WordPress Website Checklist: 10 Essential Steps from Beginner to Success (Updated for 2024)

Designing a WordPress website as a beginner can feel daunting. But fear not! This comprehensive WordPress website checklist will break down the process into manageable steps, ensuring your website looks amazing and functions flawlessly.

1. Planning

1. Goals: Determine your website’s purpose (business promotion, product sales, blog sharing, etc.)
2. Target Audience: Identify who your website is for.
3. Content: Decide on essential pages and content types (blog posts, videos, etc.).
4. Blog Categories: Establish main topics to structure posts and guide readers.
   💡 Tip: Utilize AI to brainstorm blog categories quickly.
5. Budget: Allocate a feasible budget for your website project.
6. Competitor Analysis: Examine competitors’ websites for ideas. Please keep track of their strengths and weaknesses to build a distinctive and attractive website.

To effectively utilize the WordPress website checklist for planning, identify your website’s purpose and audience, decide on essential pages and content, set a budget, and analyze competitors for a distinctive website.

2. Setting the Foundation

1. Domain Name: Pick a concise, memorable name related to your website’s focus.
   💡 Tip: Generate domain names using AI, select one that fits your goal, and then verify the availability of the domain name.
2. Web Hosting: Choose a dependable hosting service. Shared hosting is suitable for smaller sites, while VPS or dedicated hosting is better for larger sites with high traffic.
3. Configure DNS Settings: Link your domain name to your hosting provider to ensure your website can be reached via its URL.
4. Set up SSL for your domain: Establishes a secure link between your website and its visitors. It’s necessary for data protection and boosting website trustworthiness.
5. WordPress Installation: Most hosting services provide easy one-click WordPress installation.
6. Prevent Google Indexing: While you’re still building or updating your website, you may want to prevent search engines from indexing it. You can do this by adjusting the “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” settings in your WordPress settings.
7. Configure WordPress Settings: Fine-tune basic WordPress settings, such as site title, tagline, timezone, and home page display choice, and manage permalinks, which are the URLs for your website’s pages and posts.

This step of the WordPress website checklist suggests selecting a catchy domain name and a trustworthy host. Link the domain to the host, set up an SSL for security, install WordPress, and adjust settings like site title, tagline, timezone, homepage display, and permalinks.

3. Choosing Your Perfect Theme

1. Theme Selection: Look through both the free theme and the premium WordPress theme. Select one that suits your website’s function and aesthetic.
2. Responsiveness: Choose a theme that adapts well to various screen sizes (desktops, tablets, phones).
3. Customization: Pick a theme that allows for extensive customization to reflect your brand.

In this step of the WordPress website checklist, we’ll select a theme that fits your website’s function looks responsive to different screen sizes, and supports extensive brand customization.

4. Visual Appeal

1. Logo Creation: The logo is a critical part of your brand identity. It should be unique, and memorable, link to the homepage, and reflect your brand’s personality.
2. Favicon: A favicon is a small logo icon that appears in the browser tab. It helps users identify your website among their open tabs.
3. Color Scheme: Pick colors that represent your brand and ensure visual consistency.
4. Typography: Choose clear and fitting fonts.
5. High-Quality Images: Add attractive images to engage readers.
6. White Space: Use white space for a clean and organized design.

In this WordPress website checklist step, we’ll ensure a visually consistent logo, favicon, color scheme, clear fonts, engaging high-quality images, and use of white space for a clean design.

5. Essential Plugins for Functionality

1. Security: Use a security plugin like WPVulnerability to safeguard your site.
2. SEO: Increase search engine visibility using plugins like Rank Math.
3. Contact Forms: Facilitate communication with visitors using Contact Form 7.
4. Backup: Ensure data safety with Backuply.
5. Performance: Enhance website speed with SpeedyCache.
6. Google Site Kit: Google’s WordPress plugin, Site Kit, offers insights on site usage, content optimization, and monetization. It integrates key Google tools like Search Console, Analytics, AdSense, PageSpeed Insights, and Tag Manager.
7. E-commerce: For on-site sales, an e-commerce plugin like WooCommerce is crucial. It simplifies product listing, payment integration, and other key e-commerce features.

To successfully set up a WordPress website, use the WordPress website checklist to ensure security, facilitate communication, back up data, enhance performance, analyze traffic, and implement e-commerce with popular WordPress plugins.

6. Building Out Your Pages

1. Homepage: The main entry point to your website; ensure it’s inviting and informative.
2. About Us: Share your story, build trust, and engage your audience.
3. Services/Products: Showcase what you offer, with thorough descriptions and high-quality pictures.
4. Blog: Post valuable content to attract and retain visitors.
5. Contact: Display clear contact details and a contact form.
6. Thank You Page: Create a thank-you page for users after actions like purchases or newsletter subscriptions. It can also guide them to more relevant content or actions.
7. 404 Page: This page shows up when users access a page on your website that doesn’t exist or has moved.
8. Privacy Policy Page: Inform visitors of the data collected and its use, a legal necessity for websites collecting personal information or using cookies.

