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Wordpress education
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How to set up a blog on wordpress

How to set up a blog on wordpress

How to set up a blog on wordpress

Blog on Wordpress. How to make ?

Wordpress is one of the most popular systems of recent years and is constantly evolving. Nowadays, its recognition is built not only by companies that create websites just based on Wordpress, but also by a wide community and companies that provide software for creating sites called: builders or Wordpress builders. About this we will write soon whether it is worth using Elementor or Divi to create a website or blog on Wordpress.

More than 70 million new posts are created on Wordpress every day

Table of Contents:

Ways to set up a wordpress blog

Ways to set up a blog are several at the same time, in order to have Wordpress ready for further work we distinguish two ways:

Using the free wordpress.org platform

It offers to download Wordpress installation package, plugins, themes free of charge.

The wordpress.com platform

With it, you will be able to set up a blog or site for free or a paid version using wordpress.com hosting and an address in the form of : namablog.wordpress.com. Of course, you can hook your own domain to such an account.

See also:

How to set up a wordpress blog - step by step guide

In order to blog and install Wordpress you will need to run the blog:

Hosting Wordpress

That is, the place where your website or blog will be. The server stores the site's files, the database that browsers use to connect to your site. In short, you can say that a server is a computer that is permanently connected to the network.

See what wordpress hosting is

When choosing hosting, you should consider the limits and available space, the ability to create databases and PHP versions. The type of disks and processor speed will also be important.

In which company is the best to order hosting. We recommend cyberfolks.co.uk giving several different account variants to choose from and additionally offering LiteSpeed support to speed up Wordpress. With some hosting companies, unfortunately, there is no such option.

Domain

A domain is simply the address of your blog. You will order it from a domain provider such as: ovh.com, nazwa.pl or home.pl. It is important that the name is short or reflects what your blog will be about. You should also choose a domain with a suffix that is simple and easy to remember, such as .pl or .com. Once you have purchased the domain, you will need to add it to the server from the client panel (just from the administrator level after logging into the server, click the add domain option). A directory will be created on the server from which the domain will download the site files.

Looking for help with wordpress administration

View Wordpress care service

Installation on a Wordpress server

How to install wordpress for your blog ?

In the case of installing Wordpress when you have already purchased hosting there are two:

Wordpress manual installation

Manually upload the downloaded installation package from wordpress.org via FTP client to the directory your domain points to, create a database on the server in the admin panel.

After copying the files, open your browser and follow the Wordpress installation wizard by entering the database data into the various fields accordingly.

Wordpress installation - installation wizard

After passing the wizard and successfully installing Wordpress, the installer will redirect you to the cockpit where you can start further work on finding the right theme and configuring your blog.

Do you want an individually designed website for the requirements of your target group ?

See website creation by our digital agency.

Wordpress installation via auto-installer

In case you do not want to manually install wordpress, you can use the auto-installer that the hosting offers. Just in the admin panel find the application items, choose wordpress and assign for which domain it should be installed. The installer will set up a database and install wordpress. From your side, all you need to do is indicate the URL for the installation, provide the login and email of the administrator.

Blog theme paid or free ?

After logging into Wordpress, we recommend changing the password and login if it is simply admin.

If you have the knowledge and are already familiar with Wordpress, you can go to Appearance and do the installation of the actual Wordpress theme you purchased, for example: at themeforest.com or install the builder and use its potential to create your blog.

See the best wordpress plugins your blog should have and the best free wordpress themes

Free wordpress themes for your blog

To get started, you can use free wordpress themes, which you can find in the appearance -> themes tab. You can filter the results to the categories you are interested in.

Choosing a wordpress theme

Advanced theme search by filters.

After selecting a theme, all you have to do is install it and turn it on.

Paid themes - how to choose and what to look for when buying one

Popular themeforest.com platform to buy a wordpress theme

If you want to equip your blog with slightly better visuals, you can check out paid themes and their demos and features offered. Usually the author provides an online demo version and a cockpit so you can see how the demo works from the inside.

It is worth paying attention to the licenses of plug-ins and extensions

However, here it is worth bearing in mind that these types of themes do not come with a license for the plugins and extensions they use, which often leads to additional costs of purchasing a license. Yes, it's not necessary at the start, but it's worth keeping your blog, i.e. plug-ins, Wordpress up-to-date, as this significantly improves the security of the entire Wordpress.

