Commonly Asked WordPress Website Building Questions

If you need a website that’s a “no-brainer” when it comes to setting up, management and updating, WordPress is for you. It is an open-source software package, so it’s free, yet it has thousands of choices when it comes to themes and plugins that can customize and add varied features to your site.

It can serve your purpose well, whether you intend your site to be a blog site or website, or both. It can make your site appeal to search engines. All these reasons make WordPress the world’s leading web publishing system to date.

In addition, WordPress has been there long enough to transform itself into a world-class publishing system. It has been polished, tried and tested, and enhanced. If you are a marketer, you will be happy to know that WordPress can make your site responsive, even to mobile devices. And if you need help, there is a vast, active, and generous community to help you out.

How to Get Started

• How do I start a WordPress website?

The first step is to give a home to your site on the Web. For this, you must have a hosting account with  WordPress, so go ahead and sign up. Alternatively, if you want a Business Website using WordPress and support to build out a profit generating business website, then use an official WordPress hosting partner, Wealthy Affiliate to do this. It’s FREE to get started!

The next step is to give your site an address – the domain name. You can pick among other WordPress hosting partners, such as Bluehost, DreamHost, SiteGround, to name a few.  Now you are ready to get going building out your website. To do this, follow the guided step-by-step instructions provided to you by your hosting platform such as Wealthy Affiliate for example, or from multiple blogs available on the net.

• How much money do I need to have a “live” WordPress website?

WordPress is free, including its themes and plugins, but you must pay for the hosting account and a domain name. Start with a shared hosting account. You may need about a hundred dollars to have “your site up and running.”  You may spend later as you add more tools, features, and services to improve the usability of the site and serve your market better – unless your hosting platform provides this for FREE such as in Wealthy Affiliate.

Basic WordPress Queries

• How do I add the plugins?

Plugins are analogous to apps. They provide features that will improve your site. The first thing to do is to install Plugins on your website. You can do this yourself following step-by-step guides. Start by clicking on the word “Plugins” on the websites WordPress dashboard   and then “Add New.” If you know what plugin to add, simply type the name or keywords and enter. Install it by clicking on the “install button” next to it.

You can also add plugins from third-party vendors or developers. Follow the same steps (visiting “Plugins” and “Add New”) before clicking the “upload button.”

• How do I select and install a theme for my website?

There are thousands of free themes you can use to customize and improve the visual appeal of your website. There are also premium themes available if you want to be less common and to come with guaranteed updates and support. Before taking your pick, know that you must consider certain factors to make sure it will work for your site – compatibility with your plugins and language requirements, as well as your audience, niche, and topics.

Install the theme you set your heart on by visiting “Appearance.” Proceed to “Themes page” in the admin area. There, you can click the “Add New button.” If you want to add a new theme and you already have it in a “Zip file,” click the “upload button.”

• How do I add a post and/or page on my site?

WordPress has defaults for two content types – posts and pages. To add a new post, go to “Posts” and “Add New page.” To make a new page, head to “Pages” and then “Add New page.” Take note that except for slight differences, Posts and Pages look almost identical.

• How do I embed a video on my WordPress site?

WordPress allows you to directly upload to your site for free, but experts believe that it may be an impractical decision. They say it is better and safer to use a video hosting service, such as YouTube and Vimeo.

After successfully uploading your video to any of these, you can copy the URL and paste it into the post editor. WordPress will get it from YouTube or Vimeo and embed/display it on your site.

• How do I display and organize (rows and columns) in my photos?

When you add several images to a post or page in a WordPress site, they would appear disorganized – piled on top of one another or lying too closely next to each other.  To lay them out neatly in rows and columns, use a grid-based layout. If you don’t require this often, you don’t need a plugin to do this.

The first step is to add a new post or edit an old one. Head to “Post Edit” and click the “Add Media button.” This will activate the Media Uploader Popup. Click the “Create Gallery” link, then hit the button “Create a new gallery.” Select the photos for the popup window to show the settings options. Study your options and decide on your final settings, or edit them using the “Post Editor.” Then click “insert” for WordPress to add them in your blog post.

• How do I enhance the site with a navigation menu?

The navigation menu is an important feature to take your visitors to where they wish to go. WordPress allows you to create drop-down menu features easily using its “drag-and-drop menu interface.” To add the navigation menu, create them by adding links and putting them on the strategic locations defined by the theme of your choice.

WordPress makes adding a navigation menu simple, but this varies depending on your theme. There is at least one of these in every theme and some have more than one to meet the needs of more intricately designed websites. The first thing to do is to go to “Appearance” and then to “Menus” in the admin area. This will take you to the “Edit Menus” screen. If you want nested menus, sub-menus, etc., follow the step-by-step instructions specific to your theme.

• How do I use categories and tags in WordPress?

