409 million people view more than 21.2 billion WordPress pages each month. It is no surprise that WordPress is the first name that comes to mind when web development is talked about. No other provider stands even close to the popularity and features that WordPress commands.
As the digital marketing landscape widens, every enterprise needs its own real estate on the internet. WordPress's free and simple CMS had made that possible by democratizing publishing on a global scale.
There is an infinite number of possibilities for a website that is built with WordPress. But, how do you create one that is functional, aesthetic and future-proof?
Let's have a look at what goes into developing a responsive WordPress website.
How to Create a Website on WordPress?
One million domains get registered on WordPress every six months. With a simple interface and streamlined process, getting started with your WordPress website can happen within a few minutes. Here is a ten-step guide to building a site today.
- Choose a niche that interests you or falls in the ambit of your purposes to develop a website in the first place. If you are clear with what you want to achieve with your website, the internal elements can be designed following that singular niche.
- Select a domain name that resonates with your brand or niche. It should be easy enough for your users to remember and optimized to serve your SEO objectives.
- Hosting can be picked depending upon whether you want to go for a shared, VPS or managed web provider.
- Install WordPress on your domain using the hosting service and domain name you selected earlier.
- Design with a WordPress theme that reflects your niche and brand appropriately. A full range of free and premium options are available on WordPress to build a personalized home for your enterprise.
- WordPress plugins add further customization to your website. Select from over 58000 plugins and explore the features that fit you the best.
- Fill up the administrative pages containing the contact information, company profile and any disclaimers or privacy terms.
- Create, optimize and publish content that speaks to your consumers and helps you build authority within your target audience.
- Market your website by bringing in the SEO perspective through relevant keywords throughout your content. Also, make sure to provide the option for social sharing to leverage digital marketing tools.
- Secure and backup your website to safeguard your data and everything that goes with it.
What WordPress Plugins to Install?
Once you have set up the WordPress website, the differentiator that shall set you apart from the rest is how you customize your space for an accentuated functionality. WordPress plugins lend the power to add features that complement your design, security, marketing, ecommerce and content efforts. Below are a few plugins that hold the prowess to make your site 2021 ready.
WP Super Cache
No one likes a page that takes a lifetime to load. The WP Super Cache plugin accelerates your website's performance to deliver higher speeds and better SERP. A user-friendly UI ensures that no coding is required on your end.
Yoast SEO
Real-time analytics help optimize your pages, images, content, meta descriptions, tags, and keywords. It allows you to communicate with Google about which pages to include and what those pages are about. Advanced technical control on breadcrumbs, robots.txt, sitemaps redirection makes it a must-have.
UpDraft Plus
Simple backups with seamless restorations ensure that you are always prepared to mitigate any cybersecurity loopholes. A free plugin, Updraft Plus, allows you to schedule backups daily, weekly or monthly to a remote cloud such as Dropbox, FTP, and Google Drive.
Elementor Pro
Elementor Pro is a drag and drop page builder that offers more than 300 designer-made templates and over 90 different widgets. You don't need to write a single line of code to build the most aesthetically-pleasing website out there. It also aids you in moulding the design of your theme as per your creativity.
Wordfence
Taking your website security up a notch, Wordfence protects your data from any attacks. A robust firewall with malware scanning features safeguards your site from malicious IP addresses and updates regularly with the latest malware signatures. The login attributes activate two-factor authentication and reCAPTCHA on your website.
WooCommerce
Adding the ecommerce functionality to your website, WooCommerce is one of the top plugins that help monetise and promote your products. Simple in its interface and easy to customize, it acts as the perfect add-on for small to large-sized enterprises. Being free and open-source, much like WordPress, it allows you to attain an unmatched level of personalization.
What's New and What to Do for 2021?
- Web development and WordPress evolve in the blink of an eye sometimes. Keeping track of the trends that make the audience tick can be an infallible strategy to get ahead of the competition. Plus, adding new features from time-to-time keeps the users intrigued. Let's dive into a few trends that can help you create the best WordPress website in 2021.
- Voice Search is becoming the go-to choice for both business and personal websites. Plus, with the development of voice assistants by all the major players, it has the power to keep your website in sync with the coming times.
- Artificial Intelligence is no more just a theory. Utilized for enhancing the UX and performance, it is the intuitive feature that makes your website interactive. AI also analyses customer behaviour and personalizes your marketing strategies effortlessly.
- Chatbots are used to streamline customer support and provide instant availability to your consumers. A ton of administrative and repetitive tasks can also be brought under their hood.
- Accessible UI is now being standardized across the web. The internet is not designed for a specific group of people, and your site shouldn't be as well. Keeping an inclusive mindset in the development phase can save you from future hassles.
- Multi-purpose themes are changing how design is approached in terms of web development. Greater flexibility, support and choice for the creators ensure that you stand out of the crowd in all areas.
Creating a website that can be called the "best" depends on the parameters you set for yourself. Everything matters, right from how you approach the initial development to what you're doing to stay ahead of the curve.
A website built with WordPress gives you creative and functional freedom to ace the game and come out on top. Just be sure to make most of the theme, plugins and content elements while building your pages.
