WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) which is used to create and maintain your own website. In one sentence you can describe WordPress as, a system where you can manage your blog, website or web shop without the knowledge of HTML or PHP. At the moment 80% of the websites in the USA that are launched with CMS use WordPress. Every website is built with an HTML- code, a CMS offers user to maintain and adjust their website without the knowledge of programming, the system writes the code for you, and so you can focus on the content.  

Domain Name: The first step that you have to take before you start to create a website, is choosing a domain name that is relevant to your business.

Hosting: Choose a hosting package, including at least 1 database and enough space to host a WordPress. With wrong hosting packages, your website will suffer. A host should empower you, never limit you. 

Download WordPress: Once you have the hosting activated, you can download the application on your computer, so that you can have an easy access.  Follow installations instruction or use this video as a guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3UB54eA2S4.

After installing the software there are a few steps that you need to do before you can start.   

You need to set the title, tagline and time zone. 

The title and tagline will be automatically shown on your page.  

Personalization: Delete the standard messages and pages from the website. 

Appearance: Delete the standard themes that are installed.  

After installing WordPress there are three standard themes installed. You can use one theme at the time, so by deleting the other two you create more space on the hosting package. You can pick new themes here: https://es.wordpress.org/themes/. One important tip is to choose a responsive template, with colors and layout that can be easily adapted to your corporative image, and with all the widgets and functionalities that you need to have in order to carry out your business activity. It is better to spend some time picking the perfect template than have to start from 0 a billion time because you have not thought that you needed a calendar, a gallery or any other section.

Plugins: Delete the Plugins, what is described above about the themes is the same for plugins.  

Security: Install a safety plugin, the safety of your website is very important. So you need to install a plugin that can help you. A plugin that is good to have is Limit Login Attempts, it makes sure that with too many logins attempts it (temporally) blocks your account.  

Positioning and internationalization: Install SEO- plugin, SEO- plugin helps you to position your website on the internet, whereas in terms of internationalization there are a lot of plugins to translate your website automatically or manually.

Backup: Installing automatically backups, make sure that you do a regular backup of your WordPress website. This is important because when your website is broken for some reason, it is easier for you to restore it with one push of a button. The weakest point of WordPress is definitively security that is why we strongly recommend to keeps a backup copy.

Website layout: After downloading the software and doing the steps mentioned above, it is important that you start thinking about the layout of your website. Your layout is the first thing that the visitor of your website sees, so it is important that there is a good structure and is easy to use. 

Contents: After you have decided how your layout is going to look, it is important that you think about the content.  The content is also an important part of what the customer thinks when the content is not focused on the right target audience, they can decide to go somewhere else. And actually, the easiest way to implement a WordPress is to have all the structured planned before creating menus and categories so it gets easier to insert contents and you do not have to struggle against the application.

For example: When you are an SME and you do not have the knowledge of programming, but you want to create a website. WordPress is the cheapest option, you can choose to hire someone with the right knowledge, but you can also learn yourself, how WordPress works. When you know how WordPress works it is an easy and cheap program to work with. 

This training fiche is focussed on how you can build your online shop.  Online selling is something that is becoming more popular every year.  Having an online shop has more advantages than having a physical store, with an online shop there are no fixed costs like rent, heating, and light. Besides that you do not have the costs of a shop, you can easier reach more people. Starting a web shop is easy the hard part is getting search engines to care (ranking) your web shop. 

Before starting it is a good idea to put as much thought in starting an online shop as you would for any other business. It is the same with a store that if you want to be successful you need a great product, a user -friendly website, and a good marketing plan.  

Before you start thinking about creating an online shop, it is important that you think about, what you want to project with your website, who your target group is and if your target group is online active. Because when your target group is not online active, it will be harder for you to start selling. 

After you have thought about the points above, you need to choose your system carefully.  It is important that you use a system that is popular, well supported, and with a good community. If you are looking for full control you can look towards WordPress with one of the popular eCommerce plugins.  

When your page is slow with loading, it will cost you?s customers.  When you set up your shop using WordPress or another self- hosted system, optimizing the speed of the page load is essential. 

Be unique: unless you are actually producing your own products, there is a good chance that you are using product feeds, including photographs and descriptions supplied by the manufacturer. This is a bad idea because the content is going to be the same as hundreds of other online shops that purchase from the same supplier. 

Check out the competition: this applies not only to E-commerce but to any website, it is important to know who your competition is, and which keywords they have in the search engine. By knowing the right information you can adjust your information, and making sure that you will be the best result and improving your website. 

When you have a website it is not enough to only sell, you need to try to sell an unique experience on the internet because the option of websites are getting bigger and the customer can literally choose from any other website in the world. When you are a new seller, you have neither a brand name nor the ability to cut in the cost, so use your unique knowledge of the product and skills to offer the unique experience. 

Run a newsletter: a newsletter is a good way of communicating with your customers and a good way of marketing. In this way, you can attract them to do a new purchase on your website when they are subscribed to the newsletter of your online shop.