If you want to create a website.
But you don't want to read another guide that recommends slow page creation and poor-quality hosting and plugins (like Bluehost + Elementor).
You know that most successful bloggers don't use these tools (they just want commissions) and that to pass key performance indicators (KPIs), you need to build a WordPress blog with speed in mind from the ground up.
This is an advanced guide on how to create a website and profit from it. Instead of shared hosting, we'll be using Cloudways Vultr High Frequency. Instead of the lazy Elementor, we'll be using Astra Starter Templates with Gutenberg. Instead of GoDaddy or NameCheap's DNS, we'll be using Cloudflare. Instead of adding Yoast, we'll use Rank Math. The only costs are domain, hosting, and optional upgrades (Astra, Rank Math, WP Rocket).
These simple changes will create a faster, search engine-friendly WordPress site. Sure, it will take a few extra steps. But it will pay off, in the long run, to get started on the right foot rather than having to switch molds or enter into a 3-year hosting contract after realizing the service is poor.
The tools you use to create your WordPress site have a huge impact on site loading speed, SEO, and design. It is much easier to do it right from the start.
Steps to create a professional website on WordPress
Here are the steps to create a free website without hiring a developer.
If you are like me, I like to read the written guides with easy and understandable steps, then follow the guide written in this article.
1. Buy a domain name from NameCheap
NameCheap is a great place to get your own domain name. It is arguably cheaper than GoDaddy. They also offer domain privacy free for life.
Some hosts (like Bluehost) offer free domain names, but their hosting isn't great. Other hosts (such as SiteGround) offer domain names but they are more expensive than Godaddy and Namecheap. NameCheap and GoDaddy are both good places to get your domain, but they don't host. We will register the hosting and domain separately because the best domain registrars are not the best hosts.
What should your website domain be?
- Choose an unforgettable domain name
- Don't choose domains for keywords
- Try wordoid.com to get ideas for your own domain name
- The domain .com is the most popular (no need to buy unnecessary extensions)
2. Subscribe to cloud hosting
Cloudways Vultr High Frequency is what I recommend for hosting.
Vultr HF is probably the most popular hosting plan in the WordPress Hosting Facebook group (a great place to get unbiased feedback). I am using it and you can click on my blog to see how fast it loads. On nearly every GTmetrix test, my TTFB is less than 150ms.
Nobody has time to wait for a slow TTFB when trying to get past KPIs. SiteGround went downhill, TTFB was slow, Hostinger writes fake reviews, GoDaddy and Bluehost + EIG brands have never been good. Since KPIs came out, there's been a huge shift in people who have moved to Cloudways, DigitalOcean, and now Vultr HF (since it was released in 2020). This shift can be seen in recent Facebook polls, migration results, and threads if you take the time to research.
Why Cloudways?
- Rated as Best WordPress Hosting in 15+ Facebook Surveys
- Its TTFB time is always less than 200ms.
- They are constantly updating their speed technology
- Multiple caching levels (Redis, Memcached, Varnish)
- The support is great as reflected in their Trustpilot reviews
- Free SSL Certificate, Staging, bot protection, cron job management
- Monthly pricing without long-term contracts or high renewals
- Their community manager is very helpful if you have questions
- They have a Facebook group for Cloudways users to ask questions
- New servers are added regularly (DO Premium + Vultr High Frequency)
- If you're still not confident about using it, read my full Cloudways review
Cloudways has been consistently ranked as the #1 hosting in Facebook polls:
Other people who have moved to Cloudways (or a cloud provider):
Step 1: Sign up for Vultr High Frequency.
3. Run the server
Step 1: After signing up for Cloudways, you will be prompted to run a server.
Step 3: Wait for the server to be created (2 minutes estimated).
4. Make your server faster
Step 1: Increase the memory limit to 256MB from (Servers → Settings & Packages).
Third Step: Activate Redis and disable Varnish from (Servers → Manage Services).
5. Connect the domain and add an SSL certificate
Step 1: Add your domain to Cloudways (Applications → Domain Management).
Step 2: Update your DNS records in Namecheap (Dashboard → Domain List → Manage → Advanced DNS → Add New Record). The value of A Record is the public IP address found in "Access Details" in Cloudwise. CNAME is your domain name. Use the same format as below.
6. Change DNS to Cloudflare
NameCheap's DNS is slow and I don't recommend using it.
For faster speeds, we will move your DNS from NameCheap to Cloudflare since their DNS is faster. Otherwise, a slow DNS can cause delays and slow down your WordPress blog.
