What’s going on My name is Simon and in this video I’m gon na walk you through the best and easiest way to create a professional WordPress website. This is gon na be a tutorial that is straight to the point and step by step.
So you can easily follow along and you’ll have your own WordPress website ready by the end of this video And you don’t need any prior knowledge of WordPress or building websites.
This video is designed for complete beginners.
I will guide you through every single step and we’ll make sure to not skip anything along the way We also won.’t need to write any code to create our website because we will be using a visual page builder called Elementor.
Elementor is the most popular page builder for WordPress, allowing us to design our website using a drag and drop visual editor.
We’ll be using a free theme and only free plugins.
So the only thing we have to pay for is hosting, and I’ll show you how to get the best hosting for WordPress for as low as 3 per month.
I’ll also show you how to get access to hundreds of professionally designed website templates that are fully customizable and mobile friendly.
So let’s get started All right now.
The first thing we need to understand is that there are actually two versions of WordPress and we absolutely have to understand the difference between these two. So we don’t make the mistake of choosing the wrong platform, which will just end up losing us a lot of time and money.
So when we type in WordPress on Google, then two websites come up at the top.
There’s wordpress com and there’s wordpress org.
So what’s the difference Here on wordpress org.
This is basically the website where you can download the free open source software called WordPress that you can use to create your WordPress website.
You can just come to wordpress org scroll down, click on discover, discover WordPress, then click on download WordPress and then here you can download that software for free, install it on a server and then create your WordPress website.
So when people talk about that, they have used WordPress to create their website, then they just mean that they have used this open source software that they can download here on wordpress org for free.
So what is wordpress com? WordPress com is basically a for profit company that offers different hosting plans and website builder plans.
So here, when we click on plans and pricing, then you can see that they have different plans.
They also have a free plan which is very limited, and then it starts at 4 per month paid annually and it goes all the way up to 45 per month. If you pay annually And then, if you pay monthly, it’s gon na be more expensive.
So here you’re gon na be pushed into getting a paid plan to get all of the features that you need.
So I’ve played around with wordpress com as well, and what I figured out is that the premium and the personal plan, doesn’t really give you the actual WordPress that you want.
They give you very limited features and you don’t get access to all of the plugins and themes that would be actually free in the WordPress ecosystem.
If you want to get access to the most popular themes and plugins, they push you to upgrade to the business plan at 40 per month.
If you pay monthly – And this is what’s very confusing and annoying to a lot of people – because they hear WordPress – they just go to wordpress com sign up for a plan, maybe even the free plan, and then they realize that they have to pay 40 Per month to even get access to the WordPress ecosystem – And this is why I don’t recommend to use wordpress com to create a WordPress website.
There are much more affordable and better options to create a WordPress website, because WordPress is just a free software that anybody can use.
The only thing we have to pay for is hosting – and here you get hosting included, but we can get hosting for a much lower price, Hosting simply means that we are renting some space on a server where all of our website files will be stored.
That server runs 24 7 and is always connected to the internet so that anybody can visit our website at any time All right.
So now we are ready to set up our WordPress website, and here you can see an overview of what we’re going to do in this video. So first we’re going to set up hosting Again.
This is gon na, be the server where all of our website files will be stored.
Then, once that’s done, we’re gon na get our website domain, which is gon na, be the name of your website, something like meticsmedia com or yourname com.
Whatever you want, Then we’re gon na install WordPress on that server that we are renting.
This is free, so we’re gon na install the open source software called WordPress.
Then we’re gon na install a free theme and free plugins to make building our website very easy, And then we’re gon na learn how to customize our website.
So let’s go ahead and set up hosting.
Now, when we go back to wordpress org, where we can download the open source software called WordPress, Then here we can see a list of all the recommended hosting providers for WordPress.
So here they have Bluehost Hostinger, DreamHost and wordpress com.
Again I don’t recommend to use wordpress com. I do understand why they have it on this list is because they are essentially under the same company, so they do have to kind of recommend it here.
But I’ve personally used Bluehost for a while, and I’ve actually switched to Hostinger a few years ago because it’s a lot more affordable.
It’s better overall and it’s a lot easier to use.
So this is the one that I recommend and the one that we’re gon na, be using in this video.
