WordPress Knowledge Base

Beginner's Guide

Beginner’s Guide For WordPress – How to set up a WordPress Website

If you’ve got an idea for a website you want to build and not feeling too savvy or don’t have enough time for website design, no need to take a course as WordPress maybe the answer you’ve been looking for. WordPress is an easy to use program that can make it possible to easily and quickly set up a site and maintain it so that we can see your creative flare shine. To help you out with getting start, we’ve arranged a helpful guide from registering the account all the way to finishing the WordPress installation so that you can easily get to the enjoyable process of bringing your website to life.

 

Step 1

01

Go to the Doteasy Main Page and give “Sign Up” a click.

Step 2

 

02

In order to create a website, you’ll need a domain name (www.website.com) to start with.

If you don’t have a domain yet, you can easily enter your desired domain name in the text box and click the “Check Availability” to see what extensions (.com, .net, .org, etc.) are available. When you find your desired domain is available for registration, you can proceed by clicking the “Next Step” button.

If you already own a domain with another domain registrar, you can simply choose the “Use My Own Domain Name” option to transfer the domain to us.

Step 3

 

03

WordPress requires the languages PHP and MySQL in order to be set up and work correctly. As such, you will want to choose our “Unlimited SSD Hosting” plan when you are on the “Hosting Plan” page. The Unlimited SSD Hosting plan is good for websites of any size as it will provide resources for your current site, but for future updates as well as your site grows and becomes more popular. The Unlimited SSD Hosting plan utilizes web servers that are fitted with SSDs rather than conventional hard disk drives (HDD) and is optimized for database-driven websites such as WordPress and eCommerce websites. SSDs provide much higher input/output (I/O) speeds compared to traditional HDDs. This means that SSDs can read and write data much faster, which greatly boosts the speed at which data is access from your website and databases.

For those of you with more then one domain name, the Unlimited SSD Hosting plan allows you to set up add-on domains that can share the same Unlimited SSD Hosting plan without additional hosting costs. Another great benefit for subscribing to the Unlimited SSD Hosting plan is that you can enjoy the 1st Year Introductory price for only $4.95/mo and the domain name (value $15) is already included in the plan. To enjoy the full benefits of this offer, you will want to sign up for the 1-Year Unlimited SSD Hosting Plan.

There are additional features we offer that you can choose to subscribe to (e.g. Automated Daily Site Backup, Spam & Email Virus Protection, etc.) and you can click the “Learn More” icon for each feature to understand the benefits of these features. If you’re unsure of whether a feature is right for you, don’t hesitate to contact us for more information, or you can always choose to set up the additional feature at a later date.

Step 4

 

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Scrolling down, you’ll see the sections for “Contact Info”, “Login Info”, and “Payment Info”. Simply fill out the requested information in each section. You’ll want to make sure you keep a record of your login Username and Password you set up here as you’ll need them to install WordPress in a later step. Lastly, make sure to check the “Agreement” section at the bottom and go over to application to make sure that all of the information entered is correct before submitting.

Step 5

 

05

You’ll see a confirmation page once you have submitted your application thanking you for the submission and that it was received. A confirmation email will later be sent to confirm once the account is set up and ready for use.

Step 6

 

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Once your account is activated, go to the Member Zone to access your account. Login with the Username and Password you created when setting up the account earlier. You’ll be prompted with a “New Billing Options and Discounts” page to confirm you signed in correctly. This page shows more information about our hosting plans and will automatically proceed to the next screen after 30 seconds. You can click the “Continue to sign in” button to proceed to the next page on your own if you prefer.

Step 7

 

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In the Member Zone area you will find many services and features that can be accessed by your account. You can take a moment to look at additional features you can subscribe to and when ready, can click on the link “Site Admin Panel (cPanel)”.

Step 8

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Once you are in the Doteasy Control Panel (cPanel), you’ll want to scroll down to “Doteasy Softaculous Apps Installer” section. Here you will see many scripts you can easily install on your account including WordPress. You will want to click on WordPress to launch the program.

Step 9

09

 

On the Softaculous App page, you are provided with more information towards the application that you are choosing to install such as demo’s, links to the creator(s) site as well as further information and reviews. You can continue with the WordPress installation by clicking on “install” in Blue near the top.

