What started as a blogging tool is now the most popular way to build websites of all kinds.
According to the latest 2019 statistics, WordPress powers a 34% from the Internet (60% if you count only CMS sites), and more than 400 million people visit WordPress sites every month. It is not surprising that it is used like this, it is undoubtedly the easiest way to create a website or a blog. On top of that, it is also free and offers more than 50,000 plugins, and can be used in multiple languages.
Even though WordPress is the easiest solution out there, building a website from scratch is still quite a feat, so today we bring you a guide on how to do it . So, let’s get started.
Custom WordPress Website or Theme?
WordPress Website Themes
The term theme it is familiar to all. of us. It’s sort of a setting that we can apply to a number of things to change their appearance. It means the same when it comes to WordPress.
A WordPress theme is a collection of templates and style sheets used to define a WordPress website. They are not part of the source code, so they can be modified to our liking. There are free and paid WordPress themes that you can use for your website. The type of theme you choose depends on your taste and type of business.
Minimalism has always been around, so going for a simplistic theme would not only be a safe choice, but a smart one as well. Complicated websites have a habit of confusing people and driving them away, so I think it’s safe to say that we should all be thankful that minimalism is so popular and people love it so much. If you want to know more about other trends of 2019 and 2020, we wrote a detailed blog that you can check out.
Custom WordPress Website
Unlike buying a theme or downloading a free one, when it comes to a custom WordPress website, start from scratch . If you’re wondering why people choose this option, think about how many websites there are with the same theme. If you want to make your business stand out, having a unique website is one of the steps to achieve it.
You can’t make a website in one go, on the contrary, building websites is a long process and no It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an expert web developer, there will always be bugs. But don’t let anything get you down, no one becomes an expert at anything overnight.
What to do before you start making a custom website?
There are four steps you will need to do before you start coding, let’s see what they are:
Making a Wireframe
It makes sense that we create a rough draft before creating the real thing.
In this case, you’ll need to think about how you want your website to look before doing anything else, which is where a wireframe comes into play.
A website wireframe is a scheme used to organize elements.
The design of a website should be consistent And elements, like images, text, and buttons, need to be placed in the right places if you want people to be able to navigate your website. Also, the purpose of a wireframe is to decide how you will direct people’s attention to what you want them to see, like a call-to-action button and photos of your product.
Simply put, wireframes they give you a better understanding of the site’s functionality.
Website Content
Now that you have the outline, it’s time to create the content.
Website content refers to everything found on a website, including images, videos, all text, etc. Be sure to accurately describe your products and include all the information your future customers will need. Add links to your social media accounts, work hours, location (use Google Maps), phone number, and email through which people can contact you.
Choose the right fonts and colors that you think best represent your business and brand. Hire a professional photographer to take pictures of you that you can then proudly display on your website. If you want illustrations, consider hiring a graphic designer who can create unique and memorable illustrations for your website.
Don’t forget to optimize all your content so that your website can load faster (website speed is very important!).
Make the design
Metal structure? Check.Content? Check. It’s time to put them together in their final form: the design.
If you already have a vision of what you want your website to look like, that’s awesome! It makes your job significantly easier.
However, if you’ve put a lot of thought into it and you just can’t find a design, that’s okay because if the internet has one thing, it’s websites. If you spend just a few hours browsing different websites and looking at WordPress themes, believe me, you will be inspired in a big way. And who knows, maybe the design you come up with will be more beautiful than all those sites.
Creating the design before you start coding is also very beneficial, as creating a design while learning to code will certainly be stressful. and it will only cost you valuable time.
Now that you have the design, it’s time to bring it to life. There are dozens of websites you can use to create a mockup of your website, such as Balsamiq, Adobe XD, Mockplus, Moqups and many more). Most of them are free with some premium features that you will have to pay for, while others offer you a 30-day trial. However, they are all quite easy to use.
Coding
We are all very lucky that it is 2019 and that there are thousands of tutorials and guides on the internet through which we can learn how to do almost anything. Fortunately, coding is one of those things.
First, you’ll need to learn HTML, CSS, and PHP. HTML, which stands for Hypertext Markup Language, is what you use for color, fonts, graphics, and hyperlink effects. CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, shows how HTML elements will be displayed. PHP, on the other hand, is used to create dynamic interactive websites.
This all might sound complicated, but believe me, it really isn’t. There are dozens of YouTubers making coding videos that everyone can understand. But if you don’t want to learn from just anyone on the internet, there are also online lessons you can pay for, where video tutorials can teach you the basics and then more complex stuff. In addition, there are numerous books you can buy if you prefer to read rather than watch.
Website Testing and Optimization
Website optimization refers to aspects of a website that contribute to conversions and traffic. You want people to be able to find your website, visit it, and maybe even buy your product or service, and that’s made possible by traffic and conversions.
Traffic comes from all kinds of marketing (social media, search, other websites) and conversion comes from good marketing. Luckily, there are dozens of optimization tools that can help us get the most out of our website.
GTmetrix helps you measure the speed of your website, which is very important, as we mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago. But why? In 2018, Google announced that website speed affects rankings, so even if your website is awesome, Google might show one of your competitors’ websites instead of yours if your website is faster. This website also gives you information on what you could optimize, so you can improve your overall speed.
On-Page SEO
We already mentioned that website traffic can be obtained through marketing, but there is also an organic way to do it and that is On-Page SEO, which is the last step in building your website.
On-page SEO uses quality content, keywords, titles, good URLs, and images to give you good page rankings in search engines .
If your website has a blog, make sure everything you write has value and isn’t stuffed with keywords. Don’t forget to write good meta descriptions and titles, as these contribute greatly to clicks. Include keywords where necessary!
Final Word
Building a website is certainly a long and challenging journey, but if you have passion and determination, you can do it. Once you learn how to do it, maybe you can even turn it into a job and become a freelancer. If it gets tough and all hope seems lost because you can’t figure out what’s messing with your code, don’t give up! Mistakes are bound to happen, so don’t let them sway you.
We hope this post has helped you learn something useful and that it will motivate you to try and make your own WordPress website!
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