Now I’ve actually partnered up with Hostinger, and I was able to get you an additional discount on their hosting plans Now to get that, all you have to do is go down to the video description and click on the first link.
You’ll, find there.
This link will take you to my Hostinger partner page, where you can see my face and also my logo And then once you’re here, just click on start now, and this will take you to their plans, And here I recommend to either go with the Premium or the business plan Now the business plan does have a few benefits like it’s able to handle more traffic.
It has more storage and you also get a faster average loading speed because you get the CDN feature which stores your website files on multiple servers across the globe which will increase the loading speed for the average visitor.
So if you have the budget – and you want to have the best performance, I recommend to go with the business plan.
But if you want to save a bit of money and you don’t care about the improved performance, you can also choose the premium plan and you’ll, be absolutely fine. So I’m gon na go ahead and choose the business plan, And here on the next step, we can choose our payment period, which means how many months in advance we’re gon na pay for our hosting.
Now, the more you pay upfront, the cheaper it’s, gon na, be in the long run.
So if we take the 48 months option, we get four years of hosting for 399 per month for the first four years and after those four years it’s.
Gon na renew at 899 per month, Then, for example, the 12 months option.
We get the price of 399 for a one year and then after that, one year it renews at 1199.
So if you do have the budget to pay more upfront, then I recommend to go with the 48 months option just because you save a lot of money in the long run.
But if you don’t want to spend that much in the beginning, then you can also take one of the other plans right here And by the way you also have a 30 day money back guarantee, which means that within the first 30 days, if you Decide that you don’t need that hosting plan, and you don’t want to create your website.
Then you can just get a refund with a simple click.
I’ve done it many times after I do these tutorials.
So I can confirm that it’s very easy to get a refund. So choose your option right here and then let’s scroll down to the second step, which is create your account.
So here all you have to do is enter your email address and choose a password, or you can also use your Google account to sign up for Hostinger Once that’s done let’s scroll down to the third step, which is the payment.
Now, before we choose our payment option here, let’s scroll down further and click on have a coupon code.
Then we can see this field right here, and here You want to enter MeticsMedia Now make sure the spelling is correct.
You can also copy and paste it from the video description and click on apply, And by applying that code, it will give you an additional 10 discount on your hosting plan.
Once that’s done, you can scroll back up.
Choose your payment method right here enter all of your details and click on submit secure payment And once the payment is complete, we get to the onboarding sequence for Hostinger, but we actually don’t need to answer any of these questions.
So, to save some time we’re gon na go straight to the hosting or dashboard by clicking on the Hostinger logo up here at the top, Let’s click on leave, And this takes us into the Hostinger dashboard And here the first thing we want To do is confirm our email address, So let’s go to our email inbox, the email we have used to sign up for Hostinger, and here we should find an email saying, verify your email address.
So let’s click on it here and then let’s, click on verify, email, And this should take us back to the WordPress dashboard.
So now we are done with the first step, which is getting hosting and we can move on to the second step, which is choosing our domain name, which is the name of our website, So to get our domain name, we just go to our Hostinger dashboard. Go to home and then right here we can click on Claim Domain, And here the first thing we want to do is change the domain extension right here to a com domain, because it’s just what’s most commonly used and what people are used To You can also choose one of the other options right here, but generally I recommend to stick to a com domain.
Then right here you can enter the name of your website.
So if it’s gon na be a personal website, you can just use your personal name com or, if it’s for a business or a company, use your company name com Also try to keep your domain name short, simple and easy to remember Now, Because I already have the meticsmedia com domain, I’m just gon na add some numbers here at the end, but I wouldn’t recommend to add numbers because it just makes things not look as professional and legit for your website.
But I’m not gon na use this website anyway, so I don’t really mind to have numbers in the domain.
So once you’ve entered your name that you want to use just click on check, availability and if the name is available, you can just click on claim Domain right here And now to register our new domain.
We have to enter some contact details Now if it’s a personal website.
You want to stick with personal and if it’s a website for your company or organization, click on company organization and then click on Next Step, And then here enter the contact details And once that’s done click on finish registration, Then let’s Click on continue And then here we can see an offer for a hosting plan, but we already have hosting so we can skip this by clicking on Skip.
I don’t need a website And now, once again we need to confirm our email address for our domain as well.
So let’s go to our email inbox once again and then look for an email, saying important verify your contact information for your domain.
