How To Build A WordPress Website From Scratch

In The Beginning There Was Code, Lots Of It!

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Way back in the early days of the internet when it was still new and shiny and everyone was wondering what it was all about, the only people that knew how to build a wordpress website from scratch were the guys that had the technical skills and could write a bunch of complicated code. Computer nerds to you and me.

 

I mean that in the most complimentary way because if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be able to do what we do online today.

Creating a website would have been painstaking and time-consuming making sure the code was exactly right. I’ve never had to do it myself, in fact the closest that I have ever been to code is using FTP servers. These days if you want to get a website on the world wide web it’s as easy as clicking a few buttons and BOOM! It’s ready and waiting for the whole world to see. It’s amazing really, Just think about that for a moment. The Internet has come a long way in just a few short years.

Although it is easy to install a wordpress website you still need to choose your style, create the content and set it up the way that you want it to look. But again even though these tasks have been simplified so much that even a child could do it, there is still an element of learning involved. Don’t worry though there are plenty of sources available to help you along the way, and once you have a grasp of the tools inside WordPress you’ll be knocking them out of the park before you know it.

A Website Must Be Functional, Pleasing To The Eye And User Friendly

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Sites that fail to strike a balance between the these three important parts don’t grab much user attention. Many people have started using the Internet as their primary source of information. And if these people aren’t impressed by a site at first sight, it will become much harder to get them visit the site again.

To be honest, Although important I don’t focus too much on the look of a site by way of flashy graphics and all the bells and whistles. It’s always to best to keep it simple so as not to be distracting from the content, Focus on the Functionality and ease of use so that your visitors can navigate around and read and engage with your content. Visitor satisfaction is what you are aiming for.

Critical Elements of Any Site

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The following aspects must be kept in mind when building a WordPress website.

i) The Look

The site should appeal to the eye, without being too flashy. In other words, the site’s design must be professional and polished. Remember, your site’s overall look reflects your business and the product/service quality. As businesses small and large are increasingly populating the online space, the challenge is attracting and sustaining user attention.

To attain the objective, build a website that only incorporates value-adding elements. The site’s primary and secondary colors should blend well together and create the right tone for the site. Overdoing this aspect can cause user distraction.

Similarly, the text must be easily readable – choose a font size and style that is ideal for stress-free reading. Meaningful graphics, good-quality photography, etc. are equally important.

ii) Navigation

An easy-to-navigate, well-laid-out site would always prove more effective than sites that are overloaded with data and have an overall cluttered appearance. The primary navigation menu should have few items, with other items neatly organized under the main tabs.

The site-specific search engine must be placed at the site’s top-right corner, since that makes it easier to locate the search box. Also, some high-quality images must be strategically placed for a professional-looking site.

iii) Usability

An often overlooked website component is usability. Simply put, the site should be easy to navigate, read and comprehend. There are multiple aspects that positively influence a site’s usability: simplicity, fast-loading pages, minimal scroll, consistent layout, logical and prominent navigation, cross-browser/platform compatibility, and screen resolution.

iv) Responsive Design

The site’s design must be responsive or optimized for mobile devices with varying screen sizes. With tablet PCs and smartphones now becoming widespread, it’s important a website smoothly transitions from conventional screen layouts to smaller screens.

v) Self-Explanatory

A self-explanatory design doesn’t mean automatically playing an audio/video file in the background, explaining the site’s purpose and features as soon as the site loads up. It simply translates to a self-evident design. Any component of the site requiring interaction must not’t need any explanation from the webmaster’s side.

vi) Search Engine Optimization

 

Building a content strategy and spending resources on content visibility is even more important than the visuals. The design elements and optimization must include attributes that pleases popular search engines. For instance, if Flash doesn’t contribute to your site’s SEO (Search engine optimization) efforts, then get rid of it even if the player looks cool on your site.

The cool thing about setting up a WordPress Website is being able to take advantage of a free to use plugin called All In One SEO. This amazing little plugin allows you to optimize your site for SEO by filling out a few description boxes and it takes care of the rest for you.

The Dominance of WordPress

The majority of businesses or individuals with zero web design or programming knowledge take their business online through WordPress. And those who outsource their web design tasks prefer a WordPress-based design.

The Growing Popularity Of WordPress

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Though similar to other online publishing systems, WordPress stands out for its super-friendly, versatile content management system (CMS). Unlike other CMSs, WordPress is used by both individuals and large corporations alike.

In fact, some huge e-commerce and online content publishing companies have WordPress-based platforms. As per statistics, WordPress powers approximately 22.5 percent of all sites on the web.

Also, most web developers and web designers frequently shower accolades on the tool, which adds to the publishing platform’s increasing popularity.

Benefits

The following are the reasons why WordPress is widely used:

i) Free: The WordPress software is free, which means there are zero costs to downloading, installing, using and modifying the tool.

ii) Ease of Use: WordPress is simple and the organization and learning curve doesn’t get any easier. Site themes can be switched within seconds; also creating sticky posts, or linking new pages to existing content takes little time. In a business where time is money, these traits are invaluable.

iii) Open Source: This means the software’s source code is open to any kind of analysis and study. This makes way for easy customization. The open nature also means contributions to WordPress can be sent in by anyone in the form of patches, responses to queries, plugin and theme creations, WordPress translation and document upgrades.

iv) Stability: Stability and autonomy means the user need not worry over additional monitoring and maintenance. Stability means costly maintenance or downtime is rare.

v) Multi-Website Option: Hosting multiple sites on the same account is not offered by every CMS platform – WordPress being among the exceptions. For a web designer, this option means multiple sites for different clients or purposes can be built sans purchasing additional hosting packages or sites.

vi) Themes: From elegant powerhouses to lightweight frameworks, premium and free WordPress themes abound, made by professional designers and casual coders alike. For instance, if you require a theme that’s geared toward appearance, features, or load time, WordPress has you covered.

So there you have it, Knowing how to build a WordPress Website from scratch is pretty straight forward and can be accomplished in a very short amount of time. You can get started right now and have a website up and running in less than 30 minutes from now, it really is that easy!

But before you go running off to start building your empire there is a way to simplify the process even more where you can get all the training you need to build profitable WordPress websites along with comprehensive online marketing training to help you build a sustainable and long term online business.

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I would love to hear your feedback about this post so leave a comment below, or If you have any questions about How To Build A WordPress Website from scratch I will be happy to help.

Talk Soon

-Andy