The Ultimate Guide to Getting Started with WordPress in 2024
Updated April 2024
Getting Started with WordPress
Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Getting Started with WordPress in 2024. Whether you are a business owner, professional, or entrepreneur, this comprehensive guide is designed to help you easily navigate the WordPress world.
This post will provide valuable insights, tips, and strategies to ensure a successful start on your WordPress journey. From setting up your website to optimizing its performance, this guide will equip you with the knowledge and tools to make the most out of this powerful platform. Get ready to embark on a WordPress adventure like no other. Let’s dive in!
Essential Steps for Launching a New WordPress Website
So, you’re looking to set up a new WordPress website. If you read this article, you likely already believe that WordPress may be the best solution, and you would be right!
In our ultimate guide to getting started with WordPress, we’ll cover everything you need to unleash the full power of the platform and build the website of your dreams.
But first, let’s answer a few questions we get from many of our clients.
Is WordPress Still Relevant in 2024?
Yes, WordPress is still relevant in 2024. WordPress usage continues to rise steadily. As of 2024, there are about 1.98 billion websites, and over 835 million sites use WordPress. This means that 43.3% of all live websites on the internet are powered by WordPress. In other words, on average, every 2 out of every 5 sites you visit is built on WordPress!
WordPress is used by 62.8% of all the websites whose content management system we know. This is 43.3% of all websites.
W3Techs
WordPress Statistics in April 2024
- WordPress powers 43.3% of all websites as their CMS.
- WordPress dominates the CMS market with a 62.8% share.
- There are over 30,000 WordPress themes available.
- More than 70,000 plugins are available for WordPress.
- WooCommerce is the top e-commerce platform, holding a 35.96% market share.
Technology is constantly being updated, so there’s no way to know what changes may come in future versions. But this has never affected the need for WordPress. People who write blogs or build websites will continue using WordPress and its customizable features, templates, and more.
There are many reasons why WordPress continues to be so popular, and we’ve gathered some of those reasons below.
It’s Free and Open Source
Arguably, this is the number one reason WordPress is so popular. The fact that it’s easy to customize fully. When you combine this with the fact that WordPress is free, then it becomes clear why WordPress is such a fantastic proposition.
Lots of Themes to Choose From
You can choose from hundreds of free and premium WordPress themes. No matter what type of business you have or what kind of product or service you offer, there is a theme for your needs.
Like plugins, WordPress themes are easy to install. The critical difference is that a WordPress theme is typically used to build, style, and edit the front end of your website, generally with ease.
Themes share another similarity with plugins: There are thousands of them to choose from. You can browse the WordPress Theme Directory. However, consider that there are premium themes, although these are paid for.
There’s a Plugin for That
Plugins have been vital to WordPress’s continued rise in popularity and adoption. Countless WordPress plugins are available to install for almost anything you could think of. Furthermore, most WordPress plugins seamlessly run autonomously, making running your website much easier.
Global Appeal and Ease of Use
WordPress’s global appeal and reach are due to its availability in over 62 languages. Translation plugins such as WPML or Weglot make it relatively easy to translate website content.
Moreover, it is easy to install and use. WordPress is also supported by major web hosting companies worldwide.
Is WordPress Easy for Beginners?
Yes, WordPress is relatively easy for beginners to use and navigate. When they start with their blog or website, many people may feel bogged down in the technicalities and features of a highly complex and customizable platform, but getting started with WordPress isn’t that hard. Plus, it’s completely free!
To create an online presence, all you need is a domain name (which is the web address) and then install WordPress on top of that. It’s not as complex as it sounds and you don’t need to be a computer genius to master it.
However, not everyone feels comfortable working on websites and computers. For them, even a simple task can quickly become overwhelming. As our friend Bob Dunn says, “Yes, WordPress is easy once you know how to use it!” If you don’t, many WordPress tools and resources are available online.
The Difference Between WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
Before we begin, you must fully understand the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
The key difference between the two is who is hosting your website and its content. If you opt to use WordPress.org, you will be hosting your website and will, therefore, need to find a suitable web host if you have not already. Think of WordPress.org as more of a DIY solution, which will have its benefits, such as more flexibility.
