WordPress is one of the world’s most popular content management systems (CMS). With over 44% of the internet built on it, WordPress allows users of any skill level to create a website quickly. There’s no intensive coding to learn; rather, it works much like old word processors.
In this WordPress for beginners guide, we will explore the benefits of using WordPress, provide a step-by-step guide to its dashboard, and walk you through creating pages and taking your site live using the Divi theme.
What is WordPress?
WordPress got its start way back in the 90s as a blogging platform. Since then, it has evolved into a complex CMS capable of building any website, from a membership site to a forum to an online store. WordPress comes in two iterations: .com and .org. While the core platform is the same, there are quite a few differences. The main difference between the two is how they are hosted. With .org, it’s considered a self-hosted platform, which means you’ll need to purchase a separate hosting plan to use it. Alternatively, the .com version of WordPress is an all-in-one platform with built-in hosting.
In this guide, we’ll focus on .org rather than .com primarily because of its extra benefits.
There are plenty of reasons to love WordPress. First and foremost, it’s free. Well, sort of. The platform is entirely free, but hidden costs include hosting, a domain, plugins, and a theme, which can add up quickly. However, cost concerns are overshadowed by how easy it is to learn WordPress. It’s relatively straightforward once you get past the learning curve, and if you get stuck, tons of tutorials and documentation are available from hundreds of sources.
Another benefit of WordPress is how easy it is to customize. Whether creating a blog, ecommerce site, or a huge online community, a wide range of themes and plugins are available to help you craft a unique browsing experience for your visitors. WordPress is for beginners, so you can easily change the layout, colors, fonts, and other design aspects. If you’re a seasoned developer, you can use custom code snippets and webhooks to make WordPress function any way you want.
As your website grows, WordPress can handle the additional traffic and additional content like a champ. Plus, it’s SEO-friendly, meaning it’s optimized for search engines, which helps your website rank higher in search results ranking pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic.
Setting Up Your Hosting Plan
Before we dive into the details of the WordPress dashboard, we’d be remiss if we didn’t explain the importance of picking a good hosting provider. Choosing the right hosting partner is essential to your website’s success. In fact, it can make or break it. You want your web host to be fast, reliable, scalable, and secure. Plus, it needs to fit within your budget. That may seem like a tall order, but plenty of amazing WordPress hosts are out there, and we recommend a perfect choice for anyone: SiteGround.
SiteGround offers three plans that appeal to WordPress beginners and experts. It’ll fit within any budget, with prices ranging from $15 – $40 monthly. SiteGround runs specials often, so there’s an excellent chance of getting a killer deal. It’s more than just affordable, though. You’ll get a lot of bang for your buck with SiteGround. With features like free emails, SSL, CDN, and migration, you’ll have all the tools to keep your website running smoothly.
They are strict on security, too. They offer one of the best security packages in the business, with a web application firewall (WAF) keeping nasty hackers away. Additionally, you won’t have to worry about malware, DDoS attacks, or other security issues.
Thought SiteGround is the perfect choice for most people, other excellent options exist. Providers, such as Hostinger, Pressable, Cloudways, or Flywheel are all excellent options to consider.
Setting Up WordPress
In the following steps, we’ll instruct you on how to install WordPress, explore the tools within the dashboard, and walk you through the steps to create content, style your site, and push it live. Once you complete these steps, you’ll see why WordPress is perfect for beginners.
Step 1: Installing WordPress
There are a few ways to install WordPress, including using a hosting provider, manually installing it yourself, or locally using Local by Flywheel or MAMP Pro. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install WordPress using SiteGround’s Site Tools dashboard. If you’d like to learn other ways to install WordPress, read our definitive guide.
Install WordPress via SiteGround
After signing up for a SiteGround account, you can easily install WordPress in just a few clicks. Start by clicking the set up site button at your screen’s top center.
Next, choose whether to set up your site on a new, existing, or temporary domain. Select temporary domain, then click continue.
SiteGround will assign a temporary domain to your WordPress install. To proceed, click continue.
Choose WordPress.
The next step allows you to create your login credentials. This is how you’ll log in to your WordPress dashboard when working on your site. Be sure to write down or save your login information for reference. Click continue to proceed to the next step.
Finally, click the finish button to install WordPress.
You have two choices in accessing the WordPress dashboard. Through SiteGround, you can click on the log in admin button.
Another way to log in to WordPress is through the CMS by navigating to www.yoursite.com/wp-admin in your browser. Be sure to replace www.yoursite.com with your unique domain.
Another way to log in to WordPress is through the CMS by navigating to www.yoursite.com/wp-admin in your browser. Be sure to replace www.yoursite.com with your unique domain.
Upon logging in for the first time, you’ll notice the WordPress toolbar on the left-hand side of the screen. It contains all the tools and settings you’ll need to begin building your site. The main dashboard screen contains quick links for viewing or managing pages, editing the design of your site, useful links, and WordPress-related blog posts.
The next tab, Updates, allows you to review any plugins, themes, or core files that need to be updated. You need to keep the software updated for functionality and security. Otherwise, your site could fall victim to hackers, or at the very least, break. When embarking on updating plugins, themes, or WordPress core, be sure to make a backup of your website in case you counter any issues. Most reputable hosting providers offer free backups. However, depending on the host you choose, you may need to install a plugin. Consider a good backup plugin, such as UpdraftPlus, to create backups daily or weekly to avoid losing your website’s files.
Step 3: WordPress for Beginners – Themes
A WordPress theme is your website’s face. When a potential customer (or reader) lands on your site, you want them to find the information they’re looking for and be engaged visually. That’s why finding the best WordPress theme for your overall needs is important. Once you find the perfect companion, there are two ways to install your new theme. You can search for and install a free theme from the WordPress directory or upload a premium theme, such as Divi.
Divi is an excellent choice for most WordPress users due to the amount of features it possesses. You can install one of more than 2000 premade layouts to build your website or generate layouts with the help of Divi AI. Divi also has the Theme Builder, which lets you create templates for your header, footer, ecommerce pages, search results, and more.
Start by navigating to Appearance > Themes in the WordPress dashboard. Click on Add New Theme.
Step 4: WordPress for Beginners – Plugins
The next step in the process is installing some plugins. How many you need or what they will do depends on the niche you’re going for. Thousands of plugins are available through the WordPress repository and third-party vendors, such as the Divi Marketplace, so the sky is the limit.
Step 5: WordPress for Beginners – Adding Content
Now that our theme and plugins are installed, we can add content. We’ll need to concentrate on a few areas: posts, pages, and media.
Next, you’ll describe the page you’d like to create (1), provide Divi AI with any additional information (2), and choose fonts and colors (3). You can let Divi AI choose fonts and colors for you or specify them yourself. Once your settings are complete, click the Generate Layout button (4) to create a page.