Step 1: Sign up for a free Cloudflare account, add your site, and run the required scan by Cloudflare. You will eventually get to a page where Cloudflare assigns two Nameservers for you.
Step 2: Add Cloudflare name servers to NameCheap. Go to Dashboard → Domain List → Manage → Nameservers → Custom DNS. Add your Cloudflare Name Servers.
7. Log in to your WordPress dashboard
Step 1: Find your WordPress login details in the cloud (Applications → Access Details). This would be something like: yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/. You will also find a link to your blog.
Step 2: Login and explore your WordPress dashboard.
8 . Import pre-designed Astra Starter template
Astra Starter templates make creating a WordPress blog easy.
It's beautiful, mobile responsive, and one-click import. It usually has several themes for each niche and is one of the fastest WordPress themes. GeneratePress and Oxygen Builder are also light, but I find the Astra templates look nicer and easier to work with.
Why Astra Template?
- Import demo with one click
- Fantastic designs
- mobile responsive
- Fast loading (especially Gutenberg)
- Trusted Developers (Brainstorm Force)
Step 2: Go to Appearance → Starter Templates. At the top right, filter by Gutenberg. This ensures that you are using the Gutenberg editor which is faster than most page builders. Hello, Elementor is fast, but most Elementor templates aren't and you'll need to improve them (same with Divi). They add additional div wrappers, JavaScript, and CSS to your site which hurt your KPIs. Most Astra templates are free while others are premium. I will be using the Travel Blog template in this guide.
Step 3: When you're ready, import the form by clicking Import Complete Site. Astra will download the template (content settings, plugins, widgets, and WordPress customizers) to your blog. If you want to change templates after you have already imported a site, follow the same steps to import the entire site, and you will only see the option to "delete previously imported site".
Step 4: Update your website and it will look exactly like the template.
our end! You now have a speed-optimized blog equipped with Vultr HF Server, SSL, Cloudflare DNS, and Astra + Gutenberg.
10. Design your blog
I won't go into the design (much) for the following reasons:
- It is fairly easy to learn on your own.
- There are a lot of tutorials on YouTube about Astra and Gutenberg.
- Many of you are already able to design a website (or use something other than Astra).
You can change most things about your blog design under Appearance → Astra Options.
Things you can do in Astra Options:
- naming your blog
- Download the site logo (logo)
- Download favicon (16×16 pixels website icon)
- Change billing layout + copyright area
- Change font family, size, weight, and font height
- Change main menu layout on desktop/mobile phone
- Change the layout of pages/posts (full view, sidebar, etc.)
- Customize and display the sidebar (if you have one)
- Change the text color, template, links, links when scrolling, header, site background
- Customize the information on your blog (author, article publication date, rating, etc.)
You will also need to learn Gutenberg.
11. Install WP Rocket plugin
No WordPress site acceleration is complete without a good caching plugin.
Cloudways has its own Breeze plugin, but WP Rocket has more features (speed improvements) and should lead to better dynamic results for KPIs. Feel free to try both if you like.
WP Rocket has been rated as the best caching plugin in most polls:
Step 1: Get 10% off WP Rocket by subscribing to their newsletter on their coupons page.
Step 2: Install WP Rocket and configure settings.
12. Install Rank Math Add-on
Rank Math is quickly outperforming Yoast as a search engine optimization (SEO) plugin.
It's lightweight (fewer lines of code) with fewer ads and more SEO features than Yoast and most SEO plugins (also great for adding Schema). The free version comes with just about everything in Yoast Premium, but they have a pro version. Most people only get the pro version if they need to add multiple Schema types and detailed Analytics stats, otherwise the free version will work just fine.
Rank Math is the best SEO WordPress plugin in the latest Facebook polls:
Step 1: Install Rank Math, create an account, and link your site. Run the advanced setup wizard to configure the recommended settings or migrate from another SEO plugin. Otherwise, go to settings.
Step 2: Configure the settings. These depend on whether you use Rank Math for free versus pro. It also depends on the units you are using. For example, I don't use WooCommerce or AMP so I disabled these modules. Learn the features and discover which modules suit you best. Here are the suggested settings for the free version.
The main things to do in Rank Math
- Unit Configuration
- Setting up Google Search Console + Other Webmaster Tools
- Index pages/articles, then prevent weak/unhelpful content (eg tags) from being indexed (noindex)
- Set a default OpenGraph thumbnail (1200×630 pixels) for Facebook
- Prevent archiving (Noindex) of certain pages. In most cases (history archives, archive subpages, etc.)
