Before you start setting up your blog, there are few steps you need to do. You need to set up a few Google accounts (unless you already have them).
Set up a Google G-Mail account. It is very important because you need it for EVERYTHING.
You can do it here.
You will need all of this in order to set up a blog. Setting up a blog in the beginning might seem a little overwhelming, but I did it – and you can do it, too!
To set up a blog, just follow these simple steps:
1. Buy a Domain Name
2. Setup Google Analytics
3. Setup Google Search Console
4. Delete unused Themes
5. Set up your Time Zone
6. Create a Privacy Policy
7. Setup Permalinks
8. Visibility to Search Engines
9. Set up a Backup of the Site
10. Set up All in One SEO
11. Set your discussion settings
12. Set up One SEO Pack
13. Install site Theme
14. Start Blogging!
Here are more details for you:
Buying a Domain Name
The best practice is to sign up with a well-known company that everybody uses and has very few complaints. They will most likely be reliable. A friend of mine once set up a website, paid a nice chunk of money for website development, but chose some unknown company in the Czech Republic to host his website to save a few bucks. Everything was fine until the website got hacked. Then he tried to contact the hosting company to fix the problem, without luck… Maybe they were located in a garage somewhere in the middle of nowhere – who knows. Finally, he moved his website to a company in San Francisco, and all his problems disappeared.
To host all of my websites, I have been using Bluehost for a very long time since everybody in the industry uses them. Maybe there are other companies that offer the same service for a little bit less, but I pay the price to have peace of mind. This is what counts in my situation.
Signing with Bluehost is very easy. They have their system set up so you won’t have any difficulty doing so. And it is pretty inexpensive, too. It is about the price of a regular medium coffee at a national chain coffee shop. For a beginning blogger, you will be just fine with this hosting company. Just pick a plan (basic plan works just fine), pay a fee and you are done. Later on, when your site has a ton of traffic, you might want to change your hosting company, but for now – you should be more than fine with Bluehost.
Setup Google Analytics
Setup Google Search Console
The reason behind setting up Google Search Console is to see for under what conditions your site performs best and to compare it to your predictions. It is totally free. Just go to their website https://search.google.com/search-console/about and follow the steps.
Delete Not Used Themes
This step is just simple housekeeping. It is optional. More stuff – more mess. After a while, it is hard to remember what it is all used for. You can find Themes in your WordPress panel under Appearance. Just uninstall what you not using.
Set up your Time Zone in WordPress
Set up your time zone. Just go to Settings ➭ General in WordPress and in the time zone dropdown menu, choose proper the time zone for your location.
Create Privacy Policy in WordPress
Go to Settings ➭ Privacy and create your Privacy Policy or use a default one.
Setup Permalinks in WordPress
Go to Settings ➭ Permalinks in WordPress and chose Post Name option. Your website links will be neat and very nice looking. The user will have no doubt that you will have the information he or she is looking for.
Visibility to Search Engines
WordPress Settings ➭ Reading. Make sure that the box is UNCHECKED: “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.” When checked, your site will never show up in any search engine.
Set Up Backup of Your Site For Free
I use Bluehost and they maintain backups of my sites. But I have another backup, just to be on the very safe side. It takes time to produce a website, and time is a very valuable commodity. There are different ways to back up your website. Paid or Free. The difference is only that you have to pay for a service when this all can be done automatically with a free plugin. Most of us like free stuff, including me. So let’s take a look at how easy it is.
To set up your blog back up for free, I use the free plugin Updraft by UpdraftPlus.com, David Anderson.
Go to Plugins -> Add New and in the search box, type Updraft
Then click Install and Activate.
Now, lets set up an automatic schedule. Go to Updraft Settings.
and go to the Settings again:
And then set up ‘Files and Database backups Weekly and retain these backups for 4 weeks. In the case something happens to your site, you will have your backup available for 4 weeks to restore your site.
After you scroll down a page click Save. The pop up will appear, asking to link your Google Drive to keep your backups there:
Follow the link and a window will pop up. Click the button Allow.
A new window will pop up. Click Complete Setup.
After you scroll down a page, click Save. The pop-up will appear, asking to link your Google Drive to keep your backups there:
The confirmation of taken backup files should be listed at the bottom of the page:
In order to recover the crashed site, you need to first restore WordPress installation and then recover files from the Google Drive.
Set Your Discussion Settings
I keep the Discussion settings default and turned off. I am sorry, but with so many things going on, moderating discussions of strangers, getting rid of spam would be too much for me to handle. You can find discussion settings under WordPress Settings.
Set Up "All in One SEO Pack"
Go to Plugins and look for All in One SEO Pack. Install and activate it.
Install Site Theme
Last and – VERY important – you need to do so in order to set up your site for blogging is set up your Theme. There are thousands or millions of themes to choose from. Which one is the best? There is no best theme. They are all different and you have to choose the one that suits your needs perfectly or almost perfectly.
I use Foodica Theme on all my sites because it is a very simple and minimalistic theme. This site uses Foodica too. It is rather easy to set up; it is updated frequently (a good thing); and it is rather inexpensive (I purchased a bundle of ten licenses, and it only cost me $10 per license). So how to set up Foodica Theme on your blog? It is very easy, and there is a very good video tutorial that comes for free with the theme. If you are interested in this theme, you can download it here.
Start Blogging!
Bravo! It was quite a lot of work, but we did it! Now you are ready to write and publish your first post.
Happy blogging!!!
