How to Make a WordPress Website in 2024 (Ultimate Guide)

Are you looking to make a website?

Starting a website can be a terrifying thought, especially when you’re not techy. Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Having helped over 400,000+ people make a website with WordPress, we have decided to create the most comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to create a WordPress website without learning how to code.

This guide is useful for users of all ages and skill levels. However, if you need help, then you can contact our expert team to help you set up your website for free.

If you want to do it by yourself, then please continue with this post, our beginner-friendly guide on how to make a website.

Here is an overview from start to finish of all the steps we’ll walk you through in this guide.

• How to find and register a domain name for free
• How to choose the best web hosting
• How to install WordPress
• Installing a template and customizing your site’s design
• Creating pages in WordPress
• Customizing WordPress with addons and extensions
• Resources to learn WordPress and get support
• Taking it further, building websites with more features (eCommerce stores, membership sites, selling online courses, and more).

Before we start creating a website, let’s cover some of the most commonly asked questions that we get.

First, no you DO NOT need to be a web developer to create a custom website. Our guide is written for non-techy users, and we will show you a no-code solution to create a website.

With that said, let’s look at all the things you need to build a website.

What Do I Need To Build A Website?

You’ll need the following three things to start your WordPress site.

• A domain name – this is the name of your website, such as google.com
• WordPress hosting – this is where your website files are stored.
• 45 minutes of your undivided attention.

How Much Does A WordPress Website Cost?

The answer to this question really depends on what kind of website you are trying to build. We have written a comprehensive guide explaining how much does it really cost to build a website.

A typical personal website can cost as low as $100. The cost of a business website can range from anywhere between $100 per year to as high as $30,000 per year.

We recommend all our users start small and then add more features to your website as your business grows. This way, you will save money and minimize potential losses while avoiding overspending.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to build a website for less than $100.

We will also show you how to take it further by adding more features to it in the future.

Which Is The Best Website Builder Platform?

There are many website builders available that will help you setup a website. We recommend using self-hosted WordPress as your website platform.

WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world. It powers nearly 43% of all websites on the internet.

WordPress is free, open-source, and comes with thousands of pre-built website designs and extensions. It is extremely flexible and works with almost every third-party tool and service available to website owners.

We use WordPress to build all our websites including this one, WPBeginner.

How to Make the Most of This Website Design Tutorial?

This is a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a website. We have divided it into different steps, and we’ll walk you through everything from start to finish. Just follow along the instructions, and you’ll have a professional looking website in the end.

We will also point you in the right direction on how to take your website to the next level based on your needs.

Remember, if you need help, you can contact us and we will setup your website for free.

Let’s get started.

Step 1. Website Setup

One of the most common mistakes that beginners make is choosing the wrong website platform. Thankfully, you are here so you will not be making that mistake.

For most users, a self-hosted WordPress.org site is the perfect solution. It comes with thousands of designs and addons that allow you to create any kind of website you can think of. For more on this topic, please see our guide on why you should use WordPress.

WordPress is free for anyone to download and use to build any kind of website without any restrictions.

If WordPress Is Free, Then Where Is The Cost Coming From?

WordPress is free because you’ll have to arrange your own custom domain name and web hosting provider, which costs money. For more on this topic, see our article on why is WordPress free?

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what your users will type in their browsers to reach your site (For example, wpbeginner.com or google.com).

Next, you’ll need website hosting. All websites on the internet need a web host to store their website files. This will be your website’s home on the internet.

A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month.

This is A LOT for most people who are just starting out.

Thankfully, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world. They are also an official WordPress-recommended hosting partner.

They have been working with WordPress since 2005 and are committed to give back to the community. That’s why they have promised us that if you cannot set up your website by following this tutorial, then our expert team will complete the process for you without any cost. They will compensate us, so you don’t have to. Feel free to contact us for free website setup help.

Note: At WPBeginner, we believe in transparency. If you purchase hosting using our referral link, then we will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. In fact, you will get a discount on hosting + free SSL + a free domain name. We would get this commission for recommending any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we personally use and believe will add value to our readers.

Let’s go ahead and purchase a domain name and hosting.

First, you’ll need to go to the Bluehost website in a new browser window and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.

This will bring you to a pricing page where you will need to choose a hosting plan for your website.

Basic and plus plans are the most popular choices among our users.

You’ll need to click on ‘Select’ to choose the plan that you like and continue to the next step.

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to select a new domain name.

Ideally, you should stick to a .com domain name. Make sure it is related to your business, easy to pronounce and spell, and easy to remember.

Need help with choosing a domain name for your website? See these tips and tools on how to choose the best domain name.

