WordPress Blog Set Up in 5 Easy Steps
Creating a blog in WordPress can seem daunting. I have attempted to include some easy to remember steps on finessing your WordPress blog set up. I also recommend having the following plugins installed; SEO Yoast to optimize your blog for the search engines, Nelio for sharing to your Social Networks and WP Calendar for scheduling your posts ahead of time.
In this article I am not going to describe the content or marketing strategy for your blog, that is a topic for another article. This is strictly the technical step-by-step explanation of how to setup your wordPress blog.
Step #1 Adding content to your Blog
- Adding content to your blog is the First Step on how to setup your wordPress blog.
- Log into your wordPress account i.e http://nameofcompany.com/wp-admin
- In the Dashboard, select “Posts/Add New”
- Give the post a title (make sure you include the Keyword phrase in your title i.e in this article my keyword phrase is “how to setup your wordPress blog”)
- You can either copy your blog from your favorite text editor i.e. Word and paste into the wordPress “Visual editor” or type your blog directly into the editor.
- Format all the subtitles, make them “Heading 2” rather than “paragraph” as well as add any other styles to the content i.e. Bold, italic etc.
- On the right sidebar, under “Categories”, create a category called “Blog” and make sure it is checked off
#2 Adding a Featured Image
When you are going about how to setup your wordPress blog, you should think about adding a feature image to make it more impactful, especially when sharing to your social networks. There are lots of free stock photo resources on the web, I recommend using StockSnap.
- On the right sidebar select “Featured Image/media”
- Select Upload Files and select the image from your computer
In this blog post I am not covering how to create an image, but you can do so with this free software Canva.
#3 Optimizing Your Blog Post for Search Engines
Optimizing for search engines is a key factor in creating your blog post. Creating a blog post that is not optimized is like painting a beautiful picture and then storing in a dark room. You need to make sure your post is searchable and will be found. We recommend using the Yoast SEO plugin, the free version is fine to start with. Once you have installed Yoast, it will show up in your blog page, and make recommendations on what to fix. Go through all of the recommendations, until it literally gives you a thumbs up.
#4 Scheduling Your Blog
Once you are satisfied with your post, you will need to add it to the post calendar. I use WP Calendar plugin. Here is what I do…
- In the Dashboard sidebar select Posts/Calendar
- On the right side above the calendar select “Show Unscheduled Drafts”
- Drag your draft to the day you would like to post it
- After you have scheduled your post, you need to go back into the post and on the right sidebar select Schedule Sharing your Post to Your Social Networks
#5 Posting to Social Networks
Once your social profiles are connected, we can schedule the post, put in a description and image and date and time to send. I recommend installing Nelio plugin. Here are some recommended times to post your blog.
This infographic was first seen here.
If you need further assistance in setting up your blog in WordPress, please contact us with your questions or post a comment below.
