Install WordPress Free | The Ultimate Guideline For a Beginner

A website is a software system through which you can upload your text, image, audio, video, infographics, etc. to a specific server. And you can browse it using the internet through mobile or computer from anywhere. Nowadays, websites are essential for everything from individuals to businesses.

However, do you need a website? Don’t worry. I will show you how to create a website and install WordPress for free. You are living in a time when technology will give you everything in your hands.

You can make your website with the touch of technology. It will take a maximum of 30 minutes and design it without the designer. For this, you can use the world’s most popular website platform, WordPress.

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What is WordPress

WordPress is the most popular and powerful Content Management System (CMS) website builder platform. It allows hosting and building a website. It is open-source software built with PHP and paired with a database (MySQL or MariaDB).

Using WordPress, everyone can make a beautiful website, blog, or web application. World’s 42% website is made with WordPress. With WordPress, you can quickly build blogs, e-commerce, business, membership, portfolio, forum, event, e-learning, wedding, etc. websites.

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

If you’re new to WordPress, you should understand the distinction between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Otherwise, it may not be evident to you.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is the hosted version of WordPress. You can create an account for your blog or website by using this platform.
After creating an account, by default, you will get a subdomain from WordPress.com. And your website URL will contain the word “WordPress” like https://[yourwebsite].wordpress.com.
By paid upgrade, you can include a custom domain, the ability to add plugins and themes, more storage space, and more.

WordPress.org

WordPress.org is the download store of WordPress. Here, you can download WordPress software, themes, and plugins, which all are free.
When using WordPress.org, you will need a domain and web hosting purchased from any third-party domain hosting provider such as Hostinger, Bluehost, Namecheap, SiteGround, etc.

If you are a beginner on WordPress and want to know about its features, I suggest you use WordPress.com free version. I think you will get a good experience with WordPress. But in this article, I will share with you some knowledge about how newcomers create and install WordPress website free using WordPress.org.

Pick a Domain Name and Hosting

If you want to live your website on the internet, you need a domain name and hosting. Without a domain and hosting, you can’t live your website, and people can’t access your website.

Domain name means website address which people type into the browser URL box to access a website. Pick a domain name for your website which looks beautiful, easy to find, and related to your business or brand so that people find it easily. For example, fahimfkamal.com

After getting the domain name, you will need hosting. Simply, hosting means the memory where all the contents of the websites like files, folders, images, text, etc. are stored. Hosting connects with domain names through a nameserver, which provides hosting companies.

There are some ways to get a free domain name and hosting using a subdomain, like fahimfkamal.wordpress.com. But it is not the professional look of a website. To get a professional look, you will have to need a root domain name.

Install WordPress Free on Hosting

However, I think you have a domain name and hosting. Now, the next step is to install WordPress on your desired hosting. It is straightforward and only takes a few steps to install WordPress on your hosting.

Step 1: Firstly, check your mail, which you used for signing up for hosting. The hosting provider company gave you a server access link, username, and password by mail. Using that, log in cPanel and access your server.
Step 2: Find the “Softaculous Apps Installer” tool.
Step 3: Here, you see many Content Management System (CMS) software. Select ‘WordPress’ and then “Install Now.”
Step 4: Select the WordPress version and installation URL, give the site name, description, username, password, and email address, and click the “Install” button.

After a few seconds, your WordPress installation will be complete, and your website will be ready. Now you can customize your website by using your theme and plugins.

Install Theme on WordPress for Free

WordPress is the main foundation of your website. But, to make any customization of your website, you have to install a theme. So, what is the theme? The theme is a combination of files that give your website a good look and functions.

Each of the themes contains many layouts, formatting styles, colors, fonts, and other visual options.

A default theme is automatically installed on WordPress. You can keep or change it, but this theme does not look professional. If you want to impress your visitors, then you must change this theme.

Two types of themes are available for WordPress, paid/premium theme and free theme. I will give you some reliable sources from where you can download free or premium themes.

How to install a theme? Well! I have told you now how to do it.

