Essential WordPress Tips and Tricks

Essential WordPress Tips and Tricks for Beginners

When you first start using WordPress, you may be at a loss for what to do. A newer WordPress user may become perplexed by the sheer number of procedures available. How much time does it take to build a WordPress website? Depending on the site’s content, it could take as little as two weeks or as long as a few months. The key is to stay organized and work your way through the site until you get to the end.

Ones with fewer pages will always be faster to build than sites with more pages. We’ll go over the ten stages required to get your WordPress website up and running, as well as an estimate of how long it will take. Each stage will detail how much time you can expect to spend on it as well as the particular information needed to finish it. Let’s begin by creating your own WordPress website.

Choosing the Right WordPress Version: Complete Comparison Guide

There are several approaches to creating a website. There are also several tools available to help streamline and speed the process. WordPress is the world’s most popular website-building platform, powering more than 30% of all websites. Many people, however, are bewildered by the distinction between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. The key distinctions between the two are as follows:

WordPress.com – Free website hosting with up to 3GB of storage. Furthermore, WordPress.com will handle all maintenance, security, and upgrades for you. Only advanced customizations and extras, such as a custom domain name (www.example.com rather than http://www.example.wordpress.com), are charged for.

WordPress.org – You pay for your own website hosting and are ultimately responsible for its upkeep and security. You can install plugins and customise your website for free.

1. Strategic Website Structure Planning and Information Architecture

Laying out your website is the same as planning its future. Before you start writing website content or even taking images, it’s a good idea to sit down and plan out the structure of your website. A WordPress website works in the same way that a house does. Consider how your website will appear to an outside visitor. To represent the pages, the majority of designers will utilise a mind mapping tool or a textual tree.

Your homepage should be the first page on your site, followed by supporting pages such as a service, a about page, a blog, and a contact us page, among others. List any sub-pages beneath the appropriate parent page to keep everything in order. As an example, if you provide website design as a service, you could include the following sub-pages:

• WEBSITE DESIGN
• SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
• GRAPHIC DESIGN LOGO DESIGN

Sub-pages in the WordPress menu can be moved around freely, so they are not connected to a particular menu item. Continue in this manner for each page on your site until your mind-map or tree is complete. When you’ve finished, count the pages to determine the total number of pages. You may apply the math to figure the time required to accomplish it if you assume a certain number of hours of effort per page (which we shall cover later).

Keep in mind that all of this is subjective, depending on your level of pickiness and the aim you’re attempting to achieve. Once you’ve finished one, you may need to adjust the work hours per page to get a more accurate amount. After you’ve finished this step, move on to step 2.

2. Target Audience Analysis and Content Strategy Development

You must have content long before you begin developing any pages. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met down with clients just to discover that they have no content ready for me. The same is true for you while creating your own personal website. You must have ready-to-use written material for the site. You do not want a designer to tell you what your company is about.

For most people, I would suggest gathering materials such as brochures or sales information about your organisation. The more data you can collect, the better. You should also ensure that this information is in a format that permits you to copy and paste it. As a result, when you begin working on your website, you will be able to take the information from the word application and proceed from there.

People like user-friendly websites and dislike items they don’t grasp. There are also various books available on Amazon that can assist with this procedure. Depending on the amount of content, this procedure can take anything from a few hours to days or months. To make calculating it easier, I recommend restricting information to 2/5 hour incriminates.

3. Selecting User-Friendly Themes with Optimal Performance

Newer themes are more user-friendly right out of the box, but determining which one is the best relies on various aspects, including:

Features are frequently what the theme can accomplish right out of the box. That is, what is included without the need to purchase additional support, plugins, or anything else. Personal Preference is exactly what it implies. Some people favor one theme over another due to their preference for the builder. Look around the community for a theme that works for you and your company.

