Build a Small Business Website Using Wordpress

USING WORDPRESS

Sign Up for a Wordpress account

at www.wordpress.com.

Answer a couple questions.

Define your business and purpose

for building the site.

Skip picking a theme.

We’ll come back to this later. There

are 10’s of thousands of

Wordpress templates to choose

from. We’ll find a better one later.

Pick a temporary domain.

This will be your test site until we launch. It will be found at yourawesomesite.wordpress.com

Pick a plan.

Let’s just use the free plan for now. If you’d like, feel free to select a paid plan. The next steps are the same.

Create your account.

Pretty standard, enter your email, username and create a password.

Don’t forget to confirm your email address after you registered your account.

Follow the walkthrough

This takes just a minute and walks you through features and how to use the dashboard.

Let’s Pick a Theme

As mentioned earlier, there are a

ton of themes to choose from. If

you’d like a premium theme, check

out themeforest.com,

mojothemes.com or just use the

search function within Wordpress.

We’re going to use the free,

responsive theme, Goran.

Start EditingYou should have already laid out your content and have your photos and copy ready to add.

Select the blue icons to start editing. Change the header photo, page name and copy for your page.

Designate your Home page.

Let’s make that About page the new home page. Select the Static Front Page option on the left.

On the next screen select A Static Page, then select About from the dropdown.

*We’ll walk through setting up your Blog later so leave the Posts Page as is for now.

Now let’s add some more pages…

Add Pages

Since the About and Contact pages already exist (you just need to edit them) let’s add the Blog and Gallery pages for your Blog and job photos.

This theme also comes with a Testimonials builder as well! Check that out when you get a chance.

X out of the current editor back to

your dashboard. From here click

the Add button next to the Pages

tab.

Add a Gallery Page

Walk through the options on the left hand nav, starting with adding a Featured Image, then add your photos on the page. Click the Add Media option and upload your photos.

Include any text that talk about the job and how happy your customers turned out!

Add a Blog Post

Keep your customers and potential customers up to date with the latest news and updates from your company with a blog.

To get started click the Blog Posts tab on the left hand side.

Enter a Subject and your content in the text box. Walk through the options on the left hand side, then click Publish when you’re ready.

Your Blog is Live

Congratulations!

Now let’s get your Blog in the main menu so your customers can find it to start reading and sharing your content.

Add Your Blog or Page to the

Menu

Back in your dashboard select

Menu on the left. Then click the +

on any page.

Add Your Blog or Page to the

Menu (cont.)

Click the Add New Menu Item option, then select Page. Click the Blog option, then the Add Item button.

Publish

Once finished, pat yourself on the back because you just launched your site.

Go back and edit your content,

play with some of the extras and

get to know your new Wordpress

site.