Create a website in 5 minutes ?

Paid themes for Wordpress outdo each other with advertising slogans, builders offer to create a site in 5 minutes, but it takes much more time to refine the blog, add the right content, images, choose the font, color scheme.

Be prepared for a good few hours of work in the Wordpress cockpit to achieve your goal and create a blog that suits you and your users.

How to choose a theme for a blog on wordpress ?

When it comes to choosing a theme for your wordpress blog, you should be guided by your visual preferences and the functionality you need. If you are a therapist or run a cooking blog you will probably want the blog to showcase good quality photos of your services or travels or dishes made. Pay attention to legibility and good contrast of the font against the background.

It is worth paying attention, as we mentioned above, to the cockpit and how content management and Wordpress works from the inside. Whether Wordpress is deployed on a builder that is well-known and offers support or a lesser-known one that will be hard to support in case of problems.

Optimizing a theme for a blog in Wordpress

When it comes to optimization and SEO, care should be taken to ensure that the blog demo version - although it is unfortunately not binding - loads quickly. It is worth copying the URL of the demo version of the blog and checking its technical parameters with Google Page Speed and gtmetrix.com programs. You will get clear information about whether the theme passes the tests, is optimized for the latest versions of Google's algorithms ie: Core Web Vitals.

Responsive theme for a blog

The demo version may look great on your laptop, but the mobile version or for smaller screens not necessarily. It is worth checking responsiveness with a simple test. Shrink the browser window and see how the various elements work and adjust to the size of the browser window. For the phone version, try using the tool in Google Chrome diagnostic for developers - you can open it by clicking f12 from the keyboard. Another option is to open the blog simply on your phone and click through the individual pages.

SEO - loading time and theme optimization

Definitely avoid themes that are already slow to load in the demo version. That spells trouble. And certainly beware of ones that don't pass Google Page Speed analytics tests.

We advise you to choose simple themes without the 'multipurpose' option

That is, such themes that do not give 10 versions of the home page, 5 versions of the gallery and portfolio, and 4 versions of the contact sub-page. Behind such solutions there is js, css code that has to handle all this. Technical optimization and attempting to bring such a theme into order and sensible technical parameters borders on the miraculous.

How to set up a wordpress blog for free

In the case of free Wordpress, you can use the version that wordpress.com offers, but you don't own the server or files there, and your blog may disappear unexpectedly. While this isn't a common situation, it's worth being aware of the fact that you don't own the package, files, content or server on which your wordpress blog is installed. We strongly advise you to invest in the simplest hosting package and domain to nevertheless have access to your files and database.

Plugins you need to run a blog on wordpress ?

The rule here is simple : the fewer plugins the better. Mainly because of optimization, loading time and security.

Do not install plugins from unknown sources ie: outside the wordpress.org repository.

Do not install plug-ins that have not been updated for a long time.

Elementor - known bugs and issues

A list of useful plugins for your blog:

Seo Yoast

It's a plugin that, while it won't take care of the optimization work itself, but it will help with the work of doing onsite SEO on your blog.

ContactForm7

Contact Form 7 plugin that supports forms on the site. It has a lot of configuration options and email sending settings.

BackWPup

With it you will backup Wordpress for example: before upgrading to the latest version.

Converter For Media plugin to optimize images to WebP format

More about the plug-in in the post What is WebP format

WP Fastest Cache

A plugin with which you speed up your Wordpress by generating static page files, which are then downloaded by the browser. Such Wordpress loads faster than dynamic database queries.

Elementor builder

90% of your Wordpress will be based on the Elementor plugin containing many extensions and plugins underneath.

What are the popular wordpress blogs ?

In general, the topics of blogs are very large. Practically in every topic you will find already existing guides and blogs. Any industry regardless of type, for example: financial, culinary, fitness or health is bursting at the seams when it comes to the number of blogs.

So how to make a name for yourself on the internet in such a popular blogger community ?

Find your niche, build value ie: valuable content, contribute and comment on competitor blogs, try to invest in guest articles and sponsored articles. Show your best side and try to build visibility for each post on specific key phrases.

Over time, you will see results in the search results for niche phrases that will start to generate traffic.