There is no right or incorrect answer here. So don’t spend too much time thinking about it. Use whatever works best for you. You’ll spend roughly an hour on average looking for the ideal theme for you. Stats are frequently the most essential topic that people prefer to discuss. These are frequently things like how quickly the theme loads, what types of things you may turn off and on, and an overall value. Some themes, like OceanWP, offer a plethora of features in both the free and commercial versions. Some themes, such as Astra, are more restrictive but speedier.

4. Essential WordPress Plugin Installation and Configuration

After you’ve installed your theme, it’s time to consider which plugins you’ll require. Skipping these can lead to serious issues later on, thus I would consider them obligatory. I’ll explain why each one is crucial, as well as other plugins you should look into.

• Security Plugins

Before you install anything on your website, you must first install a security plugin. WordPress is one of the most popular CMSs on the market, making it a prime target for hackers. This is due to the fact that they frequently search your website for outdated and faulty software. These assaults are typically carried out by bots, so it is critical that you select a reliable security programme. Wordfence is my preferred solution. It’s a good system, but I’ve also heard good things about Sucuri and Bullet Proof. Your mileage may vary, so choose the option that makes the most sense to you, but do not disregard it.

• Backup Plugins

You must keep a backup of your website. The likelihood of something happening is far too high for most websites. If a hacker does break in and cause havoc, having a good backup can be a lifeline. Never rely on your host for backups because it might be a time-consuming operation and they will not have the most recent save of the website. For backups, I choose All-in-One-Migration. I have a lesson on how to utilise it to relocate a website here, which briefly discusses the backup procedure and migrating a website. For me, it’s a solid programme. Another popular one is Duplicator.

• SEO Plugin

Install an SEO plugin even if you have no concept how they function. WordPress includes some capability out of the box, but it pales in comparison to what SEO plugins provide. Yoast SEO is a popular choice. SEOPress is a new SEO plugin that is considerably cheaper and has superior price. Yoast recently released an update that resulted in a reduction in rankings for a large number of websites. The way the firm handled it was not to my liking, therefore I switched my SEO to another company. Any SEO plugin would suffice.

5. Page Building Strategies: Themes vs Page Builders

With my humble view, there are two ways to create pages in WordPress. You can either work within the constraints of your default theme to create the design you want in the way you want it. You can also customise your site with a tool like Elementor, which provides full WordPress construction power.

Elementor has a steeper learning curve, however you will create the website from top to bottom, including features such as:

• Headers
• Footers
• 404 Pages
• Blog Pages
• Archive Pages

Most themes will have a preset skin for these pages and will only allow for limited customisation. Elementor makes it possible for anybody to design these with little or no difficulty. There is also the option of hiring a web designer and having them put everything together for you. Depending on what you desire, this can range from $250 to several thousand dollars.

A designer will also free up the majority of your time, thus it is an investment in my opinion. Expect each page to take the same amount of time as described previously. Once the pages are completed, they will require ongoing maintenance to ensure that your copy is up to date, which will likely take a few hours each month.

6. Content Strategy: Blog Implementation and Voice Search Optimization

Should I blog or should I not blog? is a common question for new websites. The solution is straightforward. For the vast majority of website owners, the answer is NO. Don’t be concerned if you are unwilling to commit to a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule of content creation.

For those that say yes, I will commit and it will be part of my marketing strategy, which is great. The first step is to devise a strategy for how you intend to use your blog. Image sizes, advertising space, and what you will write about are all key considerations. Make sure that when you’re planning this, you’re thinking about things like blog categories. Expect this to require another 2 to 3 hours of setup time in addition to your first-page timing.

7. Voice Search Optimization for Modern WordPress Sites

People are increasingly adopting voice search to explore the web as the popularity of voice assistants such as Alexa and Siri grows. In fact, voice search accounts for more than one-fifth of all Google requests. And, as you can expect, that number will continue to rise.

You can optimise your site for voice search in a variety of ways. Everything from ensuring that your content is written in conversational language to keeping your local Google My Business page up to date to optimising your site so that it loads quickly. If you want to learn more, Thrive Marketing has a helpful article on optimising for voice search.

