How to Build a WordPress Website in 2023

on 18 July 2023, by Bogdan, in Blog, WordPress, Guides

by Bogdan

There is an overwhelming number of options and plugins available in the market to help you build an effective WordPress website.

Without proper guidance, you can easily get lost in a sea of choices. That is why we’ve put up this guide in this article to help you navigate the complexities of WordPress website development.

We will provide you with best practices and recommend tools on how to build a WordPress website. We’ll walk you through setting up a domain name and hosting service, setting up your website with WordPress, what themes to use, and the page builder you can use to complete your website. By the end of this guide, you’ll have both confidence, the right tools, and the proper guidance to build a WordPress website.

The best part is you won’t need any coding knowledge to build a website and the entire process isn’t all that complicated at all.

We’ll show you the simplest way possible to start an online presence for your business. So, without further ado, let’s get started right away.

Step 1: Pick the Content Management System (CMS) you want to use

The first step before you can start building a website is to choose which CMS platform you’re going to use. This is because the choice of what website hosting service you’ll use to host your site will greatly depend on which CMS platform you select.

Why do we recommend WordPress for your website?

WordPress is one of the best CMS platform to create a site for the following reasons:

WordPress allows you to create different types of websites for different markets.
WordPress is open-source software. You’re free to install, use, and modify it however you like to fit your needs.
WordPress can handle different media types or digital assets you have such as images, audio, video, etc.
WordPress is easy to, use, manage, and update.
WordPress is safe and secure. It regularly pushes constant updates and security patches to protect your site.
WordPress works well with most WordPress plugins and themes to improve your website’s performance or give your WordPress site additional functionality.

For these reasons, WordPress is the world’s most popular and the right CMS platform for you to get started. It powers 43.2% of all websites and is used by big names like Rolling Stones, PlayStation, Sony Music, TechCrunch, Time Magazine, etc.

If you opt for WordPress, the next step is to buy a web hosting service.

Step 2: Purchase a website hosting service

Although we label this as step 2, it is the initial step that sets everything rolling. For starters, website hosting and a domain name are essential components that go hand-in-hand to establish a solid online presence for your website on the internet.

A hosting provider offers server space and resources to store and make websites accessible on the internet while a domain name is your site’s address(more on this in the next section). Because of this, the choice of what web hosting you’ll use depends on factors such as its performance, website uptime, storage space, security, support, and other WordPress-specific features.

We’ve got quite a list of some of the best hosting providers including NameCheap, Bluehost, GoDaddy, Hostinger and more. These providers offer plans that are similar yet have slightly varying sets of features including, storage and bandwidth limits, uptime guarantees, speed, price, and others. But we’ll recommend NameCheap because it is beginner-friendly and affordable among other reasons such as:

offers free domain registration. And depending on which plan you choose, you can get a free (or cheap) domain name and SSL certificate.
It offers unlimited storage space on SSDs to store your site’s files.

It allows free WordPress installation.

Step 3: Register a domain name for your website

NameCheap allows you to register a domain name in two ways:

You can enter a domain name directly in its domain registrars.
Or, you can connect an already registered domain name by entering it in the Use a domain you own field. This will help you save a lot of time instead of having to manually connect it to your web host.

Here are some of the best practices you can apply when you’re registering a domain name.

The domain name is the name of your website. So, keep it short and avoid hyphens and numbers. This is because shorter domain names are generally easy to remember, type, spell, and pronounce. For instance, tutorial.net, burgerking.com, webschool.org, etc.
Select a domain name that reflects your brand or website’s purpose from the list of available domains.
Opt for popular and common top-level domains (TLDs) like .com, .net, or .org as they are widely recognized and trusted by internet users. However, if a specific TLD is more relevant to your website or niche, you can choose that as well.

Note: Finding a domain name that accurately represents your business and brand from a list of available domains can be challenging, depending on how common the name is. Unless you’re willing to part with a substantial amount of money, you should consider the name with alternatives to the TLD extension.

Once you've found a domain name that’s available and represents who you are, you can continue to configure your hosting package.

Tip: If you anticipate using the domain for an extended period, consider registering it for a longer duration upfront (e.g., multiple years) to avoid the risk of losing it accidentally.

Then, continue to configure your domain name.

Step 4: Install WordPress

The last step in the process is to install WordPress onto your domain through your web hosting account.

Note: Most of the leading web hosting providers we suggested offer free WordPress installation, which enables users to connect their domain and web hosting plan to WordPress.

You can start this process by logging in to your cPanel on your web hosting account.

Whilst installing WordPress, it is important to keep the following best practices in mind:

Select a domain name you purchase over a secure https://www connection. Installing WordPress over a secure HTTPS connection will encrypt data transmission between your website and visitors. This helps protect sensitive information and boosts your site's security.
You can choose to leave the In Directory field empty by deleting the “wp_” prefix. That is if you don’t want the prefix to appear at all on your website’s URL.

Alternatively, you can assign it a unique database prefix during the installation process. This will add an extra layer of security by making it harder for potential hackers to target your database tables.

3. Make sure to create an admin username and a strong password combination to secure your WordPress admin dashboard. Avoid using generic or easily guessable login details.

Also, include the admin email that you have access to. This might come in handy when you forget your password.

4. You can enable automatic updates for WordPress core, themes, and plugins. This ensures you have the latest security patches and bug fixes, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities.

When you’re done, click the administrative URL link to access your new WordPress dashboard.

Tip: If you have an existing WordPress website and are switching to a new hosting provider, consider using a WordPress migration service. It's the easiest way to transfer your site seamlessly. Many web hosting providers offer this service for free but keep in mind that some hosts may charge an extra fee for migration.

After all this, you can tweak some general settings in Users > Profile from your WordPress dashboard before you can start designing your website.