- Configure default SEO titles, meta descriptions, and page/post structured data
- Index pages only if you design them and have a lot of articles in the categories
- Configure the sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console + other webmaster tools
13. Keyword search for blog articles
Google Autocomplete is a great place to find keywords for blog articles.
Tools like Keywords Everywhere (paid) show monthly keyword searches, CPCs, and estimated competition. However, you should always google the keyword and look at the top results to see the competition visually. Do authority positions dominate the top scores? Is their content solid (in-depth, lots of comments, and links)? Do its authors keep it updated?
The best keywords have a combination of profitability, monthly searches, and low competition. When you find one, the main goal should be to create content that is better than anyone else at the best results.
14. Add keywords
Once you have a keyword (topic) to write about, use this keyword in your blog post:
- Article title
- Permalink (Permalink)
- SEO title (ideally on top)
- Several times in the text of the content, once in the first few sentences
This is it! SEO plugins will tell you to add your keyword to subtitles, image alt text, meta descriptions, and increase keyword density. Usually, you don't need to do this for several reasons:
- Keyword stuffing penalties
- Makes your content look unnatural
- It doesn't always make sense to use the exact keyword
- Sometimes your photos don't accurately describe the keyword
- Sometimes SEOs only detect exact matches when partial matches are good too
- Google often doesn't use meta descriptions and uses snippets of your content instead
15. Write catchy titles for SEO
Search Google for your keyword, look at everyone else's SEO title, then type your keywords differently. While it's usually best to use your keyword in the introduction, sometimes an "attractive" SEO title can be written with your keyword scattered throughout the text. Numbers and strong words usually work well.
16. Add Schema
In WordPress blogs, Schema is often used with reviews, FAQs, and recipes (although there are many other supported data types). As an affiliate blogger, I personally use reviews/FAQs the most.
Rank Math supports most types of structured data, adds coding right, and is easy. Other than that, I recommend Schema Pro or Google Data Highlighter. Other Schema plug-ins do not always add the encoding correctly (and may be out of date) which can cause Schema errors in Search Console.
Add Schema using Rank Math
- Edit article
- Scroll down to the Schema. section
- Choose your type of Schema
- Fill in the required information
- Check for Schema errors in Search Console
17. Add a table of contents
- It can be used in the featured snippets list.
- It makes it easy for users to find what they are looking for.
- Anchors allow people to link to and jump to specific sections of the article.
- It encourages you to write structured and in-depth content (Length is Strength).
There are some good TOC plugins (eg Lucky and Gutenberg Blocks). Or you can design color backgrounds in CSS and manually create a table of contents for each article using HTML code.
18. Give your article a special image
The same banner image can be cropped/resized to use in multiple places (I'm using Photoshop):
- Featured image - top of the article page
- Twitter - 1024x512px at Rank Math
- Facebook - 1200x630px at Rank Math
- Featured snippet - sometimes used in Google search results
19. Invest your blog in affiliate marketing
So how can you profit from affiliate marketing?
Just look at this article I try to give you a lot of value but also use affiliate links for Cloudways, NameCheap, Astra Starter Templates, Rank Math Pro, WP Rocket, and a few others. This is why tutorials on “how to build a WordPress blog” are popular (and competitive). There are so many things to offer.
Step 1: Sign up and get approved. You usually need a reasonable amount of visits (or sales history) before getting approved. If you have a large following elsewhere (like YouTube), you may be able to convince affiliates to approve of you. Otherwise, you need to increase the number of visitors to your blog first.
Step 2: Get your affiliate links. Log in to your affiliate control panel and get affiliate links. With most single affiliate programs, they allocate you an affiliate ID that you can add to any URL on their blog to convert it into an affiliate link. In affiliate marketplaces like ShareASale, they pre-set affiliate links but also have a custom link generator. Use these to add deep links.
Step 3: Install Affiliate Link Management Extension (I am using Thirsty Affiliates) and add affiliate links here. This allows you to organize, track, hide, nofollow, and add affiliate links to your blog easily.
Step 4: Configure Thirsty Affiliate Settings.
- Choose the links prefix (I'm using /go/)
- Enable Statistics in Setting Modules
- Use Nofollow + sponsored (recommended by Google)
- Consider Thirsty Affiliates Pro if you want even more benefits
Adding affiliate links is easy, but the lessons you'll learn from my stories will shed more light than any book or course will teach you.
Write content with affiliates in mind.
Even if you haven't been approved for the program yet, you can still prepare. Take my blog for example. I recommended adding Rank Math even when they don't have an affiliate program. When they added one and approved me, it took less than an hour to replace the regular links with affiliate links. Same with Oxygen Builder. I mention them naturally because they are quick builders. They don't have a partnership program yet, but I bet they might in the future. And if they do, I'll be ready.
