Initial WordPress site setup with SiteGround Central
Table of Contents
All new WordPress installations at SiteGround come with our SiteGround Central plugin preinstalled, which greatly improves the user experience of initially setting up a website. When you log into a new WordPress admin for the first time, you will be guided through a short site-building process.
Step 1: Choose a website topic
The first step in the process is choosing your website’s topic. Based on your choice we will suggest the most relevant theme and functionality options for your new website so that you have the foundation for your website properly set. A website well-oriented around its topic helps you engage with your target audience effectively and ensures that your website serves its specific purpose. Whether you’re promoting a business, sharing your expertise, or showcasing your creative work, choosing the right website topic is the first step that allows you to craft an online presence that captivates and leaves a lasting impression in your visitors.
Step 2: Choose a design
The next step in building a great website is choosing a great theme, which will be the foundation of its look and feel. When installing a new theme, however, many beginners struggle to achieve the same look as the theme’s demo site. That’s why we have added placeholder content for the available themes. It makes building the website’s pages more intuitive and helps you use the theme to its full potential.
You can choose from a hand-picked list of themes, organized by category and industry. You can also look for the perfect theme by searching for a specific keyword:
You can see a preview of how the theme will look by clicking on the image preview of the particular theme.
The themes include all of the demo content you see on the theme preview.
Once you find the theme that best fits your needs click the Select button to proceed to the next step.
Step 3: Select your website functionalities
The next step is adding functional features to your site such as contact forms, galleries, an online shop, and other essentials. We have carefully selected the best plugins for the most common website needs based on our years of expertise.
Click the Add button for the functionality that you want to have on your website. Note that you can choose to have more than one or even all of them installed.
Once you have picked the desired plugins, click Continue at the bottom of the page to proceed to the next step.
Step 4: Add marketing automation tools
Here you can choose from the most powerful marketing tools available for WordPress. These tools are great for your website’s SEO and provide you with different methods for analyzing your website’s traffic.
Once you have picked the desired tools, click the Complete button to initiate the final step of the process.
Step 5: Sit back while we set up everything
Once you press the Complete button we will start installing and setting up the desired theme, plugins and tools that you chose on the previous steps.
Depending on the number of functionalities you selected the process could take a few moments. Once completed, the page will change, informing you of the successful completion:
The View Site button will take you to the website’s front end, where you can see how the website looks to your visitors currently and the Manage Site one will take you to your WordPress admin panel.