So you are finally ready to start your own business and you need a website. The most common option for beginners is to go with a WordPress hosted site. WordPress sites offer a range of user-friendly features, is an affordable option, and can be upgraded and scaled as needed for when your business grows. However, if you are just starting out, you may need a little help with the process. So I’ve put together a WordPress hosting guide for beginners to help you get started and support the success of your new business venture. Here is everything you need to know about WordPress hosting.
Getting Started With Your Domain
The first step I will outline in our WordPress hosting guide is how to create and setup your domain. Your domain is basically the website address people will type into the address bar on a web browser. For example, my domain is quintonh5.sg-host.com. Your domain is usually reflective of your business name or the services you provide. You’ll first have to do a search to see if the name you want is available. You can search your domain on a variety of sites like Go Daddy, Google Domains, and Name.com. Also, your WordPress host may have the option. I recommend always choosing a name with .com, .net, or .org because it’s easier for people to remember and search engines to recognize. Check out my article on how to choose a great domain name and check out the video below to learn more about domains.
Register Your Domain
Once you know your domain name is available, you can begin the registration process. You have two options:
1. Choose a hosting service with domain hosting, or;
2. You can register with a specific domain host like the companies listed above and then transfer or point that domain to your new WordPress host.
For beginners, until you know you like your WordPress host, I highly recommend option number two because it will make things a lot easier for you if you ever want to move hosts.
Design Your WordPress Site
Now comes the fun part, designing your first WordPress website. WordPress is completely free and does not require specialized coding information. You can take a free or paid template and customize it or use their content management system (CMS) to make one from scratch. If you know how to use basic word processing software, you’ll know how to use WordPress. So don’t be intimidated, it’s the best option for people getting started in web design. There are a ton of ways to design and build your website with WordPress and you are really only limited by your imagination and what you need for your business, so go for it!
Choosing A WordPress Hosting Service
Now for the most important piece of my WordPress hosting guide: How to pick a good WordPress host. If you do a quick Google search, you will find there are literally thousands of WordPress hosting service options. So how do you decide? Here are the key factors that you need to know in order to pick your hosting platform:
- WordPress Friendly: This is an obvious one, you need to make sure that it is a WordPress friendly host. There are some web hosting services that have their own internal CMS, so just make sure they host WordPress sites.
- Easy Migration: Since you have to move your WordPress site to your hosting platform, you want something that makes that process easy. I highly recommend looking for a web host that offers automated migration. Automated migration moves the site for you, you just have to tell them how to find your WordPress. Simple as that!
- Fast Speed And Good Storage: Fast speed and good storage ensure that your website works well and is easy for your visitors to navigate. When you are just starting out, you’ll want enough bandwidth to support a minimum of 25,000 visitors and storage of around 10GB. As your website grows, you’ll want to look into more, but this is a good place to start.
- Customer Support: Customer support is crucial when you are first starting out because you will have tons of questions. So you need to find a WordPress host that has a variety of customer support features from FAQs to live support.
- Easy To Use: When you’re just starting out, you don’t need the hassle of a difficult to navigate C-Panel. You want to find something straight forward, easy to navigate, and user-friendly
- Security Options: Security is important to protect yourself, your customers, and get recognized by search engines. Make sure that any hosting platform offers a SSL certification as part of their service.
- Price: Price is going to be a factor, but there’s more to consider than just a super low price or free WordPress hosting. You want to work with a company that has an affordable plan but doesn’t have a bunch of hidden fees.
In my experience, I would recommend starting your search with WP Engine. They meet all the needs listed above and are so user-friendly even beginners will find their hosting process super simple and straightforward.
Begin Hosting Your WordPress Site
Once you’ve chosen your WordPress hosting site, it’s just a matter of migrating and launching the site. My experience with WP Engine is that they literally walk you through the process from registering and transferring your domain, to automatically connecting your WordPress designed site, to upgrading different features and adding plug-ins. Once you are up and running, then it’s just a matter of tailoring your content to your target market and making small improvements to your design here and there so you can really build your business. I also really like that WP Engine has scalable options because as my business grew I didn’t have to worry about moving my site again.
I hope this WordPress hosting guide helps you understand the process. I know that when I first started out, I was worried that because I didn’t have a background in website design that launching my site would be very challenging. However between WordPress’ easy-to-use CMS and WP Engine’s user-friendly, affordable hosting services, even at a beginner level, I was able to create a beautiful, functional website that helped me build my idea into a successful business.
