This course offers a step-by-step guide for beginner users who want to become familiar with the basics of WordPress and get on track to design their own awesome website.
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Thanks to the advent and extensive use of web-based Content Management Systems such as SquareSpace and WordPress, the barrier to individuals building websites has been lowered. Now, nearly anyone with basic computer knowledge and the time to learn can develop a website on the WordPress platform to market their product or service - or themselves!
I believe you're here because you are the person I described in the last paragraph. You may be working full-time, juggling family or social commitments, or self-employed embarking on a new business venture. You might have some technical experience, or you might be completely new to websites. Either way, quite like you, I've searched through the plethora of free resources online, and yet I wasn't able to find a course that catered to complete beginners - along with a dedicated instructor - outlining all of the steps, including tips and tricks that were needed to build a great website.
With this course, you can turn your idea into a fully designed and running website in under a week! If you're willing to put in the time, I'm confident you'll see the return on your investment in a week's time.
3. Agenda
The Secret to Nabbing the Best Domain & Host1
The Rough Road and the Easy Road to WordPress2
X Marks the Spot: WordPress Theme Park3
Keep an eye out for the yellow keys throughout the deck as these will point out some expert tips!
4. Thanks to the introduction of web-based tools such as WordPress and SquareSpace, the
barrier to building websites has been lowered! Like most things, you start with the purpose.
I want to build a website - but where do I start?
Firstly, ask yourself,
“What will this website help me do?”
5. Once you have your idea - the purpose of the website - you’re ready to start gathering the
tools required to build an awesome website!
I want to build a website - but where do I start?
And by familiarising yourself with a CMS - a Content Management System - you will be
able to build and design a website that can serve as a blog, a CV, or a business marketing tool.
6. This is just a fancy way of describing a computer system (or application) that commonly
exists on the Internet and supports the creation and modification of digital content, via a
user interface.
What is a Content Management System?
Using one of these, I will show you how to build and tweak the website for nearly any
purpose! But how, you ask?!
“Magic.”
7. Here’s your treasure map!
Domain - your website’s address (ie. www.mywebsite.com)
Hosting - the place your website will live
WordPress - the CMS your website will be built on
Theme - your website’s “skin” or design style, and basic functions
Plugins - extra add-ons that can power up your website
This is a list of the elements of building a CMS-based website - but don’t
worry, we’ll go through them one-by-one:
9. Creating a good website address (domain
name) isn't as simple as using a business name
or stringing together a few words to describe
your product/service. A web address is one of
the determining factors for whether your
website gets found or not - so you should
spend some time carefully picking a good web
domain.
Creating a good website address
10. There are two parts to this hunt for the best domain:
1. Researching your keywords, and
2. Checking your domain's availability.
Try and get into the mind of your potential customers; you want
to foresee what types of words they will be typing into their search
engines to find you. If you choose the best domain, something we
refer to as a "keyword rich domain name", then you would
pop up in their results - as early in the list as possible.
The goal, is to find a web domain name that is suitable, easily
findable and maybe even memorable (and available!) for your
website.
11. Keyword research is important to quickly rank in the first few spots on page one of any
search engine. If you are looking to design a personal blog, or a website for family occasions
- or anything that isn't supposed to generate income - then this may not be as important. If,
however, your aim is to direct a ton of traffic to your website, this is of great importance!
Keywords are simply words that someone would typically type into a search box in their
browser when they are looking for something online. Depending on the niche of your
website (the area of interest, like fashion or sports), our research will allow us to know which
words people are typing in order to decide which words or phrases we should use for our
domain name.
Researching your keywords
Before you begin researching, spend 10 minutes checking out Google’s tips for building the best keyword list - it’s very useful!
12. There are a lot of tools online you can use for your keyword
research; two of the most popular free ones are offered by Google:
1. The Google website, and
2. The Google Keyword Planner
13. The Google Keyword Planner
You will have to create a Google Adword account first (or use your existing Google account), and once you do it's super easy to get searching!
Although the Keyword Planner is geared towards finding
keywords for online marketing campaigns, it's a great tool to
use to come up with a domain name. You can search for
words or phrases that are relevant to your product or
service, or different niches/product categories.
When searching words or phrases you want to focus on
getting higher numbers in the Average Monthly Searches
column - the higher the better, to prove that your word or
phrase being searched many times. Pay special attention to
the suggestions the tool makes for keywords that are similar to
yours but have a higher amount of monthly searches.
14. On the other hand, when using the Google search engine as a research tool, the opposite
is true; the lower the search results, the better. Simply type your keyword or
phrase into the Google search box and click enter. The search results page will always
tell you how many results were found - this is the figure you want to be low, to give you
better chances of a higher ranking.
The Google Search Engine
Keep a list of potential domain names so that you can see which ones work best (highest ave. monthly searches), and in case you need alternatives!
15. Checking domain availability
Once you've gathered a list of potential domain names, it's time for the fun part: checking
availability! This is where you use an online domain checker to see whether your
favourite domain is available - or whether it's been snatched by an evil domain hoarder!
There are a number of ways you can go about this, one
of which is searching for "domain checker" or "domain
register" in Google and select one of the many websites
that offer this (I like to use WhoIs.com sometimes).
