BUILD YOUR OWN PHOTO WEBSITE FOR FREE
What you need: Any web browser Time required: 40 minutes
Used to create over 75 million websites, Wordpress is one of the most popular website-building services. The company recently introduced a new feature that lets you upload photos from your Google Photos account to your website with
just a few clicks. We’ll show you how to create a simple website to display your photos that you can then update at your leisure. Ensure that your images are saved to your Google Photos account ( photos. google.com) before you start.
STEP 1
Go to www.wordpress.com to read about its features. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see the four plans available. Click the Compare Plans 1 button to see what each one offers. The Free Plan 2 includes a wordpress.com domain name (diydavephotos.wordpress.com, for example) and 3GB storage space, but adverts for Wordpress will appear on your site. You can always switch to a paid-for plan to remove adverts, increase storage space and add options to make money from your website later. Click the ‘Start with Free’ button on the left, select ‘Start with a website’, then choose a website theme (you can change this later).
STEP 2
On the next screen type the website address you want 1 . Select an address option (you may get more than one to choose from) available on the Free plan 2 . On the next screen, type your email address and a password, then click Continue. Wordpress will now send you an email. Open it, then click the Confirm Now button to confirm your account and website name. You’ll now see a message saying ‘Congratulations! Your site is live’ within Wordpress. Click the View My Site button to start customising your website.
STEP3
You’ll now see a menu 1 with customisation options. Click My Site 2 to show/hide this menu. In the menu, you’ll see options to add pages, blog posts (which appear as a separate section in your site), and photos (Media) to your website 3 . You can also customise your theme or change it 4 . Now we’ll show you how to give your website a title, tagline and add a website icon (the small icon you see on the browser tab), so click Settings 5 .
STEP4
Type your website’s name and tagline in the relevant fields, then click Change below the Site Icon field on the left. You’ll see several copyright-free images you can use 1 . Use the slider 2 to make these larger or smaller. To use an image from your Google Photos account, you first need to link it to Wordpress. Click the Wordpress dropdown menu 3 , click ‘Photos from Your Google library’ 4 , Connect, log into your Google Photos account, then click Allow. Now select the image you want to use as your site’s tab icon, click Continue, then Done. Click the blue Save Settings button at the top right when you’ve finished.
STEP5
Click View Site in the left-hand menu. You’ll see your website with the title and tagline you gave it. Scroll down and click the small Edit/edit Page link. On the page that opens, you’ll see dummy text for your post’s title 1 and for the post itself 2 . Once you’ve typed/pasted your post’s title and copy, use the options on the toolbar 3 to format them. To change your homepage’s banner image (which appears at the top) click the pen icon 4 , then click the W dropdown menu, select ‘Photos from Your Google library’, select your photo, then click the Set Featured Image button at the bottom right. Click Update 5 to confirm your changes.
STEP6
To add more images to your website, click My Site at the top left, View Site at the top left, scroll down the right-hand section, then click the small Edit/edit Page link. Next, click the ‘+’ button to the left of the formatting toolbar, then the Wordpress dropdown menu and select ‘Photos from Your Google library’. Now select all the photos you want to add, click ‘Copy to media library’, then Continue. The Layout dropdown menu 1 contains several options for displaying your images 2 . Choose the one you want, click Insert 3 , then click Update at the top right. Repeat this step to add more images to your website.
STEP7
When you’ve finished, click My Site 1 , then View Site 2 to see the images you added. Wordpress automatically optimises your website so it looks good on all types of devices, including phones and tablets. Click the dropdown menu 3 , then select a device to see how your site will look on it. You can edit any section of your site by clicking its tab 4 , clicking the Edit link 5 , then repeating Step 6 to edit and update your text and images. You’ll find more more tips at https://learn. wordpress.com.