How to Set Up a New Website
If you don’t have a website but need one, this step-by-step guide is for you!
If you need a website, but don’t know where to start, these simple steps will guide you through the process.
1. Register your domain name
Registering your “domain name” is the first step. Your domain name is the URL or address of your website, like google.com or brandcultivation.com, and you need to buy the domain you want to use. It’s easier and probably less expensive than you think.
Pro Tip: Having registered countless domains for 28 years with many domain registration companies, today I strongly prefer NameCheap to register website domains* for the best user experience.
You’ll sometimes catch domains on sale at NameCheap for super cheap prices—like $6.49 for a .com domain. However, with the prices of most domains being relatively low to begin with, I care more about the company itself, and what it’s like to deal with them. That’s why the Brand Cultivation’s domain registration company of choice is NameCheap.*
2. Set up website hosting
Once you have your domain name, you’ll need hosting, a place for your website to be securely stored online and and publicly available. For most clients, Brand Cultivation highly recommends SiteGround for website hosting.*
Currently, in 2025, you can buy a year of web hosting for around $36. (Like most hosting companies, your first year is discounted.) With SiteGround hosting, you get free email accounts for your domain name, no need to pay separately for @yourdomainname email accounts! Their mid-tier plan (around $60 for the first year) makes sense for many as it gives you unlimited websites, a performance boost and some other features that can help when setting up a new website.
3. Install WordPress
Unless you want to write the code for your site yourself—and you don’t!—you need a way to manage both the content of the site, and the way it looks. Installing WordPress is an obvious choice here. Not only is WordPress free, it’s the absolute #1 way of building and maintaining websites worldwide for many, many reasons.
In your hosting account, whether it’s SiteGround or most others, there’s typically a very automated method of installing WordPress. Here are some tips for your WordPress installation:
- Make your password very strong, and don’t use the same one you use elsewhere. The last thing you want is one of the bad guys gaining access to your site. From “simply” defacing your website to installing malicious software, bad things can and do happen if your site isn’t secure.
- Install a reputable security plugin. SiteGround automatically adds their security plugin when you install WordPress, a nice touch. It does need to be configured though, so be sure to walk through the options and settings. There are many others available. WordFence, for example is extremely highly rated, and their commercial, paid WordPress security plugin* is likely the best there is.
3. Choose your theme
This is where WordPress really shines. There are countless “themes” to choose from, and most of them free.
What is a WordPress theme? The theme is what determines the overall look and feel of your site, from very simple and basic to extremely creative with time-saving functionality. Most you can get easily from your WordPress dashboard (Appearance > Themes), and are extremely simple to install. And, you can choose a different theme down the road if your needs change.
Pro Tip: Stick with themes that are highly-rated. You can seen the number of stars and number of ratings; both should be high. And be wary of paid themes. They can, and often do, offer everything in the world for one low price! However, much, if not most, of what they bundle in their theme you won’t need. And the complexity of most of these “all in one” themes often leads to a bad user experience.
4. Add plugins
Like themes, the plugins available for WordPress are seemingly endless. Each adds functionality to your WordPress site, from enhanced security, to “widgets” that offer creative ways to show off your content, to full-blown ecommerce. Some of the most useful plugins offer functions like:
- Form creation and submission by email
- Website security
- Shopping cart/ecommerce
- Donation buttons
- Enhanced content management and display options
- SEO, or search engine optimization
5. Add your content
Adding your text and images is the last step in building your website. This is where a lot of people turn to Brand Cultivation for help. But, if you’re good with words and have an excellent sense of design, you’re off to the races!
- Use headings appropriately. Google expects your site to use standard headings on your pages—H1, H2, H3, etc. in coding speak. These are all readily available in the WordPress editor. And they should go in order: H1 is typically the title of your page, H2 is often your title’s subheading, H3 is generally your lower subheadings as progress down the page. These headings not only make your content “scannable” and easier to read, they can help with SEO, making your site rank higher in search results.
- Make longer pages. Design-wise, we all like short, to-the-point pages. Just be aware that Google likes longer pages! You can make longer content more appealing by breaking it up with images and headings.
- Use nice imagery. Most people won’t read your content. Sad, but true. However, you can keep their attention longer with well-chosen images. Today, there are many sources of free photos and graphics, just make sure you’re using your own images, or those that come from sites that allow usage on your website.
6. Launch your site!
Once you’ve got everything the way you like, tell the world! Announce it on your social media accounts, and link to the site in your profiles. Congratulations … you’re live for all the world to see!