Step 5: Install a website-specific WordPress theme for your site

The default WordPress website will look something like the image above.

You can change the appearance of this site layout using a WordPress theme. That’s what it’s used for – to just change the appearance and site’s layout. The appearance you pick for your website will ultimately affect how people perceive your website.

To do this, simply navigate to Appearance > Themes > Add New in your WordPress dashboard and search for which theme works best for you.

The choice of which WordPress theme works well for you will depend on which type of website you want for your business. For instance, if you’re in a restaurant business, go for themes that are optimized for a restaurant website.

Otherwise, WordPress offers a ton of multipurpose WordPress themes that suits all kinds of websites. You can get started with some of our best picks including Astra, Ocean WP, Neve, Zakra, Hello Elementor, Page Builder Framework, Rishi, Customizr, Blocksy, Mesmerize, Kadence, and the list goes on.

Here are some of the best practices you can use to help you choose the best WordPress theme just for you:

Opt for a theme that is lightweight, responsive, and optimized for speed.
Look for a theme built with clean, optimized code and proper HTML structure. This will help you to easily optimize your site for search engines.
Choose a theme that offers flexible customization options, such as color schemes, font choices, layout variations, and widget areas.
This allows you to personalize your website to align with your brand or design preferences.
Ensure that the theme is compatible with major web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Choose a theme from a reputable developer or marketplace that provides regular updates and reliable customer support.

After customizing your WordPress theme, the next step is to create pages and posts for your WordPress website. To do this:

Go to Pages/Posts > Add New on your WordPress dashboard.
Then, give your page a title and Publish.

You can choose to insert and edit various elements and blocks using the default WordPress. Or, you outsource the help of a page builder to help you and save a lot of time. The thing is, the default WordPress editor is only sufficient for basic content creation.

Using a page builder, on the other hand, provides enhanced design flexibility, customization options, time efficiency, responsive design, pre-built templates, advanced functionality, and a user-friendly experience when creating pages and posts for your site.

For this, we’ll use the Brizy WordPress page builder.

Step 6: Build your pages and posts with the help of Brizy WordPress

Brizy WordPress is a comprehensive drag & drop page builder that helps you create stunning pages and posts for your WordPress site. It uses various pre-built blocks and templates to design pages, posts, and sections of pages/posts you want on your website.

For starters, after you’ve created a page and published it on your WordPress dashboard, Brizy WordPress allows you to edit. All you have to do is to bring in all the blocks that will make your website look good and then customize them.

Every element, including fonts, colors, borders, padding, images, and more is fully customizable to match your style and brand. These blocks can also be reordered to your liking. Besides, every design block element, pre-built template, and layout you’ll use are optimized for web performance and are mobile responsive.

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The best part? Brizy WordPress also works well with WordPress themes installed on your site. Plus, you don’t need any coding knowledge at all.

The advantage of using Brizy WordPress is it:

It has a wide range of features that are supposed to help website creation more straightforward and more flexible.
You don’t have to install multiple other plugins to complete. It contains a host of features to complete, secure, test, and take our website online on the internet.
These include SEO tools like Yoast, marketing tools, media & font tools, contact forms, popups, multilanguage features, landing pages, membership functionality, web stories, and security features like Global CDN, Google Analytics, you name it.
Brizy WordPress is optimized for website performance and is fully mobile responsive.
Brizy WordPress is easy to learn. Once you’re familiar with its interface, which takes no time, you’ll be ready to work with Brizy.

Now, let’s see briefly how you can set up Brizy WordPress on your WordPress site.

How to get started with Brizy on your WordPress site

In this section, we will show you how to install and activate Brizy Pro: Simply, take the following steps:

On your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New, then search for “Brizy”.
Click Install Now and then Activate. This will install the free version of Brizy.
To install Brizy PRO, go to brizy.io and then log in to your Brizy account then install Brizy WordPress Pro.
Go back to Plugins > Add New and upload the .zip file you’ve just downloaded, Install and then Activate.
At this point, you have Brizy Free and Brizy Pro installed. We need to activate the PRO license to unlock the PRO features.
To do this, go back to your Brizy and click the WordPress licenses section and click the full key link to copy your license key.
Finally, paste the license key in Brizy > Settings > License tab and Activate.

That’s it. Brizy is now all set up on your WordPress site. You can now use it to build your pages and complete your website.

Conclusion

Building a WordPress website today is a lot easier than ever, but there are still some crucial steps that need careful attention to get this job perfectly done. That is why we’ve come up with this guide to highlight the best practices and recommend the best tools that will help you build fully functional websites.

In this post, we’ve taken you through a comprehensive guide on getting reliable hosting, selecting a domain name, choosing a WordPress theme, and utilizing tools like Brizy WordPress to create your website.

With these steps and using the tools and practices we’ve recommended here, you can confidently create a WordPress website that stands out and fits your needs seamlessly.

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Frequently Asked Questions

YES, Stories is part of Brizy WordPress as well and everything is very similar to how the CLoud version works. Learn more about this here.

Just like stories on social apps, Brizy stories are mainly made for consumption in portrait mode. They won’t work well in landscape mode. However, on desktops, the display will be adjusted and users will have a navigation bar to move from one piece of content to the next.

No, you can’t change the resolution. However, the resolution is dynamic and it will automatically adjust to fit the screen users’ screen sizes.

No, you won’t be able to insert a story as a block on a page, it is a page on its own. For that, you can use a carousel or a blog slider.

Not at the moment, but this is under consideration and it may be included in the next major update.

Article by Bogdan

Co-founder & Head of Design, Bogdan has a passion for everything that works great and looks awesome. Guilty for most of the UI and UX around this place, you can say "Hi" to him at bogdan at brizy dot io