How to Build a WordPress Website from Scratch in 2021 – Beginners Guide

The thought of starting a website can be so terrifying most especially when you’re not techy, I’ve been there and I know the feeling.

Not to worry, you’re not alone on this. I have decided to create this comprehensive step by step guide on how a complete newbie like you can develop a website without writing a single line of code.

What do You Need to Build a Website?

You’ll need the following three things to start your WordPress site.

• A domain name – this is the name of your website such as techiebreed.com
• WordPress hosting – this is where your website files will be stored

>>Here is a detailed guide on how to purchase a domain name and a hosting plan at a cheaper price, this is required before we proceed to building your desired website

Step 1. Setup

 

One common mistakes that beginners make is choosing the wrong website platform. Thankfully, you are here so you will not be making that mistake.

 

For a complete newbie who has zero knowledge about coding or website building, I will always recommend WordPress.

 

WordPress comes with thousands of design options and plugins which allow you to create any kind of website you can ever imagine of.

>>> Why do I feel WordPress is best for newbies? This post will make you understand better.

 

WordPress is free for anyone to download and use to build any kind of website without any restrictions.

 

Step 2. Install WordPress

After successfully purchasing your domain name and hosting plan, the next process is to install WordPress from your control panel.

This is done with just a single click.

>>> This post gives a detailed guide through on how to install WordPress from a control panel within 2 minutes.

 

Step 3. Select Your Theme

The visual appearance of every WordPress website is controlled by a function named THEMES.

 

Customizing the look and layout is one of the exciting and essential things to setup on your blog/website when newly created.

 

There are thousands of WordPress themes that you can install on your website; some free while some have to be paid for.

 

However, there are thousands of good looking free themes, so I doubt you will experience challenge setting this up. For whatsoever website design layout you desire, you are very good to go with a free theme.

 

You can change your theme from the WordPress admin dashboard. Visit Appearance » Themes page and then click on the ‘Add New’ button

 

 

The first step to designing your blog is selecting your preferred theme to work with, for the sake of this tutorial guide, we will be using a theme called “FASHIONISTA”.

 

Let us get started.

 

I need you to log in to your WordPress dashboard

 

Your login URL should be something like https://yourdomainname.com/wp-admin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After you have successfully logged in your dashboard, Go ahead and click on APPEARANCE >>> THEMES

 

Once you’re on the THEME page, click on ADD NEW

 

On the next screen that pops out, you will be provided with thousands of free WordPress themes that are available in WordPress theme directory for FREE download and use.

 

But for the sake of this tutorial, remember we are using FASHIONISTA THEME

 

From the search box at the top-right corner, simply search for the theme FASHIONISTAS

 

 

When the search result eventually loads, kindly click on any part of the FASHIONISTAS theme.

 

You will see a button underneath asking you to INSTALL.

Click on the install button.

 

After few seconds, the selected theme should have been successfully installed.

The button should now be replaced with activate as shown below.

 

Once this is successfully done, we can now proceed to customizing the look of our website to look exactly like GospelBreed with the entire site’s feature.

 

Click on APPEARANCE >>> CUSTOMIZE

 

 

This will take you to the customization page, where you can try out different tweaks related to the theme layout and design you activated.

 

Here are the different options under the FASHIONISTA theme we activated.

• Content/Excerpt
• Single posts/pages
• Site Identity
• Colors
• Menus
• Widgets
• Homepage Settings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GENERAL

Under this GENERAL SETTINGS, you can upload your brand logo, favicon and different devices icons required on the GENERAL setup page. You can leave it all blank if you do not have one yet.

 

PS: Part of the services we render at TechieBreed includes LOGO DESIGNING.

You can contact us to create a logo + favicon for you at a very subsidized rate through this link

 

CONTENT/EXCERPT

This setting tells if you would love an excerpt or your full post to be displayed on your website homepage. I’ll advise you leave the boxes unchecked exactly as shown on the image above.

 

SINGLE POSTS/PAGES

Recommended: Give a CHECK MARK on the first two boxes under these settings, and then leave the last box unchecked.

 

SITE IDENTITY

Simply fill your WEBSITE TITLE in the first box field, then your site TAGLINE on the other.

 

Then upload your site icon; this will be displayed on your user’s browser tab whenever they visit your website.

 

NB: Always ensure you click on PUBLISH icon above to save all your changes.

 

COLORS:

Set the different site colors to suit your taste.

 

HOMEPAGE SETTINGS:

 

Under your HOMEPAGE SETTINGS, kindly check the first circle.

This simply sets up your recent blog post to show on the homepage, and is auto-updated when you write a new blog post.

Step 4. Add Content to Your Site

WordPress comes with two default content types called posts and pages.

 

Posts are displayed in reverse-chronological order (newer items displayed first), and changes often time as there aew always new update.

 

Pages on the other hand are meant to be static type content such as your about page, contact page, privacy policy, etc.

 

By default, WordPress shows your blog posts on the front page of your website. You can change that, and make WordPress show any page as the front-page of your website

I will show you how to achieve this shortly

Having said that, let’s add some content to your website.

 

You’ll start by adding a few pages to your WordPress site.

Navigate to Pages » Add New page in WordPress admin area.

This will bring you to the page editor screen, which looks like this:

 

First you need to provide a title for your page, I usually name mine ‘Home’ for easy identification.

After that you can add content in the text editor below.

You can add write ups, insert links, upload images, embed videos, audio, amongst other things to suit your pictured plan.

 

After adding content to your page, you can click on the publish button to make it live on your website.

 

This process can be repeated  by adding more pages for different sections of your website. Some examples of pages every website will be needing are: an about page, contact us, and a blog page to display recent blog posts.

Now let’s add a few blog posts as well.

 

Navigate to Posts » Add New in your WordPress admin area.

 

 

At this point, You can add your post title and then add the content write up in the post editor.

 

Clicking on the save button will store your post as a draft while clicking on the publish button automatically publishes your post live on the server for the public to view.

 

Step 5. Installing Plugins

 

What are Plugins?

 

This is a piece of software that contains a group of functions that can be added to your WordPress website. They simply aid the functionality of any WordPress website and are so easy to activate and understand.

 

There are thousands of WordPress Plugins available for free download that can do various functions you desire on your website, however not all are of quality and this can pose a threat to your website security.

 

Here  is a detailed step by step guide on how to install plugins, I also gave recommendations on some MUST HAVE plugins for newbies.

 

Conclusion

I do hope this guide helped you learn how to develop a website independently without the need to hire a developer or overshoot your budget.