It’s awesome that you’ve decided to make a website! We’re going to make the process super easy for you– Here’s what we will do, step-by-step, to build a website:
Step 1: Choose a platform to build your website
The first thing you need to do is decide which platform you want to use to build your website. There are so many options! You might have heard of a few of them like Squarespace or Wix. But you should use WordPress — WordPress is free, very customizable and easy to learn how to use.
You can read about why WordPress is the best platform to use here.
Did you know — 40% of all websites were built with WordPress? That makes it the most popular website platform in the whole world.
Ok, WordPress is great. But what is a website platform?
Websites are built with website platforms. These days you can build an entire website even if you don’t know how to code! That’s because website platforms have been getting more and more impressive, with lots of amazing functionality and cool, user-friendly ways to design and build.
WordPress is actually what is called a ‘content management system.’ Basically, that’s a fancy way of saying that it organizes your content for you so that you don’t have to code the site from scratch. However, you need to know that there are several “pieces” to any WordPress site on the internet.
- The Website Platform
- The Hosting
- The Domain
So now that we’ve decided to build our website with WordPress, we need to move to step 2 and choose our host & domain.
Step 2: Pick a host & domain for your website
Your hosting and domain are both very important.
The host is where your website actually lives on the internet. It is your website’s home.
The domain is the address of your website. It’s how people arrive at the right place.
How to Pick a WordPress Host
There are so many hosting provider options out there and it can feel a little overwhelming if you’re not sure what’s best. Here are the hosts that WordPress.org recommends. The number one hosting recommendation from WordPress is Bluehost.
We recommend Bluehost. They have special deals on hosting plans that start as low as $2.95 per month. (Around $8 per month is pretty standard for hosting fees when you’re just getting started.)
No matter which hosting provider you choose, there will be different levels of hosting plans. You want to pick the right plan for your website’s needs. The prices between plans can vary by a very large amount!
Bluehost’s shared plan is the simplest and cheapest option and great if you’re a beginner. As your website grows you’ll probably want to upgrade your plan down the road but we recommend starting with the basic shared hosting option.
Still not sure? Check out our guide to the best hosting options for 2026.
How to Pick Your Domain Name
Ok, here’s where things start to get fun. Your next step is to decide what to call your website! Some hosts, like Bluehost, will give you a free domain name for a year when you sign up for hosting. You can typically expect to pay $8-$16 a year for your domain. (They can be very expensive depending on what keywords you’re putting into it, but $8-$16 is fairly standard.)
Most hosting companies will have a way to purchase a domain through them, even if they don’t offer you a free one. It will simplify the setup process if your hosting and domain come from the same place because your host will typically help you change the settings on your domain so it goes to your website. However, if you’re buying hosting and a domain separately, we really like NameCheap to buy domains. You can go to their site, search for the availability of different domain names and buy one that you like.
Things to consider when picking a domain:
- Your domain is the address that people will put into their internet browser to get to your website. The domain for this website is letswebsitebuild.com.
- Try to pick a domain that closely matches your brand, whether that is your company name or the theme of your blog.
- Shorter, easy-to-remember domain names are great. Try to stay away from random numbers or extra words.
- A .com site is almost always your best bet!
Want to learn more? Check out our guide: How to Choose a Domain Name
3. Set up your website builder and create awesome content
This is the best part. It’s time to actually build your new website.
Most hosting providers will have a way to install WordPress with one click. For example, with Bluehost you’ll click “My Sites,” then “Add Site” and then “Get Started.”
Here’s what that looks like using our Bluehost example:
1) On Bluehost click “My Sites” then “Add Site”
2) On Bluehost click “Get Started”
Pretty much all popular and reputable hosts will have a process for installing WordPress that is very similar to Bluehost’s. (And if they don’t you might want to consider going with different hosting!) If you bought your domain through Bluehost (or whichever host you picked), then pointing it at your new WordPress installation should be part of the initial setup wizard.
At this point you should have 1) a hosting account, 2) WordPress installed on your host, and 3) a domain name that points at your new WordPress site. Great job! Now it’s time to make this thing look awesome.
