How to start a blog on WordPress in 2023

A no-BS guide to start a blog in 2023

Overview

Starting a blog in 2023 doesn’t have to be overwhelming or feel impossible. While there is a learning curve to blogging, once you get everything in place, it really up from there. That’s why I’m going to show you how to start a blog with WordPress.

I’ve been blogging on and off for the better part of 10 years now. I’ve also worked as a Growth Marketing Manager at tech companies and have learned the ins and outs of website management, analytics, marketing and much more. When I got my first job out of grad school, I had taught myself everything I know about blogging – school didn’t teach me that stuff. I started my travel blog while I was living over in London getting my grad degree and boy was it a learning curve. There’s SO much that goes into starting a blog, making money from it, sharing it, etc. I was super naive, if I’m being honest, but I conquered it and now I want to pass on that knowledge to you.

You don’t have to be intimidated by it. It is a learning curve, yes, but if you’re someone who’s willing to learn and you want to:

• Break out of the 9-5 American grind
• Have a sense of freedom when it comes to your work
• Travel or invest in something you care deeply about
• Insert your dream here

Then you will get through the learning part of it and you’ll make it happen. I’ll be honest, there’s days where I still get frustrated by something. For example, I could NOT for the life of me get this text to format properly on a blog post I was recently working on. I truly don’t know what the issue was, but I basically had to delete the section and start over. Blogging is a never-ending learning process. Trial and error AT ITS FINEST.

Do me a favor and don’t listen to all of these people who make it sound SO simple to start. Sure, if you don’t want to own your content and you want to go the Squarespace or Wix route, then absolutely it’s easy to start up. But if you’re wanting to build a brand, invest in yourself, make the content YOURS, and grow something into a business — then no, it’s not simple and straightforward. It takes time, learning, and persistence.

I didn’t get it right the first time. I’m still probably not getting it right, but I LOVE sharing information with you and passing on knowledge that I’ve gained over the last 10 years.

Don’t let this deter you — I WANT you to start your blog, build the life of your dreams and achieve whatever goal it is you’re wanting to achieve, but I also am going to keep it real with you. It’s important that you KNOW what you’re getting yourself into and I want you to really have a read through this and think about whether or not you’re:

1. ready for the challenge or
2. maybe not yet.

I don’t say this to scare you, but rather to show you the reality of starting a blog and all that it encompasses. If you aren’t tech savvy, there will be some things to learn, but you can do it. You’re capable of doing it.

So, let me step down from my soap box, you go make a up of tea or coffee, and without further ado here is my real, authentic, no BS guide to starting a blog in 2023.

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Part 1: Decide your blog strategy

1. Blog Topic

You know those people who tell you to pick a niche and stick to it? Yeah, I’m not one of those people. If you think about it, we’re all multi-faceted, right? We all have multiple interests, hobbies, passions, etc. If that’s the case, why would you limit your blog to ONE or even TWO particular niches?

Here’s the thing — if you’re trying to build a brand, you build it around YOU. If you’re interested in cooking, but also holistic nutrition (random example) — why not talk about BOTH? Why not incorporate both somehow? Even better, let’s add fitness to the mix — let’s say you’re a pilates instructor on the weekends, you love cooking AND talking about holistic nutrition.

Why not do all three?

If that is what you’re passionate about, and really these make sense to be talked about together, then why not just go with all three as your blog topics? You need to pick something that you WANT to write about because no one wants to write about something consistently that they are only trying to do for money and SEO. That’s just the truth. You’ll burn out and call it a day within a month.

Pillar Content

Now, typically we’d call these interest areas “Pillar Content” in the blogging/content/SEO/marketing world. You want to build your blog around this pillar content.

For example, mine is travel + blogging. So I have:

• Pillar Content #1: Destinations
  • Sub-category = country
• Pillar Content #2: Travel Tips
  • Sub-category = solo travel, essentials, budget travel tips, etc.
• Pillar Content #3: Blogging
  • Sub-category = starting a blog, blogging tips, Pinterest tips, etc.

So I focus on building travel guides for people, itineraries, etc. I also share my travel tips for budgeting, solo travel, etc. Lastly, I focus on blogging content — helping people just like you start a blog, start & grow on Pinterest, etc.

2. Decide a blog name

After you’ve narrowed down your pillar content themes, the next thing you’re going to want to do is figure out what to name your blog.

