This tutorial is part of our WordPress installation step-by-step training series, where we show you how to install a WordPress site or blog with no coding skills required.

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Installing WordPress on your domain only takes a few minutes. Configuring WordPress settings after the installation takes a little longer (1-2 days or more), but preparing the initial content prior to launching your site is what takes the longest time. This is why we recommend that you start thinking about your content first before installing and configuring WordPress.

(Launching A WordPress Site – Timeline)

You should allow at least a week or two to source and prepare all of the content you will need to have ready for your new website. This tutorial will help you prepare this content.

Your New WordPress Site – Initial Content Checklist

If you have been following our tutorials and have all of the technical requirements in place (i.e. domain name, web hosting and domain nameservers), all that is left to do before installing WordPress is to get your content ready and choose a WordPress Theme for your new site.

To help you save time with this step, we have created the Initial WordPress Content Checklist below.

1) Site Content

Make sure you have the following content ready to add to your site:

• Business name and a brief description of your business.
• Site Categories – Your main service/product categories.
• Home Page & Company Pages. Content about your company, the problems and challenges that your business or solutions help to solve, benefits and features, pricing, etc.
• “About Us” page.
• Products/Services pages.
• Images & artwork for content, product images, logos, banners, etc. Image format = .jpg, .png or .gif.
• Media files (e.g. videos, PDF files).
• Contact Details (business address, email addresses, telephone numbers, etc.)
• 3 – 10 initial articles/posts (saved in Word document or plain text file).
• Customer testimonials.
• List of all links and URLs (e.g. social media accounts, resources, affiliate links, etc).

2) WordPress Theme (Web Design)

With WordPress, you no longer have to pay a web designer thousands of dollars to get a professional looking website and then wait around for weeks until your web design has been completed.

The WordPress community includes many professional web designers who provide WordPress users with thousands of high-quality WordPress Themes, and many of these themes are 100% free to use!

Now, all you have to do is select a WordPress Theme for your site, and follow our step-by-step tutorials to learn how to install any WordPress theme on your site with just a few clicks.

If you refer to our WordPress Digital Business Blueprint which explains how to save time and money using WordPress, you will see that you can launch your website quickly starting with any WordPress theme you like. Then, as your site begins to grow and attract visitors (following our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint), you can choose from thousands of great themes and change the entire look and feel of your website in minutes … whenever you want!

If you need help with WordPress themes, see the tutorials below:

• WordPress Themes Explained
• How To Install WordPress Themes
• How To Update WordPress Themes
• Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes
• Best WordPress Themes For e-Commerce
• Best WordPress Themes For Accounting Businesses
• Best WordPress Themes For Health & Medical Services

Free WordPress Themes:

You can search through thousands of great-looking FREE WordPress themes on the official WordPress Theme Repository.

(Free WordPress Theme Repository)

Premium WordPress Themes:

If you are looking for affordable, stunning web design with a distinctive look, unique customizable options, and ongoing support, you can search through premium WordPress theme providers, like:

• ThemeForest
• SoloStream
• StudioPress
• StoreFront
• WooThemes

Here are some inspiring theme galleries from these companies to help you get started:

ThemeForest

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 7,000 premium themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $1) …

(Click on the images above to browse more ThemeForest themes)

For more details, go here: ThemeForest

SoloStream

SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of high-quality professional WordPress themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.

(Click on the images above to browse more SoloStream themes)

For more details, go here: SoloStream

StudioPress

StudioPress provides WordPress themes based on a framework that allows you to quickly and easily build a professional WordPress website that is highly search optimized, and provides auto-updating design architecture, turnkey designs with beautiful frames for your content and unprecedented control of the framework.

(Click on the images above to browse more StudioPress themes)

One low price entitles you to receive unlimited support and updates and to install your themes on unlimited domains.

For more details, go here: StudioPress

StoreFront

StoreFront specializes in e-commerce themes for WordPress. Their themes integrate well with powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins.

(Click on the images above to browse more StoreFront themes)

For more details, go here: StoreFront

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates stunning eye-catching themes. They also offer a membership option that allows you to access all of their theme collection.

(Click on the images above to browse more WooThemes themes)

For more details, go here: WooThemes

3) Artwork

Have all artwork (e.g. logos, banners, graphic buttons, newsletter report covers, etc.) ready to upload to your server and ensure that site graphics meet your theme specifications.

• Image format = .jpg, .png or .gif.
• Image Size – Check the following:
  • Header image height and width
  • Thumbnail image size (some themes create auto-thumbnails from post images)
• Image descriptions (for alt tags and image titles / descriptions)
• URLs (if linking link artwork to product pages, etc.)

If you need to find free, high-quality images for your site, go here:

• Find Images For Your WordPress Content

If you need artwork creation services, you can try one of these online freelancing services:

• Freelancer
• Upwork
• Fiverr lets you hire people to do things for you for $5.

4) Social Media Links

Make sure you have all of your social media account links ready, e.g.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Others (e.g. Pinterest)

5) Additional / Optional Site Features

• Client Testimonials. If you would like to add testimonials to your site, make sure you have images, text, client/company names of testimonial givers and links to destination URLs.
• Product/Promotion Banners. If you would like to feature rotating images or banners on your site, then you will need to create these and write down the destination URLs where visitors will be sent to.

Please ensure that all rotating banners are of identical dimensions and that your vertical banners will fit into the sidebar of most WordPress themes. Use standard banner sizes, e.g.:

• Wide Skyscraper (160×600)
• Skyscraper (120×600)
• Square Button (125×125)
• Medium Square (200×200)
• Large Square (250×250)
• Rectangle (180×150)
• Medium Rectangle (300×250)
• Large Rectangle (360×280)
• Vertical Banner (120×240)
• Button 1 (120×90)
• Button 2 (120×60)
• Microbar (88×31)

Banner format = .jpg, .png, or .gif.

Additionally …

• Video URLs and embed codes if you would like to add videos to page content.
• Resource Links of any sites you would like to recommend to visitors (include your own links, affiliate links, etc).
• RSS Feeds – If you would like to add industry or company-related news feeds to your blog. (Tip: include RSS feeds from other websites that you own, so visitors will continue clicking through to your own content). If you need help with RSS feeds, go here: Understanding WordPress RSS

You can download a printable version of the content checklist below:

As mentioned earlier, creating the above content will save you considerable time during the installation and configuration process, so the sooner you get this content ready, the sooner you will be ready to launch your new website.

(Source: Pixabay)

Congratulations! You are now ready to install WordPress on your domain! Click one of the buttons below to continue …

Install WordPress Using cPanel

Install WordPress Manually Using FTP

Back To WordPress Installation Overview

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