How to build a wordpress website and set up email

If you have not created a website before, I’ve explained “how to build a site” where I explain how to get a web host provider, getting a domain and install software to start creating website.

1. Add domain into your cPanel:

After purchasing a domain, the hosting provider would change the nameservers and point it to your hosting packages. Then you can add it as an addon domain to your cPanel. Here is the instruction to do so in my host provider (TMD Hosting):

Log into cPanel > “Domain” section > “Addon domain” icon > in the next page top field enter the domain to add > click “Add Domain” > empty fields will fill automatically

Then issue SSL certificate by: on cPanel go to the Let’s Encrypt SSL tool > click “issue” next to the domain > choose “http-01” > click “Issue” again.

2. Install wordpress:

If possible, ask your host provider to install wordpress or otherwise ask for instruction how to install it. Here is an instruction how to install wordpress in TMD Hosting provider:

Log into cPanel > under the “Script” section at the bottom page press “WordPress” icon > click “Install Now” blue button > choose the relevant domain name and erase “wp” entry from “In Directory” field at the beginning of installation page > enter valid email address where you will receive the credentials for your WP Dashboard > Press the “Install” button to initiate the installation of the script. No other adjustments are required, only the aforementioned clicks.

3. Set up wordpress theme:

Select a suitable wordpress theme by selecting “appearance” > “theme” > “add” > search.

I guess typing words that suits your theme. For example, if your website is about nature, search key words such as nature, forest and garden.

NB: ensure you keep a second theme – preferably the initial default theme when starting your wordpress. This is because if your current theme has a code error that takes your website down, you will you a reliable theme to restore your website.

4. Giving website an identity:

Giving site title and tag line in setting > general

To upload: go to Appearance > Customizing > Site Identity > Select Logo and upload from there.

To create a logo, consider using a free logo maker such as Logo Maker.

5. General setting:

Set your email address: go to setting > general > change email under Administration Email Address.

Permalink settings: setting > Permalink > select Post name or your choice

6. Install essential pluggins:

• Slider/carousel: I personally use Meta Slider. There are also Content Slider Block and B slider.
• Title remover: Title remover (useful for home page)
• Recent post: Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails by Kybernetik Services/Martin Stehle
• Social media icon widget: Social Media Widget (Noah Kagan) & Widget Facebook like box (wpladge)
• Contact: Fluent forms (WPManageNinja LLC) 
• Emailing subscription: Email  subscriber & Newsletter (Icegram) or OptinMonster
• Google analytics: Site kit google
• Adsense: Site kit google
• SEO: Yoast SEO, All in One SEO or Rank Math SEO.

I also made an older post on must have wordress pluggins from 2016.

7. Create essential pages:

Create essential pages:

• Home: use slider and title remover
• Content: useful for creating book like content
• Post: Recent post pluggins
• About:
• Contact: social media icon links and Fluent form pluggin

Create static home page and post under setting > Homepage Setting. Read more about creating static home page here.

8. Set up contact form email notification:

Follow this step if you want the message from the contact form to also be sent to your email. This is useful if you want to create a correspond email with the messages. To do so, set up the email notification in the Fluent Forms plugins. Select All Forms, under the contact form, select setting, then Email Notification, Add notification, fill up the application (as instructed below) and then save. This is how I usually set it up:

• Name: New notification from contact form
• Send to email: your domain email
• Subject: Contact form notification
• Email body:

First Name: {inputs.names.first_name}

Last Name: {inputs.names.last_name}

Email: {inputs.email}

Subject: {inputs.subject}

Message: {inputs.message}

The next step is to install a SMTP system to enable messages to be sent out from your website. Install Fluent SMTP, if you you a hosting domain then select Other SMTP, fill in your From Email (which is your domain email), From Name, select Force From Email, select Set the return path.

Ensure you have Secure SSL/TLS Settings information ready to fill in the rest of the section. This can be found in the cPanel under Email Account and then configuration (it is also sent to you when you create an email). Fill in the SMTP Host (which is the outgoing server), fill in the SMTP Port, select SSL for encryption, select Use Auto TLS, Authentication, fill in the SMTP username (usually your domain email address or as found in the Secure SSL/TLS Settings information) and then SMTP Password as used in your domain email.

You can test if the SMTP works by selecting Email Test and enter an email address to send to. If successful it should notify success and an email will be sent to you inbox. You can also test the email notification of the contact form.

9. Customise menu:

To customise your menu, go to appearance > menus. From select page you want to add from the “add menu items” and click “add to menu”, where it will appear under menu structure section. From there you can rearrange the order of pages as you wish. I tend to just include: home, content (useful for book style website), post, about and contact.

10. Customise side widgets:

• Search bar
• Social media links
• Facebook like
• Donation or charity section
• Emailing list

11. Set up google analytics:

Create google analytics account. Create an account for you project, company or organization. Create property (websites or apps).

Link google analytics to your Google Site kit plugin using google analytic code. The set up process is pretty simple, just follow through the process by pressing allow and select the right analytic measurement ID code

Also, make sure the website is tagged using the Measurement ID.

12. Set up custom domain emails:

There are a few ways to create your personalised email but as you already have purchased domain from your host provider, you can simply just create custom email address from the cPanel which is usually provided for free from your host provider. Your hosting provider should provide you an instruction how to create an email. Most of the hosting companies usually have similar instructions.