Go to the website Dashboard and hold on to the mouse cursor over Appearance to install a theme.
You can see the theme menu. Click Themes and go to the next page.
Then click the ‘Add New’ button and go to the WordPress repository. A massive collection of themes are here, and all are free. Now install and activate your theme.
For a premium theme, first, you have to buy the theme and then upload the .zip file of that theme. The upload theme option is at the top of the WordPress repository page.

Best Free WordPress Themes

You may need a free theme for your website. But you are not to know which is the best free theme for you. I will suggest you some free themes based on compatibility, credibility, functionality, and responsiveness.

Install Plugins on WordPress for Free

A plugin is a small software of WordPress that adds new functionality to the WordPress website. It also enhances the website user experience. It has 59,154 free plugins that help to add functionality to the website.

To install a plugin, go to Dashboard and click Plugins from the left sidebar. Here you can find all popular and recommended plugins, and also, you can search your selected plugins.

Some Free and Essential Plugins

If you love to work with WordPress, then you must install some essential plugins on your website. I will give a small list of some free and essential plugins of WordPress.

Akismet Spam Protection

It protects websites from publishing malicious content through comments and contact forms.

Sucuri Security or WordFence Security

These are security plugins that protect the website from viruses and malware. It also scans and audits websites. Use any one of these as you like, but do not use these two plugins together.

Really Simple SSL

It is a very lightweight plugin that configures your website to run over HTTPS.

This plugin changes the default admin login URL and creates a new URL that the site admin knows. As a result, hackers can not find the admin login URL to hack.

UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore

It is the world’s most popular scheduled backup plugin. It backups your website files and database and stores them directly into the selected cloud.

LiteSpeed Cache or WP Fastest Cache or W3 Total Cache

These plugins optimize website pages and quickly load the website.

WPForms

It is a drag & drops WordPress form builder that allows you to create beautiful contact forms, subscription forms, payment forms, etc. within a minute.

Yoast SEO or Rank Math SEO

These are SEO plugins that increase your website traffic. Use any one of these as you like.

Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg

It helps you build more customized content and beautiful design, with infoboxes, multi buttons, and more with Gutenberg editor.

Elementor Website Builder

It is an excellent website builder with no limits to design. You can design everything without any coding experience and make your website beautiful.

Essential Addons for Elementor or Happy Elementor Addons

It can enhance your Elementor page building experience with some elements, widgets, and extensions.

Smush

Optimizes and compresses your website images, turns on lazy load and improves your website page speed.

Insert Headers & Footers

A simple plugin will help you insert code in the WordPress site header and footer.

Pretty Links

It enables you to shrink, beautify, track, manage and share links using your website URL. It is an essential plugin for an affiliate website.

Affiliat e Booster

Using this plugin, you can design your products or services’ pros and cons, notice, call-to-action blocks, and buttons. It is mainly used in an affiliate website.

Schema – All In One Schema Rich Snippets

It summarizes your web page in the search results using star ratings, author photo, product image, etc.

Easy Table of Contents or Table of Contents Plus

These plugins create a table of contents for pages or posts.

Shared Counts

It is a social media share button plugin. It helps to share your posts and pages with their friends on social media.

WP Table Builder or TablePress

Need a table on your webpage? Use any one of these plugins.

Auto Image Attributes

It automatically adds image attributes from the Image Filename and makes the image SEO-friendly.

However, don’t use extra plugins. If you use extra and unnecessary plugins, then it can slow down your website.

Add Pages and Posts

You may install WordPress, select a theme and install some plugins in your hosting. Now it is time to add pages and posts from your Dashboard.

At first, you have to add some mandatory pages like Home page, About page, Contact page, and Privacy Policy page.

Moreover, depending on your website, you may need some additional pages, such as service page, blog page, portfolio page, shop page, and so on.

Ending Thoughts

At present, building a website is not difficult. Coding and non-coding persons can easily create a website with install WordPress for free. This makes it very easy to create a user-friendly website.

At this moment, if you follow these instructions from up to bottom, then I am sure that you have created your desired website.

FAHIM FOYSAL KAMAL

Results-Driven Organic SEO Specialist. Works with Local SEO, Organic SEO, WordPress, etc.