Some people choose to name their blog after themselves e.g. just their name. Other people have some clever play on words. Some choose adjectives + their name. There’s a variety of ways you can determine what your name will be, but make sure that it’s something you want to commit to, because if you build a following + the blog traffic, it’s going to be REALLY hard to rebrand later on.. We’re talking URL redirects, domain changes, etc. Headaches!

For my blog name, I found that when I was traveling I always had to have my hat with me. In photos, on trips, etc. It was like my companion. So I actually did rebrand my blog and moved from “Voyageur Kalee” (because I was obsessed with the French language and couldn’t think of anything else 10 years ago) to “A Girl and Her Hat.”

I LOVE my domain name, my brand. I love it. Eventually maybe I’ll move to just my name or something, but for now I still really love A Girl and Her Hat. It’s become a part of me and I don’t want to let it go.

Find something like that. Something that embodies who you are and what you’re about. That’s where you’ll find your blog name.

Part 2: Build the blog

Here’s where the fun begins. Buckle your seatbelt and let’s begin the technical side of starting a blog. Quite honestly, over the last 10 years I’ve grown to love this side of things. It probably has to do with the fact that this has been my full time job for other companies for a while, and I’ve learned so much from it, but I genuinely find this side of blogging to be super interesting.

There’s a few things we’re going to talk about in this section:

1. Choosing a website host
   • If you plan to OWN your blog content and you also are looking to potentially turn your blog into either your job or a business (in general) you’re going to WANT to use something like wordpress.org instead of Squarespace or Wix. While the setup may be easier on those two, you don’t really own your content. They could take it at any point, so just be sure that you’re ready for the investment that comes with self hosting your own blog, like on wordpress, because that’s where the money comes in e.g. you’re going to have to pay for a website host, which I’ll talk about in a brief moment.
2. Confirming your domain name (website name)
3. Setting up your WordPress
4. WordPress dashboard overview
5. Setting up your Google Analytics + Search Console
6. Optimize your blog theme
7. Publishing content

After we go through the more technical side of things, we’ll talk about the marketing side of blogging e.g. sharing your content, utilizing Pinterest, etc.

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Choosing a website host

I’ll be honest, I. was influenced by another blogger when it came to using Siteground over BlueHost. These are really the top two hosting tools you’ll hear about most often.

However, once I got to learning about Siteground, I was really impressed and I genuinely have had ZERO issues with the tool and I’ve had it going on roughly 5 years now (I think).

Right now, they’re doing a summer sale offering 80% off of their monthly plans — starting at just $2.99/mo. for. a year. Honestly, when I first purchased Siteground, they were doing something similar and then I found it to be worth it so I just stuck with them.

They have also implemented email marketing tools, site scanner functionality and so much more. Let’s look at the different plans you can choose from.

Step 1: Choose a plan

SiteGround has three different plans to choose from, however, since I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this you’re creating a blog from scratch, my recommendation would be to go with the StartUp plan. It’s sufficient for what you’re about to do and you can always upgrade if needed

Step 2: Choose a Domain Name 

After you’ve signed up for a hosting plan, you can choose to buy a new domain, or sign up with an existing domain. I’m going to go ahead and guess that you don’t already have a domain name and will want to register a new one. Siteground makes it super easy to do that and honestly, I recommend it. I bought my domain on GoDaddy a long time ago and that’s where it still lives. It’s quite the process to get everything connected when it’s all in separate tools, etc. but I make it work.

If you’re just starting out, I highly recommend you just do everything within Siteground — make it easier on yourself.

Step 3: Review and Complete the Order

Unlike a lot of other hosting providers, Siteground’s advertised discount applies to any of the initial periods chosen during the sign up process. The absolute BEST deal is if you sign up for the 12 month period. If you know that you’re in this and you want to commit to blogging for at least the next year, do yourself a favor and go ahead and purchase your plan for 12 months.

Next: Setup WordPress

STEP 1: Easily install WordPress

First, you’ll need to install the application for building your website, in this case – WordPress.

When you log in to Siteground for the first time in your Client Area, you’ll see a welcome message and a button “SET UP WEBSITE” which will take you directly to the installation process.

On the next step, select Start New Website and WordPress as your application of choice.