In this step of the WordPress website checklist, our site should have a welcoming homepage, an engaging ‘About Us’ section, a detailed ‘Services/Products’ section, a blog, clear contact information, thank you, a 404 page, and a privacy policy.

7. User-Friendly Navigation

1. Menu: Create a clear, intuitive menu system to guide visitors around your site.
2. Breadcrumbs: Help users understand their location within your website’s hierarchy.
3. Internal Linking: Strategically link between related pages to boost SEO and improve user experience.

To optimize a WordPress website according to the WordPress Website Checklist, one must create a clear menu, use breadcrumbs for user orientation, and link related pages for improved SEO and user experience.

8. Content is King – Optimize for SEO

1. Keyword Search: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or plugins such as Rank Math’s keyword search features and GetGenie Keyword Search to find relevant words to your content.
2. Content Value: Offer content that solves problems and provides useful information to your audience.
3. Headings: Use H1, H2, and H3 tags to organize your content. Include the main keyword in one of the subheadings at least.
4. Image Optimization: Downsize images without sacrificing quality. Use ALT tags to help search engines identify your images, which can improve your SEO.
5. On-Page Optimization: Enhance your website’s components to improve its search ranking. This involves optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and headings so search engines can better comprehend your content.
6. Off-Page Optimization: Implement strategies outside your website to gain high-quality backlinks. This can be done through content sharing, guest blogging, and social media marketing.
7. Social Icons Addition: Include social media buttons (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) on your website to encourage visitors to engage with you on various platforms and increase your online visibility.
8. Clear Call-To-Action Addition: Design visible prompts that encourage users to take actions like “Buy Now” or “Sign Up,” to boost user engagement and conversions.

Follow this step of the WordPress Website Checklist: do keyword research, provide valuable content, use organized headings, optimize images, and improve on-page/off-page SEO. Include social media buttons and clear calls to action to enhance engagement and conversions.

9. Pre-Launch Testing

1. Functionality: Check all forms, buttons, and links.
2. Cross-Browser Compatibility: Make sure your website works on different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.).
3. Mobile Responsiveness: See how your website appears on smartphones and tablets.
4. Proofreading: Review all text for spelling and grammatical mistakes, and remove “lorem ipsum” content.
5. Loading Speed: Check your website’s loading speed to ensure fast page loads. Faster websites provide a better user experience and are preferred by search engines.
6. Check Broken Links: Make sure all internal and external links on your website work. Broken links can harm the user experience and negatively affect your site’s SEO.
7. Accessibility: Create your website so everyone, including people with disabilities, can use it. This includes adding alternative text for images, ensuring enough color contrast, and making the site keyboard navigable.
8. SEO Analyzer: Use tools like Rank Math’s SEO Analyzer to check your website’s SEO optimization. It gives insights into your website’s adherence to best SEO practices and suggests improvements.
9. The Legal Standards: Make sure your website meets all relevant laws and regulations. This might include data protection and privacy laws, copyright laws, and accessibility standards. It’s also good to include clear terms of service and privacy policies on your website.
10. Deactivate or Remove Unnecessary Plugins: This improves site performance and security.

To successfully use this WordPress website checklist step, ensure functionality, and compatibility, optimize speed, proofread text, fix broken links, ensure accessibility, use SEO tools, comply with laws, and remove unnecessary plugins.

10. Launch and Beyond

1. Allow Google Indexing: Once you’re ready to launch your website, remember to allow search engines to index it. You can adjust this setting in your WordPress settings by unchecking the ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ option.
2. Analytics: Set up Google Analytics to track website traffic and user behavior.
3. Create a XML Sitemap: A sitemap, detailing your site’s structure and content relationships, aids search engines like Google in smarter crawling. It’s crucial for SEO and enhances your site’s visibility.
4. Creating a robots.txt file: This is a file that guides web robots (like search engine crawlers) on which pages on your site to crawl or not. It’s crucial for website SEO as it prevents the crawling of duplicate content or pages not meant for ranking.
5. Promotion: Spread the word through social media, email marketing, and other channels.
6. Maintain Your Website: This includes regular updates, backups, and security checks to keep your website running smoothly.

For successful use of the final step of the WordPress website checklist, allow search engine indexing, set up Google Analytics, and establish an XML Sitemap, and a robots.txt file for SEO. Promote through various channels, and frequently update, backup, and ensure security.

Wrapping Up

With our WordPress website checklist, beginners can easily create functional, visually appealing websites. It guides you from planning to launch and maintenance. Remember, a good website requires regular updates and strives for a better user experience. With dedication and creativity, you can establish a successful online presence. Good luck!

Frequently Asked Questions for the WordPress Website Checklist