So finally you have made up your mind and bought a domain, right? What next? No need to worry. You are not alone in this. Now that you have bought a domain, it means you are already a step closer to create a website or blog.
But there are a few more steps that you need to follow to get your blog or website live. Well! Today, I am here to share the list of what all you need to do after you have got your domain name.
And the best part is that you will not have to hire any experts, you can do all of these all by yourself.
So without wasting more time, let’s jump into the article.
I Bought a Domain Name Now What?
Step 1: Get A Web Hosting to Host Your Website
Once, you are done purchasing a domain name, the very first thing that you will have to do is to buy a web hosting plan. I know if you are new to this blogging industry, this hosting may be new to you. And with so many web hosting services available in the market, you can surely get confused.
No worries! I am here to tell you which web hosting service you need to opt to host your blog or website. First, let me tell you that there are thousands of free web hosting services out there. But, they won’t make the impact on your blog or site that you need. It will slow down your site rather. So, without wasting time, I suggest you choose Bluehost as your web hosting service provider.
Bluehost – Recommended by WordPress
GreenGeeks – 70% off
Why BlueHost?
BlueHost has been in the market for a very long period now and tons of digital marketers, writers, bloggers, business owners, etc, rely on its web hosting services. If you ask me, I totally love the Bluehost services as they offer us with amazing features.
Here I am going to talk about why you should consider buying Bluehost’s web hosting service.
a) Outstanding Customer Service
Bluehost provides you with amazing customer support. You will get 24×7 customer support. So if you are having any issues, you can seek the experts help anytime you want.
Usually, other web hosting service providers keep you waiting in the queue but with Bluehost, you will receive help instantly. I feel this one is extremely reliable and will give you the peace of mind.
b) Continuous Uptime
Bluehost uses Linux formats and thus, allows its members to enjoy continuous uptime. You can expect a speed of 151ms over cloud-plan and by far the most recommended one. It is faster than several other services. Now, I am mentioning this after seeing tons of reviews and talking with my fellow bloggers and digital marketer professionals.
c) User-Friendly cPanel
The best part if you ask me about Bluehost is the user-friendly cPanel. I find it quite easy and simple to control tons of websites. In fact, if you are a non-technical person, you will find it super easy to handle and that’s the best part about this web hosting service provider. With Bluehost, managing files and checking emails won’t be a big deal.
d) Multiple Hosting Plans
BlueHost offers you with several hosting plans so you have the liability to choose one as per your requirements such as terms and budgets. Trust me, if you are on a budget, you can surely opt for the basic hosting plan as it starts from $3.49/mo.
I prefer Bluehost because the rates are affordable yet the services are amazing. If you are a freelancer or a web company and want to manage a huge number of websites on a single host, I would recommend you go for the Plan Business Pro and Cloud Sites
Also Check: Black Friday Web Hosting Deals 2020
Step 2: How to Install WordPress in Bluehost Web Hosting?
Now that you have the hosting plan ready, your next step would be to instal the WordPress on Bluehost. It is clearly a quick and easy process due to Bluehost’s user-friendly interface. I like the one-click WordPress install feature.
a) Login To Bluehost
- Log in to your new account on Bluehost.
- Now visit the My Sites tab.
- Select the Create Site option in the top-right corner.
b) Enter Website Details
Enter all the basic details about your website that includes Site Tagline along with the Site Name. Now, remember not to stress on it much as you can always change it whenever you feel like.
c) Select Domain Name
This is the step where you need to enter your domain name using the Domain drop-down section. Enter the domain that you chose when you created the Bluehost account.
d) Click “Next” to install WordPress on Bluehost
After clicking on the Next button, Bluehost will help you in installing WordPress. You can then create your new WordPress website. It displays your login details as well.
In order to open your new WordPress site, simply click on the Login to WordPress link. And you are done installing WordPress on Bluehost.