WordPress.com, in contrast, is certainly less technical in terms of setup and more of an all-in-one package. For instance, you will not require third-party web hosting as WordPress will host the website.
For this post, we will focus on WordPress.org only.
So, You Are Getting a WordPress Website!
WordPress is the most popular CMS, and many businesses, product brands, individuals, and professional service providers have reasons for having a WordPress website. However, several things must be considered before and after launching a new WordPress website.
Whether you are launching a new WordPress website or simply redesigning your existing online presence using the WordPress platform, there are a few things to remember before you get started. You will need a domain for your site. What about web hosting or a content delivery network for your site? Selecting just the right WordPress theme is a major consideration as well.
Getting started with WordPress and launching a new WordPress site is a fairly straightforward process. If you are working with a professional web designer or agency, they will handle the entire process. But it never hurts to ask a few basic questions regarding their services after launching a new WordPress site. Will they optimize and promote your new WordPress site? And who will maintain and update your new online presence?
All of the above are important considerations when getting started with WordPress. The entire process can quickly become overwhelming, especially if you do this alone. Even when working with a professional, you should know the essentials of starting WordPress and launching a new WordPress website. Here are a few essential steps that will make a big difference.
Before Launching a New WordPress Website
Any effective online presence requires a good foundation. That is especially true for a mobile-first WordPress website. At the onset of any WordPress project, we discuss essentials such as website hosting, using a content delivery network (CDN), and a few other basics.
We always optimize our client websites with a few essential plugins, recommend optimized WordPress hosting, and help them understand how their new WordPress website works and how to get the most out of it. That includes helping them meet their short—and long-term business objectives rather than simply launching a new WordPress site.
Consider this to be your pre-launch checklist.
Website Domain
Especially if launching a new WordPress site, you must consider your domain name carefully. While there are many different options, a dot com domain is still considered the best in terms of usability and SEO.
Of course, some dot com domain names are expensive or hard to come by. You may want to play around with the domain name to see if another option might work better.
You should avoid special characters such as hyphens or dashes, “kute” spellings, or overly long domain names. Check out these 12 tips for choosing a domain name from GoDaddy. We also recommend you use them to purchase and register your new domain.
Web Hosting
Selecting your web hosting is the first step in launching a new WordPress site. In this instance, simply going for the cheapest option will work against you. Any WordPress website is fairly complex and does better if your hosting provider specializes in hosting WordPress sites. For e-commerce sites, this becomes even more critical.
Modern consumers are impatient and will simply not wait for your site to load. A slow, unresponsive site will only increase your bounce rate and send your target audience to your competitors.
Even worse, if your hosting provider does not offer website security and backup, your site is at risk of being hacked or completely removed. That alone can make restoring your website after it gets hacked a lengthy and expensive process.
Your hosting will usually depend on the type of website you own. For example, if you have a personal blog, your hosting requirements may differ from those of a larger business website or e-commerce store. So, be sure to compare different website hosting options and consider your needs both now and in the future before you commit.
Before you decide on a hosting service provider, be sure to cover these questions:
- Do they have support for plugins, or forbid specific plugins?
- Do they offer any website speed optimization services?
- What type of website security options or services do they provide?
- What type of backup support do they offer?
- Is there a staging environment?
- Are there any bandwidth limitations?
- Which operating system are they using? Linux? Windows?
- Are their servers compatible with the latest version of PHP?
Here are 5 things to look for when choosing a web hosting provider.
Our Recommended WordPress Hosting Providers:
If you want to consider more WordPress hosting options here is a list of the best web hosting providers for 2024.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
If you need a bit (or a lot) of extra page speed for your WordPress website, you should consider using a Content Delivery Network (CDN.) A CDN changes how your site handles static content like images, Javascript, and CSS. It caches your static content to create faster page loading, lower response time, and an overall faster loading website, which in turn helps you rank higher in search results.
We have found that having a CDN is one of the easiest and fastest ways to improve your site’s load speed, especially for sites with many images or other large files, such as self-hosted videos. Using a CDN can also improve your site’s security.
Our CDN Recommendations:
Choosing a WordPress Theme
Another consideration before launching a new WordPress site is the theme or framework you plan to use. There are thousands of available options. Luckily, most of them are so bad you can eliminate them immediately.
