Building Your Personal WordPress Website: A Step-by-Step Guide

a) Choose your theme

1. First, log in to WordPress, then, on the menu on the left side of the dashboard, click the “Appearance” button, and then click the “Theme” button. You can search and choose from over 11,000 free WordPress themes available on the official WordPress website. For more information on installing a WordPress theme, you can check out the Installing a WordPress Theme page.

1. After selecting your theme, add some content to your website. To add some content to your website, select “Pages” on the menu on the left side of the dashboard, then click the “Add New” button, which will bring you to the editor page screen.

2. Give your page a title such as Home, Contact, etc. Then, add some content, such as text, links, images, media, etc., in the text editor below.

3. Once you’ve finished your content, click the “Publish” button to publish it to your website. You can repeat steps 1–3 by adding more pages to the website section.

4. Now it’s time to add blog posts to your website. Select “Posts” from the menu on the left side of the dashboard and click the “Add New” button, and you will see the page editor, the same as when you added the page before.

5. Finally, add a post title and content in the editor, and click the “Save” button to save your content as a draft or the “Publish” button to display your blog post content on your website. You can repeat steps 4-5 by adding more pages to the website section. For more information on installing WordPress posts, you can check out the Creating a WordPress Post page.

c) Customize and tweak your WordPress website

1. After adding your content to your website, customize and tweak it. To customize and tweak your website by setting up a static front page, select “Settings” on the menu on the left side of the dashboard, then click the “Reading” button.

2. In the “Front page displays” selection section, click the “A static page (select below)” radio button and select the “Pages” you created earlier for the homepage and blog pages.

3. After completing the settings, click the “Save Changes” button to save the settings. For more information on installing WordPress posts, you can check out Part B of the Create WordPress Posts page.

4. After setting up a static front page, change your site’s title and tagline to customize and tweak your website by selecting “Settings” on the left menu of your dashboard, then clicking the “General” button. You can change your website name in the Site Title section and describe your website in the Tagline section.

5. Finally, click the “Save Changes” button to save your settings.

6. Then, enable comment moderation on your site to customize and tweak your website by selecting “Settings” on the left menu of your dashboard and clicking the “Discussions” button. In the “Before a comment appears” section, select the “Comments must be manually approved” checkbox.

7. Finally, click the “Save Changes” button to save your settings.

8. After enabling comment moderation on your site, create a navigation menu in the classic theme. To create a navigation menu in the classic theme, select Appearance on the menu on the left side of the dashboard and click the Menu button.

9. Next, enter your navigation menu name and click the “Create Menu” blue button to allow WordPress to create an empty navigation menu.

10. Then, select the pages you want to display in the menu and click the “Add to Menu” button to add the pages to it. If you find that the selected page fills the empty space of your navigation menu, you can move these menu items up or down to rearrange their position on the menu.

11. After that, you need to choose where to display it, but most WordPress themes have a main menu in the site header at the top. Once you are done with your menu, click the “Save Menu” button to save your menu settings, and then you can see the menu running on your website.

12. Now it’s time to customize and tweak your website by creating a navigation menu in the site editor. To create a navigation menu in the site editor, select Appearance on the menu on the left side of the dashboard and click the Editor button.

13. Next, after clicking on the area where you want to add or edit the menu, WordPress will open it for editing. You can select the template to which you want to add the menu from the left column. Most websites usually place their navigation menu in the header template.

14. After that, click on the Add (+) New Block button to add the navigation block, and click on the “Add (+)” button under the navigation block settings under the right column.

15. Then, select Page Link to add a link to a post, page, or category on your site. You can move menu items up and down in the menu.

16. Once you are done with your menu, click the Save button to save your menu settings, and then you can see the menu running on your website.