Create a professional WordPress blog quickly and easily

Nowadays, creating a personal blog is a procedure that can be done in a few minutes by following the instructions in the WordPress control panel. What many don't know, however, is that for create a professional blog that can really take off, you need to take a few more precautions.

In this guide you will find all the information for create a functional and efficient WordPress blog, with a top-level domain, the tools needed to create effective content and a presentable graphic layout. These are not definitive steps, but certainly our indications will be able to give the right input that was still missing from your project.

This is our checklist for starting a professional WordPress blog:

• Domain registration and hosting
• WordPress installation and configuration
• Installing plugins and tools
• Choose a WordPress theme that is simple and suitable for your business
• Prepare a blog map (pages, categories, tags, etc)

By following these steps you will be able to open a functional blog that is truly capable of taking off. Keep in mind that domain registration and hosting have an annual or monthly cost, which varies according to the type of service you decide to rely on. Even the theme of WordPress may incur an additional charge.

Domain choice (and registration)

“www.creailtuoblog.it” – Choose the domain name it is certainly one of the most exciting moments of the birth of a blog. The domain name must be short, easy to remember and above all easy to write. It can contain your name or, better yet, mention the main topic of the blog so that it is immediately associated with your address. Green light to imagination and creativity!

Once you've chosen it, you'll need to make sure it's still free in order to register it.

Hosting plan

Functionally, thehosting is one of the most important choices of creating a professional blog. We need a perfect blog, made with very expensive WordPress themes, for nothing if the hosting doesn't work properly and the pages don't open, or load with exasperating slowness.

The provider, or hosting service, is the company that hosts our blog on its systems, offering space, connectivity, management and maintenance of the entire service, so as to guarantee high standards of efficiency. There are a myriad of providers to turn to, located all over the world.

Many providers make "starter packages" available for newly born projects, with management software included at very advantageous prices. Usually these are interesting offers, tailor-made for projects in the embryonic stage. Also check:

• How much does it cost;
• How much space does it give you;
• php support;
• Presence of MySQL databases;

Don't be afraid of compare multiple offers to find the one that best suits your needs.

WordPress installation

WordPress installation is done through the MySQL database and copying the blog files via FTP to the server. You can download these files from the official WordPress site and transfer them to your domain. Remember to keep your folders in order: in the future, in fact, you may want the domain to host other services as well, such as an e-commerce or a forum for example. Here a useful link.

Once this is done, you will need to access the address of your blog, i.e.: http://www.nomeblog.it/wp/ and follow the instructions that will be shown to you on screen.

Installing plugins

Plugins they are tools that add comfortable and intuitive features to WordPress. These are "extensions" of the blog that help manage it, providing additional information on the activities that can be carried out. The official WordPress site has a section dedicated just to them, made especially for the most demanding users. If you have chosen a Professional Hosting dedicated to Wordpress, there are now many automatic installation suites with which you can save a lot of time.

There is no list of “required” plugins that every blog owner should have at all costs. However, some tools are so useful, and make life easier to the point, that you can hardly give them up. To start, we recommend “WP Socializer” to share posts on social networks, “Akismet” to protect yourself from SPAM and “Yoast SEO” to improve texts for search engine optimization.

Choose a WordPress theme

Graphics are the first business card of a blog or website. That's why it must be simple, effective, pleasant and above all relevant. WordPress allows you to change the theme of your blog as many times as you want, without any problems. Some themes are free and already available, while others are paid. “Premium” themes are generally highly configurable and customizable.

You can change the WordPress theme from “Appearance -> Themes”.

The blog map

Navigating within the blog it must be easy and intuitive. That's why creating pages, categories and tags can really make a difference. The pages they are static html structures that allow you to insert permanent contents into the blog, such as your biography or the contact section.

The categories they are containers within which it is possible to draw on more contents belonging to the same topic. Some examples of categories: "Fashion", "Beauty", "Lifestyle".

The tags, last but not least, are labels to be associated with blog posts and pages, in order to make them more easily found during searches. By searching for a tag in the internal search engine, you can find "sets of articles" dedicated to specific keywords.

Congratulations, you are now ready to create your WordPress blog and embark on this great adventure. Let's not hide that there will be difficult moments, but those who start well, as we know, are halfway there.