Bluehost and WordPress
Some say social media is a good place to start your online presence but if you are serious about your business sooner or later you will need to create and maintain a website. Bluehost and WordPress make a great combo to create a website and blog.
It is not an extremely complicated task anymore, there are many simple-to-use templates out there. Even my favorite printing service offers to host sites for customers. But if you want to look professionally from the start and have room and many options to grow in the future – in my opinion WordPress.org is the best way to go.
WordPress is an open-source software developed to make it easy for non-technical people to publish websites and blogs. For me, also a non-techy person, with a background based in architecture, the best explanation of WordPress is a “set of blocks”. You can use a few, start small, and when you are confident enough, and your business expands – you can customize and build up. And the variety is endless.
WordPress is also a community. All the “blocks” are created by this community, so there is always help available. And if not – the community will let you know.
I know, WordPress requires some learning. If you are like me and like to learn with a book in hand, below is a link to a recent WordPress manual sold in the Amazon Store.
If you would like to give WordPress a try, I highly recommend checking it.
To build a house you need an address and a plot of land.
In comparable manner before you start creating your website you need:
- Domain Name
- Hosting Service
Domain name (the address) is the way to find you, and the hosting service will provide you with a “land” to build your website on.
Domain is usually the same as the name of your business. And just like in the brick-and-mortar situation you need to register it. This is to be unique, like any address should, and to establish ownership and protect from stealing.
When selecting the Hosting Service (the plot of land) for my site, I was looking for proficiency and good uptime, but also for a service that would keep things simple. As a graphic designer, and not a nerd, I don’t like to be constantly hands-on with the site maintenance, updates, fixing brakes, or remembering backups.
After working for over a decade with a few different hosting services I decided to choose the Bluehost for my website.
4 Reasons I Like Bluehost:
- Affordable
- WordPress Friendly
- Proficient
- Not Too Techie
1. Bluehost is Affordable
As you can see in the link above you can purchase a complete hosting solution for as low as $2.95 per month. Since at the time of making the purchase I did not plan to work on more than one site, this was my first choice. Important features for me were the 24/7 support and the free SSL certificate.
Given the choice again I would go for the “Choice Plus”. It also includes free Domain Privacy and one year of Automated Backup. Because I didn’t, I had to pay $10 for the privacy, and had to install later a special plugin helping with the backups.
In case you are not familiar with the term SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate: it provides authentication for your website. It is this “https//” right before your URL. It communicates to your visitors’ credentials and security. A must have on every e-commerce site, and a good practice for all others. I still remember the time and money I had to spend in the past with Some Other Host to install it on a website I was working on… so, when with Bluehost it appeared for my site effortlessly and free I was more than happy.
2. Bluehost is WordPress Friendly
Bluehost, along with SiteGroung and DreamHost is 1 of the 3 hosting companies recommended by WordPress. So, after signing for the service I was not surprised to discover the super easy one-click WordPress installation button. In addition, right from the start they walked me through a checklist of all the things that I may need to complete. Often, like the SSL, there are features that you install once, and if they work well, you never think about them again. A checklist like this can be lifesaver if you’re a beginner but is also important even if you work with websites for a while.
3. Bluehost is Proficient
Don’t we all avoid slow loading websites?! Bluehost sites have great loading times. To make sure it will work on your site well, on the Bluehost dashboard in performance page, you can change the cache settings to safely deleting old and archived data so that your site loads faster. Make sure you’ll use it. Faster site means a better user experience, which results in immediate thumbs up from Google, and consequently – more visitors.
Hosts are also evaluated by the “uptime”. This is the amount of time for which they have all the sites up and running. Here again, Bluehost is one of the best with an uptime of 99.98%.
4. Bluehost is Not Too Techie
Bluehost uses Control Panel (cPanel), that helps managing your site. It will let you add and control several apps and plugins that will enhance your site’s functionality regardless of what system, theme, and templates you choose to build your site in. I used the panel right away to set up personalized email account for my site.
All features on the cPanel are explained in plain English, and if I still have trouble to grasp things – they DO answer the phones 24/7 as promised. And many say the customer support is the best.
Are you ready to see for yourself?
Disclaimer: The links to the Amazon store and the Bluehost are my Affiliate Links. This means that when you click and make a purchase through them, I may receive a small commission. This will not affect your price. Because I update the links often I look out for the best deals you may get. I also don’t recommend what I would not use myself.