So let’s click on this email and then let’s click on this link right here And there we go. Our email address has been verified, so we can close this tab and the email inbox as well Reload the page right here And now we can see that our new domain is now active And that’s it for the second step, which was getting our domain Name Now we can move on to the third step, which is installing WordPress.
So let’s go back to Hostinger And here let’s go to main menu and then click on home.
And then here we can see our hosting plan And let’s click on setup.
And here, if you want to you, can answer these questions.
But I’m gon na save some time and just skip these by clicking on skip here at the bottom.
And here because we want to create a new website, we will say I’ll create a website and click on Next And here we can choose between using WordPress or the Hostinger website builder.
Now I’ve made an entire tutorial about how to use the Hostinger website builder, but this video is about how to create a WordPress website, which is why we’re gon na choose WordPress and click on Next.
So now we need to create our WordPress account and you can just use the same email.
You’ve also used for your Hostinger account.
So just choose a password right here and then click on Next Here we’re gon na choose create blank site at the bottom right Then here we need to choose our domain name, that we want to use for our WordPress website and we can already see The one that we have created before So let’s choose this one and click on Next. So here we can choose the server where our website files will be stored, And generally you want to keep the server location as close to your website visitors as possible.
So if you’re gon na have a lot of visitors from the United States, then you probably want to choose a server location that is here in the United States.
If you’re gon na have more visitors from Europe, then you want to choose a server location here in Europe, for example France.
Now, if you’ve chosen the business plan like I did, then it doesn’t really matter, because all of your website files will be stored on all of these servers right here to maximize the performance of your website across the globe.
But if you have chosen the premium plan then make sure to choose a server that is closest to where your potential website visitors are.
So.
In my example, I’ll just choose France and click on Next And now WordPress is being installed Now once the installation has been complete, it should automatically take you to your WordPress dashboard and, if it doesn’t, I’m gon na quickly show you How to get to your WordPress dashboard very easily, So what you have to do is open up your browser or open up a new tab right here enter your domain name.
So for me this would be Meticsmediaeleven com and then followed by slash.
Wp admin hit enter And then you can see the login screen for your WordPress account.
So here just type in your WordPress account email again and also your password and click on login. And this will take you to your WordPress dashboard, And this is basically the backend of your website.
So now we’ve completed the third step, which was installing WordPress and we can move on to the fourth step, which is installing our theme and installing the plugins that we need to create our website.
So here in our WordPress dashboard, let’s head over to appearance on the left set menu and then click on themes, And here we’re gon na install a new theme.
That is a lot better and gives us a lot more options than the default.
One that is currently installed So let’s, click on add theme here at the top And the theme we’re gon na install is one of the most popular free themes available for WordPress, which is called Astra, And we can already see it right here.
If you can’t see it just type in Astra here at the top and then it will come up right here.
So when you see it just click on install and activate, And this takes us back to our themes.
So when we scroll down, we can see that the currently active theme for our WordPress website is now the Astra theme that we have just installed and activated.
A theme basically gives our website the basic structure and enable us to build our website using a drag and drop visual page builder.
So we don’t have to write any code. So next we’re gon na install a plugin called Starter Templates, which is gon na, give us access to hundreds of professionally designed website templates, which will make building our website a lot easier.
So let’s head over to plugins on the left side menu.
Then let’s close this window right here and click on add new plugin, Then in the search bar, let’s type in starter templates and it’s this one right here.
So let’s click on install Now and Activate, And now down here we can see that the Starter Templates plugin is now installed and activated, And we can also see that we have a few more plugins that came pre installed with our WordPress account, Because we Have used Hostinger for our hosting provider, they have already installed their own plugins like the Hostinger, AI, Hostinger, Easy Onboarding and the Hostinger tools plugin, which actually we don’t need, because you have this tutorial, So we can just deactivate those plugins and delete them completely.
So let’s just highlight them or tick them right here Then go to Bulk Actions, deactivate apply, and now the background is wide, which means that these plugins are deactivated Now to completely delete them from our WordPress dashboard.
We can just take them again here.
Go to bulk actions, delete and apply and confirm, And now we are just left with the Lightspeed Cache plugin, which basically enables caching on your website, which will make it faster.
But I actually recommend to deactivate this one for building your website And then once your website is finished, you can activate this plugin once again.
