Your guide to a flawless WordPress website

BY DHARNE AND COMPANY

Pick your desired domain name

It refers to the URL of your website. It is further split into four sub-parts:

Top Level Domain e.g. domain.com

Root Domain e.g. domain.com

Sub Domain e.g. sub-domain.domain.com

Sub Directory e.g. domain.com/sub-directory

Select a hosting provider

Your files are stored in a server over the internet. You pay a host provider for this.

Popular hosting companies are:

GoDaddy

HostGator

BigRock

Siteground

Setup the Name-server

If your domain and hosting provider is the same then ignore this step.

The purpose of the name-server is to point the domain to the host.

The name-server acts as a bridge between the domain and the host.

Search for the name-server details option in cpanel and enter the details.

This process takes 24 to 48 hours to reflect the changes.

Upload WordPress to your server

Download WordPress setup from worpress.org and unzip your file using winzip.

Install FTP software Filezilla to transfer files from a computer to host server.

Enter your hostname, username and password in the Filezilla software.

Next, search for a folder named public_html in the list of folders you see.

Upload your wordpress unzipped folder here.

Let’s create your database

Login into the cpanel of your hosting provider.

Select and follow self explanatory steps in PHPMyAdmin.

You have created a database, username and password (above).

Using these credentials wordpress will be connected to the database.

Next, using Filezilla rename the file from wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php

Open the file in a text editor like notepad or notepad++ etc.

Locate the following code:

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name_here’); – Replace text in bold with your database name.

define(‘DB_USER’, ‘username_here’); – Replace text in bold with your username.

define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password_here’); – Replace text in bold with your password.

Let’s dive into WordPress

Go to your domain. 

Enter the information prompted in WordPress and complete the installation.

Now, you will be able to log into the admin panel at domain.com/wp-admin.

You should also get a confirmation email about the same.

Time to get creative

Your next step is to select a theme.

Choose a theme from the in-built theme gallery. (free to premium themes available)

You may consider buying themes from outside wordpress.

Popular choices include:

ThemeForest

StudioPress

WooThemes

Tips to choose an ideal theme

Select a theme which is fully responsive.

It should have a clean design and look elegant.

Should be compatible with latest version of wordpress.

Have at-least a four preferably a five star rating.

Should have more than 100 reviews. (personal preference)

Theme must be seo optimized – support structured data, w3c validated.

Compatible with HTML5/CSS3/Twitter Bootstrap.

By default, WordPress URLs are set to look like example.com?p=232. 

Go to Settings→Permalinks option in the admin panel.

Replace the default permalink pattern to %postname%.

This will make your URLs:

search engine friendly.

you can customize your URL’s.

Avoid future road-blocks

Armor your WordPress website

Ensure your wordpress version is updated else your website is vulnerable to

attacks.

Always Create a backup before you hit update version else you will lose previous

data.

Use plugins like VaultPress, BackupBuddy etc. to expedite your backup process.

Change the prefix of the database tables from the default wp_to something unique.

Avoid setting the site username as admin.

 Install security plugins available in wordpress like All in one WP Security 

Create Necessary Pages

To create pages in wordress go to Pages→Add New.

If you want to write a blog post you should use the posts

option.

Few basic pages to get you started are:

Home

About Us

Contact Us

Products/Services

Leverage Browser Caching

Each time a page is requested by an individual user.

WordPress retrieves that page stored on your host server. 

The process can take time which gives you an impression - the website is slow.

You need to minify your website CSS and Javascript code for your page to load faster.

Don’t worry you won’t need technical knowledge, you have plugins for that. 

Get Your Wordpress Website Today

19200 Von Karman, Suite 600 Irvine, CA 92612

Phone: (877) 932-0888

Fax: (714) 259-0481