Step 3: Install Professional Theme
The very next step that you need to consider right after you install WordPress is to get a professional theme. Yes! having a professional theme for your WordPress site is mandatory to get good impressions. We know that WordPress is open-source software so there are several free themes that as a beginner you can pick any day.
And you may wonder that having so many free options available, why am I telling you to go for a premium one. Well! I feel this is an absolutely valid question to ask. There are several reasons behind having a professional theme for your WordPress site.
First, let me tell you that I would recommend you all to choose a professional theme from ThemeForest. There are so many options of premium themes available that you can choose one as per your own needs.
Now, coming to your question, let me take ThemeForest as an example and explain to you what benefits you will have using a premium theme from ThemeForest.
a) 24×7 Support
One of the most important factors of having a professional theme is that you are going to have limited access and continuous customer support. All the premium themes give you unlimited support and thus, worth the cost and can be afforded as well.
b) Quality
Quality is what you must consider when you are starting with your website. A wrong step will land you up in a mess. Free themes are used by many bloggers and web designers. Thus, I recommend you to be a little unique and different by choosing a professional theme.
Premium version themes are designed keeping in mind the recent standards and trends. So, there isn’t any chance of going out of trend or missing any update.
c) Updates
With professional themes, you will get constant updates. Yes! There you get feature updates whereas free themes will not offer you with the same.
Free versions will not assure you about the updates or when you need to update to new features. Premium themes will give you the confidence that you are going with the trend and staying updated.
Now, why I recommend ThemeForest is because you can get all of these at an affordable rate. There are others that give you all these premium themes but at such an expensive price. This product is very simple to use and all the themes are beautiful and give an instant upliftment to your site.
In case, you want to have a custom landing page or website, then you can go for the Elementor.
Step 4: Create Important Pages
Now let’s talk about creating some of the important pages. Creating pages are a must as they are not a part of your regular blog posts. Pages are basically used for adding static content and some information about your website. They are not meant to change very often.
Here, I am going to tell you about the important and must-have pages. So, don’t forget to check out.
a) About Us
The most essential page for almost all the blogs and websites on the internet is the About Us page. However, you can name it as About Me depending on whether you have a business blog or you are the single author having a personal blog.
This page is used to tell visitors about your website or yourself, it’s mission, purpose, values and what the users can expect to get from this blog. Basically, the about us page will help you to build trust among your audiences and they will get to know the people behind the blog.
b) Terms & Conditions
If you run an online store or you offer any kind of services on your blog, then it is essential for you to have a terms & conditions page. This is a legal document and hence, I will suggest you get professional help. You may get several online templates but use it only at your own risk.
Having this page will allow you to limit the liability in case there is any mouse of data and services offered on your blog. You can also use this page to inform others about the responsibilities regarding the trademark and copyright, and how they can use your product, services, or website.
c) Disclaimer
Do you make money online from your WordPress blog? If yes, then it is mandatory for you to have a disclaimer page. This page tells your users about how you make money from your blog. For example, if you display ads banners or if you promote products, then it will inform your users how the contents are monetized currently.
d) Contact Us
When you think of starting a blog, it is important for you to provide your contact details. In fact, your blog readers, potential business partners, and advertisers all need your contact information. Having a contact page will allow them to easily and quickly contact or message you.
You can add a contact form to make it easy for your users to contact you. However, you can always add a location map, email address, and social media handles to provide them with more ways to connect with you.
Step 5: Get Custom Email
Are you confused about why I am asking you to get a professional and customer email address having your domain name? If yes, then let me explain you things in detail.
What is a professional email? Well! It is an email address created using your company name as your domain name, instead of generic domain names such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Outlook, etc.
Having a customised email address with your company name is the new way of promoting your business. Trust me, it can turn your business into a whole new level. Having a personal and all customised email address will give you credibility as well as the flexibility to your website for both the user and visitors.
Let’s say for example if someone named Lisa tries to create her own email address in Gmail. She may create it as Lisa@gmail.com. However, due to a huge amount of profiles in the same name, she will not be able to take up that email address.
