Last Updated on September 10, 2024 by Kundan Sharma
You have bought a domain name but don’t know what to do next?
Don’t worry, in this article, I will show you further steps to build a blog/site after taking a domain name.
You’ll need to take a few things that you know later in this article.
The best thing is following this step by step guide you can set up a wordpress site itself, don’t need to hire any website developer.
I bought a domain name now what?
Step 1: Get A Web Hosting
Once you have registered a domain name then the first thing you need to take web hosting.
If you don’t know what is it?
Then, Web Hosting is a place where all your site content will be stored and accessible for everyone.
There are so many types of web hosting services such as Shared Hosting, Managed Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, VPS Hosting and etc.
But, I recommend you to take shared hosting. It’s affordable for beginners to start a new site or blog.
I highly recommend hostings like Bluehost, A2 Hosting and Siteground. They are the best and affordable shared hosting providers that suit everyone.
In this post, I’ll show you how to take hosting from A2 Hosting.
I bought A2 Hosting Swift Plan for one of my blogs. You can see in the below image.
I got 63% OFF on shared hosting at just $48.70 for one year. (Price depends on country taxes).
Why A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is one of the best shared hosting providers for wordpress users. They give hosting services at a reasonable price. A2 hosting offers amazing speed upto 20X turbo with SSD storage (faster than normal storage) in shared hosting plans.
You will get Free SSL & CDN, 99.9% Uptime, Free Site Migration, 24/7 Customer Support and Anytime Money Back Guarantee.
If you aren’t like their service, you can ask for a complete refund anytime.
So it’s 100% risk-free. But I don’t think they will let you down because I have been using A2 hosting for 5 months. I haven’t faced any issues yet.
If you want to start an only one site then Lite Plan is enough on the other hand for hosting multiple sites on one hosting account go for Swift Plan the same plan I purchased.
Here how you can get a start with A2 Hosting
1. Click on this special link to get 63% OFF on A2 Hosting.
You will be redirected to their homepage click on ” Get Started ” button. Here you will see 3 different plans to choose ” Lite ” if you want to start one site otherwise go with ” Swift ” plan for unlimited site hosting.
I’ll show you how to sign-up with Swift plan.
Click Here to Get 63% OFF on A2 Hosting
2. Now enter your domain name.
On this page select ” I will use my existing domain and update my nameservers ” then add the domain you have earlier registered.
Next, click on the “ Use ” button to proceed.
3. Now Customize Hosting Plan & Features
You need to choose the hosting duration I highly suggest that you take at least 1 year hosting. You can save more by taking 2 or 3 years of hosting.
4. Add Information & payment
Now you will need to fill the information and billing details to complete the order.
Then click on the ” Complete Order ” button to complete payment.
Now you will get few emails one of orders confirmation and second containing A2 Hosting Cpanel login details.
Step 2: Connect Domain with Hosting
To connect domain with hosting you need to update the A2 hosting nameservers in the domain provider.
I registered my domain from GoDaddy. If you have registered from any other registrar process is almost the same.
Log in to your A2 Hosting Cpanel using login details.
After login to the dashboard, you will see the nameservers in the hosting details.
or you can copy these A2 hosting nameservers from below.
ns1.a2hosting.com
ns2.a2hosting.com
ns3.a2hosting.com
ns4.a2hosting.com
Just copy the nameservers then login to your domain registrar.
Go to the manage domain settings here you will see a nameserver option.
Click on the manage and select nameservers custom then paste the all 4 copied nameservers and save the settings.
Note That: Nameserver update takes upto 4 to 8 hours to reflect globally.
Step 3: Install WordPress
To install WordPress login to A2 Hosting Cpanel there you will see an option called ” WordPress A2 Optimized ” in the Softaculous apps click on it.
On the next page click on the ” Install ” button here select your domain.
And add admin user, password, and email that will need you to at the time of logging your WordPress dashboard.
Then click on the ” Install ” button, it will take a few minutes to get wordpress installed in Cpanel.
Once WordPress successfully installed, you will see login information on the screen and also get in your email.
Step 4: Install Themes & Plugins
WordPress comes with a default theme installed. it can be changed.
