Beginner’s Guide: How to Publish a Website in 2021 (Step by Step)

Do you want to publish a website but are worried about technical stuff?

It is a misconception that you need to be a web designer or developer to code a website. There are many tools that make it super easy to put your website online without writing any code.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily publish a website with step by step instructions.

Using a Website Builder to Publish a Website

Most beginners feel that they need to learn programming and web design skills to publish their websites.

It was true in the early days of the internet. At that time, businesses hired web developers or they had to learn coding skills to publish a website on their own.

However, things have changed over the years and technical skills are no longer a hurdle in publishing your content on the web.

These days, beginners, businesses, and even developers use website builders like WordPress to easily publish websites.

More than 69% of all websites on the internet are built using a website builder or CMS platform. This means, even developers don’t need to write code from scratch to publish a website.

These platforms allow anyone in the world to easily publish a website and put it on the internet. We’ll show you the easiest and most popular way to publish your website (no coding required).

1. Publish a Website with WordPress

WordPress is the most popular website builder on the market with the slogan ‘Democratize Publishing’. It is a free (as in freedom) and open-source software that anyone can use to build any type of website.

Over 39% of all websites on the internet are powered by WordPress.

To get started with WordPress, you’ll need a domain name (e.g. wpbeginner.com) and web hosting (this is where your website files are stored).

We recommend using Bluehost. They’re offering WPBeginner users a free domain name and a generous 60% discount on hosting ($2.75/month).

If you want to try an alternative, then we recommend SiteGround or any of these top WordPress hosting providers.

Next, you’ll need to install WordPress. We have a step by step WordPress installation tutorial that’ll walk you through the installation process.

Once you have installed WordPress, you’ll see the WordPress dashboard which looks like this.

Next, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

SeedProd is the best WordPress page builder plugin. It allows you to quickly publish professionally designed web pages for your website using a simple drag and drop user interface.

It is super easy to use and allows you to quickly publish your website with professional designs that are already optimized for sales, conversions, and SEO.

Alternatives to SeedProd

There are several popular page builder tools for WordPress. You can use any of the following to publish your website without any coding or design skills.

• Beaver Builder – A drag and drop WordPress website builder with advanced theme customizations
• Divi Builder – Another beginner friendly WordPress theme builder with tons of ready made templates
• Elementor – A powerful page builder tool for WordPress suitable for both beginners and developers

We believe WordPress is the most beginner-friendly platform to publish your website.

It is widely used and trusted by millions of beginners as well as big name brands like Microsoft, Facebook, and even US government uses WordPress to power the The White House website.

The best part about WordPress is that there are over 58,000 WordPress plugins that let you add just about any functionality to your website such as online store, contact form, SEO features, and more.

You can think of plugins like addons or apps for your iPhone. They make it easy for even first time users to configure and publish a website that search engines love and is easy to use for your customers.

2. Publish a Website with Contact Contact Website Builder

Constant Contact Website builder is an AI-powered website publishing tool suitable for beginners and small businesses.

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of purchasing hosting, domain name, and installing a web application software, then Constant Contact Website Builder would be the right tool for you.

It is an AI-powered website publishing tool that allows you to simply follow a step by step wizard. You’ll answer some questions and it will generate ideal layouts for you complete with the dummy content.

You can customize it in any way you want using a simple drag and drop interface. Once you’re done, simply click the Publish button.

The best part about using Constant Contact Website Builder is that you don’t need to worry about hosting or updates. You also get reliable support via chat, phone, and email.

If you simply want to publish a small business website or a quick online store, then it gets the job done with very little effort.

Alternatives to Constant Contact Website Builder

There are plenty of other fully-hosted, drag and drop website publishing platforms similar to Constant Contact. Following are a few hosted website builders picked by our expert team.

• Wix – a fast growing website builder platform that has all the features you’d need to build a website.
• Gator by HostGator – Fully hosted website builder by the folks behind HostGator. It comes with an intuitive drag and drop publisher with beautiful templates.
• Domain.com Website Builder – A fully hosted website builder with beautiful templates to quickly publish a website.
• GoDaddy – a large domain name registrar that also offer website builder tools.

All of these platforms are easy to use and allow you to publish your website without writing code.

3. Manually Publish Your Website

For those of you are who are eager to learn and willing to dive into basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, then this is the route you can take.

