Still don’t have a website, or do you have one but want to renew it? Web design with WordPress interests you. Companies, professionals, educational centers, online stores, or even personal projects require practical web pages where you can show your business attractively without sacrificing quality and differentiation. And they also need these websites to be responsive, versatile, adapt to different types of content and formats, and be easy to update. The simplest thing to do is to hire a web developer or a designer to shape the idea and transfer it to a web page that meets all your objectives. However, there are other options; WordPress is a complete alternative.
In case you are not an expert in design or computing (and you don’t have to), at Kala Agency, we have proposed to help you, and in this article, we will tell you what WordPress is and what it can do for you, the step by step you need to follow, and the more useful design plugins. Web design with WordPress is easier than you think. Shall we start?
What is WordPress, and what is it for
Before getting into all the web design possibilities, we will explain what WordPress is and what it is for in a few words. WordPress is a CMS, Content Management System, a content management system for all types of web pages. When we talk about content, we refer to texts and images, videos, etc., including the articles and the structure, menu pages, and visual design, among others.
WordPress is a free and open-source free software; it was born in 2003 and quickly achieved its fame thanks to the popularization of blogs. However, due to its great potential and capacity for growth, it is a perfect system for the most complex commercial websites. And, it is that this CMS is very intuitive and flexible. The basic templates (themes) can be expanded with the installation of plugins depending on the needs of each project. In this way, it is possible to customize each web page and create web designs almost custom-made and with a professional result.
Of course, it is not the only CMS that you can use to design your website. If you do a little research, you will discover several content managers such as Joomla and Drupal, although WordPress is the most used in the world. According to the statistics they manage on the platform, of all the CMS available, 60.8% of the web pages have opted for WordPress. Here are some figures that explain why web design with WordPress is so relevant.
Differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
When we talk about WordPress in this article, we refer to the WordPress.org groupware and not WordPress.com, in which there is a hosting service behind that sells its services. However, the CMS they offer is the same in both cases since WordPress.com was created by one of the founders of the original project of the platform. In addition, we point out the most notable differences between the two:
With WordPress.org, you have full control over your website from the beginning by installing it on your server; you also decide on its monetization. However, at WordPress.com, you have no power over the domain name, and you cannot sell advertising.
Both are free, but WordPress.com is much more limited, and the only way to grow is to hire more expensive plans.
The possibilities of web design with WordPress.com are very fair. You can consider making some modifications to the templates, but it is not usually possible to customize 100% to your liking and needs.
In short, we consider that for professional use and a web design with WordPress, there is no doubt that WordPress.org is more suitable.
Steps to create a website with WordPress
So, now that you know what it is let’s see the process to create a website with WordPress step by step. In addition, indeed, you have found hundreds of tutorials on the subject so that we will get to the point in the creation and installation phases, and we will stop a little more on web design. So, these are the steps to create a website with WordPress:
Set your goals. Decide what you want a website for, if you want a corporate site, if you’re going to sell your products, explain what you do, publish news. Think about your target audience, the volume of content you are going to upload, and the number of visits you will receive. This, among other things, will depend on the hosting plan you hire.
Acquire the domain. If you don’t have it yet, get your company’s domain, and if it’s not available, you can use a domain name generator. With its help, you will discover interesting alternatives, their price, and, incidentally, if it is available on the main social networks.
Choose the WordPress hosting service that best suits your needs. Research and compare the different plans they have, their prices, and their advantages (and disadvantages). Mainly, you should value the 24/7 support and the disk space it offers you. In addition, we advise you to get the domain and the hosting on the same server; it will be a way to facilitate the process.
Install WordPress. It is usually simple from the server control panel. A couple of steps -and adding the data that the auto-installer asks for-you will have WordPress ready to use.
How to design a website with WordPress?
Shaping a company’s website or a personal project requires previous phases of analysis and research and subsequent phases of aesthetic and visual planning. Designing a website with WordPress is exciting and offers you the possibility of creating a custom website.