Now, this may lead her to add random symbols and numbers with the name making the email address complicated such as lisa657@gmail.com.
So to avoid such complicated situations. you must opt for a custom email address using your domain name. A custom email address may look like lisa@growthgrasp.com.
Step 6. Get SEO Tool
Keyword research is one of the important things to consider before you start with a content or blog post. But on the other hand, you should not dominate your content with keywords and don’t overstuff it. keep this in mind especially if you want to target the search engines.
For me, keywords keep me focused on writing articles. Well! Honestly, over the years the concept of keywords has changed. People often get confused about whether to use a single word or a complete phrase. In terms of SEO, it never means a single word or so.
For content writing and SEO, when we talk about keywords, you must assume that here it may mean even a complete sentence. Keywords research helps you to understand what language people use when they are finding your product or service or even when they are talking to each other on several social media platforms and forums.
It is very much essential for you to have proper and quality keywords present within your content to make it rank. There are several amazing SEO tools available in the market. If you ask me about my personal choice, then it has to be the SEM RUSH.
SEMrush is best because it will provide you with well-tried and tested keywords. I have personally used the tool and found that it helps in finding the best competitive keywords that rank in Google’s top results. In fact, using this tool will let you get extended information on their value for paid and organic research.
SEMrush is an amazing tool that will help you find out relevant keywords, track the keyword strategy used by the competitors, looks for backlinking opportunities, runs an SEO audit of your blog, and lots more. It is one of the most trusted SEO tools among internet marketers, small and big businesses, and bloggers.
So if you are confused about what to choose as your SEO tool, then you must go for SEMrush.
Step 7. Start Writing
Now that you are done with all the setups after buying a domain, this is the time to take it forward. Yes! Here I am going to talk about the last step that is very much important when it comes to making your domain productive and constructive. I guess you know that blog means Content. So ‘Content is King’. If your website or blog don’t have quality contents, nothing will work- no strategy and SEO implemented.
Content is the way you reflect your credibility to a large number of audiences. If you are eager to boost your website, you need to educate the search engines about what your website is all for. To do that, you need to have quality and well-written contents.
Now let us discuss in brief about the importance of content regarding search engine ranking and converting visitors to potential buyers.
a) Keywords
In the previous point, we have talked about the SEO tools. Having SEO tools will help you find keywords that are essential to describe your products and service the best.
You must use unique keywords for each post or page. These keywords must be highlighted throughout the entire text. As having correct keywords in your text will make the search engine to have a connection between the chosen keywords and your website.
b) Information
If you want to promote your website and want viewers to come and stay in your blogs, then the content is the only way. Yes! Having good quality content will provide information to your visitors regarding your website. This will help you to communicate and stay connected with visitors.
Visitors will come to visit your website to have some information regarding your website, products, and services. Thus, it is essential for you to write detailed content about services and products. This will surely increase your conversions and sales.
c) Call To Action
One of the most essential benefits of having good quality content is to drive your customers to the next step. You can add a call to action in your content or page. It will boost your conversion.
Remember, the success of your website or blog will depend largely on the content you add. So creating good contents with personalized themes and styles will bring the whole world to your business.
The next big thing that I will surely like to mention when it comes to content, Grammarly is the tool you must use. I am fond of using Grammarly to make the content quality better. In fact, it is a super fine tool to ensure you have no grammatical errors, no spelling mistakes, etc, to have quality content ready.
Final Talk
If you are reading this that means you have gone through the whole post. This article is meant to give you a step by step guide of what to do after buying a domain. Hope this post will help you in creating an amazing blog or website. Having a blog will surely help you connect with several fellow bloggers and will give your website the exposure to attract more viewers.
However, if you want to make your blog stand unique, then you need to follow each and every step I have mentioned properly.
Even after that, if you have any queries or you have confusions regarding any step, you can simply comment it down below. I would be happy to help you out.