How To Build A Website For Your Online Business

Building a website is one of the first steps you should take in building an online business. Why? It signals legitimacy AND gives your business a place to live that’s not build on someone else’s platform. Instagram, YouTube, Substack–those are owned by big corporations and they could shut you down or cut traffic to you at any time. A website belongs to you.

The other thing I love about a website for online businesses is it provides a hub, connecting everything else you’ve built online. My website, FemmeCyclist.com, serves as one place for all my blog posts, videos, and podcast episodes to reside. It’s also where people can learn about my products and service and make a purchase if they choose.

In this article, I’m going to teach you how to build a website using WordPress & GeneratePress. While there are plenty of other options out there, this is how I’ve built my websites and how I recommend my students build theirs as well. (The one exception: if you plan on building an e-commerce only website, then go with Shopify. If you plan on selling products, but also want to blog, offer services, etc, then I’ll show you how to do that using WordPress as well).

But First: Why WordPress?

Before we get started building your website, you might be wondering: why WordPress? There are tons of website builders out there—Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Showit—so why am I recommending WordPress?

Here’s the deal: WordPress powers over 40% of all websites on the internet. It’s the most popular platform for a reason. These are a few reasons why it’s the golden standard:

Flexibility: WordPress can do just about anything. Blog? Check. E-commerce store? Check. Membership site? Portfolio? Online course platform? Check, check, check. As your business grows and evolves, WordPress grows with you.

You own it: Unlike platforms like Wix or Squarespace where you’re essentially renting space, with WordPress you truly own your website. You can move it to a different host, export all your content, and you’re never locked into one company’s ecosystem.

Cost-effective: WordPress itself is free (you just pay for hosting, your domain name, and your theme/website builder).

SEO-friendly: WordPress is built in a way that search engines love. Add a good SEO plugin and you’ve got a solid foundation for getting found on Google.

Community & support: Because so many people use WordPress, there are endless tutorials, forums, and resources available. Stuck on something? Someone else has probably solved it and shared the answer online.

Is it perfect? No. There’s a bit of a learning curve compared to drag-and-drop builders. But that learning curve is worth it because you’re building on a platform that can truly scale with your business as it grows. (And we’re gonna get it to grow baby)!

Step 1: Buy A Domain Name

A domain name is the URL that your website will live at. While there are a million options for domain extensions (.store, .io, .biz), I’d strongly suggest sticking with a .com. People will automatically type in .com when trying to find you and it also just looks more professional. You could also consider a .org as it comes across as professional, but again you’ll end up with people typing in .com by default and not making it to you.

As for what your domain name should be called? I would recommend the name of your business or YOUR name if it’s going to be a personal brand.

You can buy a domain name from any of a number of brokers, BUT I’d recommend moving on to step 2 (choose a host) and buy your domain name from them. This is the easiest option because then the domain name will automatically point to their servers. BUT if you already bought your domain name, you can always point it to your host’s servers later on.

Step 2: Choose A Host

A host provides the server space that your website lives on. It’s actually really important to choose a good one because your host will determine how fast your site loads, how much downtime it will have, and how much technical support you’ll receive.

I’m currently on Siteground, but I recommend BigScoots for all my new clients. It’s optimized for WordPress and offers pleny of support at a more affordable entry point. Choose the WordPress Optimized Starter package.

You can buy your domain here too.

Step 3: Install WordPress

Within your hosting account, you’ll want to go to your cPanel and install WordPress for your site. If your host is BigScoots, you can follow these directions. Otherwise, google “install wordpress [your host name]” and you’ll find instructions

Step 4: Choose A Theme & Website Builder

Now that you’ve installed WordPress, you can login to your WordPress dashboard. You can get to it from your cPanel OR by typing in https://[yourdomain.com]/wp-admin.

WordPress typically installs with the latest default, yearly-named theme, such as Twenty Twenty-Five. If you’re anxious just to get started, you *can* use this theme but it’s going to make your website look pretty boring and unoriginal.

Instead, I recommend a theme that also includes a website builder. These include Kadence, Blocksy, and GeneratePress. My favorite and the one I use on my websites is GeneratePress.

GeneratePress One functions as a theme but it also offers pre-built starter sites and customizable “patterns” or blocks that you can use to build your website however you’d like it.

Step 5: Start Building

It’s okay to have a basic website to start with. You can add (and add and add) to it over time.

One of the first things you’ll want to do is to customize your colors, fonts, and logo. You can do this in your WordPress Dashboard by going to Appearance –> Customize.

You’ll also want to create a Home page and an About page at a minimum. If you’re using GenerateOne, choose a starter site and then in your WordPress Dashboard navigate to Pages –> Home –> Edit. You can do the same thing for the About page.

It’s also note a bad idea to create a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service page. You can use a free generator like TermsFeed to create this.

Step 6: Create Content And/Or Sell Stuff

In addition to providing a place for folks to learn more about you, a website can also serve as a place to create content (write articles) OR to sell products (physical or digital).

WordPress was originally built as a blogging platform, and it works REALLY well for this purpose. Blogging is one of my most profitable income streams, I’d recommend everybody to spend at least some time writing some posts for their website. You can use those posts to create their own income (via affiliate marketing and advertising revenue) OR you use them to attract traffic for whatever other products or services you have to offer.

To create a blog post, go to your WordPress Dashboard and click Posts –> Add New. Write your post, add some images, and hit publish. It’s that simple to start.

Additionally, you can use your website as a platform to sell things. As I already mentioned, if your sole intention is e-commerce, then opt for something like Shopify instead. If, on the other hand, you want to have LOTS of income streams (of which product sales are only one), then you can use WordPress to be a launching pad for them all.

To sell on WordPress, I use the WooCommerce plugin. You can use it to sell physical or digital products (I use it for both). The plugin itself is free (amazing!), and you just pay a small fee when you actually sell something.

Install it from your WordPress Dashboard by going to Plugins –> Add New, then search for WooCommerce.

Step 7: Make Your Site Live & Launch It

Once you’ve got your basic pages set up, it’s time to make your site visible to the world.

In your WordPress Dashboard, go to Settings –> Reading and make sure “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is unchecked. This allows Google and other search engines to find you.

Then go add the URL to your social media bio, your email signature, and anywhere else you show up online.

If that sound scary and you’re having trouble sharing your new website with the world, remember that it doesn’t need to be perfect to launch it. In fact, it never will be perfect. I’m constantly tweaking and improving my sites, and that’s totally normal.

Get your Home page, About page, and maybe one blog post up, and then just hit publish. You can always add more pages, refine your design, and improve your content over time. The important thing is to get it out there and start learning.

Stuck?

If you run into technical issues, don’t panic. If you’re using BigScoots and GeneratePress they have seriously helpful documentation and support teams. Use them! You can also Google just about any WordPress question and find tutorials or forum answers. The WordPress community is huge and helpful.

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