After choosing your domain name, click on the Next button to continue.

Now, you’ll be asked to provide your account information such as name, address, email, etc.

On this screen, you will also see optional extras you can purchase. We generally don’t recommend purchasing these extras. You can always add them later on if you decide that you need them.

Next, you will add your payment information to finish the purchase.

After completing your purchase, you’ll receive an email with details on logging in to your web hosting dashboard.

This is your hosting account control panel where you manage everything, like getting support, setting up emails, etc. Most importantly, this is where you’ll install WordPress.

Step 2. Install WordPress

When you sign up with Bluehost using our link, they will automatically install WordPress for you. They launched this one-click WordPress installer to make it easier for non-techy users to create their websites.

What this means is you simply need to log in to your Bluehost account and head to the ‘Websites’ tab from the menu on the left. From here, simply click the ‘Add Site’ button.

This will launch the WordPress installation wizard.

Go ahead and select the ‘Install WordPress’ option and click the ‘Continue’ button at the bottom.

Next, you will need to enter a title for your WordPress website.

It can be anything you want, and you can easily change it later on. Once you’ve entered a name, click the ‘Continue’ button.

Bluehost will now install WordPress software for you and create a website. Once the installation is complete, you should see a new website appear under the ‘Websites’ tab.

You can simply click the ‘Edit Site’ button to log in to your WordPress site and view the dashboard.

You can also log in to the WordPress dashboard by going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your browser.

Your Bluehost account can also be used to create multiple websites. Simply go to the My Sites section and use their one-click WordPress installer to make additional websites.

Once WordPress is set up, you’re ready to customize your website design by selecting a new template and creating new pages.

Wasn’t that easy?

Now, let’s move on to the next step and choose a design for your website.

Step 3. Select Your Theme

A WordPress theme controls the visual appearance of your WordPress site.

WordPress themes are professionally designed templates you can install on your website to change its appearance.

By default, each WordPress site comes with a basic theme. If you visit your website, then it will look something like this:

This is not very appealing to most users.

But don’t worry. There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes that you can install on your site.

You can change the WordPress theme for your website from the admin dashboard. Visit the Appearance » Themes page and click the ‘Add New’ button.

On the next screen, you can search for 11,000+ free WordPress themes available in the official WordPress.org themes directory.

You can sort them by popular, latest, featured, and other feature filters (i.e. industry, layout, etc).

Need help choosing a theme? Check out our list of these awesome free WordPress business themes and our pick of the best premium themes for WordPress.

For the sake of this guide, we’ll be using Astra. It is a popular multi-purpose free WordPress theme with flexible design options for all kinds of websites.

If you want to create a completely custom WordPress theme, we recommend using the SeedProd builder for WordPress.

We have created a detailed tutorial on creating a custom WordPress theme without writing any code.

How to Install a Theme in WordPress

If you know the name of the free theme you want to install, you can look for it by entering it in the search field.

WordPress will show you the theme in search results. You will need to take your mouse over to the theme and then click on the ‘Install’ button.

Once you have installed your theme, you can customize it by clicking on the Customize link under the Appearance menu.

This will launch the theme customizer, where you will be able to change your theme settings with a live preview of your website.

If you’re using one of the newer full-site editing themes, you will see a different version of the site customizer that can be found at the Editor link under Appearance.

To learn more, please see our beginner’s guide to WordPress full site editing.

However, keep in mind that neither the default WordPress customizer nor the Full Site Editor offers a true drag-and-drop customization experience.

This is why many website professionals and small business owners choose to use a WordPress page builder plugin like SeedProd to customize any theme to update fonts, change styles, colors, and other items to match your website needs.

You can even create a fully custom WordPress theme without any code.

Remember, you don’t need to finalize all theme settings right away. You can customize it much better once you have some content on your website.

Let’s see how to add content to your WordPress site.

Step 4. Add Content to Your Website

WordPress comes with two default content types called posts and pages. Posts are part of the blogging functionality and appear in reverse chronological order (newer items are displayed first).

On the other hand, pages are meant to be static “one-off” type content such as your about page, contact page, privacy policy, custom landing page, etc. You can read more in our guide on the difference between posts vs pages.

By default, WordPress shows a feed of blog posts on the front page of your website. You can change that and make WordPress show any static page as the homepage of your website (we’ll show you how to do that later in this guide).

You can create a separate page for your blog or news section to show your recent posts. Alternatively, you can create a website without any blog section at all.

Let’s add some content to your website.

You’ll start by adding a few pages to your WordPress site. Don’t worry if you don’t have enough content for these pages. You can always edit and update them.

