If you want to launch a WordPress blog, now is the time to do it! These days, WordPress has become one of the most popular blogging platforms with over 30 million active users and over 3.3 million free blogs registered with it!
Starting a WordPress blog can be intimidating. While it may seem like starting a blog is easy, things like choosing the right hosting, themes, and plugins, understanding how to optimize your posts, and even just coming up with topics that people are interested in can be challenging.
Fortunately, plenty of other WordPress bloggers have gone through this process before you, and you can learn from their experiences to make the launch of your WordPress site as smooth as possible. To help with this process, here’s an ultimate guide on how to successfully launch a WordPress blog in 2023.
Basic Steps To Launch A WordPress Blog
Blogging is a great way to connect with your audience and share your thoughts or ideas. But launching your first blog in WordPress is not an easy process. There are 6 basics steps to Launch a WordPress Blog as follows,
- Get rights to Hosting and Domain
- Install WordPress
- Search for Right Blogging WordPress Theme and activate it on your website
- Customize Your bogging website as per your requirement
- Install some Plugins
- Content Research
- Draft your First blog
- Optimize it for SEO
- Launch your Blog.
- Analyze the performance of the Blog
Get Rights To Hosting And Domain
Before you launch a WordPress website, it is necessary to understand what is hosting and why it is required. In very simple terms, hosting is a service that helps make your website accessible to others on the World Wide Web.
Your WordPress website is hosted on a web server, which is a special type of computer that stores all the files for your website. When someone types in your website address (URL), the request is sent to the web server, which then serves up your website files.
There are a few different types of hosting services, but for WordPress websites, we recommend using WordPress-specific hosting, which is optimized for WordPress websites. WordPress-specific hosting typically includes features such as one-click WordPress installation, WordPress updates, and WordPress security.
Now, you know a little bit about hosting, there are lots of hosting providers like Hostinger, Bluehost, HostGator, Siteground, Dream Host, etc. As a beginner, we would suggest using Hostinger and Bluehost, they have decent hosting plans and a good support team to help you wherever you are stuck.
The domain is also very important when launching a WordPress website. It is a unique address of your website on the internet and helps people to find your site. A domain name can be purchased from a domain registrar such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.
WordPress.com also provides a free domain name for your website if you purchase their hosting plan. A custom domain name makes it easy for people to remember your website and helps create a professional appearance. Domain names are also important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
A good domain name can help you rank higher in SERPs, which will lead to more traffic and more customers. A bad domain name can do the opposite. A good domain name is therefore essential to your website's success.
Tips To Select Right Domain Name:
- Keep it short, simple, and easy to remember.
- Make sure it is relevant to your niche.
- Avoid using hyphens or numbers.
- Choose a .com extension.
- Use a domain name generator to find more ideas.
Following these tips, you will be well on your way to finding the perfect domain name for your blog.
Install WordPress
Once you are done with purchasing hosting and a domain name, you can begin the installation process. Installing WordPress after purchasing hosting can seem like a daunting task, but it is quite simple. You can also read our blog on "How to Install WordPress In Easy Steps " for more details.
This can be done easily using the cPanel application that most hosting providers offer. Simply follow the steps below and you will have WordPress installed in no time!
- Log in to your hosting account and go to the cPanel application.
- Find the ‘Softaculous’ icon and click on it.
- Select WordPress from the list of applications and click on the ‘Install’ button.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process.
- That’s it! You will now have WordPress installed on your hosting account.
After installing WordPress, it is important to take a few steps to ensure that your site is secure and running smoothly, such as installing an SSL Certificate, setting up a CDN, and more.
SSL Certificate:
An SSL Certificate is a must-have for any WordPress site. It encrypts communications between your website and visitors' browsers, protecting your site from hackers.
CDN:
A CDN, or content delivery network, is a system of distributed servers that deliver content to visitors based on their location. A CDN can improve your site's speed and performance by reducing the distance between your server and visitors.
Once you are done with it, now it’s time to find the right WordPress Theme for your WordPress blogging website.
Search For Right Blogging WordPress Theme And Activate It On Your Website
One of the most important aspects of a WordPress site is its theme. A theme is a collection of files used to design and function a WordPress site. The files in a theme include template files, CSS files, image files, and JavaScript files.
In choosing a WordPress theme, there are several factors to keep in mind. The theme you choose should be reflective of the type of content you’ll be sharing, as well as your style. It’s also important to make sure that the theme is responsive, meaning it will adjust to fit any screen size.
Here are a few tips to help you find the right WordPress theme for your blog:
- Think about the type of content you’ll be sharing. Will it be mostly text-based, or will you be sharing lots of photos and videos?
- Browse through themes that are available for free. Once you find a few that you like, take a look at the premium (paid) versions to see if they offer more features than you need.
- Look for a WordPress Theme that is simple and clean, with a design that is easy to navigate.
- Make sure the theme is responsive, so it will look great on any device.
- Read through the reviews to see what other users have to say about the theme.