Step 10

 

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This will take us to the installation page for WordPress where we need to actually set up the program settings. You can leave Protocol as http:// as seen and choose the domain name you wish to install WordPress to. As mentioned earlier, Doteasy’s Unlimited SSD Hosting Plan offers the unlimited add-on domain option. This means that for those of you who have more than one domain in the account, you will have the option to choose which domain you want to install WordPress to.

Moving on you will see “In Directory” which asks you what directory or folder you wish to install WordPress to. For example, if you want your WordPress site to appear at www.Website.com/blog, you will want to type out ‘blog’ in this field. Leaving this field blank will install WordPress to the main domain or using the previous example, www.Website.com.

Step 11

 

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For the Database Settings, you can customize the database name and table prefix if you wish, however the installer will help generate a name for these automatically if you are unsure of what to put. “Site Setting” allows you to customize the default information that is shown on your site when it is installed. You can place a site name, and description that will show up after installation is completed, but can be changed anytime later on directly through WordPress itself. The “Enable Multisite” option is not required for most users and we would recommend you to not select this option unless you are comfortable with working with WordPress or websites in general.

We would like to highlight the Admin Account section next as this is an important section of the installation. The admin username is used to login to your WordPress once the setup is complete and we would strongly recommend you to avoid using “admin” as the username as this is commonly targeted by hackers. It is important to choose Strong (upper case, lower case and numbers) username and password combinations to help increase your sites security. Make sure that you keep a copy of the information you have set up including the username and password, or enter your email address into the last field on the form to have it email you. Once you’re ready to continue, click “install” and watch it quickly finish the rest for you.

Step 12

 

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Once it’s installed, you’ll see this “Congratulations” page. On the “Congratulations” page you’ll see two links. The first is the actual WordPress website link where your site is visible. The second is the Admin Login page that you’ll use to create the site with. You’ll want to click on the second link to visit the Admin Page to get started on making the site come to life.

Step 13

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With your WordPress site installed, you can access the Dashboard (main area of WordPress) by logging in here. You can reach this screen at any time by going to www.Website.com/wp-login.php and then enter the username and password that you created in step 11.

Step 14

 

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Once logged in, you are now in the Dashboard page and this is where the journey begins to create your website. From here, you can do everything including: creating pages, customize layout by installing/changing themes, enhance functionalities of the website by installing plugins, and much more. Check out our Knowledgeable Base for more resources.

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What is WordPress

WordPress is an open source website builder and content management system. The biggest advantage of building a website with WordPress is the flexibility of customizing both the look and functionality of your website. You can choose thousands of free, professional, fully customizable themes to jumpstart your website. Vast selection of plugins are available to enhance the functionality of your website. Coding experience is not required to build a WP website. With the WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) dashboard and editor, you can publish your content, images, video, etc. on your website just like how you do it on Microsoft Word Processor. Fortune 500 companies, international firms, celebrities such as CNN, Forbes, NFL blog acquire WordPress websites.

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What is a WordPress Plugin

With different plugins, WordPress owners can easily customize their website for different functions. From Google Translator, local weather report, ads manager, social media share button, to PayPal Checkout button, you can install numerous plugins to cater your needs in just a few clicks within your dashboard.

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Choosing a WordPress Theme

You can either choose your WordPress theme within the dashboard or download themes from professional WordPress themes providers such as Themeforest and Template Monster. There are many free WordPress themes as well as premium design themes with a small amount of one-time fee. But, the choice is all yours! For more info, please check out here as we’ve hand picked a few wp theme providers for you to choose, both free and paid providers.

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What is a WordPress Theme

WordPress theme is the “layout” of your WordPress website. Whether you want a website for business, e-commerce, online portfolio website, you can choose from thousands theme within your WordPress dashboard and download your desired theme for free. Or, you can purchase premium design themes from all sorts of professional website templates providers and create your WordPress website with a more complex design and layout. All WordPress themes (free or paid) are fully customizable and you can further tweak your themes to better suite your needs.

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How to Make a Website with WordPress: Step by Step

With WordPress, you can build a professional website in approximately 1 hour without any coding background! In this video, we will showcase how to build a website with NO steps skipped.