Note: If you don’t have any previous experience with these programming languages, then it may take you a while to get enough basic grip to code a reasonably presentable website and publish it online.

There are several online course platforms for students offering courses on web development for beginners. We recommend checking out the one offered by the CodeAcademy.

You can make a website on your computer, but you will still need a domain name (web address for your site) and website hosting service to publish it online.

All websites on the internet need hosting. It provides you storage on an online web server where you can upload and store your website files.

You can sign up with Bluehost which is one of the biggest hosting companies in the world. They are offering WPBeginner users a generous discount + free domain name + free SSL certificate.

Once you have signed up for a hosting account, you can upload the website files from your computer to your website by using an FTP client.

Alternatively, if your web hosting provider has cPanel, then you can use their built-in file manager for uploading your website in the public_html folder. This saves you from learning how to use the FTP server.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily publish a website. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a professional business email address, and how to get a virtual business phone number for your small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Beginner’s Guide: How to Publish a Website in 2021 (Step by Step) appeared first on WPBeginner.

February 04, 2021 at 06:00PM

How to Change the Category Order in WordPress

Do you want to change the category order in WordPress?

By default, when you list categories in WordPress they are displayed in alphabetical order. Some users may want to change that to their own custom category order.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily change the category order in WordPress.

Why Change Category Order in WordPress

By default, when you list categories by using the Categories widget or the block, WordPress will list them in alphabetical order.

Many website owners use categories to organize their blog content. You may want to change the default category order and customize it to your own liking.

For instance, some websites may not want their ‘Announcement’ category to be the first on the list.

If you run a WooCommerce store, then you may want to adjust product category order to display your top-selling product categories on the top.

However, the default category widget or the block does not have any options to change that order.

Luckily, there are WordPress plugins that you can use to change the category order and manually adjust how they are displayed on your website.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily change category order in WordPress.

Changing Category Order in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Category Order plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, simply head over to Posts » Taxonomy Order page to rearrange your WordPress category order.

The plugin will simply list all your categories on that page, and you can manually drag and drop to rearrange category order.

Simply click on a category and move it up or down.

If you are using child categories, then moving the parent category will also move the child categories.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button when you are finished rearranging the category order.

You can now add the ‘Categories’ widget to your WordPress sidebar by visiting Appearance » Widgets page.

After that, you can visit your WordPress blog to see the categories listed in the order you choose.

Change Product Category Order in WooCommerce

The plugin also works for WooCommerce product categories. This allows you to choose custom product category order and list your most popular product categories at the top.

Simply visit Products » Taxonomy Order page to rearrange product categories.

The plugin will list all your WooCommerce product categories. You can simply drag and drop to rearrange them in any order.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button when you are finished.

You can now add the ‘Product Categories’ widget to your online store’s sidebar by visiting Appearance » Widgets page.

After that, you can visit your online store website to see your product categories listed in your custom product category order.

We hope this article helped you learn how to change category order in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate list of must have WordPress plugins for all websites, and our comparison of the best email marketing services to grow your traffic and sales.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Change the Category Order in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

February 03, 2021 at 06:00PM

How to Add Categories and Subcategories in WordPress

Recently, a reader asked us how to create subcategories in WordPress.

In WordPress, your posts can be organized into different categories and tags. You can even create subcategories for further organization.

It’s important to use categories and subcategories correctly, so you can help your readers find the content they’re most interested in. Proper content categorization can improve your website’s SEO rankings as well.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add categories and subcategories in WordPress, step by step.

Understanding Parent and Child Categories in WordPress

Categories are a powerful tool. They’re not just a way to sort your content. They also help you develop a proper site structure that is meaningful and semantic. This is great for your WordPress SEO.

Important: If you’re not clear about the difference between categories and tags, take a look at our guide on categories vs tags. This explains why categories and tags are different, and how to use them correctly.

Now you might be wondering why and when would someone need to use child categories (subcategories) on their WordPress website?

Let’s say you’re creating a travel blog for different destinations around the world. You might want users to be able to find articles by both country and city.

For example, you might have an article about the best waterparks in the United States. It would make sense to use ‘United States’ as the category for that post.

But you might also have articles about the best places to eat in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and more.