Organizing your content can improve the user experience. To do this, use categories and tags to make the search easy for your visitors. Categories are broad and more general – add subcategories to narrow down the topics and their search. Tags, on the other hand, are words that describe an article and are, therefore, for more specific topics. By default, WordPress has no options for tags and categories, but you can use plugins.

The first step is to install and enable the plugin for tags and categories. Afterward, head to “Pages” and “Add New.” The plugin alters the tag taxonomies and default categories so that the default posts become associated with the Page post.

Enhancing an “Up and Running” WordPress Site

• How do I add a contact form?

Adding a contact form will allow your site visitors to contact you, giving you the chance to “talk” to them directly. WordPress has no built-in feature for it, but it allows plugins for the contact form to be added easily.

The first thing to do is to decide on the plugins that are compatible with your theme and to install it following a step-by-step guide. Proceed to “Plugins” and then to “Add New.” After installing the plugins, make sure to activate and configure it, so that confirmation and notifications can be sent out to your visitors and your email respectively.

• How do I set up an online store?

Being the planet’s most popular internet publishing system, it is powering millions of online shops and e-commerce sites all over cyberspace. Whatever you want to have such as an online store, expect WordPress to have tons of plugins to make your online store fulfilling your marketing expectations.

Some e-commerce plugins for WordPress that you can use to add an online store to your site are WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, iThemes Exchange, Shopp, and Shopify. WooCommerce is the best if you want great features, control, and flexibility. If you want a quick setup that is also easy to use, go for Shopify. Easy Digital Downloads is a great option if you are into the marketing of digital products.

• How do I enhance SEO?

The best “search engine-friendly” practices to boost the organic traffic to your website is called “search engine optimization” or simply SEO. The term can be intimidating, but if you are using WordPress, know that it is certainly SEO-friendly. The best thing about WordPress is – it made basic SEO uncomplicated.  

By logging in to the “admin area,” you can head to “Settings” and “Reading page” to check your site’s visibility settings. You can choose to hide it when you need to work on it before it goes public. You can also use URLs and plugins that are SEO-friendly. One good thing about WordPress is the fact that it has some of the best SEO plugins in the world. Choose your plugins and install them using video tutorials or step-by-step guides.

• How do I manage comment spam?

Receiving comments is wonderful, but negative ones can be annoying and damaging. This is when plugins to manage comments is welcome. One example is the Akismet plugin that monitors WordPress sites for spam comments and blocks them.

You can also enable the comment moderation feature of your WordPress site. By doing so, all comments can be screened and manually approved first before they become live in your site’s comment section. Do this by going to the “Settings” and then heading to the section that reads “Before a comment appears.” Here, you can tick the box that says: “Comment must be manually approved.”

• How can I add email subscription?

Interacting with your visitors through email is a direct and reliable way to communicate and gain their trust. Thus, building an email list or sending emails is among the effective ways to convert visitors into subscribers. With WordPress, the setup for email subscription is fairly straightforward.

There are several plugins you can use to set up email subscriptions, including MailChimp, Aweber, and Jetpack. To get started with any of these on WordPress, follow the step by step instructional videos or guides.

• How do I install Google Analytics?

Knowing how your visitors respond or interact with your site can be learned using Google Analytics. It can provide you with valuable information – who visit your site, when do they come and what do they do when they visit, how do they get there, which content do they like, etc. The information can help you enhance your website to make it more appealing to your audience. It is free, so installing it on your WordPress website will not cost you anything. So, how do you generate this report from your WordPress website? Install Google Analytics.

Before installing it in WordPress, sign up for Google Analytics first. There are different ways to set up Google Analytics in WordPress. The relatively, easy ways are by use of plugins, namely MonsterInsights and Insert Headers and Footers Plugin. A more challenging way is for the experts – by installing Google Analytics in WordPress Theme.

Problem Solving

• How do I fix common WordPress glitches?

The benefit of powering a huge chunk of live websites is the fact that your problem is likely not unique. There is always a good chance that it has been encountered by other users. With a vast, active and generous community, you can surely find help somewhere from someone who encountered and solved the same problem.

You can also locate a compilation of the common WordPress problems that offers solutions on how to fix them. Bookmark it and save it for the “rainy days.” You will never know when it can be handy.

• How do I protect my site from being attacked by hackers?

You have every reason to fear hackers. Since about 28 percent of all websites on the planet are powered by WordPress, the potential to be hacked and spammed is a real threat that it takes seriously. This is why WordPress core software is frequently audited and why it offers layers upon layers of security measures to protect WordPress websites.

As a website builder or owner, you have a host of actionable steps to reduce the risks of being hacked or to boost your security. It can be as simple as using and updating passwords or change the default “admin” username. You can install WordPress Security and a backup solution or plugin. You can enable WAF (Web Application Firewall). You can similarly disable file editing, PHP file execution or limit login attempts. There are many other ways to protect your WordPress site. Know your options and follow the steps to get them installed or done.

Aren’t you on the “wagon” yet? Experience the power of WordPress and have fun creating your website whether for business or otherwise!