8. Backlink Strategy and Internal Linking Implementation

Backlinks are a tried-and-true SEO best practice. Despite multiple updates to Google’s algorithm, they continue to be a significant ranking component in 2020.

Backlinks increase the authority of your page. If a high-ranking and authoritative site links to you, Google understands that your page is valuable and should be displayed to users. Building high-quality backlinks take time and effort. However, you can successfully accumulate high-quality backlinks over time by employing techniques such as guest posting, blog commenting, infographics, and email outreach.

9. Comprehensive SEO Configuration and Optimization

We discussed before the need of ensuring that your site’s SEO is in place. Now is the time to go through the tutorials and set things up, such as:

• Permalinks
• Default site titles
• Default post titles
• Default page and post descriptions

Each SEO programme will handle these requests differently, so it’s critical that you take the time to study them. Most will require about 2 hours of your time to understand the fundamentals of SEO. It is critical that you get things right from the outset. This will also help you get found more easily on Google and other search engines, therefore I cannot emphasise how important it is. Not to mention that SEO swindlers are one of the fastest growing rip-off trends in the WordPress business. They will collect your money and offer you the impression that you have been listed on Google. Knowing about this subject will assist protect you from such folks.

10. SSL Certificate Implementation and Security Enhancement

SSL is another key security trend that is emerging as a result of Google updates. If your website does not use an SSL certificate, you will be pushed further down the page in Google’s results. If you want to be noticed, you must utilise an SSL certificate, not to mention that it makes your website look more professional.

I frequently consider websites that lack SSL to be insecure, and Chrome will now alert users with the following message:

Each of these services offers its own set of steps for installing SSL on your site. CloudFlare will undertake the majority of the work for you, whereas Let’s Encrypt will take a little more time to set up. Both alternatives are free, and you may also purchase SSL certificates from your host or simply Google SSL. They will walk you through the installation process. After that, I propose that you install the Really Simple SSL plugin on your WordPress site. It will make the rest of the procedure much easier by ensuring that all images and links connect to your new HTTPS rather than HTTP, which is not secure.

11. Google Integration: Search Console and Analytics Setup

Google Search Console is useful for determining what your website is doing correctly or incorrectly, as well as the traffic you may be receiving from organic search. This will also allow you to ping your site map to Google, which is one of the quickest ways to see if your site has been searched by Google. Google Analytics is by far the most popular service provided by Google.

It records everything that happens on your website, including the number of users, the number of pages, bounce rates, and more. It’s a good idea to become acquainted with Google Analytics because it’s a marketer’s best friend. I can’t tell you how many people don’t know how many clients visit their website on a regular basis. What is monitored is managed, so be sure you’re tracking as much as you need to without causing problems for your clients. This will take at least 2 to 4 hours to set up.

12. Long-Term SEO Strategy and Ongoing Maintenance

You’re finished now that you’ve accomplished all of the preceding steps. Relax and enjoy your site. You should devote some effort to the upkeep of the site’s plugins and themes. They will frequently require upgrades, so be certain that you are performing these updates. You should also back up your site on a regular basis to ensure that nothing bad happens to it. Expect it to take a while before Google discovers you and places you on their site; six months to a year is typical.

Time is Money: Estimating How Long It Takes To Build a Website On WordPress

I thought a post describing how long different WordPress development jobs take in hours worked would be a useful companion to a piece discussing the cost of WordPress websites. Cost and time are, of course, two sides of the same coin, because the only logical method to budget a project is to multiply the time it’s estimated to take by an (explicit or implicit) hourly rate. However, I believe that clients and others would benefit much from a clear understanding of which works are short and which are long in WordPress consulting work. To that aim, I’ve compiled a list of “How long does it take” guidelines based on my personal experience as a WordPress consultant.