That includes any free theme and any theme that is not compatible with the latest version of WordPress or has not been updated by the theme author within the last few months.
Select a WordPress theme to support your short- and long-term business objectives instead of simply going for a “pretty” design or “cool” functionality. That means you should look for:
- Clean and fast code: With a clean code structure, you can decrease the page load time on pages and increase the crawlability of your pages.
- CSS and Javascript files: With Google, less is more, and having a limited number of CSS and Javascript files will help.
- Limited use of required plugins: The more plugins a theme requires to function correctly the more bloated and unresponsive it will become.
- Simple layout: A simple design will make it easy for users to navigate from page to page.
- Responsive: As we know, Google gives responsive sites an edge in mobile device searches, so choosing a responsive WordPress theme will give you a better user experience.
- Schema Markups: Schema Markups tell search engines where the most relevant content is on your theme.
There are two basic types of WordPress themes:
Free Themes
You’ll find free themes in the WordPress directory.
If you click ‘Appearance > Themes’, you’ll see a big list of free themes from which you can choose. Once you’ve selected a theme, just click ‘Upload Theme’.
These themes are great for beginner websites and may suit you if you’re just starting with WordPress.
A word of caution:
There is nothing wrong with using a free WordPress theme. You want to cut costs and stick to your budget. However, you should know a few things when using a free WordPress theme.
- Outdated Designs: Most free themes in the WordPress directory have outdated designs that look awful on mobile devices.
- Compatibility Issues: Free themes are not always optimized for most third-party plugins. You often find compatibility issues when trying to extend the functionality of your site with plugins.
- Used by many others: Free themes are always used by thousands of other sites, including substandard and fraudulent ones. When you use the same scam website theme, it will only hurt your reputation.
- No customer support or updates: Premium themes give you unlimited updates to take advantage of the latest WordPress features and even offer customer support to customize the theme to your preference.
Remember that your website is an investment that will reward you in the future. Don’t be cheap when making a long-term investment.
Premium Themes
On the other hand, premium themes have a slightly higher standard. You will need to pay for them, but they can offer you much more in terms of choice and features, such as advanced page builders or custom fonts.
Premium WordPress themes can be found online in marketplaces such as ThemeForest, GeneratePress, and Qode Interactive.
Of course, it’s still important to research before buying a theme; not every premium theme will suit your needs. However, premium themes are great for businesses and product brands that want to communicate their professionalism and expertise through design without hiring a professional web designer.
Plus, some themes, such as Divi or Elementor, come with page builders that make building your website much easier—especially if you are unfamiliar with code.
If you are unsure which theme suits you and your business, look at the best and most popular WordPress themes for 2024.
The Ultimate Guide to Getting Started with WordPress
Many people mistakenly believe launching a new WordPress website is all it takes. After all, you built a brand-new WordPress website, added SEO-optimized content, checked to ensure it looks and functions great on tablets and smartphones, and selected optimized WordPress hosting.
The Dashboard
The first thing you need to do is log in to your WordPress admin dashboard. All WordPress sites use the same login URL: https://mydomain.com/wp-admin/. To log in, you must enter the username and password you set when creating your WordPress installation. If your web host or designer created your installation, you need to get the required log-in info from them.
Now the fun begins, as you’ll now be within WordPress.
Whenever you log in, you should be greeted by the dashboard. The dashboard will present you with an overview of your website. The information displayed here will typically include news about available updates. However, you will also be able to see any draft posts and any recent comments your visitors may have left.
Uploading and Installing Your Theme
Now, the magic can happen. Under ‘Appearance,’ you can browse, upload, and install the theme you want to use for building and styling your website.
Installing a Free WordPress Theme
If you want to use a theme found in the WordPress Repository on your website, the easiest way to do this is on the backend of your website.
Log into your WordPress website, go to Appearance > Themes in the WordPress dashboard, and click Add New.
From there, you can filter the results based on:
- Featured
- Popular
- Latest
- Favorites
You can also use the Feature Filter button to filter the theme results based on specific features.
Lastly, you can search for a specific WordPress theme if you know its name by entering the theme’s name into the search bar.