How to Pick a Theme for Your WordPress Site
After you install WordPress, your host should give you your WordPress login. Usually, the login URL is going to be YourDomain.com/wp-admin and after you log in you’ll be in your WordPress Dashboard.
Your WordPress Dashboard is going to be where all the magic happens! You’ll spend a lot of time in here so it’s a good idea to take some time to explore it a bit.
The next step is to pick a theme. A WordPress theme is going to determine what your website looks like from the layout to the colors to what you can easily add to your website pages. It’s an important decision.
Luckily, with WordPress, you can change your theme as many times as you want. You should still choose carefully, though, because once you have everything designed and built, changing your theme later can be a lot of work. So take some time to explore all your many options and find the perfect theme for you.
How to Install WordPress Themes
To install a theme, check out the menu on the left side of the dashboard screen and go to Appearance > Themes. There will be a few default themes in there to start. To add new themes you can either click “Add New” at the top of the page or the big plus sign.
There are hundreds — thousands — of WordPress themes. Many of them are free, some of them you have to pay for. You can type different things into the search bar, try ‘photography’ or ‘restaurant’ or ‘pet store’ or… whatever! You’re sure to find some great options.
1) Go to Appearance > Themes then click “Add New”
2) You can search through thousands of WordPress themes to find the right one for you
Our favorite theme is called Divi. It lets you do amazing things with your WordPress site and is incredibly customizable. This website is built with Divi, just as an example. Divi is a paid theme but it’s very easy to use and we highly recommend it.
Side Note About Themes —
Once you decide on a theme, get rid of all the themes you don’t use except for one of the default themes. It’s not a good habit to have unused themes left on your site. To remove a theme, go to the Themes page, click the theme you don’t want, then click “Delete” in the bottom right corner.
Once you have your theme picked out and installed you can go to Appearance > Customize from the dashboard to open the WordPress Customizer. This will let you make some of the initial design choices for your theme like a logo, colors, or general page layout (the options will vary a little bit depending on your theme).
Time to create content for your website!
WordPress makes it super easy to add new content to your site. There are two main types of content in WordPress — pages and posts.
Pages are static content that give your site structure, like the 'Home' page and 'Contact' page.
Posts are articles, and you can organize them into different categories.
Pages are more important than posts when you’re first starting to build your website. To add a new page or post you can click Pages > Add New or Posts > Add New. From there you can give your new page a title, some content like text or images, and when you’re finished you can click “Publish.” Congrats on making your first page! Most websites will have a homepage, a contact page and an about page, so those are three great pages to start with.
When you have some pages and posts published, you can go to Appearance > Menus to set up the navigation menu for your site.
By default, WordPress displays your latest posts as the homepage. To change this, go to Appearance > Customize > Homepage Settings. You can decide what you want the homepage to be from there.
Add plugins to make your site do more
You can further extend what your WordPress site can do with plugins. These are add-ons that you can install from Plugins > Add New. You do not have to add any plugins if you don’t want to, but they can totally change the game if you do.
Some popular plugins that we recommend:
- UpDraft Plus – makes it easy to make regular backups in case your site ever crashes
- Yoast SEO – a powerful search engine optimization plugin that makes it easy to boost your website’s search engine visibility
- Jetpack – adds lots of extra features including social media sharing and info on your site’s traffic
Want to learn more? Check out our detailed guide to WordPress plugins here.
4. Go live with your amazing new website
Give your site a solid look-over, make sure it’s what you want and then let the world know about your new website. (Some hosts will have a button for “Launch Your Site” or “Exit Maintenance Mode,” etc. in the dashboard so other people can access the site.) Post about it on your social media, tell your friends and your customers — you’ve done it!
A well-maintained website, however, is never really finished. It will change and grow over time, you’ll add new content and update the styles, but if you’ve gotten this far then you’ve already made so much progress. Keep at it… an awesome website is a huge accomplishment!
So what’s next?
Now that you know how to start a website, learn more about themes vs page builders or check out our guide to WordPress Plugins.
