Always dreamt of sharing your knowledge and passion on a particular topic through a news website? But never got around to actually building the site?
Well, creating a News website does not have to be daunting. With WordPress, the process is straightforward and takes a very short time.
You just need to follow these simple steps to create a news site with WordPress:
- Choose a suitable domain name and hosting provider
- Install WordPress through your hosting setup
- Build and customize the site using a News plugin
- Add other essential plugins to increase functionality
- Start creating helpful content to boost your traffic
This is the gist of the process. To learn more about each step and other relevant tips to launch your news site, continue reading the article.
Key Takeaways
- Select a relevant domain name using a domain name generator, ensure relevancy to your brand, and opt for reputable top-level domains.
- Choose a hosting provider based on your website’s needs, considering factors like hosting type, scalability, security, and customer support.
- Utilize the power of Starter Sites from the plugin PostX to launch your news website with niche-specific templates.
- Enhance your news site further by customizing individual pages and post templates using PostX’s Site Builder feature.
- Focus on creating user-centric content rather than solely optimizing for search engines.
What Is A News Website
A news website provides updated news and trends on a wide range of topics. It can cover stories from any niche such as technology, fashion, sports, entertainment, science, and much more. Typically, a news website is focused on delivering current events in a specific area of interest.
There are several benefits you get when publishing a news website:
- Share Your Passion: If you have an interest in a specific topic and have vast experience in it, you can start sharing your ideas through a news website.
- Build A Community: A News website helps to build a community as it brings together people who share the same interests.
- Gain Authority: If you regularly cover stories on a specific niche, it signals that you are an expert on that subject and helps you to become an authoritative figure.
- Monetization Opportunity: A News website can be a great source of income as you build your audience and users regularly visit your site.
Benefits of Using WordPress For Creating A News Website
There are many ways you can build a website, including a news website. However, there are certain benefits you can enjoy if you use WordPress. Let’s quickly go through the advantages:
- Beginner-friendly: WordPress is very beginner-friendly and anyone can create beautiful websites without having intense technical knowledge.
- Mobile responsive: According to Exploding Topics, mobile users contribute to about 61.21% of all website traffic. So, making your news sites mobile responsive is very crucial and WordPress makes this easy with its many responsive themes.
- Intuitive interface: You can easily set up pages, and blog posts and customize the look with WordPress themes and plugins. So, the process of publishing content on a news site becomes very intuitive with WordPress.
- Plugin Support: WordPress supports a rich collection of plugins that make user’s life much easier. For example, you can ensure all news blog posts are SEO-optimized with plugins such as Rank Math.
Now that you know about a News website, its benefits, and why you should use WordPress, it’s time to provide you with the detailed steps of building a News website.
In the next sections, you will learn 6 easy steps to create a News website from start to finish, using WordPress and the leading News plugin PostX.
1. Choose A Domain Name & Hosting Provider
Choosing the right domain and hosting is the first step to starting your news website with WordPress. While domain name enhances brand identity, hosting ensures your site is accessible on the internet without interruption.
For that reason, a good domain and hosting provider are essential for a secure and efficient online presence, for all websites including news portals.
In this section, you will learn how to pick the right domain name and a suitable hosting provider for building your news website.
I. Select The Right Domain Name
A domain name is simply a text linked to an alphanumeric IP address, used to identify a website on the internet. In other words, it works like a site’s home address so that everyone can navigate to it easily.
For example, millions of users visit YouTube daily by simply typing the domain name ‘YouTube.com’. Luckily, because of the Domain Name Server (DNS), we don’t have to type the complex IP address of YouTube to find it.
Now, a well-named domain can be beneficial for a news site because it can enhance recognition and credibility. It will help your users quickly find your website and enjoy the content you created passionately.
So, how do you select the right domain that works for a news site? Ensure these three essential factors:
- Use a Domain Name Generator: As more and more websites are being created every day, it can be pretty challenging to find your desired domain name. That’s where a domain name generator can help. It gives you amazing ideas and can help come up with unique domain names.
