HOW TO: Build A Custom Website With WordPress and GoDaddy
- Image via CrunchBase
Lately, people have been asking me about websites and internet businesses in general. Is their internet idea a good one? Is it realistic? How to build it? Who to involve? But in all of these conversations I’ve been asked every single time “How could I build my own website?”
Today, you don’t have to be a computer expert, graphic artist or an electrical engineer to build a website. We are no longer in the HTML only days and there are enough tools available that can help you look like a sophisticated internet guru or savvy businessperson in this so called knowledge era. Starting a business? Creating a web presence for yourself? Blog? eCommerce Site? You can do all of this yourself. Ain’t that complicated.
If you have a few bucks to spare and are willing to learn a thing or two about web development and hosting, I would encourage you to read my quick guide below to building a killer site using wordpress (note: there are many other ways, free ones at that, which could enable you to build your own site. I prefer to use wordpress.org and this guide is all about wordpress and godaddy).
Things you need:
- Willingness to learn and explore new things
- About $25.00
Let’s Begin. We will build this site using the WordPress platform, using wordpress.org (open source) files. We will also be using Godaddy as our hosting service provider.
1. Head over to GoDaddy.com, create an account and register your domain name. You can get a domain for about $10.00/year
2. After you purchase a domain name, and your still logged in to your account, go to “Hosting” -> “Hosting Plan” -> “Website Hosting”
3. Buy a Linux Economy Plan for 3 months @ $4.99/month. (As you check out you will be blinded by hundreds of extra bells and whistles. You don’t need any of these. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click “NO THANKS..CONTINUE TO CHECKOUT”). You will now officially own your very own domain name and a hosting plan.
4. Once you’ve obtained your domain name and your economy hosting plan, go to “Hosting” -> “My Hosting Account” -> “Setup Account”. Here you will follow the steps in order to link the Linux Economy Plan with your domain.
5. Once the Linux Economy Plan is linked to the domain, you can now follow instructions right off of Godaddy’s site.
To Install WordPress on Your Hosting Account
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, select Hosting.
- Next to the hosting account you want to modify, click Manage Account.
- On the Hosting Control Center home page, click Your Applications or click GoDaddy Hosting Connection
- Click the Blogs category on the left, and then click WordPress.
- Click Install Now.
-
NOTE: The Install Now button displays only when the selected value application is compatible with one of more hosting plans in your account.
- Read the End User License Agreement, and then click I Agree.
- Choose the domain to install WordPress to.
- Enter a database description and password, and then click Next.
- Choose an installation directory, and then click Next.
- Enter the Admin Name, Admin Password, Email and Blog Title for your WordPress installation. Click Finish.
WordPress will be installed to your hosting account with the options you selected. When it is complete, you will receive a confirmation email.
At this point you have successfully built your own website. Now its time to customize. To do this, you will want to play around with different themes, widgets and plugins, all of which you can download and install directly from your wordpress administrator panel. Another post to come on themes.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.
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Great effort is made by you to get the snap shots of each page from godaddy.com. A very helpfull information.
Wow what a great info. I will keep coming to this site. TQ
[...] Build A Custom Website With WordPress and GoDaddy (danreich.com) [...]
[...] Build A Custom Website With WordPress and GoDaddy (danreich.com) [...]
thank you
this was amazingly helpful…i have been looking for help for days and i couldn't find any clear way to do this. thank you so much for understanding that not everyone speaks web-talk! you say that after these steps are done, you can play around with themes. but HOW?
Great question. Going to write another post on this topic soon. Stay tuned
and thanks for the note…
Great info, just walked through it all and got it done no prob! Thanks so much.
Now, i've got an egsisting blog on wordpres how to I import that into godaddy without losing any content, etc. and not affecting my google rankings/traffic?
Lastly, I need to install a custom theme.
Thanks in advance!
MIGRATING From WordPress.com = > Other Hosting with wordpress.org software
1) In your wordpress.com account, go to your Admin => Export and export your
blog. It will give you a file to save and make sure you keep track where you
put it!
2) In your new host wordpress blog go to your Admin => Import and chose to
import the “WordPress” blog. Point the import process to your file from Step
1 and import! Voila!
3) As for files and images, don't delete your wordpress.com blog and they
will still be accessible without having to change anything!
Taken from Trent <http://trentadams.com/> @ WordPress.com
forum<http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/transfer-wordpresscom-to-wordpressorg>
This will affect your google rankings and traffic since your site, although
the same, is hosted at a new location. Google will need to re-crawl your
site and index it.
