely on for your business, you should not try pinching pennies. I’m not saying that all cheap hosts are bad and should be avoided. Far from it.

There are plenty of cheap, reliable hosting companies out there.

I do think it’s important to have some perspective on just how little the price difference is between most shared hosts, though.

You should not leave your business WordPress website on an unreliable host just because it costs so little (not all hosting are good for WordPress website). Imagine how much business you’d be costing yourself if your WordPress website was down for an entire day because you wanted to save that money.

Where do I get a domain name and hosting?

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I recommend a web hosting and domain registrar to use and this is what I will use in this article. They’re really affordable, have good customer service, and they’re currently throwing in a domain name for the first year free– so it’s worth checking them out.

When you get a domain name, you’ll also get a personal email account(s): [email protected] – way more professional than a generic Gmail or Yahoo address.

You have better things to do than to manage your WordPress website

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Maintaining a website shouldn’t mean spending hours optimising your server and battling security threats.

With finddigitaltools, they will handle the technical stuff for you – server setup, security, backups, even performance optimisation – so you can spend your time designing, managing content and doing what’s important to you

Get in with Google

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Finddigitaltools WordPress search engine optimization (SEO) plugin walks through your site and automatically handles your site’s SEO basics to get it seen by Google and other major search engines. No tech skills needed

Daily website back-up and restore

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Ever spent hours looking for a lost or corrupted file or folder? It can bring you to tears. You can make sure it never happens again. Site Backup & Restore saves all your website files to the cloud once a day. So the next time you lose something for any reason, you can restore it with a single click. And get right back to work.

Get your Domain and Hosting

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Click here to get your hosting and domain name using www.finddigitaltools.com. Add the Basic Package to Cart.

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Then on the next page, scroll down and click Continue

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Search for the domain name you want and check out

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Then Click on Proceed to Checkout

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Create a New Customer Account and Make Payment with your MasterCard or Visa Card or PayPal.

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Once you have signed up with www.finddigitaltools.com, you are now able to start making/building WordPress websites on your domain name.

STEP 2: SETTING UP YOU WORDPRESS WEBSITE

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Once you’ve bought your domain name and set up your hosting, you’re well on your way! Now it’s time to get your website up and running. The first thing you’ll need to do is install WordPress to your domain.

One-Click-installation for WordPress Websites

Thanks to finddigitaltools a reliable and well-established hosting company that has integrated 1-click-installation for WordPress to automatically set-up, which makes getting going a snap.

If you have registered your domain with finddigitaltools, here are the steps you should follow:

1. Click here to log in to your hosting account

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2. Click on Manage on Your Managed WordPress.

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Scroll down to Web Application and Click WordPress Blog

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4. Click on Install Application

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5. Enter your domain name

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6. Scroll Down to setting and set your admin username and password as well as email. You can also give your website a title and tagline.

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7. Scroll down and click install button, you should get access to your NEW WordPress website

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Choosing a Theme/Template for your site

Once you have successfully installed WordPress and your domain, you’ll see a very basic yet clean site:
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But you don’t want to look like everyone else, do you? That’s why you need a theme – a design WordPress website template that tells WordPress how your website should look. See a sample version below:

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Here’s where it gets fun: There are thousands of awesome, professionally designed themes you can choose from and customise for a site that’s all your own.

Here’s how to find a theme you like:

1. Log into your WordPress dashboard

If you’re not sure how, type in: http://yoursite.com/wp-admin (replace “yoursite” with your
domain).

This is what the WordPress dashboard looks like:

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Everything is easily labelled. If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, don’t sweat it – I’m going to show you where to go next.

2. Access FREE themes

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Once you’re in the dashboard, you’ve got access to over 1500 free and awesome themes! Just look along the sidebar for “Appearance”, then click “Themes”.

If you want something more professional or elegant than what you find here, you can head over to ThemeForest where there’s a HUGE library of premium themes to pick from at varying costs.

But before you do that, I really suggest you at least try spending some time browsing the free themes. Many of them are actually really professional and well made; so don’t write them off.

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As you can see above, installing a new theme for your website is very easy.You can search for specific keywords and/or use filters to find themes that suit your style.

Finding the perfect theme can take a while, but it’s worth it.You should also look for themes that are “responsive”, as this means they will look good on any mobile device.Just punch it in as one of your keywords and you’ll be all set!

3. Install your new WordPress Website theme

Once you have found a theme you like, installing it is as simple as clicking “Install” followed by “Activate”.

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IMPORTANT: Changing themes won’t delete your previous posts, pages and content. You can change themes as often as you want without having to worry about lose what you’ve created.

How do I add content and create new pages?

With your theme installed, you’re ready to start creating content. Let’s quickly run through some of the basics:

Adding and editing pages.

Want a “Services” page, or an “About Me” page (like I have on my menu at the top of the site?)

  1. Look along the sidebar in the WordPress Dashboard for “Pages” -> “Add New”.

Once you’ve clicked, you’ll find a screen that looks a lot like what you’ve maybe seen in Microsoft Word. Add text, images and more to build the page you want, then save it when you’re done.

Adding pages to the menu

If you want your new page to be linked to in your navigation bar,

  1. Save any changes you’ve made to the page by clicking “Update”
  2. Click “Appearance” -> “Menus” in the sidebar of the WordPress Dashboard.
  3. Find the page you created and add it to the list by clicking the checkbox next to it and then “Add to Menu”.

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Setting Up a Static Front Page

Some people contact me saying they’re frustrated that their home page looks like a blog post. You can fix that by making your home page “static”. A static page is a page that doesn’t change. Unlike a blog, where the first new article will show up at the top every time, a “static” page will show the same content every time someone comes to the site – like a homepage you’ve designed.

To set up a static front page:

  1. Go to “Settings -> Reading”
  2. Choose a static page that you have created. “Front Page” denotes your homepage; “Posts page” is the front page of your blog (if your entire site isn’t a blog). If you don’t choose a static page on your own, WordPress will take your latest posts and start showing them on your homepage.

how-to-build-a-wordpress-website-or-blog

Installing Plugins to Get More out of WordPress

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What is a plugin?

“Plugins” are extensions that are built to expand WordPress’ capabilities, adding features and functions to your site that don’t come built-in. They’re shortcuts to getting your site to do what you want to, without having to build the
feature from scratch.

You can use plugins to do everything from adding photo galleries and submission forms to optimising your website and creating an online store.

How do I Install a new Plugin?

  1. To start installing plugins, go to “Plugins -> Add New” and simply start searching. Keep in mind that there are over 25,000 different FREE plugins, so you’ve got a LOT to choose from!
  2. Installation is easy – once you find a plugin you like, just click “Install”. BONUS – We would love to hear from you on how easy it was to build your website using www.finddigitaltools.com following our guide.
  3. Be sure to send an email to [email protected] and we’ll send you a list of awesome plugins and tips to enhance your website sales conversion and search ranking as bonus.
  4. Congratulations – you’re ready to launch! If you’ve followed the steps in this guide, you should now have a fully-functional WordPress website! That wasn’t so bad, was it?

More Reads:

9 Tested and Proven Ways to Make $500/Day with Digital Marketing Skills working from home or anywhere.

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