Web Design with WordPress
Organize the structure and content
With the objectives of your website in hand, you have to organize the structure of the site. Think about what you want to broadcast and the sections you need. Also, reflect on how to offer that content, what format, what colors, what style you want users to perceive, and what tone of communication. Ideally, you should spend some time on this phase since it is essential to design a website with WordPress: it will depend on knowing which theme is the best fit or which the best plugins are.
Choose the most suitable theme
Themes or templates allow each web page to show a different aspect (a typeface, a placement of the images, a style). In addition, most of them are customizable, so with a bit of dedication, you can achieve exclusive appearances adapted to the brand’s corporate identity.
Precisely, one of the significant advantages of web design with WordPress is the huge number of themes to choose from, both free and premium. Thus, depending on the type of web page, it is better to choose one template or another, always paying attention to essential elements such as being responsive or offering a good loading speed. We put some very clear examples of topics:
In highly visual web pages such as artists, architects, or photographers, the ideal is to bet on themes that give a prominent weight to the image, with the possibility of large formats and galleries. On the other hand, for digital publications, magazines, or blogs, the topics have to offer good solutions for long texts where the written content is the protagonist. On the other hand, in the case of radio networks or musicians who want to publish their songs, the chosen theme must support the sound format, podcasts, or playlists.
Install plugins
What are plugins? Plugins are add-ons that extend the functions of any software or program, in this case, WordPress. The WordPress plugin directory contains more than 55,000 free and paid plugins for any functionality, from improving security, optimizing SEO, getting subscribers, sharing social networks, compressing images, or helping the web load faster.
One of the most popular WordPress plugins is WooCommerce, which allows you to create an online store on a website created with WordPress.
The best plugins for web design with WordPress
WordPress web design plugins are the ones that will make your website unlike any other. Also, in recent years, numerous add-ons emerged to design a website in an agile and simple way and without code knowledge. This type of plugins use what is known as drag & drop and consists precisely in dragging and placing with the mouse the blocks you need on each page that makes up the web, modifying its structure as many times as you want. A straightforward layout uses text blocks, columns, images, buttons, links, and infinite details that adapt to all types of websites and their various styles.
In this way, although it is always advisable to know about web design or development, it is possible to achieve an optimal result while saving time and money. Some of the most popular WordPress web design plugins are as follows.
Divi Builder
Divi Builder is another of the best plugins for WordPress web design. Designed by Elegant Themes, a company dedicated to developing premium themes and plugins, it is a visual layout or page builder with multiple options.
Divi Builder is not free and can be purchased through various plans that include other functionalities such as access to all Elegant Themes, its plugins, updates, and support. Its utilities are also fast, versatile, and agile, especially if it is used together with its own Divi theme, which is included by default. With the same drag & drop system, it offers comfort, confidence, and total design freedom. At Kala, if you decide to embark on a design adventure with us, we will give you Divi as a gift for your web design (you will save €99 per year)
Elementor
Elementor is one of the most widely used free WordPress plugins. It is a compelling visual layout that offers enormous possibilities to both developers and users who are just starting in the world of web design. It has multiple functionalities and adapts to the vast majority of topics, although it also offers to start web design from scratch. The Elementor plugin is intuitive, has a fully open-source approach, and is very fast. In fact, one of its strengths is that you can see the changes in the text, images, and design live without the need to save, update or go to preview. Of course, it also has the Elementor Pro version to take your WordPress web design to another level.
Visual Composer
Visual Composer has been completely renewed and is one of the most demanded plugins for WordPress web design. An intuitive front-end editor leaves aside the code to apply the drag and drop system that makes web design so much easier. With a simple click, you can insert all kinds of elements on the web, from text boxes to forms, sliders, icons, buttons, maps; it has a vast library of resources. It also allows combining templates and creating custom mockups.
In short, WordPress offers a world of possibilities to create the web you want. Its easy use and installation, and the many tools and plugins that it puts at our disposal, make web design with WordPress available to anyone. However, at Kala Agency, we are here to accompany you. If you have questions about the process or want us to help you with the design of your website, we are the experts you are looking for; write to us!
0 Comments