These are the setup instructions for the WP SiteKit Prebuilt WordPress website. After you order your site and receive the transferable install email from WP Engine then follow these instructions to finishing setting up your site and customizing it for your business.
Order Your Site
- To get started the first step is to order your prebuilt WordPress website.
Accept Your Site
You must have web hosting to run a WordPress website and we've chosen WP Engine because of their superior quality.
Accept your prebuilt website on WP Engine hosting:
- It can take up to 24 hours for us to prepare and send the site to you.
- Check for an email from WP Engine with the subject line "WP SiteKit transferred you a WP Engine environment"
- In the email click the button "Sign up for an account" to get your WP Engine account.
- Once you have a WP Engine account click the button to "Enter your code", to accept your website.
Once you have access to the prebuilt website we transferred to you on your WP Engine account then follow the instructions below to finish the setup process.
If you're having trouble accepting and getting access to the website we transferred to you please see WP Engine support.
Required Setup Steps
Log In
1. Log in to your WP Engine account here.
2. On your production environment page click the button that says "WordPress Admin"
3. Enter the username and password given to you in an email from WP SiteKit. If you are unable to login to your site then chat with WP Engine support here.
Change Your Email and Password
1. Once you're logged into your website, go to WP Admin > Users and click on the username "Staff".
2. Change the Email field to your email address.
3. Create a new password.
4. Click the "Update User" button at the bottom of the page.
Change the Administration Email Address
1. Go to WP Admin > Settings.
2. Scroll down to the section "Administration Email Address".
3. Enter your email address.
4. Scroll down and click the "Save Changes" button.
Text Changes
Open the Page Editor
There are two ways to open the WordPress Page Editor.
Option 1: The first way is to navigate to the page you want to edit. Then click the button "Edit Page" at the top of the screen in the Admin Bar.
Option 2: The second way to open the WordPress Page Editor is to go into the WP Admin under Pages.
1.Click the Site Name in the Admin Bar in the top left corner to enter the WP Admin
2. Go to WP Admin > Pages, scroll down to the page you want to edit, and click the page title to open that page's page editor.
Edit The Text
Once the page editor is open, click on the text you want to edit and start typing.
When you click on the text you will see the text editor appear above the text. This gives formatting options like alignment, link and bold.
When you click on the text or any element on the page you will see the Block Editor appear in the right sidebar. This give you all the available options to change the appearance of each block or page element.
Design Changes
There are 2 ways to use an image. The first is a background image with other design elements on top of it. The second and more popular method is to use a normal Image Block.
Background Image
The homepage uses a section background image. Click at the very top part of the image to select the section block. In the blog settings in the sidebar open the section named Background. Then click the "Replace Image" button to change the image.
Image Chooser
The WordPress image chooser will open with 3 options. Upload File allows you to upload your own photo from your computer. Media Library allows you to choose an image that's already uploaded. Instant Images will allow you to search and pick from a royalty-free stock photo library.
Image Block
The Image Block is the most commonly used to display a photo on web pages. To edit it click on the image.
The most commonly used settings will appear directly above the image. Other image settings will appear in the block editor in the right side bar.
Then follow the Image Chooser instructions above to choose a new image.
Make New Pages
To add a new page go to WP Admin > Pages.
In the top of the page click the "Add New" button.
There are also many common webpages that come with your prebuilt that are in Draft mode. Try viewing those pages and if they are a good starting point for you change them to Published mode to make them live.
Click on any existing block to edit it.
Click on the "+" button to add a new block.
Once you've finished editing or building your new page, click the "Publish" button to make your web page live.
Change the Menu
There are 2 screens where you can change the menus of your website.
The older method is to go under WP Admin > Appearance > Menus.
The newer method that we recommend and will show here is by using the WordPress Customizer.
Open the customizer from the backend of WordPress by going to WP Admin > Appearance > Customize.
Or open the customizer from the front end of WordPress by clicking the "Customizer" button in the Admin Bar at top.
In the Customizer navigate to Menus.
Open the Main Menu
Click the "Add Items" button to add new pages to your menu.
Take Website Live
Once you are happy with how your website looks the next step is to take your website live.
Since we deliver your site on the WP Engine hosting platform it's best to refer to their instructions on taking your website live.
See WP Engine article Going Life With A Domain on WP Engine.
If you get stuck you could contact WP Engine chat support here (you must be logged in to your WP Engine account).
Basic Optimizations (optional and recomended)
Order a free SSL certificate on WP Engine
An SSL certificate will make your website more secure for you visitors. This adds trust and improves your search ranking. It's free with WP Engine and easy to setup. Follow the instructions below. If you get stuck contact WP Engine chat support here.
1.Open your WP Engine portal by going to https://my.wpengine.com/
2. Click on your website name, open the "Production" tab and click on the "SSL" button.
3. Click the button that says "Get FREE certificates" and follow the instructions to complete the setup.
Turn on CDN on WP Engine
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a service that disperses your larger files (like image) to other servers around the world. This makes your website load faster which improves your search engine ranking and provides a better user experience for your visitors. A CDN comes with your WP Engine account. Follow the steps below to set it up. If you get stuck contact WP Engine chat support here.
1.Open your WP Engine portal by going to https://my.wpengine.com/
2. 2. Click on your website name, open the "Production" tab and click on the CDN button.
3. Click the checkbox next to your primary domain and click the "Save" button.
Configure Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast SEO plugin comes preinstalled with your prebuilt website. It adds the ability to optimize your entire website and on a page-by-page basis. Follow these instructions to use Yoast SEO to optimize your entire website.
1.Log in to your website backend.
2. Open WP Admin > SEO
3. Click the link to the "configuration wizard!" and follow the instructions.
Compress All Images with Smush
Large images can negatively affect your page load time and your search rankings. You prebuilt site comes with the Smush plugin which will automatically compress all your images to improve this.
Smush should automatically compress images uploaded to the WordPress media library. But doesn't always catch them all. If you use the Instant Images feature to search for stock images then Smush will not automatically compress those.
We recommend using the feature to "Bulk Smush" all images when you are finished designing your website or adding new pages with images so that all your images are as small as possible. To do this follow the instructions below.
1.Go to WP Admin > Smush
2. Click the button "Bulk Smush Now"
Advanced Optimizations (optional)
Page-by-page SEO with Yoast
In the Basic Optimizations sections we showed you how to start the Yoast configuration wizard to apply site-wide SEO (search engine optimization). In this section, we'll introduce you to the page level SEO settings where you try to get individual pages rank for particular terms.
See our full instructions here: How To Use The Yoast SEO Plugin To Optimize Your Blog Posts For Search Engines
Write and Publish a Blog Post
Once your website is live and you've completed the optimizations tasks, it's time to get website visitors. One of the most common ways to get new website visitors from search engines is by publishing blog posts that are focused around your industry topic.
See our full instructions on publishing blog posts here: How To Write and Publish a Blog Post with WordPress.