Here is an example of a hosting provider instruction from tmdhosting: Log in cPanel >> Go to Emails Section >> Then Email Accounts >> Then click on the blue button ‘Create an email’. Choose your username and password and click Create. Once the email is created, you can check your inbox from cPanel >> Email Accounts >> Check Mail, or you can access it via a direct link: yourdomain.com/webmail, yourdomain.com:2096 or webmail.yourdomain.com.

Here are some ideas of generic email address names for your company:

• General inquiries: general@, info@, contact@, hello@,  query@, enquiries@, home@
• Admin: admin@
• Customer service: support@, help@
• Sales: sales@
• Finance: finance@, billing@
• Job applications: careers@

As the webmail inbox storage space is small, ensure email is deleted regularly to avoid it exceeding your memory limit that stops mail coming through. My tip is to create an outlook email account (which gives 15GB data) to store/archive emails. This can be done by setting up a function that automatically forward mail to the outlook account.

13. Connect domain email to email service provider:

Sometimes you may want to use third-party email service. People may consider it if they want to separate the email service from the website service to for security reason, or they want manage multiple emails in one platform. There are different ways of using a third-party email service which each has it’s own advantages and disadvantages. As I am a user of outlook, I will use outlook as an example. See the types of ways you can use a third-party email provider.

a. Adding (hosting webmail) account outlook software via POP3: 

It involves adding the hosting webmail account into outlook software using POP3. The advantage of using POP3 is that the mail will be received in the outlook inbox and not the hosting webmail server, which saves storage space. It is also free. However this is not favourable as email will get stored locally in your outlook software and not in the server, so it is risky as you will lose data forever if something happen locally. So I would avoid this method.

2. Adding (hosting webmail) account to outlook software via IMAP:

Using IMAP is a more preferred choice over POP3. IMAP syncs the hosting webmail server with outlook so you can use the email service in devices that has outlook software. It is also free. However, the disadvantage is that you will have to work with the limitation of small space offered by your hosting provider, in my case, just 550MB. I suggest creating an outlook account and set automated forwarding system to it, if you wish to archive emails.

To do so follow the video instruction how to add an account in outlook software here. You can also add account on windows mail app that appears on the laptop by default. Simply press “setting”, select “manage accounts”, “add account” and then “Other account POP, IMAP”, enter the email, name & password and then enter the in incoming/outgoing server (not the port number). The incoming/outgoing server can be found in the “Connect device” under “Email account” section in the cPanel.

3. Add as alias in outlook account:

Simply create an outlook email account in outlook.com and add the domain email as an alias. In this way, you can use have a centralised inbox and have access to the basic 15GB storage space as well as having access to tools like cloud and Microsoft office.

Here is a little trick you may want to consider. Have the hosting webmail automatically forwarded incoming email to the main outlook account, and reply from the main outlook account under the domain email by changing “From”. This is a feature of alias. So essentially you are operating everything under one outlook account. You may organise mail into different folders afterward. The only issue is the build up of emails in the hosting webmail inbox. This can be resolve by setting up an automated function that deletes all emails under specified period of time.   

4. Use a professional email service provider:

If you are a business then I suggest using a paid professional email service provider such as Microsoft 365. If you have a team and require a lot of email usage and big storage space, then I highly suggest you to use these providers. With a low cost, it makes everything much more convenient and you don’t have to worry about storage space (with 1TB per user!), email ending up in spam box or security issues. They also provide office tools such as communication tools for meeting and Microsoft office. It starts with as little as just £4.90  per month. The plan can be found here.  The instruction how to set up domain email can be found here.

14. Monetization:

Create an adsense account. Install Google Site kit pluggin which can adsense function.

Amazon, Bank (???)

15. Payment system:

(…)

To restore in case your website is down, I recommend you contact your hosting provider and let technical support restore it.

16. Creating a backup system:

Backup can be done manually. Some hosting company provide wizard function that readily created backups for downloaded from their cPanel – check with your hosting provider. Other hosting providers may not be backup friendly due to reasons such as security. In these cases, it requires us to download files manually in the cPanel from the File manager and phpMyAdmin folder. To do so, please follow the instruction of these video link.

An alternative way to back up is using plugins. I suggest having it downloaded and stored in a server that is not from the same server to where your website is stored in case it does down. You can use the backup plugins to manually download the website or have it set to automatically back up in a cloud service.

Plugins that I suggest these plugins:

• UpdraftPlus: Provide both manual and automated backup that can be saved into a cloud storage space. Reliable provider with currently 3+ million users. There are both free and premium paid services.
• Jetpack (by Automattic): Provide same features as UpdraftPlus but even more. Noticeable having real time backup which is useful for ecommerce site that can’t afford to lose any data. Recommended for businesses. Reliable provider with currently 5+ million users. There are also both free and premium paid services.
• Backup Migration (by Migrate): This is what I also use in some of the websites. Free service only provides manual and local automated backup that is unzipped so it takes bigger space. Premium version includes backup being able to save into cloud storage space. It has a less popular user of 70k+.
• All-in-One WP migration (by ServMask): A very basic and limited manual backup function. It zips the file into wpress file. No automated scheduled backup or ability to be uploaded into a cloud service. However, it has a function of migrate site from one into another which is useful. It currently has 5+ million users.

Other noticeable backup plugin: WPvivid, BackWPup (by Inpsyde GmbH), BoldGrid, Duplicator (by Snap Creek), WP Staging, BackupBuddy and BlogVaul

How to maintain your website:

You can read more about how to maintain a wordpress website by clicking the link.

These information should be sufficient enough for you to set your own WordPress site. Hope it helps. Happy website building! :^)