When setting up a WordPress website for the first time, it can be a bit tricky as you have to make many important decisions that determine the overall quality of your website.

Follow these tips to get an overview of the best decisions you can make to build a more efficient and professional website.

Choose a WordPress Optimized Web Host

When creating a new WordPress website, the first and most important decision you will need to make is to choose a hosting provider to host your site. Often times, most people go for the cheapest option and end up with a terrible user experience.

WordPress is software that performs better in an optimized environment. While a shared hosting plan is enough for building a WordPress website, using a managed WordPress hosting provider will allow you to increase the load on your website, boosting performance, protecting your site from hackers and daily backups.

Contrary to popular belief, managed WordPress hosting is not expensive. In fact, you can get a managed WordPress hosting account for the same price as a shared hosting plan on a platform like Hostenko that offers plans starting at $ 2 per month.

Try to avoid free WordPress themes

There is nothing wrong with using a free WordPress theme . You want to cut costs and stick to your budget. There are a few things you should know when using a free WordPress theme.

  • Outdated Designs: Most of the free themes available in the WordPress directory have outdated designs that look especially awful on mobile devices.
  • Compatibility Issues: Free themes are not always optimized to work with most third party plugins. You often find compatibility issues when trying to extend the functionality of your site with plugins.
  • Used by many others: Free themes are always used by thousands of other sites, including substandard and fraudulent ones. When you use the same scam website theme, it will only hurt your reputation.

No customer support or updates: Premium themes give you unlimited updates to take advantage of the latest WordPress features and even offer customer support to customize the theme to your preference.

Keep in mind that your website is an investment that will reward you in the future. Not cheap when making a long term investment.

Optimize your site for fast performance

Faster website loading speed is the key to building a professional website and improving your Google rankings. Optimizing your website for better performance will also help you gain an edge over the competition.

  • Choose a lightweight and fast loading theme.
  • Install a caching plugin (like WP Super Cache).
  • Use a CDN (ex: Cloudflare).
  • Consider using Google AMP.
  • Avoid installing too many plugins.

Set up analytics, caching and SEO

There are several WordPress plugins and third party services that you should use to get the most out of your website and keep it running smoothly.

  • Set up Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a free service that allows you to collect important data about your site to see how visitors interact with your site.
  • Use a caching plugin: Install a caching plugin to speed up your site.
  • Install Yoast SEO: This plugin helps you optimize your website and all of its pages for Google to rank well in search results.

Take measures to protect your site

Think of your site as a piece of online property that you own. Just as you build fences around your land, you also need to take the necessary steps to keep your site safe from hackers and malware.

Be sure to set up an automatic backup system and install a security plugin to keep your website secure.