- Ensure Relevancy to Your Brand: Choose a domain name that is relevant to your brand and the type of content you are going to publish. It should be thoughtful and recognizable to your audience so that they remember it for future visits.
- Choose Reputable Top-Level Domains: The last part of a domain (such as .com) is known as a top-level domain. Some of the most reputed TLDs are .com, .org, and .net. Selecting these TLDs can show credibility for your news site and influence search engine ranking.
After deciding on a good domain name for your news site, you need to choose a reputed domain name registrar to purchase the domain. Some of the notable domain name registrars are Namecheap, Bluehost, GoDaddy, and Hostinger.
Based on your budget and feature requirements, you can purchase a domain from any of these companies. However, make sure to pay attention to the security, privacy, and support options of the company you choose.
II. Pick A Suitable Hosting Provider
Hosting, in terms of websites, is the process of housing a website’s content such as HTML, CSS, images, videos, and other files on a physical server so that it is available online without interruption.
Hosting companies provide the physical storage, relevant services, and support needed to make sure your website stays visible to your users from around the world. For that reason, choosing a reliable hosting provider is essential to ensure an uninterrupted online presence.
While starting a news website, you will also need to find the right hosting company that fulfills your website’s needs.
Here are the essential factors you need to consider while selecting the ideal hosting provider:
Hosting Type: Hosting companies offer different types of hosting such as shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and cloud hosting. You need to choose the plan that best suits your specific requirements.
The following table highlights each hosting type’s pros and cons. Based on the need for features and the size of your site, your choice will vary.
| Hosting Type | Shared Hosting | VPS Hosting | Dedicated Hosting | Cloud Hosting |
| Advantages | – Most affordable | – Dedicated resources | – Better performance & security | – Better scalability |
| – Easy to set up | – Greater control | – Unrestricted configurability | – High performing | |
| Disadvantages | – Limited resource & Performance | – More expensive than a Shared Plan | – High cost | – Advanced knowledge required |
| Best For | – Small websites | – Small to midsize businesses | – Websites or applications requiring high performance | – Businesses requiring scalability and reliability |
For example, if you are just starting out with your news site and have a limited budget, you may want to pick the shared hosting option.
Alternatively, if you expect huge traffic and need more control over your site, choosing VPS or dedicated hosting can be a better choice.
Scalability: As your website grows over time, you need to choose a scalable solution. So, pick a hosting provider that can facilitate the growth
Security: Security is another crucial factor when choosing a hosting provider. To save your site from malicious attacks and unauthorized access, you need firewalls and good SSL support. Pick a hosting solution that comes with these features.
Uptime: Website uptime is a deal breaker for a hosting solution. So, choose a hosting provider that can ensure 99.99% or more uptime.
Backup: Look for backup options in your hosting plan. It is particularly important if there is an unprecedented issue with your site and need to restore files from backups.
Customer Support: Good customer support is very essential when using a hosting solution. You should opt for a company that offers 24/7 support and can be easily contacted any time you face an issue.
2. Set Up WordPress
After choosing the right domain and hosting provider, you need to set up WordPress to start your news website.
There are several ways you can install WordPress. Depending on which option you choose, the steps will vary. If this is your first website with WordPress, we would recommend choosing a managed WordPress solution that does not require too many manual tasks.
However, in this section, we will also list other options. So, let’s explore all the possible methods you can install WordPress.
I. Install WordPress Automatically Through Hosting Provider
The easiest method to install and get started with WordPress is choosing hosting providers that offer pre-installed WordPress setup. So, you don’t have to manually install and manage WordPress to launch your news site.
Some of the popular WordPress hosting providers that offer this facility are Bluehost, Hostinger, Hostgator, and Dreamhost. There are many other options available online.
Read the hosting plans properly and check the support pages of a hosting provider to make sure whether they are indeed offering managed WordPress installation.
II. Install WordPress With CPanel Auto-Installer
If your hosting provider does not come with pre-installed WordPress, chances are, they manage applications through the CPanel dashboard. If that is the case, you need to access the dashboard using the login details you received during the purchase of your hosting.