Once you find a theme you might want to use, click Details to see more information about the theme, Preview to preview the theme in action, or Install to install the theme onto your WordPress site.
Then, click Live Preview to see how your site will look using the theme. This will help you decide if the theme you’re interested in is the one for you. When you’ve decided, click Activate to finish adding it to your website.
Uploading a Premium WordPress Theme
If you’ve purchased a premium WordPress theme, you’ll need to use the upload method from your WordPress dashboard to install your theme:
- Download the theme you purchased from the theme marketplace or the company you bought it from. Save the downloaded zip file to your computer.
- Next, log into your WordPress website, go to Appearance > Themes in the WordPress dashboard, and click Add New.
- Next, click Upload Theme to upload the zip file of your premium WordPress theme to your website from your computer.
- Click Browse to select the zip file from your computer.
- Then, click Install Now to add the theme to your website.
- WordPress will install your premium theme on your website. If you want to see how your website will look using the uploaded theme, click Live Preview.
- Lastly, click Activate to make the theme ready on your website.
The upload method will work for any premium WordPress theme you have saved as a zip file. It will also work when you import a theme from ThemeForest, GeneratePress, or any other theme repository or developer. Download the zip file saved on your computer and follow the steps above.
But there are still a handful of things that you should do right after launching a WordPress website to set yourself up for success:
Change your Site’s Basic Information
After launching a new WordPress website, the first thing is to ensure all of your basic information is current and accurate. This includes changing some basic settings that come with a new WordPress site. Here is what to do:
- Log in to your wp-admin Dashboard
- Go to Settings / General
- Update your site’s title, tagline, time zone, email address, site language, and date and time formats as required
- Go to Appearance / Customize / Site Identity
- Upload your site’s favicon
- Go to Appearance / Customize / Menus
- Set your primary and secondary (if your theme supports it) menu
- Go to Appearance / Customize / Homepage Settings
- Set your home and blog (posts) pages
Update Your Permalinks
Permalinks are another important factor that is sometimes overlooked. By default, your WordPress post and page URLs will be ugly and certainly not SEO-friendly.
We highly recommend navigating to Settings, then Permalinks, and selecting Post Name, which will give you a clean URL structure.
Change your Logins
The easiest way to break into your WordPress site is just to guess your login and password. As abstract as it sounds, it’s the case. There are software scripts and bots that go through hundreds of thousands of passwords and try their luck with each one.
That is why you must ensure that your login details are strong enough to launch a new WordPress website. At the very least you should:
- Remove any user labeled “Admin”
- Ensure the use of strong passwords; use a password generator if necessary
- Create a new user profile for all editing purposes, with the role of “Editor.” You can do it in wp-admin, Users / Add New.
- Limit the number of login attempts allowed before the site is locked down. A plugin like Wordfence or WP Limit Login Attempts can do this.
- Use only safe passwords.
- Store your password data with LastPass.
Creating Pages in WordPress
To add a new page to your WordPress site, find the Pages menu in the WordPress Dashboard Navigation menu and click Add New.
You’ll now see the WordPress page editor. WordPress 5.0 introduced an entirely new editor with a new approach to adding content to your new page called the WordPress Block Editor. In the WordPress editor, each paragraph, image, or video is presented as a distinct “block” of content.
Each block has its control for changing things like color, width, and alignment. These will show and hide automatically when you select a block. All of the blocks available to you live in the Block Library. You’ll find it wherever you see the + icon.
Add Page Title
Next, add the page title, such as About. Click the Add Title text to open the text box where you will add your title.
The title of your page should describe the information the page will contain. Choose a helpful page title.
Start Writing or Choose a Block
After you add your page title, it’s time to add some content. Content can be anything you choose … from text, headings, images, lists, videos, tables, and lots more.
To see the available blocks for your page, click the plus sign button (+) at the top.
WordPress Content Blocks
Blocks are the basis of all content within the WordPress page editor. Here are some of the blocks you can use on your page.
