How To Create A WordPress Website From Scratch (Bluehost Tutorial)

In this article, I am going to share with you how to create a WordPress website from scratch in Bluehost.

If you don’t know what WordPress is? It is a free, open-source software tool in which you can create your website. It can be for a blog, a business or a website for your portfolio.

Of course, there are other platforms and websites that allow you to create your website, but the freedom of creation that comes with WordPress is what makes it different from all others.

Apart from that, you should know that around 40% of websites around the world run on WordPress itself.

Now, to make your WordPress website available and searchable on the internet, you will need a hosting provider that will host your website and run your files so that they appear in the search engines like Google and Bing.

And in case you are just stuck and wondering what would I even do with a website, here’s an article I wrote a few days ago on how you can just start a blog and use it to generate an additional source of income.

Disclosure – Some of the links in my article contains affiliate links, which means I will receive a commission if you click those links and make any purchase from them in fact it will be without any additional cost to you.

Okay, let’s get started.

How to install WordPress in Bluehost

The hosting provider I will be using is Bluehost. It is one of the very few hosting providers that WordPress itself recommends.

And if you want to know more about Bluehost, I shared my experience with Bluehost in my review earlier.

But if you want to check out some other options, here is a list of different WordPress hosting providers you can check out.

There are two ways you can install WordPress in BlueHost.

The first one is by using the Bluehost WordPress website builder, and
The other way is by installing WordPress using the Softaculous app installer.

We’ll look into both, but let’s begin with the Bluehost installer.

STEP 1

First of all, visit Bluehost and Sign up for an account. If you are confused about which plan to choose check this article out to have an idea.
After you have gone through the steps and your sign-up is complete you will be led to your Bluehost dashboard.

Click the “Create new website” button, or in a new dashboard, it might appear “Add website“.

STEP 2

This will lead you to another page where you will have two options available for you to choose from.

The first option would be “limitless customization“.
And the second one would be Fast, Easy site-building (Bluehost website builder)

Choose the first option to install WordPress.

Now you will be prompted to enter your site name & your site’s tagline. Enter it and,

Then click the advance button, and the page will then expand, in there enter your email, your username and your password and click next.

On the next page select the domain name that you have bought while signing up for Bluehost in the left search bar and create a directory where all your files will be saved within the server on the right.

Click “Create” and that’s it. WordPress will be installed on your Bluehost server.

Now save your WordPress details by copying and pasting your username and password somewhere safe as you might need them later.

STEP 3

Click “Login to WordPress” and you will be led to the backend of your WordPress.

This will be your WordPress dashboard where you can make all the customizations to your website on how it would appear to your visitors in the front.

Now the first thing you would want to make changes to your website is by choosing a theme for your website rather than using the default one.

Just go to the left menu in your dashboard and go to appearance then select themes and click “Add new theme“.

You will be led to the theme collection section where you can find thousands of free themes that you can use on your website.

But before you choose a theme, make sure to do your research. Choose a theme that’s fast. It will be best if you could choose a theme with good ratings and a large user base.

After you have done choosing your theme, click “Install and activate” and the theme will be activated on your website.

You can also use premium themes from other sources that give you much more customization options than the free ones, but as a beginner, the free ones will do for now.

In my case, I will be using Astra.

To add a theme if you have bought a premium one, just go to the top of the dashboard when you are in the theme section and choose upload and then install.

Astra also has a premium version with extended features. If you would like to try the premium version, here’s my affiliate link to Astra.

How to customize the WordPress website theme

To customize your WordPress theme you can go to the left side menu in your dashboard and go to appearance, and then customize to make changes in your theme.

However, with the Astra theme, you also have the option to use the pre-built starter templates from their collection.

As I am making this website for my local business, I think a starter template will make it easier for me to customize my website.

Now, let’s have a look at…

How to add a starter template to the Astra theme?

When you are at the theme section of your WordPress dashboard with Astra activated, you will find a message with the option/button “Get started” just above the theme preview.

Click on it and enter your details to create an account for Astra.

Astra get started button for starter templates

The other way around to go to the starter templates will be to go to the left menu of the dashboard and then to appearance >> starter templates.

Now select the page builder that you would want to use for your website. The options will be Elementor, Beaver Builder, Gutenberg and Brizy.

In my case, I will be choosing Gutenberg as I have found it to be faster.

Now you will be led to a collection of starter templates for different types of business websites.

If you want, you can preview the templates.

The one that’s the closest to my business is the CarWash template, as I am making this website for my two-wheeler garage.

The final step would be to select import to import the starter template to your website.

How to create a WordPress website using Softaculous?

The second way to install WordPress on Bluehost would be by using the Softaculous app installer. It is an app that lets you install various apps on your CPanel. You can learn more about Softaculous here.

Now let’s see how to install it.