Are you aware that WordPress currently holds around 40 percent of the market share among all websites? Throughout the years, this platform has acquired a lot of popularity, making it a trusted name in the industry. Handling and managing your website is effortless in WordPress as it offers several responsive themes that help you develop dynamic websites.
With the availability of back and front-end components, the options to customise and manage your site in WordPress are limitless.
In this definitive guide, we will guide you through the steps to help you build an efficient custom WordPress website in 2023. So, make sure to read this from the start to the end before you go for custom WordPress development services.
Custom WordPress Website Development: What is it?
Before discussing the steps involved, let’s look at what custom WordPress website development refers to. It is the process of building websites employing the WordPress framework in a way that perfectly adheres to your unique business requirements. The best thing is that, in this case, there are no restrictions on traditional WordPress templates.
Whenever you use a WordPress web builder, you can choose a WordPress template or theme and employ it as it is. However, this development method may cause your website to become slow, unfriendly, etc.
To avoid these restrictions, you need to hire WordPress developer who can assist you in customising your WordPress website.
Key Steps Involved in Building a Custom WordPress Site
Step 1: Choose a Domain Name
A domain name is something that offers identity to your website. Users are most likely to discover you through it. So, you must choose a domain name that perfectly reflects your values or niche. At the same time, make sure that your domain name is unique and easy to find. Some of the trusted domain service providers are GoDaddy, Hostinger, etc.
Try to make it short, simple to pronounce and good to remember. If you are having a tough time selecting a domain name, you can take the help of available tools like Looka and Wordoid. After you have picked a domain name, you need to check its availability. Now, you are good to go!
You can choose custom WordPress development services to get related assistance.
Step 2: Select a Web Hosting Service Provider and Consider Registering a Domain Name
Choosing a web hosting provider and registering a domain name go hand-in-hand with each other during the website development. After you pick a domain name, registration is important to make it move forward.
In this case, you can even use a website host service that does both of these tasks for you, offering you much-needed convenience. Bluehost is one such company that offers you related services.
Step 3: Install WordPress
The subsequent step involves installing WordPress. Based on the host you choose, the process can vary. There are some companies, such as WP Engine, who will do it for you. However, you may need to install the WordPress app by choosing other website hosts.
Below are the important steps that are involved in installing WordPress:
- First, you must search the hosting dashboard for the WordPress application.
- After that, you should begin the installation procedure.
- Depending on the domain lookup you are using, you need to answer a few questions. You are expected to receive a confirmation mail after 24 hours.
- Now, visit WordPress>My Site>Domains.
- Finally, select the custom domain as your primary domain and proceed.
For installation assistance, all you need is to hire WordPress developer.
Step 4: Pick Your Desired Theme
You will find the availability of several themes in WordPress. Make sure to pick one that tends to provide a unique experience to your site visitors. At the same time, you need to ensure that it is creative and perfectly reflects the values and niche of your brand. Your main aim should be to choose the most suited one for your business in terms of features.
Irrespective of your niche, you are expected to find almost any kind of WordPress theme ranging from different colours, elements, formatting styles and layouts. If you want to make your website look interactive, you should choose a responsive theme.
Step 5: Add and Tailor the Website Pages
The next and most important step involves adding pages to the website. Ensure you have, about us, services, contact us and home page all in place to stay authentic among your audience.
You must select the intuitive navigation for all your pages to stay organised. Don’t miss out on organising your pages once you make your page structure. If you have an e-commerce website, you need to follow the same format for all your product pages.
Consider fixing the elements, and use suitable image and font styles and colour schemes. Finally, you need to unite them properly. Take the help of custom WordPress development services to achieve the best outcomes.
Step 6: Install Plugins
You can add the appropriate plugins to boost the functionality of your site. By doing so, you can ensure that your website functions effectively and offer a compelling user experience.
There are many different purposes for which plugins are commonly employed. It helps you to secure your website and rank better in search engine results. Plugins even help you to add contact forms, integrate email capabilities and add two-factor authentication. For more details on this, you can approach a trusted WordPress developer.
Step 7: Review the Load Time
After that, you need to check the load time. It is one of the most important steps to follow after integrating plugins into your site, as adding so many elements could slow down the loading speed. It, in turn, severely impacts the performance.
Consider checking the load time for mobile and web pages. You can leverage the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to evaluate and optimise your website. This tool also offers the most appropriate solution for these problems. You may require using a content distribution network (CDN), allowing browser caching, removing unwanted plugins or optimising image file size.
Step 8: Test and Evaluate
Now, you have successfully built and launched your WordPress site. Finally, you must verify if it works effectively on the web without any problems and vulnerabilities. It will help you to find areas of improvement, if any.
Carry out A/B testing to test and enhance the staging of your site. It will allow you to offer a better experience for users.
Final Thoughts
So, these are the 8 simple steps by which you can develop an amazing custom WordPress website.
If you are finding any sort of difficulties in navigating through the discussed steps, it is high time to get in touch with an expert WordPress developer USA. They are dedicated to offering you the best assistance.