Block Type | Description |
---|---|
Paragraph | The paragraph block allows you to easily craft content and is the default block type for text added to the editor. It is probably the block you will use most. |
Image | The image block allows you to insert an image into your content via upload, Media Library, or from a URL. |
Heading | Adds heading text (h2, h3, h4, h5, h5) to introduce new sections and organize content to help visitors (and search engines) understand the structure of your content. |
Gallery | Display multiple images in a rich gallery. |
List | Adds a bulleted or numbered list. |
Quote | Give quoted text visual emphasis. |
Audio | Embed a simple audio player. |
Cover | Add an image or video with a text overlay — great for headers. |
File | Add a link to a downloadable file. |
Video | Embed a video from your media library or upload a new one. |
WordPress Document Settings
On the right side of the WordPress page editor, you’ll see Document settings for your page. This area contains some important settings for your page, so let’s go through them.
Status & Visibility
The status and visibility section details how and if your page is viewable.
Visibility allows you to select between three options:
- Public – Visible to everyone.
- Private – Only visible to site admins and editors.
- Password-Protected – Only those with the password can view this page.
Publishing Your Page
The Publish settings allow you to choose “Immediately” or a future date for your page’s publication.
If you want to schedule your page for future publication, you can use the time and date picker to select your preferred publication time.
If you want your page to publish immediately, then leave this setting to Immediately. This means your page will immediately go live when you hit the blue Publish button at the top of the screen.
Featured Image
Depending on your theme, the featured image of your page may be used in several ways (like on your home page, for example, in a gallery-style listing of pages). Upload an image that “describes” your new page here.
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter also use featured images as the preview image for a page if you share a link to your new page.
Discussion
You can enable this setting if you’d like to allow comments on your new page. Otherwise, leave it turned off.
Page Attributes
The Page Attributes section applies a parent page and template to your new page.
- For the Parent section, you can arrange your pages into page hierarchies. For example, you could create this new page with additional pages under it. Or you could place your new page as a child page beneath an existing page.
- Template – Some WordPress themes have custom page templates, and the template section allows you to apply a template to your new page.
- The Order box allows you to order your page numerically. Pages are usually ordered alphabetically, but you can choose your order by entering a number in this field.
Save Draft or Preview Your Page
You have a few options as you finish work on your new page. Using the left-hand links at the top of the screen,
- You can Save Draft of the page, which will save the page and your work on it into a draft.
- To Preview the page one last time, click the Preview button. This will open a new tab in your browser to view your page’s appearance once it is live. You can also preview your page on Tablet and Mobile devices.
Publish Your WordPress Page
Once you have finished adding content, sizing images, and proofing your page, it’s time to publish! Preview it one last time and then click the Publish button.
You’ll be able to double-check your settings one last time before publishing.
Once you’ve published, you’ll see a confirmation that the page is now live, along with the page address. Click View Page or Copy Link to save your new page’s URL.
Different Types of WordPress Pages
Homepage
Possibly the most important page on your website, your homepage will often be the first page people see when they visit. It’s usually designed to catch their attention and convince them why staying on your site is worth it.
About Us
This page is crucial in differentiating yourself from other businesses regarding what you do and who you are.
A website’s ‘About’ page is one of the most visited, as the audience is usually curious to learn more about a business before purchasing from it.
So, ensure that this page showcases who you are and what sets your business apart, telling your company’s story.
Contact Us
This is another key section on your site. Make sure it’s easy for visitors to find so they know how to contact you if they have any questions or concerns about your business or offerings.
The Contact Us link should be displayed on every page of the website or blog so that when readers need help, they don’t struggle to find it.
Blog
A blog is a great way to keep your audience engaged and in touch with your industry’s latest news and trends. Many websites have a blog to promote their knowledge and help their audience—in fact, some websites are just blogs and build their entire site around articles.
Your blog page is another opportunity to promote your business and create a following. Posting frequent blog articles can also help increase site traffic and search engine rankings.
Shop
If you own an e-commerce business, you’ll likely need a shop page for your site. This is where you’ll list your services, prices, and payment methods, take orders, complete payments, and engage with customers through this page.
You’ll also want to ensure this page is accessible for visitors to find so they can contact you for purchases or questions about your offerings.
Here is a comprehensive list of website pages you should consider adding to your site.
