– Post Updated Oct 2017 –

Want to know exactly how to setup your first WordPress website?

Here is a checklist of everything you need to get your site up and running and be on your way to creating a successful online business. Be sure to listen into the Podcast episode for full details.

1) Sign-up for Web Hosting – I recommend Webhosting Hub for hosting.  This site and all of my primary niche sites have been hosted there all along and I’ve been a very happy customer for the last 4+ years.  Be sure to grab my special discount specifically for customers of the site.

2) Register Your Domain Name – I recommend that you keep your domain registration separate from your hosting account. NameCheap is my preferred domain name provider, because they offer the same great rates for both new customers/renewals and they include WhoisGuard domain privacy free for the first year.  Domain privacy is only 2.88 for each year thereafter.

3) Add the New Domain Name To Your Hosting Account – To add a new domain name to your hosting account, follow the steps here for Webhosting Hub.

4) Install WordPress through the cPanel Interface – Instructions for installing WordPress can be found here for Webhosting Hub.

5) Change Permalink Structure – Permalinks control how your URLs look for your posts and pages. To get the biggest SEO benefit, go into Settings, Permalinks and select “Post name” and hit save. Your post/page URLs will them automatically contain keywords from your article title.

6) Change the Default WordPress “Admin” Account – To deter potential hackers, it is best to change the default WordPress “admin” account to something else.

To do so, go into your WordPress Dashboard, Users, Add User and create a new account, selecting Administrator for the role. Be sure to choose a password that is very difficult to guess and hit save.

Then, logout of the default “admin” account and login with your new account and go to Users, All Users and select the default “admin” account and remove it.

7) Essential WordPress Plugins

Akismet – Anti-spam plugin

JetPack – Subscribe to comments, related posts and lots more

WordPress SEO by Yoast – SEO optimization plugin; XML sitemaps

Google Analytics by Yoast – Track your stats in Google Analytics

Pretty Link Lite – Shorten and create memorable, “pretty” links

Updraft Plus Backup and Restore + DropBox – Offsite backups