Finish the installation process by choosing whether to add extra services, such as SG Site Scanner, which scans your website every day and alerts you immediately if your website has been hacked or compromised with malicious code.

At the end, click on Finish and wait while WordPress is being installed.

STEP 2: Choose a starting theme

Once the WordPress installation has finished you will be prompted to the WordPress Starter wizard. Click on Start Now. You can choose a theme from a wide selection of free SiteGround-curated themes.

Note that the theme will come with pre-filled sample content, enabled by the intuitive drag-and-drop page editor that SiteGround provides by default. This will help you easily visualize how the actual content would look like before you substitute it with your own copy, imagery, etc.

Once you get your blog started, you can always adjust the theme before you launch or even after launch. You aren’t married to this theme forever, it’s just to get you started.

STEP 3: Add plugins to your site to increase functionality

Once you get the right design for your site, your next step will be to add some useful plugins.

Here’s a few of the plugins I recommend getting started with:

• Contact Form – so your website visitors have an easy way to contact you;
• YoastSEO – The all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.
• WooCommerce – install if you plan on selling products on your site
• PixelYourSite Pinterest – Manage your Pinterest Tag: automatically add it to any page, fire events, integrate with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads. You’ll want to do this if you plan to use Pinterest to send traffic to your site, sell products, etc.
• Google analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights – The best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. See how visitors find and use your website, so you can keep them coming back.
• MailChimp (or some other email subscriber tool) – Adds various highly effective sign-up methods to your site. (You’ll also need to sign up on MailChimp directly, but for just starting out, they’re my recommendation to you).

Once you’ve made your choices, click Complete. In minutes, your blog will be ready with the content and functionalities you’ve added. Just log in your site from http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin and start adding content using the custom WordPress dashboard, which looks something like this:

WordPress Dashboard

Overview

Posts

Posts = blog articles/content. Within this section is where you will write out all of your blog posts, customize your categories, tags, how your posts are sorted, etc.

Pages

Pages = landing pages on your site. For example:

• Homepage
• Contact Page
• About YOU page
• Blog (which will “host” all of your posts)
• Specific landing pages for lead generation e.g. signing people up for something through your email list
• Etc.

Media Library

This is where allllllllllll your images will live. Simple as that.

Contact

This is where your contact forms will live and you can optimize them in here as well.

Site Appearance

Appearance is where you’ll find your customization, themes, etc. If you end up buying a theme from somewhere else, then you’ll want to implement the “import demo data” plugin so that you can implement the demo and then customize it with your own content.

Site Customization

When you go to appearance > customization, this is what it’ll look like. I bought a theme off of Creative Market, so that’s why you’ll see the “Harlowe” name everywhere. This is where you’ll go to optimize your site identity, menus, homepage settings, etc.

Site Identity

Site identity is where you’ll customize your site title, tagline (if you want to add one) logo size, and site icon (what shows up next to your website on the chrome/safari tab.

Menus

This is where you’ll optimize your primary menu that shows up at the top of your website. This will consist of your pages that you’ve built out, so you’ll likely have one for:

• Homepage = Home
• About YOU
• Category/Pillar Content #1
• Category/Pillar Content #2
• Category/Pillar Content #3
• Blog
• Shop – if you have one
• and anything else you feel like you need to highlight!

Homepage Settings

Homepage settings is where you dictate what your homepage displays, whether that be your latest posts or a static page. I recommend creating a homepage for your blog, which is pretty standard, and then have a “Blog” page for all of your posts, which you will link to from your main navigation AND your homepage.

Widgets

The widgets section under the “Appearance tab” is where you’ll customize your sidebar on the blog (if you have one) and any other widgets you have implemented. Once you get in there and start editing/optimizing, it’s fairly intuitive.

Plugins

Lastly, plugins — this is where you’ll see all of your installed plugins (e.g. the contact form, etc.) and then you’ll also be able to add new ones if you need to. Oftentimes, WordPress will auto-update your plugins, but sometimes you have to manually do it — you can set it up however you’d like to.

If you find this valuable so far, consider signing up to join the community and get more tips!

Next: Google Analytics Setup

To get started with Google Analytics, you’ll want to download the MonsterInsights plugin that I mentioned earlier. Once you install that, it will walk you through the process of getting started with Google Analytics.

Once the plugin is downloaded and installed, go to the list of installed plugins. Under “Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights”, click Activate. (Google help article here).

