1. Choosing a Web Address
The first step is one of the most consequential: selecting a suitable name for the website. It seemed obvious that a simple version of my name with a .com extension would be most appropriate for a professional website.
The decision was less straightforward than I expected.
I used a simple domain search to rule out versions that were already taken (for example, meganwilkins.com and mwilkins.com were not available).
I deliberated over other variations such as megan-wilkins.com or mwilkinsweb.com. The first, I decided, is too close to meganwilkins.com, which leads to an unsecured blank page. The second could easily be confused with mwilkins.com, an endearing family website set up for the relatives of Rufus and Kathy, but not exactly what I would want mistaken for my professional work. Conventional advice to keep website names simple and easy to remember did not seem as important for my purposes as ensuring that it was easily distinguishable from other sites.
I used Google Domains to find that meganheronwilkins.com was available, but I did not register with Google Domains. I had read that registering directly with the web host makes things easier (though transferring the name is less convenient but still possible).
- Choosing a Web Address
- Selecting a Web Builder and a Host Server
- Following Bluehost’s Set-Up Prompts
- Using WordPress Through Bluehost
- Adding and Editing Blocks in WordPress
- Adding Additional Pages (and Links to Them)