This is our final product:
http://businessdemo.doteasydemo.com/

You can download the WordPress theme from this link:

https://wordpress.doteasy.com/free-wordpress-theme-adventurous/

In particular, we showcase how to create a Booking Page with the Booking Calendar Plugin. With this plugin, you can create a page that offers booking service for your visitor. This feature will become extremely handy for hotel, plumbers, and other service-oriented business websites that require advanced appointment bookings. You can download the plugin from this link:
Booking Calendar – https://wordpress.doteasy.com/free-wordpress-plugin-booking-calendar/

We’ve also created a Contact Us page using this plugin:
https://wordpress.doteasy.com/free-wordpress-plugin-contact-us-form/

To install WordPress to your website, you’ll need a web hosting plan that supports PHP and MySQL. Please visit our web hosting plan for full details:
http://www.doteasy.com/web-hosting/

Our Unlimited Hosting plan is only at $3.98/month. Domain name included! This promotional price is only for new sign up. 1st Year Only!

 

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How to Launch the Full Screen Editor in WordPress

“Distraction Free Writing” is a more elaborate way to describe the full screen editor in WordPress. Using the full screen can help you write more efficiently by preventing excess menus and boxes from clogging up the screen.

To go to the “Distraction Free Writing” Fullscreen Editor, just click on the full screen button in the WordPress editor.

WPFullscreen_1

The menu at the top of full screen mode will appear if you move the cursor to the top of the page. You can toggle between visual and text mode.

The visual editor options: Bold, italicize, create lists, block quote, add links, and insert media.

WPFullScreen_2

Text editor options: Add links, insert media.

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Remember that in order to publish your post, you need to leave the full screen editor. First hit “Exit fullscreen” at the top left of the screen, then choose your publishing option.

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Which editing mode do you prefer? Let us know what works for you!

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Themes – Understanding what’s out there

We’ve shown you many free and ready to use templates. Now free is good, but not necessary the best and this is because your website has needs. In this article we will be going over the three general categories of themes.

Free Themes: These are themes that are ready to go and they are free to use. These themes unlike the other two categories of themes, while they look great visually, they may sometimes be lacking in functionality which you want to have on your website. Now because of repository of WordPress plug-ins available, we’re pretty sure you can find and install the functionality missing. We do suggest only downloading free themes from well-known WordPress theme providers such as WordPress Theme Directory.

Framework Themes: These themes provide building blocks so that you can create your own custom theme. Framework themes allow you efficiently create your own structure and style which you can apply to your entire site. Now with one framework theme, you can create many different styles with just one theme and developers may continue updating the theme so that more styles can be created. Now one limitation to framework themes is that they are usually very limited in functionality. These themes are generally more for advanced users. Also these themes can range anywhere from $60 to $200 in price. Some examples of framework themes:

Premium Themes: This is growing area for available themes. Now pricing can range anywhere from $30 – $60, but this may be a small price to pay consider the elaborate designs, vast selection of built-in features for customizations, and with some themes you can get direct support from the theme authors themselves. Often these themes will make your site look like it was custom designed for you. One of the deciding factors when picking the premium theme to use is to look at the number of downloads and rating that theme has. For a theme to be used by thousands of people is a good thing, it means the theme is obviously built will, easy to use and has all the right built-in functions. Now even though the most popular themes have been downloaded and used by thousands of other people, it is what you put into your website (i.e. content, pictures, etc.) that makes your site unique. Places where you can find premium themes:

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Buying a Theme – What to look for?

Three item checklist before buying a theme:

  1. Appearance and Functionality
  2. Number of Sales, Reviews and Ratings
  3. Updates and Supports

Appearance and Functionality ­– This pretty self-explanatory where you should pick theme which you like the look of and has the functionality you want. Because a theme can have so many combinations of functionality and appearance, you may not get everything you want in one theme. Remember functionality can be added by finding the right add-on plug-in, and unless you’re willing to edit the PHP and/or CSS code yourself, it’s probably more important to find a theme that matches the look you are going after.

Rating and SalesNumber of Sales, Ratings and Reviews – like buying anything online, these are your basic research criteria. Number of Sales is actually a two sided criteria. Not only are you checking out how well the theme itself is selling, but you also need to check out how well the developer’s other themes are doing as well. A good developer will have multiple themes with high number of sales. In terms of ratings and reviews, these speak to the popularity of the theme. Of course 5/5 stars themes would be awesome, but if it’s only rated by a few people, the overall results could be skewed. ReviewsWhereas if the theme has 4.73/5 based on 8034 ratings you know the popularity and rating of the theme is a bit more true to life. Read reviews. Specifically look for good AND bad reviews. Reviews give you a much higher level of detail which a simple star rating cannot on how good a theme actually is. Now once you start reading the reviews, you will notice that sometimes the review is not only about the theme selected, but also about the developer (leading to next topic).

changelogSupport and Updates – Now what happens after you buy a theme? Support is becoming a more common thing these days. Like I mention previously, when you start reading the reviews, you will notice that a lot of reviews are about the developer and not just about the theme itself. These reviews are crucial as this will indicate how responsive a developer is when you run in to problems using their theme. Also a good theme will generally come out with updates. Now updates can come in the form of new functionality or updates/fixes to existing ones. A theme that is continually updated means it is going to have better longevity as it will continue to work with newer versions of WordPress. And when your theme is updated, usually the developer will allow you to download the updated version of your theme and even include instructions on how to update your theme safely.