Click Launch the Wizard from the landing page.

Complete the setup wizard

(Optional) implement Google Ads conversion tracking if you have a tag ID starting with “AW-”

1. Log in to your MonsterInsights WordPress account.
2. Under “Insights”, click Settings, then click Publisher.
3. Navigate to the “Ads Tracking” section and paste your Google tag ID (For example: AW-123456789).
4. Click Save Changes at the top of the page.

Now, ever since July 2023, Google Analytics moved from Universal Analytics to GA4. GA4 is slightly different than Universal Analytics but if you’re just starting out and have nothing to compare it to, then you’ll be fine.

Google Analytics (GA4)

Overview

Even though you have monsterinsights in the wordpress dashboard, I recommend you visit your google analytics dashboard directly. When you land on your homepage, you’ll see this list of options on the lefthand side.

Reports

Underneath the report section, you’ll see a variety of different options to dive into. I’ll provide a brief overview as to what the overarching theme of each section is, but I plan to do a whole in-depth Google Analytics blog post, so be sure to stay tuned for that and sign up for my email list to be notified of when it comes out.

Acquisition

1. Acquisition
   • The source of your traffic. For example:
     • Organic Search = Google, Yahoo, etc. Any search engine
     • Organic Social – Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
     • Paid Social = any paid advertisements you’re running on social platforms or Google Search
     • Direct = someone typed in your website name directly into the search bar

Engagement

1. Engagement
   • Events = the unique event that fires when someone: (Google will predetermine these for you but you can also customize them if you’d like)
     • views a page
     • scrolls
     • starts a session
     • etc.
   • Conversions = any conversion you’ve set up on your site – could be email sign ups, products bought, etc.
   • Pages & Screens = all of. the pages / screens that someone visits on your page, how long they spend time there, etc.
   • Landing pages = where someone LANDS on your site for. the first time

Monetization + User Attributes

1. Monetization
   • If you sell products on your website, this is where you’ll be able to track your revenue, products sold, user purchase journey, etc.
2. User Attributes
   • This is where you learn allllll about the people who are landing on your site
     • Demographics
     • Language
     • etc.

Device Type

1. Tech
   • This is where you’ll see what device type someone came to your website from
     • Mobile
     • Desktop
     • Tablet
   • This will help you adjust your website accordingly e.g. mobile optimization, etc.

That is where you are going to spend majority of your time in Google Analytics. Rarely will you go to the exploration or advertising tab, unless you are advertising or trying to build a specific user funnel to visualize.

Again, I’ll do an in-depth Google Analytics blog post, but until then, this gets you acclimated and a tad bit more comfortable with getting started in Google Analytics.

Google Search Console

Overview

Let’s briefly discuss Google Search Console (GSC).

What is GSC?

Search Console tools and reports help you measure your site’s Search traffic and performance, fix issues, and make your site show up in Google Search results.

Is GSC Free?

YES! It’s a Google tool that is FREE to use. I highly recommend it because as your blog starts to gain more traffic, you’ll be able to see keywords that people used to find your site, how your site’s performing in terms of Google’s Core web vitals, etc.

What are the Core Web vitals?

• Core Web Vitals is a set of metrics that measure real-world user experience for loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability of the page. Google highly recommends site owners achieve good Core Web Vitals for success with Search and to ensure a great user experience generally.
• To be honest it’s a RANKING factor — so make sure you take it seriously

I will do another in depth guide for Google Search Console, but just know that it is a FREE Google tool that you will absolutely want to use and monitor as your blog starts to grow!

Next: Optimize blog theme

If you went through the process of using a theme that Siteground offered to get your blog up and running, you may want to consider customizing it if you’re really wanting to make this your main source of income.

One of my absolute FAVORITE websites is Creative Market. I buy fonts, wordpress themes, social designs, etc. from there. I’ve now bought three different wordpress themes from them and they have been the easiest thing to install / get up and running.

If you buy a theme, the seller generally has a PDF of how to go about implementing it, etc. It’s a step-by-step process and super straightforward to follow.

Prices for themes range anywhere from $20-$200 – it completely depends on your budget and how much you’re really willing to invest in your blog. For example, the theme I’m using on my website cost about $90 and I’m obsessed with it!

Find one that works best for you AND your budget and just go from there! You can always iterate on it in the future.