Installing Plugins
Like themes, there are countless plugins available. Below are just some examples of what plugins can do;
- Protect your website from hackers and spam
- Help you to learn basic SEO
- Help you to create a range of contact forms
- Convert abandoning website visitors into email subscribers
- Improve your website speed and performance
These are just some examples, of course, the list is seemingly endless.
To add a new plugin, select ‘Plugins’ and ‘Add New’ from the menu. Moving forward, you can manage existing plugins by updating, deactivating, and removing them via the ‘Plugins’ page. Here is a complete guide to managing your WordPress plugins.
However, it’s worth noting that although installing every plugin under the sun may seem tempting when starting with WordPress, too many plugins could slow down your website. Due to some of Google’s latest updates, this could end up affecting your SEO and your rankings. So, as a general rule, only install the plugins you need for your website to function correctly.
Here are a few of the top plugins on the market today:
WP Rocket
WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market. It instantly improves your WordPress website’s speed and performance, and no technical skills are required.
It automatically activates recommended WordPress caching settings, such as gzip compression, page cache, and cache pre-loading. You can activate optional features, such as lazy loading images, CDN support, DNS pre-fetching, minification, and more, to improve page load times.
With WP Rocket, you don’t have to wait for a page request to save it in the cache. It proactively crawls and builds your website’s cache, immediately boosting performance.
WP Rocket also offers Imagify, a free image optimization service to help you speed up your website.
They also integrate with Cloudflare API, Sucuri, and many other tools to help you better configure your website caching setup.
WP Rocket is by far the most accessible and beginner-friendly caching plugin. The only downside is that there is no free version.
Sucuri
Security should be a top priority for all online business owners. Sucuri offers a WordPress security plugin and web application firewall that is probably the best protection for your site.
They monitor and protect your site from DDoS, malware threats, XSS attacks, brute force attacks, spam comment attacks, and every other type of attack. If you don’t have a firewall on your website, you must add one today.
To learn more about strengthening your website’s security and protecting your business, see our ultimate WordPress security guide, which provides step-by-step instructions for beginners.
Sucuri helps us block hundreds of thousands of attacks every month on WPBeginner.
Another added benefit of Sucuri is that it automatically adds a CDN layer, significantly speeding up your site.
While other security plugins like MalCare, Wordfence, WP Activity Log, etc. exist, they can only offer the complete protection that Sucuri does. The only natural alternative is Cloudflare, which can be expensive if you get its premium add-ons.
RankMath SEO
RankMath SEO is a free SEO plugin for WordPress. It helps you to write better content through several useful features, such as:
- Adding meta tags and schema markup to your sitemaps and blog posts
- Optimizing your permalinks
- Improving the readability of your articles
- Detecting and improving your keyword density in articles and pages
Overall, it can go a long way to helping your site rank higher in a search engine and increase your click-through rate. Several features of RankMath are available for free, but you can also upgrade to a paid version to unlock even more great features. RankMath also offers a tool for creating AI content.
WPForms
Contact forms are an essential addition to any WordPress website, as they let your visitors get in touch with you in a user-friendly way. WordPress doesn’t include built-in form functionality, so a tool like WP Forms is a must-have plugin for every WordPress site.
WPForms is a famous WordPress form builder that allows you to add forms to your website with a drag-and-drop editor. The free version of the plugin will notify you by email when a visitor fills out a form, and CAPTCHA support provides a first line of defense against spam form submissions.
WPForms also has a premium version that unlocks many powerful features, including multi-page forms, survey support, and the ability to create user registration forms.
WP Mail SMTP
By default, WordPress sends emails using the PHP mail function. The problem is that WordPress hosting companies don’t set up this feature properly or block it to prevent abuse. This means you and your users may not receive important email notifications from your WordPress site.
WP Mail SMTP solves this problem by sending WordPress emails using a proper SMTP mail server. Over 3 million websites trust and rely on WP Mail SMTP because it’s a must-have. We at PixoLabo also use it to ensure the reliability of our email notifications.
Pro tip: The paid version, WP Mail SMTP Pro, comes with a white glove setup, detailed email logs, and more features. Their support staff will set it up and connect it to your SMTP service provider.