Amazon: Low commissions
Amazon's low commissions (4-10%) are probably the biggest drawback. What scares me the most is how powerful they are. They've lowered commission rates in the past, so what makes you think they won't do it again? Do they really need their affiliates? Why would someone come to your blog instead of going directly to Amazon? Sure, there are successful Amazon affiliates (a common strategy I see is YouTubers reviewing video gear). But I like promoting growth companies because they tend to treat affiliates better. There were a lot of red flags for me.
Onshore and offshore hosting industry.
Ah, host. Lots of scum in this industry. Hosts will do anything to get new customers, and affiliates will do anything to achieve those high commissions. If you are entering this industry, I just encourage you to be honest. I recommend the hosting you are already using. Point out the negatives, and please don't be another Bluehost Partner How to Blog. There are already enough of them. The industry is very competitive and I know there is no way I will rank for keywords like “how to start a blog” or “SiteGround ratings”. You have to be smarter than that.
Where to find affiliate companies.
Many affiliate companies run their own program which you can usually find a link to in the footer of their website. Others are part of larger affiliate marketplaces such as ShareASale, Impact, or CJ Affiliate.
Write the affiliate disclaimer.
You are legally obligated to tell people if you use affiliate links. Write a disclaimer page, write a short disclaimer in the article, or use (affiliate link) whenever you use an affiliate link.
How long does it take to get sales?
Getting your first sale can take several months and several years to earn enough money to sustain a living. Other than spending more time on content, the biggest advice I can give is to target profitable (but not very competitive) long-tail keywords and promote high-ticket items. Run the numbers and find out how many sales you need to make each day to make a living.
20. Add a Cookie Notice (GDPR)
Compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is mandatory.
Use this cookie notification extension to let users know that your website is using cookies and provide a link to your privacy policy page. In addition, you must use contact forms (and blog comments) with consent and IP anonymization checkboxes in Google Analytics.
21. Improve your security
If you followed steps 4-6 in this guide, you should already be using SSL, Cloudflare, and the latest version of PHP. Three more easy tweaks can make your WordPress blog more secure.
- Limit Login Attempts - Limit Login Attempts Reloaded is a powerful plugin for this. It also prevents many failed login attempts from exploiting server resources (and records activity)
- Disable XML-RPC - xmlrpc.php allows the WordPress mobile app to communicate with WordPress, but it also exposes security vulnerabilities. Since you probably won't be using it, you can disable it using Disable XML-RPC (or do it manually). Perfmatters also do this.
- WP-Admin Rename - Use WPS Hide Login to rename your WordPress admin/login URLs to a custom URL. By default, attackers go here to try to log you in. Moving it also prevents failed attempts to exploit resources. You can also do this with Perfmatters.
22. Install Search Console + Analytics
In the Rank Math section, you must have Search Console installed (sign up and add the verification code to Rank Math → General Settings → Webmaster Tools → Search Console).
To add Google Analytics, I recommend Flying Analytics by Gijo Varghese. Allows you to use a smaller tracking code size (analytics.js or minimal-analytics.js).
23. Improvement for key performance indicators (KPIs)
During your journey, monitor the Mobile Web KPIs report in Search Console.
When you add more plugins, images, and third-party code, it will inevitably hurt your KPIs. With this guide, you will be creating a WordPress blog on a fast infrastructure. Now is the time to keep it fast. Lighthouse (preferred) and PageSpeed Insights show you specific recommendations for improving your blog. These recommendations should improve KPIs and Lighthouse results:
Improve your LCP element.
The LCP element (the largest piece of content) is usually an image or background image. Optimize this as best you can (use the correct dimensions, specify the dimensions, compress the image, use the correct image format, exclude it from lazy loading if it appears above the fold, and consider using an image CDN). Remember to optimize your logo, site icon, sidebar, footer, and other images that load across your entire blog.
Avoid cumulative design variables.
The result for CLS (Cumulative Design Variables) should ideally be "0". Use the Google Layout Shift Debugger to find layout changes. Specify the dimensions of your photos, videos, and iframes. If you're using AdSense, reserve space for it by specifying the ad dimensions in the div code. Use font-display: swap by adding the necessary symbol to your font's CSS (or use the Swap Google Fonts Display plugin). Test the settings in the caching extension, specifically Optimizing the loading of CSS files. When using animation, use transform: scale() instead of changing the height/width attributes, and use transform: translate() to animate objects instead of using top, right, bottom, left.
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