Now you are probably thinking, if I buy a popular theme, wouldn’t my site look like everyone else’s? Remember a theme is only a template for building your site. For most of the popular themes, they are popular because there are lot of customizations and functionality which means no two sites built are going to be exactly the same.

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Moving your new WordPress from a Subfolder and into the Root Directory

When designing or testing a new WordPress site, a lot of the times the site is built within a subfolder so it does not affect the currently displaying site.  When the work is done, most people will want to move their new site back into the root directory and have it display as the main site. This guide will take you through the steps of moving your new WordPress site.

When following our instructions, you should use your domain name when you see yourdomain.com in our examples. Same goes with the folder name where we use newsite (e.g. yourdomain.com/newsite), you should use your folder name where you have installed your new WordPress.

 

Part 1 – Make a Backup

As always, it is important to always make a backup copy of your entire site so in case a problem occurs you have something to restore back to. To learn how to make a backup copy of your site using cPanel, please view this KB entry.

 

Part 2 – Initial Setting Changes

Prior to moving your files, you will need to make some setting changes within your WordPress General Settings so that once your site is moved, the Admin Panel will display again.

1. Log into your WordPress Dashboard. (http://yourdomain.com/newsite/wp-admin/)
2. From the main dashboard, go to Settings -> General.
3. Look for the WordPress Address (URL) and change it:
• From: http://yourdomain.com/newsite/
• To: http://yourdomain.com/
4. Also change Site Address (URL):
• From: http://yourdomain.com/newsite/
• To: http://yourdomain.com/
5. Remember to Save Changes

moving_wp_url

One thing to keep in mind is that once you have hit save, you will start getting error screens when trying to access the site or dashboard and this is normal for this stage. This is because your WordPress site is now looking for the files under http://yourdomain.com and our next set of steps is to move the files across.

 

Part 3 – Moving your new site files

1. Log into your cPanel admin dashboard. (http://yourdomain.com/cpanel)
2. From the main cPanel area, look for the Files category and then click on the File Manager icon. Selected the Web Root (public_html) for the Directory you wish to open and also ensure the checkbox Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) is selected as well.
3. Once inside the File Manager, you will want to navigate to the folder you have your new WordPress site in. For example, a folder named newsite.
4. You will see a list of all the WordPress files and folders in the right hand panel. Highlight them all using the Select All icon.
5. Click on the Copy icon from the menu toolbar across the top of the page.
6. A popup will appear so you can enter the destination folder. Currently is should show as public_html/newsite. Remove the /newsite portion from the destination path so the only thing left is public_html.
7. Click the Copy File(s) button. This will copy the files up to the public_html folder.
8. Using the File Manager to navigate back to the public_html folder and you should see the same files as you have in your newsite folder.
9. You can now delete the newsite folder.

At this point you should now be able to see the site when going to http://yourdomain.com/ although it may look distorted or some links don’t work. The main thing we can access now is the dashboard where we can apply the finishing touches to get the site to display properly again.

 

Part 4 – Finishing touches

1. Log into your NEW WordPress admin dashboard. Which should be http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/ or http://yourdomain.com/wp-login.php
2. In the dashboard menu go to Settings -> Permalinks and ensure the link structure is the same as your new URL. You may not need to make changes to this area, but need to hit save regardless to have WordPress display properly again.

 

If you have setup any custom scripts or custom website links anywhere on the site, these were created by hand and you will need to go into your dashboard to update and edit these by hand. Other than custom links, you should find your site functioning and displaying from http://yourdomain.com/ now without any issues.

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Have You Done This Yet? Steps to Take After Installing WordPress: Part 1

Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed WordPress! But what to do now? Not to fear! We’ve devised a list of the top 10 essential steps to take next. Let’s dive right in.