Head over to Pages » Add New page in the WordPress admin area. This will bring you to the page editor screen, which will look similar to this, depending on your theme:

First, you need to provide a title for your page.

After that, you can add content in the text editor below. You can add text, links, images, embed videos, audio, etc.

After adding content to your page, you can click the Publish button to make it live on your website.

You can repeat the process by adding more pages for different website sections. For example, an about page, contact us, and a blog page to display blog posts.

Now, let’s add a few blog posts as well.

Head over to Posts » Add New in your WordPress admin area, where you will see a screen like you saw earlier when adding pages.

You can add a post title and content in the visual post editor. You’ll also notice some extra options in the sidebar, like post formats, categories and tags.

You can click on the Save Draft button to store your post as a draft or the Publish/Update button to make it visible on your site.

For more detailed instructions on utilizing all these options on post and page edit screens, please see our guide on adding a new post in WordPress.

Step 5. Customizing and Tweaking Your Website

Now that you have created some content for your website, you will be able to customize and put it all in an excellent presentable shape for your users.

Let’s start by setting up a static front page (or homepage).

Setting up a Static Front Page

Visit the Settings » Reading page in your WordPress admin dashboard. Under the ‘Your homepage displays’ option, choose ‘A static page’ and then select pages you created earlier for your home and blog pages.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page to store your changes.

WordPress will now use the page titled ‘Home’ as your site’s front page and ‘Blog’ page to display your blog posts.

Change Site Title and Tagline

During the installation, you get to choose your site’s title. Optionally, you can also choose to add a short tagline to describe your website.

You can change your site’s title and tagline at any time by visiting the Settings » General page.

Your site title will be the name of your website, like WPBeginner. The tagline is usually a single line that describes your website.

You can also leave the tagline field blank because WordPress SEO plugins like AIOSEO, Yoast SEO, and others will override it for better search engine optimization (more on this later).

Don’t forget to click the save changes button to store your settings.

Set up Comments Settings

WordPress has a built-in comment system allowing users to leave comments on your posts. This is great for WordPress user engagement, but it is also targeted by spammers.

You’ll need to enable comment moderation on your website to deal with this.

Visit the Settings » Discussions page and scroll down to the ‘Before a comment appears’ section. Check the box next to the ‘Comment must be manually approved’ option.

Don’t forget to click the save changes button to store your settings.

Adding Navigation Menus in WordPress

Navigation menus allow users to browse different pages of sections on your website. WordPress has a powerful navigation menu system, and your WordPress theme uses it to display the menus.

Depending on your WordPress theme, there are two ways to create and edit navigation menus in WordPress.

1. Create Navigation Menus in Classic Themes

If you are using a classic WordPress theme, then you will be able to visit the Appearance » Menus page.

From here, enter a name for your navigation menu and click the ‘Create Menu’ button.

WordPress will now create an empty navigation menu.

Next, select the pages you want to display in your menu and click the ‘Add to Menu’ button.

You will notice your selected pages filling the empty area of your navigation menu.

You can move these menu items up and down to rearrange their position on the menu.

Now, you need to select a display location. Your WordPress theme defines these locations. Usually, most WordPress themes have a primary menu in your website header at the top.

Finally, click on the save menu button to store your navigation menu.

You can now visit your website to see the menu in action.

2. Creating Navigation Menus in Site Editor

If you are using a block-based WordPress theme, then you can add navigation menus by visiting the Appearance » Editor page.

Click on the area where you want to add or edit the menu, and WordPress will open it for editing.

Go ahead and click the ‘Select Menu’ option.

You will then see different menus to add to your website. Simply select a navigation menu you want, like the Classic menu you created earlier.

After choosing a menu, you can add more pages, blog posts, logos, social icons, search options, and more to the menu.

Simply click the Add (+) new button to add blocks to the navigation menu.

Once you are finished, don’t forget to click on the Save button to store your changes.

For more detailed instructions, see our beginner’s guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.

Step 6. Installing Plugins in WordPress

WordPress Plugins are like apps for your WordPress site. They allow you to add features and customizations to your WordPress site. Think of contact forms, photo galleries, etc.

You can install plugins from your WordPress dashboard by clicking on the Plugins page.

There are currently more than 59,000 free plugins available for WordPress. There are also paid plugins sold by third-party websites and developers.

With this many plugins, how do you find which plugins to install? We got you covered there as well. See our guide on how to choose the best WordPress plugin.

Here is our list of essential plugins you should install on your site immediately. All of them are free.

Features

• WPForms Lite – Allows you to add a contact form on your WordPress site. All professional websites display their contact information on the same page as their contact form. You can even accept payments using WPForms Lite without any additional setup.
• MonsterInsights – Connect your website with Google Analytics and see how visitors find and use your website, so you can keep them coming back.
• SeedProd – Drag and drop page builder for creating completely custom designs & layouts without any technical know-how.