Now let’s go ahead and start setting up our WordPress website using the starter templates plugin.
So let’s click on get started right here And this launches the Starter Templates plugin, where the first thing we want to do is choose our page builder. So up here we can switch from the AI website builder to Elementor.
So Elementor is the most popular page builder for WordPress.
It’s easy to use, and it gives us tons of flexibility when it comes to customizing your website.
So let’s choose Elementor up here, and this will take us to a large library of website templates that we can start with to create our own website.
Now I recommend to start with a template, especially if you’re not a professional website designer, because it will save you tons of time and your website will end up looking a lot more professional compared to if you’re, gon na start from scratch, and Do everything on your own, So I recommend to just go through these categories right here and try to find the right category for the kind of website you want to build.
So, for example, if you want to create a website for a restaurant, you can just go to a restaurant right here, or you can type it in here in the search bar, And this will give you all of the different templates that you can use to create.
A restaurant website Now some of them are gon na, be pay templates, as you can see here because it says premium, but they also have a lot of free ones.
So, for example, this one is free.
This one is free.
This one is free as well, And when you scroll down, you have a lot more templates that you can start with to create your own restaurant website. Now, in this video I’m just gon na create a website for a portfolio, So I’m gon na type in portfolio, and this will give me website templates that are optimized for a portfolio website.
So once you find one that you like, you can just click on it, And here we can already customize some of the basic settings of our website like we can upload a site logo.
We can play around with different fonts for our site And here we can also play around with different color schemes.
So I’m just gon na choose blue here and click on continue And then here we can add some additional features.
But for now I’m just gon na stick with the basic features and click on Skip This Step, And then here we also don’t need to enter anything.
We can just click on, submit and build my website, And now all the required plugins are gon na be installed on your WordPress account and the website is being built And once that’s done, we can click on view.
Your website, and here we go.
This is our new website that was made from the template that we have chosen before So.
Currently, we are on the homepage right here.
We can also switch pages by just clicking on the links here in the navigation menu up here, So we can go to the about page. We can go to the portfolio page and also to the contact page.
Now our website is already published and available to anyone who visits our domain.
So when we go to a new tab and type in our domain name in my case, this would be meticsmediaeleven com and hit enter.
Then you get to the website.
We have just created, And now we have completed the fourth step of creating our WebPress website, which was installing a theme and all the necessary plugins and choosing our template to start our website.
With Now, we’re gon na move on to the fifth and final step, which is learning how to customize our website So to customize our website.
We’re gon na be using the Elementor page builder that was already installed when you’ve, set up our website using the starter templates plugin And to open up our website in the Elementor page builder.
We can either just go to our website by typing.
In the URL at the top and then hitting enter, And whenever we are logged in to our WordPress account, we should see this bar here at the top, with a link saying Edit with Elementor.
So when we click on this link – and this will open up the Elementor page builder, where we can start customizing our website, Another way how we can get into the page builder for every page on our website is by just going through our WordPress dashboard. So once you’re in your dashboard, you can just go to pages here on the left side and then here you can see all the pages that were created for us, because we have chosen a website template And now, if you want to customize any of These pages let’s say we want to customize the homepage right here we just hover over it, and then we can see a link saying Edit with Elementor.
We can just click on this link and again this will open up our homepage in the Elementor page builder.
Now before we start customizing our website, it’s important to understand how our website pages are structured here on Elementor.
So here on the right side, we can see an overview of the structure of this homepage, So we have a container here at the top, and this is basically this first part of the website right here.
Then, when we open up this container, we can see three more containers, and these are basically the columns of this first container.
So when we click on the first one here we can see.
This is the first column When we click on the second one.
It’s the second column and then on the third one.
It’s the third column.
So this is the overall structure of this first part. Then, when we open up this first container, we can see there’s an element inside of this container, which is called Icon List, And this is what you can see right here.
Then, when we open up the second container, we can see there’s a heading, there,’s a text element and there’s a button And then for the third container.
There is an image which is this image right here, and it works exactly the same way for all the other parts of our website.
So right here we have the second container and then within this container we have another one, and then we have the elements.
So the heading the text, a divider right here and then the next container, with these elements in here And that’s, how each of your pages are built.
So for now let’s just close this structure window And now let’s see how we can edit some elements on our homepage.
