As a graphic designer turned website creator, I will be covering the 9 steps I take to create beautiful WordPress websites, and quickly! After years both designing and building websites with WordPress I’ve refined my process over and over, making it as tight and smooth as possible for both myself and my clients – and this is the process I teach my eCourse students too. This talk is perfect for beginners, as well as more advanced web designers & website creators who want some helpful tips for refining their process. Key Take-Away ============ You’ll learn the 9 steps I take to creating WordPress websites, from goal-setting and gathering content from the client, to designing, building, the approval process, then wrapping it up before launch with on-page SEO, security, backups and more. Packed full of time-saving tips and resources to help with designing, building, gathering content and client management, you’ll want to make sure you have a pen and paper handy to note down all the game-changing tools and apps I use that make building websites a breeze

1. 🚀
Zero to Website
A designer's 9-step guide to
creating awesome WordPress
websites all by yourself

2. 🙋🏻‍♀
Hands up!

3. Hi!
I’m Emma
// freelancer
// designer to my core
// mentor & eCourse boss
// sausage dog mum
// graphic designer → website creator

4. Graphic
Design
HTML
& CSS��
�
�
WP
Themes
WP
Page
Builder��

5. The Goals
Get super clear on your ideal client and
your website goals
1

6. The Goals
￮ Ideal Client Goals
￮ Brand’s Goals
￮ Editor’s Goals
TIPS:
+ Ideal Client Avatar
+ Have a really good brief form

9. The Goods
Start gathering the goods needed to
create your site
2

10. The Goods
￮ Sitemap
￮ Keywords
￮ Copywriting
TIPS:
+ Outsource: Clever Copywriting School,
Legal123, The Contract Shop
+ Gathering content: Content Snare,
Dubsado, Trello Board →

12. The Style
Ensure your website is beautiful, unique &
on brand by defining your site’s style
3

13. The Style
￮ Colours: Coolors, UI Gradients
￮ Fonts: Google Fonts, Fontpair.co
￮ Images: Unsplash, Raw Pixel

16. The Foundations
Set up your site on solid
software foundations
4

17. The Foundations
￮ Domain
￮ Hosting
￮ SSL
￮ Email Setup
TIP: Host emails separately with G
Suite or a separate email hosting of
some kind

18. The Tools
Set up the basics of your
WordPress website
5

19. The Tools
￮ Install WordPress
￮ Configure basic WP settings
TIP: Create a Coming Soon Page

22. The Secret Weapon
The web dev secret weapon every
designer should have in their toolkit
6

23. The Secret Weapon
￮ Themes
￮ Child Themes
￮ Page Builders
TIP: Find what works for you and master it

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25. 25

26. 26

27. Pro Tip
￮ Set up a starter site with your:
￮ Page builder/theme, child theme
￮ Plugins
￮ WP configuration
￮ Custom CSS you use all the time,
basic contact form
￮ Use ManageWP or similar to clone your
starter site for a new build

28. 28

29. 29

30. The Build
Crafting your homepage
7

31. The Build
￮ Wireframe →

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33. 33

34. The Build
￮ Wireframe
￮ Create pages & add to menu
￮ Theme Builder/Options/Customizer
￮ Design in Ps/XD/Sketch or directly in
your page builder
TIPS:
+ Get approval before moving on
+ Loom video, WP Feedback

35. The Fitout
Fit out the rest of your pages with
all your awesome content
8

36. The Fitout
￮ Add content to your internal pages
￮ Save & duplicate library items onto
other pages saving heaps of time
￮ Global library items
￮ Test & get approval
TIPS: Thoroughly test on mobile, tablet, small
& large computers before saving library
items → Responsive Design Checker

37. 37

38. The Tune-Up
Clean it up, make it fast & get your
website ready to launch
9

39. The Tune-Up
￮ Clean up
￮ Alt text
￮ Compress images (WP Smush)
￮ Security (Wordfence)
￮ Caching (WP Rocket, WP Fastest Cache)
￮ GA & Search Console setup (Yoast SEO,
MonsterInsights, Google Site Kit)
TIP: Have a Pre-Flight Checklist

40. 40

41. Share it!

42. 42👉 emmakate.co/wordcamp

43. 🤷🏻‍♀
Q&A
Psst… this is where you can find me:
w emmakate.co
fb @hiemmakate
—-
Images in this presentation courtesy of:
Unsplash.com & RawPixel.com