Domain and Hosting
(Part 1) Choose your domain name
^Above is a video explaining this step and below is a written explanation.
The very first thing to consider when creating a website is the domain name URL. If the website is for personal use we highly recommend using your name. For example John Smith should try to get www.johnsmith.com. If you want to create a website for your business then ideally it would contain a keyword pertaining to your business. For example if you’re a plumber and your business name is Ace Plumbing, then you should try to secure www.aceplumbing.com
Tips for selecting your website domain name:
You can secure your domain at Network Solutions. For hosting we recommend Hostgator or Level270 depending on your budget and needs.
(Part 2) Get a web host
Now that you have selected a domain name it’s time to get a web hosting provider appropriate for your needs. Most hosts give you a free domain when you sign up for the hosting plan.
We have tried about half a dozen different hosting providers and found them all to be different in quality and different customer support etc. If you’re on a budget but still require a good host with excellent customer service then we recommend Hostgator. The other thing that’s nice about this host is that they are wind-powered.
If you expect mega traffic to your website (like 3000+ per day) then we recommend a more robust hosting provider such as Level270. Level270 is considered one of the best hosts available and can handle any amount of traffic.
So now that your host is selected for creating your website, you’ll have to sign up with them and follow their instructions to get started. Both the hosts mentioned have great customer support in all area including technical questions. We generally call them with any questions we have about how to install WordPress or how to make a sub domain for your website etc.
After you have chosen your domain and host your will need to make sure that your domain is pointing to the “nameservers” of your hosting provider. Below is a video explaining how to do this.
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Wordpress installation and Theme selection
At this point you should have your domain and web hosting provider with all your passwords in a secure place. In this phase we will install WordPress on our domain and select the best website template or theme for your purposes..
(Part 1) How to install WordPress
^Above is a video explaining this step and below is a written explanation with screen shots.
a) Login to the Hostgator cPanel with your secure username and password. You will then see a screen like the one below. From here you can do all kinds of modifications to the “back end” of your website. Install WordPress quickly and easily by clicking the link down on the left hand side (see the big red arrow below
).
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b) This will lead to your next step which looks like this.
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c) This will lead to your next step which looks like this.
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d) You will then see the word “Congratulations” and a link to your site. It will look very basic but don’t worry because that is a generic theme not a cool, professional theme.
Now check your email (the one you gave when installing WordPress). You should have instantly received confirmation of the installation along with all the log in data. You will be able to log in to your site if you use your web browser to navigate to www.YourSite.com/wp-admin.
Your next step is selecting a theme and installing it in your WordPress website. We give the example of Elegant Themes above on the right.
(Part 2) Select the appropriate Theme
^Above is a video explaining this step and below is a written explanation with screen shots.
a) Sign up for Elegant Themes here.
b) Login to Elegant themes members area
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c) Select your theme and hit download
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d) Locate the file on your computer and unzip it
e) Open the folders and find the “theme” folder. Click on the theme folder and you will see the actual theme that you will want to install onto your site. The next step is to compress that folder into a .zip file.
f) Go to your WordPress “dashboard” and click on “Themes” under the “Appearance” tab on the left hand side.
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g) Then click on the tab at the top that says “Install Themes” and click the “Upload” link.
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h) Now find your theme .zip file that you created in step ‘E’. Upload it and you should be good to go.
i) In the “Appearance” tab on the left there should now be a link that says “(Your Themes Name) Theme Options”. This is the control panel for the elegant theme that you selected in step ‘C’. From here you can do all the customizations to the theme. If you have any problems you can go to the “Support” section of ElegantThemes.com.
j) Now you should be ready to add content!
Content is King
Google remains one of the main sources of traffic for any website on the internet. Optimizing your content for Google is quite straight forward once you know the basics. It is important to note that you should always unite your content for people because ultimately they will determine the success or failure of your website.
We must find a balance between writing for the search engines and for the people. This strategy below is the best of both worlds.
There are three steps when it comes to crafting content for maximum exposure:
1) WordTracker
You will want to select hot topics that people are searching, yet don’t have a huge amount of competition. Wordtracker is considered the best SEO keyword research tool in the world. Use the wordtracker keyword tool to find long tail phrases and use these in your title and naturally throughout the post in order to rank for that phrase. The Scribe SEO tool explained above goes into the details.
2) Craft Content and Optimize with Scribe SEO
Scirbe SEO is an amazing tool that helps teach you onsite SEO. Ideally every page of your content will be between 300-500 words and should have some quality links sprinkled throughout. Quality links consist of links to credible sites speaking of your topic and site ending with .gov, .edu, and .org links are generally considered “trusted”. Scribe is a great tool to walk an individual through the on page SEO process.
Catchy titles are great. People love simplicity and value based content. How to’s, tips and step by step articles serve as link bait for people and often rank well in the search engines.
3) Multi Media
Multimedia means images, video and creative works like info-graphics etc. Multimedia is a major link bridging the gap between your audience and the search engines. Images and video decrease the chance of someone bouncing off of your webpage immediately. They keep eyes on your finely crafted content. Use sweet post images that are thumbnails and represent your content well. For a 300 word post the ideal setup is a post image and two more images in the body of the text, or a video to supplement the two images in the body.
Step 4 read more