16. Choosing a good web host
So you've completed your keyword research and you finally have your web domain name
picked out! GO YOU! The next piece of the puzzle is to decide where your website is going
to live - or in webspeak, where your website is going to be hosted. This may seem as easy as
going to Google and typing in "web hosting services", but with the vast number of services
out there, how do you select a good one? The task is essentially like picking someone out in a
busy train station.
A lot of the hosting companies that pop up first in the search results may simply be well-
known, but not particularly good - and the sites that claim to list the "top 10 web hosting
companies" may be listing companies they will make commission off.
So what to do?!
17. A number of good web hosts now offer a free domain when you purchase a hosting solution - it’s much easier to purchase such a package
A good place to start is to find a relevant
forum (a topic-based chat site) where you can ask
members what their favourite web hosting site is,
and why. Something to note with choosing any
web hosting service is that you can always change
services and migrate your website to another
company if you need to. Even though this is the
case, if you can choose a good one from the
beginning, you can save yourself a lot of time.
18. After selecting your web host, navigate to their website and have a look at the different hosting
packages they offer. If they have a online customer representative available on chat, you can query
them to find the most suitable package for your website. Another name for this is “cloud
hosting”, so don’t be confused if you hear this term - it simply means virtual hosting. You will be
looking for a package that allows you to host your single website and even includes a free domain
as part of the purchase. By purchasing the domain and hosting solution from the same company,
not only do you save money, but you also you save time by not having to configure your web
address to work with your web host.
20. The Easy Road to WordPress
Manually installing the WordPress platform is the slightly lengthier method - but it’s still
quite easy! To do this, you will need (in addition to your web browser and access to your host
server):
A text editor, and
An FTP client (or program) such FileZilla.
If you are lucky, your hosting solution will provide an FTP client built into your hosting
account - so you won’t need FileZilla. You should also have handy all of the FTP details
emailed to you when you purchased your hosting solution; more specifically, this will be a
username, password, and a FTP host.
21. The first step involves
downloading the most current
version of WordPress in zip
format - you can do this here -
and unzipping the package.
The second step involves
creating a MySQL database
within your hosting account (I
demonstrate this in my
webinar, but you can ask your
web host for help). Give this
database a name, and a user,
and finally assign user to the
database.
Take note of the database name and user name here - you might want to keep this window open - this will be needed in the next step
1 2
22. Locate the wp-config-sample.php file within the unzipped WordPress package and rename it to
wp-config.php.
Now, you want to add in your database name, and user name, as well as the password and database
host used when you created the database (usually “localhost") - and save the file.
The file should have something that looks like this:
3
23. Once the file is ready, using your FTP details, log into
your FTP client and upload the WordPress files to your
web server. Be sure to upload them to the "root" (the
home folder in your file manager, http://
example.com).
4
Finally, run the WordPress installation script by
accessing the URL you installed it on in a browser -
this should be where you installed the WordPress files.
If you installed WordPress in the root directory, type
http://example.com in a browser; if you installed it in
a subdirectory called Blog, then type http://
example.com/blog. That's it! The site will load
correctly with no errors if you installed it correctly.
5
24. The Easier Road to WordPress
This method is the easier and quicker of the two, and this is generally an option provided by
most hosting companies - so you will only need access to your hosting account.
This method involves selecting the WordPress platform from the list of Web Applications in
your hosting account, and installing this directly onto one of your servers - that's pretty
much it! You will have the chance to do a few things before the installation is complete: the
title and domain you want to attach to the site, your login details for the WordPress admin
site, and whether you want to automatically update to newer versions of WordPress (totally
recommended!). Once, you're happy with all of these details, voila! You've installed your
WordPress site!
26. When it comes to customising
WordPress, the sky is the limit!
With thousands of templates
available, you can tailor the
look-and-feel of your site
no matter what the
purpose is.
One of the most popular theme
sites (read: WordPress Theme
Parks) is ThemeForest. Take
your time to browse and
compare the themes -
before settling on
one - there’s no
refunds!
27. Installing WordPress templates
To install a theme, firstly navigate to
Appearance > Themes on the left-
hand column menu.
Then, hover your mouse over the
theme of choice, click on Activate,
and voila!
28. If you’ve made it this far, then
congratulations! You’ve configured your
domain with your web host, installed your
WordPress site, and found your perfect
theme (read: buried treasure). The treasure
hunt is over!
The next step (covered in the next deck) is
theme customisation, and depending
on how particular about the look-and-feel
of your site, the longer this can take. This
is why it helps to choose a theme that looks
as close to your vision as possible.
There is usually a ReadMe (.html) file in the theme’s folder which describes the basics to customising the different parts of that theme
29. Once your theme has been customised to your liking, and you’ve tested your website, you
just might be ready to launch!
AWESOME
WEBSITE
Of course, there are tweaks you can do to improve searchability (e.g. Search
Engine Optimisation), and functionality (e.g. plugins and widgets) - and these are covered in
the following decks - but for now, give yourself a pat on the back; you’ve completed the first
part to designing an
30. Thank You!
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31. If you want more…
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