How to Create a Beautiful WordPress Website for Your Brand

Looking to build a brand awareness website or just a blog? Nearly everyone with a business set up a web site.  That is awesome! In today’s marketplace, many switches to web builders’ predesigned models, some of which don’t give you the ability to analyze and monitor your data.  If you want to create a website and track your metrics to see how your brand performs, try WordPress (WP). 

As Baby Boomer entrepreneurs, many believe that building a WP site is hard. Depending on your skillset, WordPress can be easy to set up and manage; however, if you’re not technically inclined, you will face some challenges, but try it, and you may just love it.

This article will help you get started in creating your own WordPress website.

Why WordPress?

WordPress has grown into a popular search engine optimization (SEO) platform that works incredibly well.  That means it has the capability for people to find you via search engines easily. You’ll find thousands of free, and some paid professional themes and can use the same domain for your website and blogs. You can update your website at any time you like.  Besides, once you learn the interface, it will become easy for you to make edits and add content. “WordPress is used by 36.0% of all the websites, that is a content management system market share of 62.8%.” 

The community is massive, and you could ask for community support. It’s also a mobile-friendly website with lots of plugins, so basically, you don’t need a developer to create a simple website for you.   Unless you’re searching for a more robust platform that requires coding that you don’t know.  There are different types of websites, such as blogs, e-commerce, informational, among others.  Whatever you choose, WordPress is ideal. 

So, let’s run through the steps of how you can set up a necessary but beautiful and professional website.

Get a domain.  The first thing you will need to do is purchase your domain.  It should resonate with your brand and your audience, for example, if you decide to run a consulting business and offer some dog training, your domain should look like “Dogtraining.com.” Always research your competition so that you will strategically select the right name. Use a .com if possible. That is what most people are familiar with using. Get a domain that is available across social media channels, so you can effectively brand your business. That can be challenging finding one that is available on all the platforms, and it might take you hours to find an appropriate one, but it is worth the effort.  Try keeping it short and simple, so consumers can easily remember it. You can obtain your domain from GoDaddy; the support is great.

Sign up for a hosting plan.  That is where you will house your domain.  It is where your website will reside.  There are several affordable hosting companies, such as SiteGround. “Overall, SiteGround hosting ranks near the top of all web hosting companies for both uptime (99.99%) and speed (673ms). Their customer support team is knowledgeable, fast, and friendly. All plans come with a CDN, SSL certificate, and email accounts,” so you can get your installation security right from the start.  

Search for a beautiful and professional theme on WordPress.com.  You can find several themes here that will make your brand stand out.   Go ahead and sign up for WordPress and select your idea.  If you’re just getting started, you could choose the free theme.  Once selected, you can upload the demo theme, so that theme looks just like the one you want.  From there, you will need to make edits and change the content to what you would like it to read.  SiteGround provides simple instructions as to how you can get your WordPress installed easily.

Create your layout.  Once you’ve installed WordPress, you’ll notice that your site has posts and pages.  Posts allow you to write content to communicate with your audience— you’ll often hear others refer to blog posts.  Pages are static and you can add as many pages as desired. Pages include: About Us, Contact, Products or Services, etc.  When you’re ready to add your posts and pages, you could look at the WordPress editor.   

Now you’re ready to add your plugins.  These make your website functional.  There are thousands of plugins. However, you could start with the basic ones, such as:

Monsterinsights – helps you track your site visitors with Google analytics. 

Yoast SEO – helps to improve your site.

Sucuri – You will need to protect your website from malware.  This plugin will help you.

WP Contact – helps you to connect with your audience by creating a contact form.  

WP Super cache – This improves your website performance to run efficiently.  

Now it’s time to add your content.

What are Your Thoughts in Creating Your Branded WordPress Website?

Still don’t have the time, or don’t want to take up the challenge?  A website provides your brand with credibility.  The first thing consumers regularly do once they hear of a brand is to Google that brand name.  They need to know who you are as a brand and what you offer that can solve their pain point.  Having that information readily available on your website can be very impactful for your business.

Now, building a WordPress site can teach you valuable skills. As Baby Boomer entrepreneurs, if you’re looking to analyze your data and gain control over your website, WordPress is the perfect solution.

“Master online branding. Online branding makes you known for something specific by people who have not even seen you physically, before.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

A beautiful site can help you achieve your online branding. Need more information on how you can build your WordPress website? 

Please share any additional feedback. I’d love to hear your thoughts or comments.