Take one step at a time along the Path to Build A Website
Here are my Ten Broad Steps giving you an outline of the process to Build A Website. Feel free to leave questions in the comments.
How to build a Website
1. Choose and Register your Domain Name
You will need a domain name for your website and also for your email. Your domain name should be memorable. It is better if it is not something too generic because it is too easy for someone to end up on your competition’s website.
Search engines do use the keywords in domain names as a ranking factor (which explains the existence of domains like “where-to-buy-the-best-donuts-in-Seattle.com”), but tread lightly when thinking about optimizing your root domain for search engines: One of the specific functions of Google’s algorithm is to combat these keyword-stuffed exact-match domains. If you’re trying to decide on a domain name, check out this How to Choose a Domain Name Whiteboard Friday.
I suggest you register both the .co.nz and the .nz versions of your domain name. You may also want to register other domain names to protect your brand. I use Crazy Domains for registering. I recommend that you do not register your domain name with your hosting company. For security reasons, it is better than they are separate companies. Just imagine if your website is hacked. If you still have access to your domain name you can quickly point the domain at a different hosting company with a fresh copy of your website back up. If the hackers get access to your domain name as well as your website files you are in trouble!
You will need to “point” your domain at your hosting company. Your hosting company will give you instructions or you can go into the chat with crazy domains and they will guide you.
2. Choose a Good Hosting Company
Choosing from the plethora of hosting companies that offer WordPress Hosting can be overwhelming. Almost all web hosting will meet the minimum requirements for WordPress. It is important to have a read what exactly they are offering for “WordPress” Hosting. You can read more details about my recommendation for WordPress Hosting.
My current hosting recommendations (as of 2018) are Siteground or WP Engine.
3. Install WordPress and install an SSL certificate
There are detailed instructions for the manual installation for WordPress. It is a helpful exercise if you want to understand a bit more about WordPress, however, you don’t need to go through this process. Many hosting companies offer one-click installation of WordPress as an option.
Siteground has an excellent wizard that will make the installation much easier. WP Engine also has a way to create a new WordPress WordPress
I have some instructions here:How to move your website to HTTPS
4. Permalinks
Login to your new website. One of the first things you need to do, after you login into your WordPress Website is change your permalinks settings.
{Note: This is something you should do on a new installation and not something to do lightly if your site has been running for a while}.
Yoast explains why you should update your permalinks for SEO reasons. Yoast suggests using the postname option.
5. Setup Backup
At this point, before you start adding content to your website, I would set up a backup schedule. Both Siteground and WP Engine have a backup option or you can use a plugin or another service. I personally particularly like ManageWP. ManageWP offers many more services which are helpful for managing your WordPress Website.
6. Keyword Research and Customer Personas {optional but highly recommended}
Moz has an excellent chapter on Keyword Research and it includes some free resources.
Optinmonster has a good guide on creating Customer Personas. You will also find some excellent courses on Lynda.com. Doing some keyword research and considering your potential customers will make content creation and decisions about branding, images and colours easier.
7. Add Your Website Content
Write great content. I would start writing some content before you get lost in the design aspects of the website. You will need great written content. Start collecting engaging images that you can add to your website. Consider the what will be your call to action on your important landing pages.
8. Choose a Logo and Colour Scheme
If you are just starting out and on a tight budget, you might like to try Fiverr.
9. Choose a Theme and add it to the site
Choose a beautiful premium theme. I recommend the Genesis Child Themes. You will also need to purchase a licence for the Genesis Framework. Customise it to your brand.
10. Add the Plugins
Add the plugins to give you the additional functionality you need.
We offer WordPress Services if you need help with any of these steps to Build A Website.