Note that the look of the CPanel might differ based on the hosting provider. In general, you will notice auto installers that take care of the installation process of apps for your site. One such popular auto-installer is called Softaculous.
You can easily install WordPress using Softaculous with just one click.
So, utilizing the CPanel dashboard should be another easy way to set up WordPress for your News site.
III. Install WordPress Using FTP
The first two options should be the go-to solution for most users. However, if you face any issue with the automatic installer of WordPress, you can opt to manually upload files with the help of FTP.
Remember that installing WordPress with FTP is not for beginners and requires advanced knowledge. However, if you require more control over the installation process or file replacement, it can be an alternative option.
IV. Install WordPress On Your Computer
If you are new to WordPress in general and want to test out the development process, you can install WordPress on your computer.
However, note that this instance of your website will only be available to you, and not accessible on the internet.
Local WordPress installation is a great way to test out the plugins, themes, and settings of WordPress. So, it works more as a learning ground for a user.
If you want to experiment on your news website before making it public, this option may be helpful for you.
3. Build Your News Website With Starter Sites
Now that you have installed WordPress, you need to build your news site with a unique look that stands out among the crowd.
There are many ways to go about it. One way is to choose a News theme and customize its look. Another method is to use a WordPress news plugin such as PostX to significantly cut down the development time and customize each part of your site with ease.
In this case, I will pick PostX and show you how you can build a news website in just three easy steps using its Starter Sites feature.
In case you didn’t know, PostX is the leading News plugin that boasts powerful features such as starter sites, dynamic site builder, premade templates, useful add-ons, and much more.
What makes PostX unique from other plugins and WordPress themes, is its ability to launch an entire site in just a few clicks and create templates to customize each part of a website without any complexities.
To use the plugin for building a news site, first, make sure you have the latest version of PostX installed.
Now, let’s go through how you can use the Stater Sites feature of PostX to launch your next News site in three simple steps:
I. Pick A Niche Specific Template
With Starter Sites, you can import an entire site with all the essential pages so that you don’t have to spend time developing individual pages. And PostX offers a hefty collection of starter site templates that align with your specific niche.
Do you want to build a technology news website? PostX got you covered. Perhaps you are more into fashion and lifestyle. PostX has amazing templates for that.
Or maybe you always wanted to launch your gaming site and showcase your passion for the gaming world. Well, PostX can help you with that as well.
To get started, on your admin dashboard, navigate to PostX > Starter Sites.
Now choose any template that you think best suits your specific niche.
To check out all the amazing templates of Starter Sites, visit the link below:
II. Personalize the Look
After selecting a template, you will be greeted with a customization page. Here, you can decide on the color palette, font & typography.
So, if you like a specific color or font, you can choose it from here and showcase it on your WordPress news site.
Also, PostX allows you to showcase dark mode for your news site with just 1 click. Simply click on the Light Mode option to make your site easy on the eyes of your users.
III. Import The Entire Site
After selecting a color template and typography, click on the Import Site option.
You will be greeted with the Import Settings and Template options. From import settings, you can select whether you want to import dummy posts, delete previously imported sites, and install required plugins.
Then, under Templates/Pages, you can pick which template or page you need for your news site.
After selecting these options, click on Start Importing and sit back and relax for a moment.
After just a few seconds of waiting, your site is ready to view live.
Visit your site’s homepage to witness the new polished look that will surely grab your user’s attention.
As you can see, all the pages are designed perfectly and have all the required information. So, you don’t need to worry about developing these pages yourself. This is very helpful for users who want a fast solution for launching their news website.
But don’t worry, after launching your site for the first time, PostX provides you an abundant customization options so that you can fine-tune each section of a news site easily.
If you would like to see the above steps in a video format, you can check out our helpful video guide on how to create a News website here:
4. Customize Your News Site with Site Builder
Now that you have built your news site with PostX, you may want to further customize it to your liking.
Worry not, as there are many useful features from PostX that you can take advantage of. One such unique feature is known as Site Builder which allows you to create a custom post template.
