Now more than ever, it’s essential that any small business has a website. People are online + connected 24/7, and for them to find you, they need something to find. Your website is your digital storefront that is open all day, everyday, so not only do you need one, but it needs to:
Look professional: a bad looking website creates a bad impression. You want to be seen as the professional you are, and that starts with your website being visually appealing.
Be easy to navigate: Getting people to your site is the first step, but getting them to stay is just as important! Being easy to navigate is an essential.
Be responsive: Phone, tablet, desktop…your site needs to look great on any device!
And an easy way to accomplish all of this? Build your site using WordPress! Yes, there are other website builders that I’ve used and love, but WordPress reigns supreme in terms of capabilities and possibilities, so it’s still one of my top go-tos for my clients, students and myself.
Real talk: I only recommend products I would (and do) use myself, and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links from which I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
For someone who has never seen the back end of a WordPress site before, it can seem pretty intimidating to get started. There are a lot of moving parts and WordPress basically has a language all of it’s own, so it’s no wonder that a lot of first-time website builders seek out more drag and drop, visual builders instead. And while those are great, the functionality alone is worth learning how to build a website with WordPress – and I’m going to tell you how to do it, the easy way.
WordPress is one of THE best options for small business websites. The functionality, customization options and ease of navigation make it a top choice for small business owners learning how to build a website, myself included. When I started my business I did WAY too much research on website builder options, and ended up landing on WordPress, and I’ve been on it ever since.
The first step in creating a WordPress site is to sign up for hosting on a third party site. There are thousands of choices for hosting companies, but the one I recommend to my clients and students (and the one I use personally) is SiteGround. I wrote a short post about how to do this, and you can check it out here!
Once you have your hosting, you can easily install WordPress by following these instructions, and then it’s time for the fun part: building your site! There are a few different ways that you can do it:
Build it from scratch with code: I can’t speak for the whole class here, but I do know that my MySpace coding experience did NOTHING for me when it came time to build my website. Code quite literally is a foreign language, and when you don’t have months (or years) to learn, this isn’t always a great option.
Use a front-end builder plugin: Drag and drop lovers rejoice, WordPress DOES support a few plugins that allow you to drag and drop elements onto your webpage instead of coding. Plugins like Thrive Architect and Elementor are two that I have experience with, but there are other options, as well.
Use a theme: My personal favorite option, themes are most definitely the best option for people new to the website building game. It allows you to start with a pre-built website and then customize it to fit your brand and business. I love it because it gives you a huge jumpstart and a great starting point, which makes it a much quicker and easier process than starting from scratch.
In this post, we’re going to be talking about how to build a website using a COMBO of my two favorite options…using a theme and a front-end builder plugin.
If I had to guess, I’ve had about six different themes in the last five years. What can I say, commitment issues, ya know? 😉 But the last few themes I’ve purchased (and loved) have all been from Bluchic Themes. Bluchic builds gorgeous, responsive themes for business owners of both product and service based businesses.
There is an entire gallery of theme options offering live previews so you can interact with them prior to committing. Trust me, you’ll want to look through all of them because they’re all amazing. And if there’s a theme that is almost perfect except for one or two things, no worries because these are fully customizable. Change the colors, pictures, fonts – whatever your heart desires until it perfectly fits you and your business!
And if you’re worried about setting your theme up, don’t be! Because after you’ve chosen your perfect (or almost perfect) theme, Bluchic provides you with extensive documentation to set up your website to look just like the demo site. Every. single, detail. has a write up and/or a video fully explaining how to set everything up so that it is both beautiful and functional.
The theme that I have on my website currently is the ChicBoss theme.
The ChicBoss theme is modern, sleek, responsive, easy to navigate and BEAUTIFUL, making it my favorite theme yet. And one of my favorite things about it is that you can use Elementor to easily making drag and drop edits. I had the entire theme set up and ready to go in only a few hours. You can check out the ChicBoss theme, here!
So if you’re getting ready to build a website for the first time, if you are switching over to WordPress from another platform or simply giving your existing WordPress site a facelift, consider checking out BlueChic themes. Your only regret will be not doing it sooner!
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