Website Optimization

• All in One SEO – Improve your WordPress SEO and get more traffic from Google
• WP Super Cache – Free WordPress caching plugin that helps improve your website speed
• PushEngage – It helps increase website traffic by letting you connect with visitors after they leave your website. Push notifications are the top 5 traffic sources for WPBeginner.

Security

• Duplicator – Create automatic scheduled backups of your website
• Sucuri – Website security audit and malware scanner

Extras

• WP Simple Pay – for readily accepting credit card payments in WordPress.
• WooCommerce – create an eCommerce website with WordPress. It makes setting up an online store and selling physical products easily.
• MemberPress – makes it easy to create and sell online courses and digital memberships.
• Smash Balloon – makes it easy to add social media widgets for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• OptinMonster – helps you get more email subscribers and optimize your website conversion rate with dynamic popups, modals, and other intelligent personalization features.
• HubSpot – add free live chat for providing customer support, email marketing for newsletters, and CRM to your WordPress website. Works seamlessly with OptinMonster.
• Uncanny Automator – helps you set up automated workflows to streamline your small business workflows and save time.
• WP Mail SMTP – fixes WordPress email deliverability issues with PHP Mail configurations on managed WordPress hosting providers.
• Envira Gallery Lite – Add beautiful image galleries to your WordPress site

Need help installing plugins? See our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

For more plugin recommendations, check out our list of must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

Step 7. Mastering WordPress

WordPress is easy to use but also an extremely powerful content management system. Occasionally, you may find yourself looking for some quick WordPress help.

The good news is that there are plenty of free WordPress help available. See our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support and get it.

WPBeginner itself is the largest WordPress resource site on the internet. You will find the following resources on WPBeginner (all of them are entirely free).

• WPBeginner Blog – This is where we publish our WordPress tutorials, how-tos, and step-by-step guides.
• WPBeginner Videos – These step-by-step videos will help you learn WordPress FAST.
• WPBeginner on YouTube – Need more video instructions? Subscribe to our YouTube channel with more than 298,000 subscribers and 40 Million+ views.
• WPBeginner Business Tools – Access a collection of free business tools to help grow your website and compete with the big guys.
• WPBeginner Dictionary – The best place for beginners to start and familiarize themselves with the WordPress lingo.
• WPBeginner Blueprint – Check out the plugins, tools, and services we use on WPBeginner to help grow our business online.
• WPBeginner Deals – Exclusive discounts on WordPress products and services for WPBeginner users.
• WPBeginner Solutions Center – Find premium WordPress plugins and tools that are reviewed by WPBeginner WordPress experts.
• WPBeginner Engage Group – Connect with our WordPress experts and other like-minded website owners (over 97,000 members).

Here are a few of our guides that you should bookmark right away. It will save you lots of time and money in the future.

• Most common WordPress errors and how to fix them
• Beginner’s guide to troubleshooting WordPress errors
• How to fix common image issues in WordPress
• The ultimate WordPress security guide (step by step)
• Ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners (step by step)

If all of that is not enough, you can always take a look at our expert-picked list of blogs about WordPress you should read and follow.

Many of our users use Google search to find answers on WPBeginner. Simply type keywords for what you are looking for and add wpbeginner.com at the end.

Can’t find an answer? Send your question directly using our contact form, and we will try our best to answer.

Step 7. Taking it Further

So far, we have shown you how to make a WordPress website, add a new theme, add new web pages, and install essential plugins.

Want to take it even further?

Using WordPress, you can create powerful niche websites capable of doing much more.

• Add an eCommerce store
• Start your own podcast
• Create a membership website
• Create a web directory
• Create a coupons website
• Build a reviews website
• Start an online thrift store
• Create multilingual websites
• Create a job board website
• Make a social media website
• Create a question and answers website
• Create a wiki knowledgebase website
• Make a classified ads website
• Build a cleaning services website

For more examples, check out our list of 23 types of websites you can create with WordPress

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Having helped thousands of people start a website, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about creating a website.

Is WordPress the only way to create a website?

No, there are a lot of other website builders out there such as Web.com, Wix, GoDaddy, etc. But we believe that WordPress is the best and easiest platform to build a website that works on both desktop and mobile devices.

Other industry experts agree with us, which is why over 43% of all websites use WordPress.

Can you build a website from scratch with WordPress?

Yes, you absolutely can use WordPress to build a completely custom website from scratch using a no-code drag-and-drop page builder plugin like SeedProd.