Using a custom post template, you can set conditions on how individual pages of your news site will look like.
Do you want to showcase posts from a specific category in a special layout? Maybe you want to highlight a special post on your site with a unique design that is separate from the other pages. All these are possible when you use PostX.
Let’s say you want to customize the look of all blog posts on your news site. To do this, follow these steps:
- On your admin dashboard, navigate to PostX > Site Builder > Create Template > Singular
- Select from the premade templates or create one from scratch
- After importing or creating a template, you will see a Condition section where you can decide on which page you want to customize the design for.
- For this instance, we will choose Posts and All as the conditions so that all blog posts are affected by this template
- After selecting the condition, click on Save Condition
- Now on the editor view of the template, you can add or modify blocks however you want.
- For instance, to change the color of the post title to green, simply select the Post Title block and change the color setting accordingly
- After you are done editing, click on the Publish button to see the changes in effect.
As you can see, the blog post title has been changed to green just like we wanted.
Similarly, you can modify any block’s settings and the changes will be applied to the specific sections of your news site based on the conditions you set for a custom template. This is the power of PostX that makes your site creation journey much easier.
Curious about the other features of PostX? You will be amazed to see the enhanced features the plugin has for you. To know all about it, check out the link below:
5. Add Useful Plugins
For any WordPress website, including a news site, you can take advantage of useful plugins. WordPress offers a plethora of plugin choices and choosing the right ones will vary based on your specific needs.
For instance, if you want to create contact forms easily, the Contact Form 7 plugin will be beneficial for you. In addition, the plugin MailChimp for WordPress helps you manage email subscribers and marketing.
In addition, if you want to ensure good SEO practices when publishing articles for your news site, Rank Math SEO is an excellent plugin that is easy to use.
These are some of the most common plugins you can use. But you may require more plugins depending on your requirements. To explore more options, you can visit the official plugins page of WordPress.
6. Start Publishing Content
After setting up your news site with a user-friendly design and useful plugins, you need to start publishing content. Otherwise, what is the point of creating a news site, right?
Writing and publishing articles on WordPress has become easier than ever. With the intuitive Gutenberg block editor, now anyone can write and format an article with a visually appealing look.
From your admin dashboard, simply go to Posts > Add New Post and you will see this editor view where you can write your content.
With essential blocks, you can add images, videos, headings, lists, and much more. You have the creative freedom on how you want to present information to your audience.
Utilize this opportunity to attract the attention of your users and bring in revenue for your news site.
In the next section, I will provide you with some tips on how you can drive user engagement and traffic for your newly created news site.
Must Follow Tips To Increase User Engagement And Traffic Of Your News Site
Okay, you have successfully built a news website and started publishing content. What’s next? Well, now you need to ensure your content reaches your audience properly.
Here are two important ways you can increase user engagement and traffic on your site.
Write for Users, Not for Google
You may be familiar with the abundance of SEO tips and tricks on the internet about how to rank higher on Google. While many of them may or may not be effective strategies, I will tell you about the one advice that is guaranteed to work. Because it is provided by Google itself!
According to the helpful content update, you should focus on creating people-first content, instead of focusing on how to rank it on search engines. What this means is creating articles that are authentic, informative, and serve the user’s intent properly.
So, while publishing news articles on your site, make sure the information is reliable and help users satisfy their queries. Following this simple tactic will enhance user engagement and increase traffic for your site.
Publish Your Site On Google News
Google News is a news aggregator service that sources information from news sites from all over the world. It is a great platform for users to find information and can be a great way to boost website traffic for website owners.
If you publish your site on Google News, your site gets better visibility and leads to increased traffic. Also, when users read your article, Google suggests more similar articles from your site. As a result, you get even more visitors to your site.
Closing Words
PostX makes the process of creating a News site with WordPress very easy with its Starter Sites and Dynamic Site Builder features. Users do not have to go through the complex process of building and customizing sites themselves. PostX takes care of the whole process so you can get started with your passion project without wasting time.
As always, feel free to refer back to this article again if you are unsure about the process of building a News site in WordPress.