There are hundreds of themes available for WordPress in the market for creating any kind of site such as a blog, person, business, eCommerce store, and many more.
You will have the option to choose a free theme from the WordPress theme directory but if you have a budget then I highly recommend you to use a premium theme for better user experience and SEO.
Here are some of the themes & shops where you can get premium WordPress themes.
OceanWP: It’s the same theme that I’m currently using on bloggingspark.com.
Using this theme you can build almost any kind of blog and site.
Astra: It’s also a great theme used by bloggers. You can create a stunning blog on this theme. My blogging friend Akshay using the same theme on his blog.
He is a professional full-time blogger you can checkout BloggingX to see how it looks.
Elegant Themes: If you are looking to try multiple themes or use premium themes on your other websites.
Then, Elegant Themes is the best suit for you. It has a variety of wordpress themes for such as blog, business, magazine, portfolio, agency, eCommerce and etc.
Once you download your premium theme file. Next, you have to install it on your WordPress.
Here’s a quick guide to install a theme in WordPress
First, Log in to your WordPress dashboard then go to the Appearance then Themes.
Next, here you will see an option ” Add a New ” click on it.
A new page will be open, here you can upload a premium theme by clicking on “Upload Theme” on the top and upload the theme file.
If you want to free theme simply select a theme from directories then click on” install “.
Once the theme successfully installed, click on the ” active ” button.
That’s it. Now go to your site and see how your website looks.
Here are some essential plugins you must have installed in your new wordpress site.
Yoast SEO: It’s one of the best SEO plugins that allows users to optimize on-page SEO by improving things like post title, description and focus keyword.
Contact Form 7: It’s the most powerful contact form plugin to create a beautiful contact form.
Smush it: It’s one of the best images optimize plugin that helps to compress wordpress images.
WPRocket: It’s a speed optimizer plugin that improves wordpress site performance.
Step 5: Create A Professional Email
When it comes to the credibility of a brand name, you should always use a branded email address that ended with my domain name.
For Example [email protected] it looks more professional than an email like [email protected]
The best thing it’s free. Which you take hosting from A2 Hosting.
So, It’s better to use a custom domain email.
Here’s a guide to create an email with your domain name.
First, login to your A2 Hosting dashboard through the email and password.
Once you have logged in, scroll down a little and click on ” Email Accounts ” under the mail section. you can see in the below image.
Now a page will be open, here you need to enter a user name of your email with having selected domain name.
Like I have used admin you can add anything like info, sale or first name.
Then add a ” Password ” and click on ” Create Account “
Your email account has created, you will see an email account on the same page.
Now, get back to your Cpanel dashboard and click on the ” Forwards ” in again mail section.
Here click on the “ Add Forwarder ” button.
Note: Forwarder allows you to send a copy of all mail from one email added to another.
That means, your custom domain mails will be forwarded to your destination email such as your Gmail so you don’t have to open and check both email accounts.
At the new forwarder page, ads custom email and destination email then click on the ” Add Forwarder ” once you have done this all of your custom domain emails will be sent to personal email address.
Step 6: Start Adding Important Pages to your Site
You must have some important pages on your site/blog that help to navigate around the website.
Here are some of the most important pages that should have on your blog/site.
★ About page
★ Contact page
★ Service page
★ Products page
★ FAQ page
★ Privacy Policy Page
★ Portfolio Page
★ Testimonial Page
Well, you don’t need to add all of these pages, oy create pages that require for your site.
If you don’t know how to add pages in wordpress.
Just go to your wordpress dashboard then click on ” Pages “
Then click on the ” Add New ” a new page will be open where you need to add the page name and content then click on the ” Publish ” button.
Step 7: Submit Your Site to Search Engine
When you build a new site or blog you need to add a sitemap to search engines.
So people can find your site easily in search results.
A website owner can add site on various search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
I highly suggest you as a beginner submit your sitemap to Google because it holds more than 90% search engine market.
Read: How to submit a sitemap to google search console
Note that, you should have some content on your blog/site to get indexed by Google.
Once your site got indexed, you will start getting traffic from Google.
Over to You
Above, I have guided you how to start a blog/site after taking a domain. I hope you found this article helpful if you need any help to set up a blog then feel free to contact me.