You can also download custom themes from within the admin panel.
Just what I was hunting for.. THANKS!!!
I registered the Domain name in the site http://www.tucktail.com/there i got the Free Blog like WordPress
When it comes to blog hosting, I am not sure i would choose GoDaddy. They are fun… but i don't think they are as efficient as blogspot. I admit i never tried their hosting, but i have many friends complaining about their speed, options etc.
I finally decided on the domain name and now I really need to learn how to build my own site. Thanks to your tutorial I think that WordPress is a good idea. I must check and see if GoDaddy has the domain I want. Thanks again!
I finally decided on the domain name and now I really need to learn how to build my own site. Thanks to your tutorial I think that WordPress is a good idea. I must check and see if GoDaddy has the domain I want. Thanks again!
I've been digging around for info on this topic. These were the simplest instructions. Thank you so much!
Image via CrunchBase Lately, people have been asking me about websites and internet businesses in general.
Thank you for this step by step tips on how to create a website using godaddy hosting.
I really need to learn how to build my own site. Thanks to your tutorial I think that WordPress is a good idea. I must check and see if GoDaddy has the domain I want. Thanks again!
Thank you for sharing this step by step guide. This is really useful.
WordPress really fits for GoDaddy 
I can say that GoDaddy is next to Hostgator in terms of service and support because they are always there also to answer your issues about the system that a user avail. This step by step guide is really useful and important especially on those who want to have a website on their own.
Sonia Trevor
Marketing Consultant of Naples Web Hosting Services
Wow! Simply amazing step by step guide I appreciate it sharing this to us.
I really appreciate your step by step guide.
I have my own website. In the “fishing” section I want to be able to have users comment and share info on the different articles that will be written(many different topics). I don’t know if disqus is what I need to use or wordpress. I have disqus now, but I can’t figure out how customize it to only bring comments up about certain topics. I am so new to this, any help would tickle me silly. checktheplace.com
thanks, Chubby
I’m confused about the difference between installing into the root directory or a subfolder. If my website is going to be an online store with links to my ebay store, wanting my domain name to rank high in SEO, which is the best way to install?
You will want to install into the root directory.
the only problem is you only have a 3month hosting plan for 5/month, anything longterm would have to be 12months or more which would be over $50 just for the hosting plan
on godaddy.com, they have 2 types of webhosting options:
1. 4gh website
2. wordpress website
If i build a website using wordpress will the 4gh version support it?
i want to build a content based website(articles, reviews, pictures and videos)
which one should i opt for?
I would recommend using wordpress. I built this blog using a combination of wordpress and the thesis them. WordPress is very customizable without having to know a lot of code.
Google…
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Thank you so much for this article. I’ve been going in circles all day trying to clearly understand what I need to do!
FINALLY a guide for exactly what I need!! Thanks so much
Your welcome, Colleen.
Your welcome, Colleen.
One thing I am wondering is what happens to my existing account and blog on WordPress?
It just stays there.
Hi Dan, I’ve recently purchased a GoDaddy domain name and website builder package. It lets me link to my WordPress blog and import it onto a tab in my website, but I can’t seem to make any formatting changes to the blog once it’s been imported. The writing is small and grey and it just looks totally uninviting. As a total novice I’m unsure what to do – perhaps I should purchase a hosting plan as you detail and install wordpress that way, ditching the website builder altogether? Any advice welcome!! Thanks
To make styling changes to your blog, you’ll need to adjust your “theme” settings. There are plenty of free themes available that you can download and install which will dramatically change the look and feel of your blog.
Here is information on the latesttheme of my blog.
Thank you for this post. It is great. I have few questions. I’m in the process of designing my very first website and have registered for my domain name. However, I’m having trouble deciding whether I should use the website builder service through go daddy or use wordpress to build the website and host it on go daddy. If you could give me some information on the difference of both services or forward me to a link for me to see the comparisons it would be greatly appreciated. Thank You ! The website will be used for a small business.
I think you’re better off using wordpress instead of godaddy because you will have more options around customization.
Great article! What if you have already started with Website Builder and want to transfer to WordPress?
Thanks Marge. If you want to switch the wordpress, the best way is to delete the files off of your server and start from scratch.
i love this, thank you so much. i was literally lost for the past week. you rock!
Glad it was helpful!
if not for this guide, I would not have gotten wordpress installed, thanks
Why Linux and not windows?
WordPress works better with a linux database. It won’t matter to you because you’ll be using the wordpress admin panel anyway.
Can you use these instructions on a macbook pro 3,1? Thanks.
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