So, for example, if you want to change this text right here, all we have to do is click on the text and then on the left side, we can see the menu the options for this text, So we can change the text right here or we can Also, double click into this text field and then highlight everything and then just change it to whatever we want, And if you want to change this button right here we can just click on it And then again on the left side, all the options will open up.
So, for example, change to text.
We can just change it right here And because it’s a button, we also want to add a link to it.
So when people click on it it will actually go to another page, So it can enter any link. You want here, or you can also send them to another page So here I would want to send them to the portfolio page.
So I’ll type in portfolio and here’s, the page.
So let’s click on it, and then it automatically adds the link to the portfolio page of my website And to change the images it works.
The same way, Just click on the image you want to change, go to change image right here And then just drag and drop the image that you want to add Click on select and now the image has changed to this new one right here Now, if you Want to add a new element to your page.
We can just go to the plus icon here at the top left, and then we can see the different elements we can add to our page.
So, for example, if you want to add some text here to the top of this heading, we can just drag and drop the text editor to the top of this heading And then to change the text.
We just triple click and then we just add anything that we want And if you want to delete anything on your page, you can just right click on the element and then click on delete and it will be deleted And we can also delete entire containers.
So, for example, let’s scroll down And let’s say we don’t need this video container right here.
So we can just click on the X and this will delete the entire container And now to save the changes we’ve made and make the new version of the website public.
We need to click on publish here at the top And to customize any of the other pages of our website. We can switch pages up here, So we go from home to let’s say the about page and then here we can change every part of this website as well.
The same way Now let’s take a look at how we can add a new page to our WordPress website.
So, to do that, we’re gon na just go to our website by opening up a new tab typing in our URL and then hitting enter here, make sure you are logged into your WordPress dashboard.
This way you’re gon na see this bar here at the top, And here we just want to click on new and then click on page, And now we can give our page a name.
So I’m just gon na name it our team And then click on, publish and confirm And now to edit this new page.
We can just click on edit with Elementor up here, And this opens up the page builder for our new page.
So now we can just start by adding content.
So, for example, we can drag in a heading and then change the text here, And we can also make use of pre made templates that make the process of building our new page a lot easier and quicker.
So to see the templates, we can just click on this S icon right here And then we want to go to blocks And then here for our team page, I’m just gon na type in team And then here I can see different types of templates That we can use for a team page.
So, for example, let’s add this one right here, So we can just click on it and then click on import block And then here once it’s imported. We can also change every part of this template by just clicking on the elements and then changing it right here And we can even import entire pages from the templates.
So again we just click on this icon right here And now here under pages, we can see all the templates that we have already seen in the beginning when we have created our website, But now we can even import all of the different pages of these templates Separately to our new website, So, for example, if we like some part of let’s say this website right here, we can just click on it and check out all of the different pages.
They have Let’s say we like this about page.
We can just click on it, see if we actually like it, and if we do, we can import that entire page by clicking on import template And now the entire page was imported to our new page.
We have just created, And from this point we can just customize everything.
So, for example, if you don’t need this part right here, we just click on the X to delete it.
We can also change the text right here and just customize everything to our own content.
So let’s publish our changes and preview our new page by clicking on this eye icon, And this will give us a preview of our newly created page Now.
To add this new page, the navigation menu as well.
All we have to do is click on customize up here then go to menus then choose the main menu, which is the one here at the top, And then we can click on, add items and add the our team page we have created before Then click publish And now we have the our team page in the navigation menu as well. So now we know how to customize the content of each page on our website.
But how do we actually customize the header and the footer of our website To do that? We have to click on customize up here once again And then, when we hover over the header area, we can see these pen icons right here So, for example, to change the logo in the header.
We can just click on this pen icon and then change the logo right here And it works the same way with the footer.
So we can just click on customize scroll down to the footer, and then we can click on any of these pen.
Icons, which will open up the footer builder And here, is where we can change every part of the footer So for the logo.
We can change that here.
We can also change the email address right here and also these icons or this text here at the bottom.
Now, if you’re looking for a more in depth tutorial on how to customize every part of your new WordPress website, then watch this video next, where I teach you step by step, how to use WordPress and Elementor to customize every part of your new website.
Thanks for watching – and I’ll see you in the next video .
