Learn how to create an awesome WordPress site

Let’s start by stating the obvious:

WordPress is awesome on its own but you can create an even more awesome WordPress site through these steps

WordPress is the most commonly used CMS (Content Management System) today. It is a CMS suited for any general website or blog. Now to add to this awesome tools you have an incredible amount of plugins free and paid ones that will further extend and use WordPress to create some modern age wonders.

So the procedure is quite simple, divided in some simple steps:

 

1. Install latest WordPress version (always keep it updated so you have all the latest goodies and security features).
2. Select a Theme => try to find a clean one without errors or problems (WPML ready is a nice option to have) and that has correct syntax, I always inspect the demo page code via Chrome’s code debugger (right-click on page and then inspect element) for errors that may appear. If the demo shows up with errors I would stay away from those templates.
3. Integrate it with Jetpack a collection of plugins from the company that created WordPress, select the features you need from the plugins offered, they are really awesome. For a short example the sharing buttons, google+ authorship and subscribe to newsletter features that I value the most myself.
4. Now a website would never be complete if SEO is not taken care. WordPress is SEO friendly on its own but you can bring it to the next level by installing Yoast SEO plugin that is free of charge and offers many features. The best thing about it is that it fives you very useful information on how to use it best. Now there is an even better plugin regarding SEO but requires around 39$ (You have to pay only once for them, it a per website license). The one i am talking about is called WordPress Premium SEO Pack and it is indeed premium as it offers all the SEO tools you will ever need, and has its own help guides that are well perfect. t has some bugs especially when you are using a secure connection to connect in the admin area, but it just fulfills all aspects to supercharge your website regarding SERP results.
5. Now that you have a really good structure you have to create some great content, but wish it or not this great content will mean nothing if it is delivered slowly, this is where W3 Total Cache comes in. This is an Enterprise level add-on that will make sure to optimize the speed and performance of your website the only drawback is that this plugin is dependent on your server, meaning that you can use only the features that are compatible with it and are offered by your server. For example if you are on a shared server you can not use the memcache option. This is a perfectly normal behavior but it may agitate some people who do not understand it, thus i felt the need to explain it.
6. Now these are the necessary plugins to supercharge and make your WordPress site awesome. There are also many plugins that can be included but are dependent on the purpose if your website, while the ones listed above are a must for every WordPress website.

 

If you follow these steps you are sure to have a more successful website, and  frankly (especially if you are a webmaster) some more quite and peaceful nights :). Keep in mind that nothing is perfect although this setup brings it pretty closely. So what are you waiting for go and start your own adventure with WordPress now.