Beginners Guide to Making your first WordPress Blog Website

If you have been on the fence on whether to start writing a blog, this is a great time for it. Content Marketing is gaining prominence with each passing year and high-quality niche content is getting increasingly sought after by both users as well as search engines. The world’s most popular Blogging/website platform or CMS (Content Management System) is WordPress. In fact, our website that you’re on is also created in WordPress. It’s a robust and user-friendly platform to create and manage your website. But how do you start it? Here’s a beginners guide to make WordPress Blog website if you have never done it before or want to do it right this time.

Below are the steps you should take care of when you start your own WordPress Blog.

Select the niche for your WordPress Website Blog

So, you have decided to start writing content. How do you select a topic?
One of the best ways is to introspect and see what your interests are – whether it is automobiles or Pets or Technology or anything under the sun.  If you have to write 1 article every day for the next few years, it is important you choose something that you really like, and you know in depth about.

For example, YoungUrbanProject.com is about Digital Marketing – All articles are based on that topic and even all social media handles are about the same.

People will start recognizing your blog as a repository for content on that theme. When you write in a niche, there are chances your blog will be perceived as an authority on that topic.

An important point about selecting the niche is – how competitive is it already and can you add more value than what exists. For example, if you want to start a blog about Food recipes, you must know there are thousands, if not millions, of blogs that do the same. So, are you bringing a new perspective to Food Recipes? Are you creating never seen before original recipes? If yes, then you will have an audience that will flock to your blog.

In competitive spaces, you can even identify sub-niches. Like you could have a food recipes blog, but it could be about Vegan recipes or Ketogenic Recipes or Regional Street food recipes. This is how you reduce competition.

Select the right Domain Name before you make WordPress Blog Website

Domain name is what people will type in the URL bar to search your website. This is the first step to making your own blog website. Just like a physical store, your website also needs an address. It needs to be something people can easily remember and type. And it must be something that represents what your blog is about.

In past times, people preferred to include the focus keywords they wanted their site to rank for in their URL itself – e.g. ABCwebsitedevelopment.com – but now it doesn’t really matter.

You should try to pick a domain name that is easy to remember and represents the kind of brand you’re trying to build. Some examples of such names are below:

• Amazon
• Zomato
• PayTM
• Spotify
• Quora
• Khan Academy

If you plan to someday monetise your blog and maybe turn it into a business, Branding will play an important role. And long-term Branding always trumps Short-Term relying on algorithms that could change any day.

Select the right Web Hosting Service

Your website is actually a bunch of files that open in a browser when a user types your URL. Before that can happen, you need to select a hosting service. A Hosting Service provides you space on their servers so you can place your website files there. This hosting is then associated with your Domain.

To give you a physical analogy, the hosting is a physical store (shop) and the Domain Name is the address of that physical store.

There are some popular Hosting Providers in India like:

• GoDaddy
• HostGator
• NameCheap
• BigRock
• HostingRaja and more

Most of the hosting service providers allow you to choose the hosting plan based on your requirements. When you are setting up a new blog website, you can go with the most basic plan. Below is a screengrab from Godaddy’s plans at the time of writing this article. Godaddy allows a one-click installation of WordPress if you purchase their hosting.

Make sure you select a good hosting service because some critical metrics like “Site Speed” or “Page Load Time” depend on it. Google’s search now gives preference to websites that offer a good user experience. And how fast your website loads is a measure of User Experience according to Google.

Hence, do not get a hosting just because it’s cheap. Evaluate and read reviews before purchasing.

How to Turn on Permalinks

A permalink is a SEO friendly link for your website’s pages.

When you create a new WordPress website and post a new article, the URL of the webpages looks like this: www.youngurbanproject.com/?p=1081

The above URL is how WordPress sets it on default.

But you can change them to better looking and SEO friendly links that are known as Permalinks. A permalink looks like this: https://www.youngurbanproject.com/what-is-ad-copy-how-to-write-good-ad-copy/

Turning the Permalinks on for your website is quite simple. Just go to Settings > Permalinks and select the option that that says Post Name. Refer to the screengrab below.

Once you save this, your Permalinks will automatically apply to all your blog posts and pages.

Change the Theme on your WordPress Site

When you install WordPress on your website, you will get a default theme installed. The theme is responsible for the Look & Feel of your website. But the best part about WordPress is that you can change the theme is you want your website to look different. All you have to do is, go to Appearance > Themes and select from the other bundled themes. You can also install a new theme created by a Third-Party.

Here are some websites that let you download free WordPress Themes:

• WordPress.org
• ThemeGrill
• Colorlib
• JustFreeThemes

And here are some websites that give you paid premium WordPress Themes:

• ThemeForest / EnvatoMarket
• ElegantThemes
• StudioPress

Write Blog Posts Consistently on your website

Setting up a website is only half the job done. The next step is to ensure that you keep putting out fresh content on a consistent basis. This content needs to be original (not-plagiarised), and high-value for it to start getting ranked for Searches.

You need to ensure that you stick to your niche while writing new content and not go haywire. If you start writing abruptly outside your niche, the audience that you have gathered over time might feel lost, leading for them to drop out.

Choosing a topic for a blog post requires a lot of research and there are some tools that can help you with identifying content ideas:

• Quora
• Answer the
  public
• Ubersuggest
• Keyword
  Planner

If you are also outsourcing blog content to writers, you must ensure that your content is plagiarism free. Google is known to penalise websites that have plagiarised content. Here are two free online Plagiarism Checkers:

• Small SEO Tools
• Duplichecker

Conclusion – Ready to make Worpress Blog Website?

Hope this article will give you some pointers on how to start your first blog website and the things you need to take care of. There is a lot more that needs to be considered when running a successful blog and we will cover that in our forthcoming articles.

Meanwhile, if you are looking to learn Digital Marketing, you should check out our Basics of Digital Marketing Course that is online and completely free of cost.