You have decided to set up your website with DreamHost. But you are not sure how, or where to start. This post is going to show you how.
DreamHost
DreamHost is a web hosting provider and the domain registrar. That means it has the facilities required to create, maintain, and make available your website on the World Wide Web (www). As a domain registrar, it handles the reservation of domain names, i.e. www.yourname.com, for the public. And assigns IP addresses to those domain names, for example, the 198.156.1.32 numbers associated with your computer, or laptop.
Choosing A Web Hosting Provider
According to digital.com, “Choosing a web hosting provider can feel like a daunting task at times since thousands of hosts claim to provide the best service. Despite these claims, there are several criteria you can use to accurately evaluate your options.” Their website suggests that you look for the main factors of speed, support, cost, security, and scalability.
DreamHost As A Web Hosting Provider
DreamHost ranks high on these criteria, especially in security with their malware remover – DreamShield,
which is an “effective tool that allows you to scan, detect, and remove vulnerabilities or threats from your website.”
So, how do you set up your website on DreamHost? Let’s look at the steps to set up your website.
18 Steps to Set Up Your Website with DreamHost
1. Go to www.dreamhost.com
2. Click the ‘Get Started’ button on either the top right side or bottom left side of their home page.
3. Choose your hosting plan (monthly/yearly payment).
4. Click ‘Get Domain’ from the displayed menu.
5. Input your chosen name to get a .com domain.
6. Go to secure checkout and pay the amount shown at the bottom right of the page.
7. Get taken to your DreamHost control panel.
8. Click WordPress on the left-side drop-down menu.
9. Click the ‘install WordPress’ option.
10. Wait patiently until installation is complete.
11. Sign up for WordPress from your DreamHost panel, and get taken to WordPress.
12. From your WordPress Panel chose a theme, click install, and activate.
13. Design your website according to your business type such as eCommerce, Blog, etc.
14. Create standard pages for any website such as the Home, About, and Contact pages.
15. Click pages on the left side of your WordPress panel and click ‘Add New’ page to create pages.
16. Click ‘Appearance’ then ‘Menu’ to create your website menu for your pages.
17. Create required legal pages such as Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, and Disclaimer pages.
18. Include important add-ons like DreamShield, and other WordPress Plugins.
As a newbie, some of these processes might sound confusing at first. but not to worry you will get the hang of it. So. let’s look at this process in greater detail to help you understand it better.
How to Set Up Your Website with DreamHost
1. Go to www.dreamhost.com
You will arrive at a site that looks like this:
2. Click the ‘Get Started’ button on either the top right side or bottom left side and you will be taken to another page where you will choose your preferred hosting plan.
3. Choose your hosting plan (monthly/yearly payment) on this page
Choose the Shared Plan, and click to pay either yearly or monthly. The Shared Plan is the cheapest and is best for starting your new business. After you choose it will take you to another page to get your domain. And if you already have one add it. Your Domains with DreamHost are free once you pay the cost of your hosting plan shown at the bottom right of the page.
4. Click ‘Get Domain’ from the displayed menu on this page
You can see the cost of your chosen plan reflected on the bottom right of the page. This shows you what you have in your cart. After you click ‘Get Domain’ you are taken to a new page so you can get your domain with the name you coined for your website. Remember to get two or three preferred names ready before you get to this page in case your first choice name has already been taken by someone else you can still proceed with another name.
5. Input your chosen name to get a .com domain on this page:
Make sure you choose a domain ending with .com because it is the most recognized domain name for a business website. You can still see the amount showing at the bottom right of your page. Once your name is approved you are taken to the checkpoint page.
6. Go to secure checkout and pay the amount shown at the bottom right of the page. Pay with your preferred payment method that is shown. You might want to get your credit or debit card ready at this point. After payment, you will be taken to your DreamHost Control Panel (cPanel).
7. Get taken to your DreamHost control panel, which looks like this:
You will work mostly with the drop-down menu on your left. In the middle is where you get information from DreamHost about what you should know and adverts. In addition, you get to see some of the actions you click on from the menu reflected there.
For instance, when you click website from the menu, or the ‘manage website’ icon at the top right corner of the panel you will see a miniature picture of your site displayed. And when you click on it, it takes you into your WordPress panel to continue working on your site from there.
8. Click WordPress on the left-side drop-down menu and you will see another sub-drop-down menu appear with two options.
9. Click the ‘install WordPress’ option, and WordPress will be installed and integrated with your DreamHost site.
10. Wait patiently until the WordPress installation is complete, and you will be taken to your WordPress page from your DreamHost control panel.
11. Sign up for WordPress from your DreamHost panel, and get taken to your WordPress Dashboard, which looks like this;
12. From your WordPress Dashboard click ‘Appearance’ and choose Theme. You will be taken to a page with various themes. Choose the theme most appropriate for your business, then click install, and activate.
13. Design your website according to your business type such as eCommerce, Blog, etc, from the left side menu on your WordPress Dashboard.
14. Create standard pages required for any website such as the Home, About, and Contact pages from the left side of your WordPress Dashboard.
15. Click pages on the left side of your WordPress Dashboard, and click ‘Add New’ page to create pages for your website. When creating pages remember to save as a draft and don’t click publish until you are ready for the whole world wide web to see it.
Always preview your work to ensure what is coming out is what you want. Don’t worry everything is intuitive and you will see the ‘Draft’ and ‘publish’ buttons clearly marked.
i. Create Pages with Blocks
You can choose to create pages without blocks, which are guides of pre-written content to help you create pages faster. If you want to use blocks, just click the ‘add block’ button and you will be taken to the block builder. There you can click the block drop down menu and choose from different types of blocks listed.
ii. Choose Category to Create Page Sections
You will first click the category of website you’re building and the blocks for such a website will be loaded for you. then you choose which portion of the page you want to build such as Welcome section, Pricing section, Team section, Portfolio section, etc.
After you publish your pages, you can now create your menu and position them as they will appear on your site as the main menu.
16. Click ‘Appearance’ then ‘Menu’ to create your website menu for your pages and save. You can always tweak the menu until you get what you want.
17. Create required legal pages such as Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, and Disclaimer pages. Likewise, create these pages as already described above, and include them in your menu as the footer menu.
18. Include important add-ons like DreamShield and other WordPress Plugins when your site is up, to secure it and enhance the functionality of your site. Get a list of resources and plugins you immediately need here.
Conclusion
DreamHost is a top-rated hosting service provider. It is one of the three hosting providers recommended by WordPress as a choice hosting service for their websites. You can easily set up your website on DreamHost with no coding experience. Be sure to add DreamShield Protection to guard against malware.
Their control panel is intuitive and easy to use. At first, it might seem a bit confusing but you will get the hang of it with time, and enjoy it. I encourage you to use DreamHost because their support team is very friendly, willing to help you, and prompt in their response. From personal experience, you can just shoot them an email and you will get a reply almost immediately.