1) Modify the Title, Tagline and Time Zone

This is the first step to making your site just a little more personal. In your WordPress Admin Dashboard, go to Settings -> General. You can change the timezone in the General Settings area as well. Be sure to save when you make a change!

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2) Customize the Permalink Structure

In Settings, select Permalink and choose a new structure. We recommend that you choose the “Post Name” option. Again, don’t forget to save! This will make your site name more Google-friendly.

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3) Keep Spam Out

Fight against spam comments by installing an anti-spam plugin. We recommend Antispam Bee– it’s free and can be a great first defence against spam.

4) Speed Up your Load Time

There are many ways to do this.

  • First, install a caching plugin to reduce downloading time. A good free one to use is W3 Total Cache.
  • Optimize your images – look into installing WP-SmushIt to reduce file sizes while maintaining the image quality.
  • Install plugins to optimize your databases. WP-Optimize is a great one to clean up your databases.

A fast loading site will keep your visitors happy- and we all love happy visitors.

5) Use Social Sharing Plugins

This tip might be an unexpected item on the list- but this step is essential now more than ever. Allow your content to be shared and actually read. Check out the Social Share Button

Yes, we did promise to give you the top 10 steps to take after installing WordPress! Find the next 5 in Part Two.

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Have You Done This Yet? Steps to Take After Installing WordPress: Part 2

After installing WordPress, you may find yourself wondering what you need to do next. This is the second part of our top 10 essential steps to take after installing WordPress. Find Part One here.

6) Arrange the Reading Settings

Want your latest posts to show up on your front page? Customize your page display to make it happen! Just go to the Settings area of your dashboard and choose the Reading settings.

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7) Delete Unneeded Themes

If you’ve tried out a few different themes before settling on the one you’ve chosen, be sure to delete the unused ones. This will keep your site safer and lessen the chance of getting hacked. In the menu, find Appearance, then go to themes. Hover over the theme you want to delete, choose Theme Details, and delete the theme.

8) Beef Up Your Security

There are multiple ways to increase the security of your site. These are just a few ways to do it:

9) Install a SEO WordPress Plugin

You might have some amazing content on your site, but it would all be for naught if your posts never get a chance to be seen. Make your site SEO-friendly and optimize your posts for SEO with a plugin. We recommend WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast.

10) Back It Up

You definitely don’t want to lose any of your website progress, so be sure to schedule some regular backups. Check out this video to learn how to manually backup your site in cPanel. If you don’t have the time to constantly backup your site, Doteasy also offers an automatic site backup service. It can be one less thing to worry about.

So that’s it, 10 essential steps to take after installing WordPress! Do you agree with our list? Let us know what you think.

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Getting Started with WordPress

The following video playlist covers a wide range of WordPress topics: from “What is WordPress”, “How to Install WordPress”, to “Customizing a WordPress theme” and “WordPress Settings and Configurations”. The playlist contains total of 23 videos. Enjoy!

Getting Started with WordPress Video Playlist

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How to Add Captions to Your WordPress Images

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, imagine how much a picture with words would be. Probably even more!

If you’ve ever been curious about how to add captions to your WordPress images in a post or page, here’s a tutorial for you:

1) When you’re writing a post or a page, hit the “Add Media” button to upload an image.

Captions 1

2) Once the image is uploaded, you’ll have the option to fill out form boxes for a Title, Caption, Alt Text, and Description. The “Caption” is where you’ll be able to input text that will accompany the image and actually be displayed on the post.

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3) Insert the image!

If you want to edit image captions on many photos in multiple posts, you don’t have to go to each individual post to edit them.

a) Just go to Media > Library

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b) Hover your cursor over an image, and click “Edit”

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c) You’ll be taken to an “Edit Media” window where you can edit your caption.

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Whew that was easy! If you have any questions, shoot ’em our way in the comments below.

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How to Customize the Number of Posts Displayed on a WordPress Blog Page

By default, a WordPress blog archive page will display 10 posts per page. But you’re not a by-default sort of person! Here’s how to customize the number of posts showing on one page:

1) After logging into your WordPress dashboard, head over to Settings > Reading

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2) Here, you can change the “Blog pages show at most” to any number that you want.

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3) Remember to hit “Save Changes.”.

You’re done! Easy. Peasy.

Keep in mind that many visitors prefer to quickly scan through the archives to find an article of interest, so it might be beneficial to show more posts on one page. On the other hand, the more posts you have = the slower the page will take to load. Use your discretion and keep your readers in mind when you make the change.

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