The theme can make or break a blog. This is why it is highly recommended to use an Elementor-optimized WordPress theme for blogging websites.
Elementor is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create beautiful websites without having to code. It is easy to use and comes with a drag-and-drop interface. You can use Elementor to create custom pages in WordPress, posts, and even e-commerce websites.
There are several reasons why you should use an Elementor WordPress theme for your WordPress blog. Firstly, it is extremely easy to use and you can create a professional-looking website without having to code. Secondly, it is highly customizable and you can change, add, or remove any element on your website with just a few clicks. Thirdly, it is responsive and your website will look great on all devices. Lastly, it is SEO-friendly and your website will rank higher on search engines.
Customize Your Blogging Website As Per Your Requirement
After activating your theme, the next step is to import the demo to get the exact look of the theme to your website. But when you do this, there is a lot of demo content like Text, Images, Logos, Videos, Links, etc. which you need to change or you can say customize as per your requirement.
Here the Elementor optimized top WordPress themes help. Elementor is the most widely used and most popular website builder plugin. This will allow you to customize each section of your website with just a few drags and drops. You can change any text, image, logo, and more to make it your website instead of a sample website.
Install Some Plugins
A plugin is software that extends the functionality of a WordPress site. It allows you to add new features to your website without needing to write any code. There are a few plugins you need in a WordPress website to smooth out your task, here is the list of some plugins,
- Elementor (To Customize your website section and pages)
- Yoast SEO (To optimize your website content as per SEO standards)
- Contact Form 7 (To connect with your audience by collecting leads)
- Jetpack (To speed up your website)
- Smash Balloon (To integrate your social channel feed)
Content Research
If you are planning to launch wordpress a blog, one of the most important things you need to do is content research. This is the process of finding out what topics and keywords your target audience is interested in, and then creating content that meets their needs.
Content research is important for several reasons. Firstly, it helps you to understand your target audience and what they are looking for. Secondly, it ensures that your content is relevant and useful to them. Thirdly, it helps you to rank higher in search engines, which means more people will see your content.
Content research is a crucial part of starting a successful blog. Once you are done with it, now you need to draft your first blog on the topic you selected.
Draft Your First Blog
The process of drafting a blog in WordPress is pretty straightforward. You can either write your blog directly in the WordPress editor or compose it offline in Microsoft Word or other writing tools.
If you’re new to WordPress, we recommend drafting your blog posts offline in a word processor before publishing them on your website. This will help you get comfortable with the WordPress editor and also give you a chance to spell-check and proofread your blog posts before making them live on your site.
Optimize It For SEO
Once you are done with writing your blog post, the next is to optimize your blog as per SEO standards in WordPress.
Have you ever wondered how some blogs get to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) while others languish in obscurity?
SEO is the practice of optimizing a website for Google’s algorithms to earn higher web traffic levels and improve the visibility of the site. In other words, it’s a way to make your site more visible and attractive to search engines.
Plugins like Yoast SEO for WordPress are very popular. Using Yoast SEO, your website will be optimized for search engines. It allows you to add keyword-rich titles and descriptions, as well as tweak your website’s code to make it more search engine friendly.
With Yoast, you simply need to fulfill the Yoast SEO Requirement to optimize your blog.
Publish Your Blog
Now that you have written your blog post and optimized it for SEO, it is time to launch a WordPress blog. Now it’s time to publish your blog. You can do this by clicking on the “Publish” button in the upper right-hand corner of the WordPress interface.
Once you have published your blog, you can then start promoting it to build an audience. You can do this by sharing your blog on social media, participating in online forums, and leaving comments on other blogs.
Analyze The Performance Of The Blog
After you have published your blog, it is important to Analyze its performance. This will help you determine whether or not your blog is achieving its objectives. You can do this in several ways, but Google Analytics has proven to be the most effective of them all.
With Google Analytics, you can track the traffic to your website for free. This means that you can see how many people are visiting your blog, where they are coming from, and what they are doing on your site.
Another way to Analyze the performance of your blog is to use a plugin like WordPress Stats. This plugin will track the number of views, comments, and shares for each post on your blog.
Finally, you can also ask your readers to fill out a survey to give you feedback on your blog. This is a great way to get detailed feedback that you can use to improve your blog.
Conclusion:
In recent years, blogging has become a popular way to share ideas and thoughts. WordPress is a popular platform for bloggers due to its ease of use and wide range of features. If you're thinking about starting and launching a WordPress blog, this guide will show you everything you need to know to get started.
In this blog, we have seen how to select the right hosting domain for your website, Themes, Plugins, must website customization, how to research your content, how to draft, how to optimize it as per SEO, and finally launch a WordPress blog. This helps you in your journey of blogging.
We would recommend investing in a good WordPress theme to ensure the success of your website or blog. WP Elemento is a great marketplace to get Premium WordPress Elementor themes. With WP Elemento, you will be able to find the best theme for all kinds of businesses. All of the themes on WP Elemento are Elementor optimized, so you can customize your website without actually touching the single-line code.