Can I pay someone to build my WordPress site?

Yes, you can hire a WordPress development agency to build a WordPress site for you. This is a great investment if you aren’t technically-savvy or you just don’t have the time to build a website.

We recommend using WPBeginner Pro Services because we offer expert WordPress Website Design Services at revolutionary pricing. Custom site design includes a dedicated project manager, WordPress setup, bespoke homepage design, professional logo, 5 template subpages, analytics setup, and much more.

How much traffic can WordPress handle?

WordPress can handle virtually unlimited website traffic, depending on your hosting platform and caching setup. We have written a detailed guide on how much traffic WordPress can handle along with expert scaling tips.

How do I make money from my website?

After helping users create a website, this is by far the most commonly asked question. There are a lot of ways to make money online from your website.

We have a list of 30 ways to make money online using WordPress. These aren’t get rich quick schemes. If you’re looking for a way to get rich quickly by making money online, then sorry to break the bad news, there’s no such way.

How do I start a website where I can sell products?

You can easily add an online store to your WordPress website. We have created a list of the best eCommerce plugins for WordPress. You can also follow our step-by-step guide on how to start an online store.

While there are many other eCommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, etc, we recommend using the WooCommerce plugin for WordPress.

It gives you more user-friendly features at an even more affordable price. This is why WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform in the market.

If you’re looking to sell digital products, then we recommend using Easy Digital Downloads. This is what we use to sell our digital products in WordPress.

Do I need to know HTML / CSS to create and customize my website?

No, you don’t need to know how to use HTML / CSS to build a website with WordPress. You can use one of the many drag & drop WordPress page builder plugins to easily customize your web design.

We recommend using SeedProd because it lets you create completely custom WordPress themes from scratch without any code. Check out our guide on page builders vs manual coding to see how much easier it is.

How can I start a website for free?

Some website builders may offer free options, but we strongly recommend against using those website building solutions. Often, they will insert their advertisements on your website, which doesn’t look professional and offer a terrible user experience.

It’s always better to purchase your own domain name and hosting, so you have full ownership of your website. See what is the difference between domain name and web hosting.

Can I start a website like eBay?

Yes, you can easily create a website like eBay using an auction plugin for WordPress. We have a step-by-step guide on how to build an online auction website using WordPress that you can follow.

Can I get a free domain for my website?

Yes, some web hosting companies offer a free domain if you choose to start a website with them. Bluehost is an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider, and they’re offering WPBeginner users a free domain + 61% off hosting if you choose to build your website using their service.

With that said, you can always register a domain name separately from a popular domain registrar and then purchase web hosting from a different hosting company like SiteGround or WP Engine.

Can I create a website like Facebook?

Yes, you can absolutely use WordPress to turn your website into a social network. We have a step-by-step guide on how to make a website like Facebook using WordPress.

Can I start a website with a discussion board / forum?

The answer again is yes. You can use one of these forum plugins in WordPress to build a website with discussion board features.

What’s the difference between WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org?

When we mention WordPress in our tutorial, we’re talking about the popular self-hosted WordPress.org platform. It’s the powerful open-source software that you always hear about.

WordPress.com is a limited blog hosting service. They have recently expanded their platform to offer website and eCommerce plans with custom domains, but they’re far more expensive compared to other WordPress hosting services like Bluehost or SiteGround.

For more details, see our detailed comparison chart of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

I accidentally started my site with WordPress.com or another website builder, can I switch?

Yes, you can always switch your website to WordPress. Often times beginners make the mistake of using the wrong website builder and then realize that those platforms don’t have all the features they need.

We have written detailed tutorials on how to properly migrate from other website builders to WordPress. The most important part is to make sure that your permalinks (URL structure) moves over seamlessly, so you don’t lose SEO rankings.

Here are our detailed tutorials on how to move your website to WordPress:

• How to properly move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
• How to move from Blogger to WordPress without losing rankings
• How to move from Wix to WordPress, step by step
• How to move from Weebly to WordPress (beginner’s guide)
• How to easily move from Medium to WordPress
• How to properly move from Squarespace to WordPress

How do I grow my online presence?

Now that you have created your new website, it’s time to grow your online presence and get more traffic.

We have created an ultimate guide with over 27 actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site.

The most important advice we give to small business owners is to immediately start building an email list.

Email marketing allows you to stay in touch with website visitors and customers after they leave your website. It’s proven to have a 4300% ROI on investment.

Here is our comparison of the best email marketing services for small business.

We hope this guide helped you learn how to make a website without hiring a web designer or overspending money. You may also want to see our tutorial on how to create a professional business email address, and our comparison of the best business phone services for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.