With the free version of WP Mail SMTP, you have the power to connect with all the popular SMTP services like SendLayer, SMTP.com, Mailgun, Gmail, etc., making it a convenient solution for your email notification issues.
Akismet
Spam can be a problem for all websites. It can affect your bounce rate and is something you want to avoid. Askimet is a free spam protection plugin for WordPress that can help prevent this.
It’s considered one of the best at what it does. It checks each comment submitted for spam. Once confirmed as spam, the commenter can never post a comment again.
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is not just any lead generation tool; it’s a powerful plugin that can significantly boost your WordPress site’s performance. Turning your website visitors into email subscribers and customers is crucial to your marketing strategy.
OptinMonster supports all your lead generation needs and allows you to create popup forms, notification bars, countdown timers, slide-in notifications, and coupon wheels using a drag-and-drop builder. You can show any information you wish to your visitors — capture email addresses for your email marketing software, encourage people to create an account, or offer coupons.
OptinMonster contains a range of templates for you to use as inspiration, and you can fully customize the look and feel of your popups to match your brand. In addition, OptinMonster lets you set a range of triggers to display prompts to your visitors. For example, you could display a popup after someone has spent time on your website or a spin-to-win wheel when they’re about to abandon their cart.
Monster Insights
Often considered the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, Monster Insights is a great tool for WordPress sites that want to track visitors and improve their websites.
This plugin lets you collect analytical data and track your website visitors in real-time. You can view your bounce rate, page views, sessions, and more every time you log in to your WordPress dashboard.
WooCommerce
If you run an e-commerce business, you’ll likely need WooCommerce. This is one of the top e-commerce plugins for WordPress, allowing you to create a beautiful online store. You can easily complete payments and display your products cleanly and efficiently through WooCommerce.
WooCommerce has become more of a system than a plugin, as you can add themes, hosting plans, and other plugins dedicated to working seamlessly with It.
Uploading Media
As the name suggests, the ‘Media’ section within your WordPress dashboard will store all your media, including images, videos, PDFs, and more. You can upload supported files from your computer here by selecting ‘Add New’.
The Media section will also allow you to add files by including an existing link if your file is hosted elsewhere.
Before you upload your media files, optimize them for page speed and use an image compression plugin like Smush, Imagify, or Short Pixel.
The WordPress media editor can also be accessed by selecting an asset in the library and then ‘Edit Image’. The editor has features not all know, such as the ability to crop, resize, and scale images, all within WordPress.
A word of caution: If you edit images in WordPress you simply create a new version of the original image. For best results and to ensure your page loads as fast as possible, you should always use an external photo editing program like Photoshop.
SEO Basics
Make Sure You Are Visible to Search Engines
The first thing you need to do is to allow Google to index your WordPress site. Even though, in most cases, WordPress sets this up correctly on its own during installation, checking if things are in order can never hurt. Here is how to do that:
- Log in to your wp-admin Dashboard
- Go to Settings / Reading
- Look for “Search Engine Visibility” and ensure the “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” checkbox remains unchecked.
Integrate Your Site with Google Analytics
After launching your new WordPress website, the next step is to connect it to Google Analytics to help you improve your search visibility. Google Analytics tracks your audience and their actions on your site. It comes with detailed information about your site’s content and visitors, such as the most viewed pages, conversion rates, the number of visits per day, in-depth user profiles, bounce rates, and many other essential stats.
The tool is free and can be easily integrated with your WordPress site through an embed code provided by Google. Alternatively, you can use a plugin like RankMath or Google Analytics by MonsterInsights to connect it to your site.
Set up Google Search Console
Another important step after launching your new WordPress website is to set up your Google Search Console (GSC). GSC should be a must-have item on your list. It will help you optimize your site for SEO and identify any search-related shortcomings you need to fix.
More specifically, with GSC, you can learn about the health of your internal link structure, external links pointing to your site, sitemap problems, popular keywords, indexing status, crawl stats and errors, security issues, and much more. It’s a true goldmine.
Activate Caching
After launching your new WordPress website, it may be a bit slow. Since modern consumers are getting ever more impatient, that can be a big problem. In fact, according to Kissmetrics, if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load, 40% of people abandon it. Luckily, it is fairly easy to fix this.