This is where you can use child or sub categories. ‘United States’ can become a parent category, and the cities can become child categories.

A post filed under a child category doesn’t need to also be filed under the parent category. In our example, we could have left ‘United States’ unchecked and just put the post in the ‘New York City’ category.

If you file a post under the child category but not under the parent category, then your post will appear only on the archive pages of the child category. This is particularly helpful when you want to avoid duplicate content.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to add both regular categories and child categories in WordPress.

Adding a Category in WordPress

You can easily add a new category in WordPress when writing a post. In the Document panel on the right hand side, open up the Categories tab.

Then, you can simply click the ‘Add New Category’ link to create your new category.

Once you click the link, two new boxes will appear where you can add your category. For a regular category, you don’t need to select anything from the Parent Category dropdown.

Once you’ve typed in the name for your category, click the ‘Add New Category’ button.

The box for that category will then be automatically checked for your current post. You can uncheck it if you want.

You can also add a new category without editing a post.

Simply go to Posts » Categories and add your new category. This is handy if you want to create all your categories before adding content.

This method also lets you edit the slug (URL) for your categories. You can delete and rename categories here, too. You can even give them a description. See how to to add SEO keywords and descriptions in WordPress.

Adding a Child Category (Sub Category) in WordPress

You can add and edit child categories in exactly the same way you added your parent categories.

When you’re editing a post, open up the Categories tab and type in the name for your child category. Select the category that you want to use as the parent from the dropdown list.

Similarly, you can also go to Posts » Categories to add child categories. Just type in the name for your child category and select the parent category from the dropdown menu.

Your child categories can also have their own child categories, if you want. For instance, we might decide to develop a category structure that used continents, countries, and cities, like this:

Here, Europe is a category, with the United Kingdom and Spain as child categories. These then have their own child categories: York and London for the United Kingdom, and Barcelona and Madrid for Spain.

Categories on the same level within a parent category are sometimes called “sibling” categories. For instance, United Kingdom and Spain are sibling categories here.

Categories can only have one parent. You can’t add one sub-category under two different parent categories.

SEO Benefits of Category Based Site Structure

Your category URLs will look something like this:

http://example.com/category/united-states/new-york-city/

This is meaningful and helps search engines and visitors understand what your page is about. You also get a chance to add keywords into your URL. Keywords help people find content on search engines.

WordPress also allows you to easily change the /category/ prefix your category URLs. You can even remove it completely if you want.

Simply go to Settings » Permalinks page and scroll down to ‘Category base’ section.

Here you can enter the prefix you would like to use and click on the Save Changes button to store your changes.

The ‘category’ prefix in your category URLs doesn’t add any benefit to your SEO. You might want to get rid of it by installing the FV Top Level Categories plugin. Simply install the plugin and it will remove the word ‘category’ from your category archive pages’ URLs. Instead, they’ll look like this:

http://example.com/united-states/new-york-city/

Important: If you decide to change category base on an existing WordPress site, then you’ll need to set up redirects to avoid 404 errors for search engine visitors. For more detailed instructions, please follow our guide on how to change the category base prefix in WordPress.

How to Display Categories and Child Categories in WordPress Sidebar

You can add a widget to your WordPress sidebar or footer to show a list of categories. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance » Widgets.

If you haven’t changed your widgets from the ones that WordPress puts there by default, you should see the Categories widget already in place. If not, you can drag and drop it from the list of Available Widgets on the left hand side.

By default, the widget will show all your categories in a flat list, in alphabetical order:

Tip: Categories will only display on the list if you’ve assigned at least 1 published post to them.

You can change it to show the child categories (subcategories) beneath their parent categories, if you want. Simply check the ‘Show hierarchy’ box in the widget like this. Don’t forget to click the Save button.

On your site, you should now see your parent categories with the child categories nested beneath them.

Tip: If your sidebar changes don’t show up, you might need to clear your WordPress cache.

Aside from the default category widget, you can also create custom category menu links using the WordPress navigation menu. After that, you can add that menu in your header menu, sidebar, footer, or other menu locations.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to add categories and child categories in WordPress. You may also want to take a look at our article on how to create an email newsletter to grow your website traffic, and our comparison of the best WordPress page builders to create custom layouts.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add Categories and Subcategories in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

February 02, 2021 at 05:40PM