Content Creation

The next-to-last thing you’ll want to do is start publishing content. You’ve done all the setup work, you’ve got your social accounts ready to go, now you just need to start creating the content!

If you remember earlier, we talked about your pillar content and how it’s good to have at least three pillars to build content from. Hopefully by this point, you’ve had a chance to brainstorm some content ideas within each of those pillars so that you’re ready to start writing out your content.

If not, I recommend taking an hour or two and really drafting out what content you want to write out.

Content Creation Guide

Keyword Research

​​Do some keyword research to see what people are searching for but ultimately write what you’re passionate about

• Some keyword research tools to consider:
  • Google Trends
  • Answer the Public
  • Pinterest Trends
  • Wordstream
  • Moz Keyword Explorer

Example of a great blog post

• Great headline – grab the reader’s attention
  • In SEO terminology this is an H1
  • Fun fact: 60% of readers don’t get pas the headline — so make it a catchy one if applicable!
• An SEO optimized title
  • Aim for 60 characters
• Main keywords included but not stuffed into the post – no need to overdo it
  • Include this in the title and intro paragraph if possible
• Write a good meta description
  • The description that shows up in Google
  • See your Yoast SEO section at the bottom of your post
• Add a featured image
• Write a good introduction
• Include sub-headers
  • Another SEO element that will help your blog post rank in Google Search. Sub headers also break up your blog post into different sections, which sends a signal to Google (and readers) as to. what your blog post is even about
  • Sub headers should be written with H2 tags or smaller (H3, 4, 5, 6) NEVER an H1 tag
  • Make sure your headers include keywords you’re targeting
• Body
  • The bulk of your blog post — separated by the sub headers — this is where you provide the most value
  • Ideally between 1,000 – 2,000 words
    • Depending on the blog post type
      • List
      • Detailed Guide
      • How to article
      • etc.
• Images / multi-media
  • Add images, videos, etc. to break up your content/words a little bit
• Conclusion
  • Conclude your blog post in a meaningful way and include a CTA (call to action) for your reader
    • Whether the CTA is a link to another related blog post, a content offer, email sign up, etc.
  • Leave the reader feeling like they learned something from you and create the desire for them to want to stick around
• Include internal/external links
  • Internal links help your SEO
  • Same for external links

Share your blog posts

So that you don’t overwhelm yourself at first, start out with Pinterest and get it to a good place where it’s driving traffic, you’re creating solid graphics (Canva is. my recommendation for someone just starting out with graphic design) and you’re utilizing Tailwind to schedule all of your pins.If you try to focus on all the different social platforms, you’re going to be overwhelmed.

Once you’ve got your content is ready to go. it’s time to publish and start sharing it with the world! 

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Affiliate Marketing

After you’ve got your blog all set up, content written, etc. you may want to start looking into affiliate programs that you can join if you’re interested in making money on your blog. The alternative is to sell your own digital products, courses, etc. It’s entirely up to you how you do this part of it.

Affiliate platform examples

• Amazon Storefronts
• Impact Radius (Affiliate platform)
• ShareaSale
• CJ Affiliates

Find what fits for you & your blog and what’s the most relevant for your audience. Don’t try to do too many. Make it make sense for the people who are reading your blog and what your audience might be looking for. Don’t do it to just make money.

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Before I close this already super long guide, I will say that you may want to consider learning how to implement lead forms so that you can generate an email list — that’s one of the. best ways to grow your blog and online income. Build an audience who wants to hear what you have to say and be a part of the community you’re building.

I’ll do a whole blog post on this at some point, but for now I’ll close with this — don’t start a blog thinking that you’re instantly going to start making money. It’s unlikely that’ll happen in the first few months, but if you’re diligent and you’re persistent, you’ll see the fruit of that labor in due time.

I hope that this guide was helpful — I really tried to be as open and honest about everything as possible. There is a lot that goes into starting, running and maintaining a blog — but if you’re up for the challenge, it’s worth it. Also, check out my top 10 essential blogging tools post — trust me, you’ll want to invest in some of them!

If you have any questions at all (and I mean ANY) please feel free to reach out to me at any point and time!

*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. This means when you click on the links, I may make a commission. However, I take recommending items very seriously and will only share products I use and love myself. Thank you for supporting A Girl and Her Hat!