Many WordPress hosting providers offer caching as part of their hosting solutions. Another solution is installing a caching plugin to reduce page loading times. There are free caching plugins, including W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache, more comprehensive solutions like Autoptimize, and premium plugins like WP Rocket.
Create a Sitemap.xml File
Another thing to do after launching a new WordPress site is to create a sitemap. Sitemap.xml is a file that lists all of your website’s URLs. Google uses this file to understand how your site is organized and what information is there, making it easier for Google to index everything.
To create a sitemap, you must install a plugin such as Rank Math, Yoast, or Google XML Sitemaps. With just a few clicks, you’re good to go.
Security
Install a Backup Plugin
You spend a lot of time and money building your new WordPress website. You don’t want to repeat this process soon. So, after launching a new WordPress website, you should install and configure some sort of backup functionality. Many WordPress hosting providers offer regular backups as part of their service. Another way to do this is by installing a backup plugin.
Backup plugins will keep your site content safe if anything bad happens and you need to restore your site to a previously working state. This is especially important if your WordPress site gets hacked and you need to restore it.
Improve Site Security
Another essential step after launching a new WordPress website is improving site security. Many bad things can happen to any WordPress site, such as hacker attacks, malware, viruses, etc.
Protecting your WordPress website from all that with a firewall is always a good idea. Be sure to ask your WordPress hosting provider what security options they offer as part of their hosting solutions.
Sucuri is one of the best WordPress security services. It provides malware detection and cleanup, monitors your site for hacks, and mitigates DDoS attacks. For free solutions, check out Wordfence Security or iThemes Security. Both offer more than adequate protection for most WordPress sites.
Launching a New WordPress Website
That summarizes our top recommendations for what you must do before and after launching a new WordPress website. These simple steps should be essential to any WordPress design or redesign project. Without them, your new or redesigned WordPress website will lack essential features and functionality.
By implementing these essential recommendations, you will have a WordPress site that performs better in search rankings and supports your business objectives right from the day you launch it. It will also provide a better user experience and functionality, which in turn will help you attract, engage, and convert your mobile target audience.
Of course, there are many options, including plugins, to add new and exciting functionalities to your site. But be careful: Many WordPress plugins are outdated and could hurt your site. Here is how you can keep track of outdated plugins on your site. Having too many plugins can slow your site. A good rule of thumb is to focus on the basic functionality your target audience will expect.
WordPress is free, responsive, secure, and highly customizable. If you are looking for an easy-to-use digital publishing platform, try WordPress. It is a highly effective tool for creating the best possible consumer experience.
It’s not as hard or complex as some people think so don’t be intimidated by the features of this amazing platform. With this guide to getting started with WordPress, you’ll be up and running quickly! We are here to help!
Getting Started
Getting started with WordPress can be intimidating. As a result, many business owners need help to reap the full benefits of launching a new WordPress website. Building your new site is only part of the process. Following these steps before and after launching your new WordPress website will give you a more secure and better-performing online presence supporting your business objectives. Contact us for more information.
We Can Build Your WordPress Website For You
At PixoLabo, we are a team of expert WordPress designers and developers who design fully functional websites for businesses and product brands. We follow and implement the latest web design trends to ensure high performance. But first, look at our portfolio and read our case studies.
Then, if you believe we are a good fit for your WordPress web design needs, let’s talk! We offer a full range of consulting and design solutions for businesses and product brands.
If you want to learn more about our WordPress design and support services, let’s talk! Our team will listen to your concerns, evaluate your needs, and determine the best way to launch and optimize your new WordPress website or online store.
Did You Launch Your WordPress Website?
Have you launched your WordPress website? If so, have you followed any of our before or after-launch recommendations? What is your biggest obstacle to launching a new WordPress website if not? Do you have other problems getting started with WordPress?
Please feel free to comment below so our audience can also benefit. Grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post, and feel free to share our post with your audience!
For more content relevant to your business or product brand – check out the range of articles on our web design blog. (This one, explaining the importance of user experience in web design, is an excellent place to start!)
Thank you! We appreciate your help to end bad business websites, one pixel at a time!
By PixoLabo
Not Your Average WordPress Web Design Agency
@pixolabo