Now that you’ve chosen your domain and hosting plan, we need to get WordPress set up.
Listen, don’t sweat the techy stuff. It’s a relatively easy process once you know how.
Everyone can do it, including the most technically challenged. I’m going to hold your hand through the process here, so grab yourself a coffee or a cup of tea, take a deep breath and let’s get started.
If you have chosen to get started with Bluehost, they offer one of the easiest WordPress installation processes.
If you’ve followed on from the last step, Bluehost will install WordPress for you!
There are just a few things you need to do first to get it started. Create a password and follow all of the prompts.
If you’re logging back into Bluehost, you’ll see your website listed. Simply click on where it says ‘Log into WordPress’ and login!
Click where it says ‘Create Site’ and you will be guided through an easy and thorough installation wizard.
After creating a password and following the prompts, Bluehost will ask you to select a theme. You can skip this and pick your theme later.
Once you’re in the WordPress dashboard..
Going forward, you can access this through you Bluehost account or by adding /wp-login to the end of your domain (e.g www.livelovehealthwealth.com/wp-login).
To access your admin area, you will need to use the password you created after first installing it.
For the first day or two after signing up, you may not be able to login through your domain as this set up takes some time. Until then, login through the Bluehost.
Now that you are all logged in, let’s take a look around!
Take a Tour of the Dashboard
Here on your WordPress dashboard you will find a list of options on the left-hand side. This will include things like Posts, Pages, Appearance, Tools and Settings.
I’ll give you a quick overview of the main items, starting from the top:
- Posts: This is where you will write and edit your blog posts
- Media: This is where all the images and videos from your website will be kept
- Pages: This is where you will create and edit the pages on your website (e.g. FAQ page, or About Page)
- Comments: This is where you can monitor the comments under your blog posts in one spot
- Appearance: This is where you will make the customizations to your website’s look
- Plugins: This is where you will find useful tools that are embedded into your blog to provide more features
- Users: If there will be more than one person working on your blog, you can add names of the other people who will be accessing the dashboard here
- Settings: There are several subcategories within settings. You usually won’t be here too often, but you will need to ensure your settings are accurate before launching your blog and should be a priority.
Since we know the first thing you should do when setting up your WordPress site is to adjust your settings, we will start there.
Modify Settings
To modify your blog settings, click on Settings. Here you will make some adjustments to the General section, followed by Permalinks.
Under the General section, first edit the Site Title aka the name of your blog; this should match your domain but without the “www” or “.com”.
You want to make sure it’s just right and exactly how you want people to see it. After this, move onto the Tagline. Here you will write up a short sentence that describes your website.
Following this, click on WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) and make sure they are accurate and the same as your domain. You will also need to enter your main email address as a contact.
If you want a custom email like yourname@yourblognamehere.com, you can create this with Bluehost. Adjusting your General Settings won’t take you long but it’s very important you do it right away.
After making these revisions under the General section, click Permalinks (also found under settings). A permalink is essentially the domain structure of future blog posts and pages.
These should be straight forward and must include the title and keywords, as opposed to a series of random numbers and letters.
You don’t want to change a permalink after it’s been created so you need to ensure it’s set up correctly from the get-go.
You will see there are three options for permalinks to choose from; ensure that Post Name is selected.
By selecting Post Name, your future posts will look like this www.YourBlogNameHere.com/new-blog. This is easy for readers to remember and more readers will find your blog through search engines.
Now that the boring admin stuff is out of the way, let’s get creative!
Picking your Theme
Your WordPress theme is the overall structure and foundation of your website.
This is what gives your website its distinct look and what you will need to have installed before you can begin customizing it.
If you have already chosen it, amazing! If not, now is the time.
On the left-hand side of the dashboard you will see Appearance > Themes. Click on this to customize or add a new theme.
Not sure what theme to pick? No problem! I have written a blog post here that will help you choose the right WordPress theme.
If you purchased your hosting plan through my link, GREAT! I’ll give you DIVI theme FREE and I’ll even set it up for you. (drop me an email, and I’ll get it sorted).
Once you have chosen the theme you want, click ‘Install’. Once it’s installed, click ‘Activate’.
Your blog is now all set up and ready to go!
As you can see, setting up WordPress doesn’t need to be stressful. Take your time and get to know the dashboard and features and then set up your blog one step at a time.
With a little patience, you will have an amazing blog in no time!
See you soon for the next lesson, if you want to get started with lesson 5 right away, click here >>
Christina x