How Long It Takes to Do Some Common WordPress Tasks

This list includes a variety of specific jobs that I frequently conduct when working on client sites. These feel like the typical amount of time I spend totally devoted to a specific task (not including the phone call asking me to do it, the email confirming I’ve done it, and so on). Most activities develop dramatically and unpredictably in complexity when something unique occurs, so these figures are for when that does not occur.
Here’s your table rearranged so that **Task Description** is the third column, **Time Estimate** is first, and **Complexity Level** is second:

This version keeps all your **Master GSG Styles** intact and just reorders the columns as requested.

If you want, I can also **shrink the Task Description column width** slightly so the table looks cleaner on mobile. Do you want me to do that?

Example Projects Showing Development Time Estimates

Here are a few examples to illustrate how scope affects the estimated development time:

How Long Does it Take to Build a Website on WordPress? Four Scenarios

Now, let’s go over four different scenarios you could think about while deciding how to create your website. Remember that regardless of which choice you choose, the scale of your project will influence how long it takes to complete:

Building your own website from scratch is usually not a good choice unless you know how to code or have a really intricate website that requires custom software. You may hire someone to create a website for you, but this can be costly. There are better, cheaper, and faster ways to get a website up and running for the great majority of people.

WordPress.org custom — If you have web design experience and are familiar with HTML and CSS, you should consider creating your own custom WordPress.org site. No matter how skilled you are at web design and coding, this will be a time-consuming procedure because you will need to design the look and feel of your complete website — from the buttons to the fonts to the features — as well as do some coding to ensure everything works properly.

One week is necessary to customise your own WordPress.org website.

WordPress.org template — The majority of WordPress.org users utilise “themes,” which are pre-designed website templates made by professionals. After you’ve chosen a theme and secured hosting, incorporate your branding elements (logo, colours, etc.) as well as your own content (articles, pictures, videos, etc.).

Time needed to build your own website with a WordPress.org template: It can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

WordPress.com – If you don’t need anything too elaborate, WordPress.com may be the quickest option to design your own website. In fact, if you want to see what I was able to accomplish with a WordPress.com website in less than 24 hours, read this article (you can also use it article as a step-by-step guide for setting up your own WordPress.com site). WordPress.com has a plethora of free themes to pick from, but you may also pay for premium themes if you want an update or need to install plugins for additional site features.

Setting up your own WordPress.com website might take as little as a few hours.

Related Questions – Essential WordPress Tips and Tricks

Do you recommend WordPress.org or WordPress.com?

WordPress.com is for users who wish to try out WordPress but don’t want to host it themselves. This method is really restrictive, and I do not advocate it. I recommend that you have your own hosting. I really enjoy Bluehost because they are one of the best providers for newer websites and offer what is known as shared hosting for beginners. You can always update later.

Can I hire a designer after I build the site?

You can, in fact, employ a designer for assistance, hints, and even suggestions. Some of what I do would qualify as consulting, therefore many of my clients hire me for just an hour to assist them in resolving issues. Other designers will do this as well, though some will require monthly maintenance contracts; consult with your designer to choose the best solution for your company. I hope this gives you an idea of how long it takes to develop a WordPress website. It may appear to be a lot of work and time, but it all works out in the end. It demands a significant amount of upfront labor, but if done well, you can expect long-term profits. On our website, we have a plethora of helpful lessons for WordPress newcomers.

Final Thoughts – Essential WordPress Tips and Tricks

As long as the website isn’t too complex, it’s easy to anticipate how long it will take a developer to build it with reasonable accuracy. When determining the pricing and duration for a website, consider the scale of the site as well as your quality standards, and keep in mind that not all developers are equally fast. To summarise, expect a 6-8 page template website to take 40-100 hours to construct, and think twice before demanding adjustments or becoming irate about minor flaws. You may notice them, but your website visitors will most likely not, so trust your agency’s judgment. If your site requires extra features and pages, you now have a guide to evaluate how this will affect your price and timetable.