{"id":952,"date":"2021-04-19T14:44:14","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T14:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elementor.com\/resources\/?p=952"},"modified":"2021-04-25T07:15:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T07:15:40","slug":"create-forum-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elementor.com\/resources\/how-to\/create-forum-website\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create a Forum Website"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Forums, such as Reddit, remain one the primary digital mediums for virtual communication and are considered the best way to foster discussion online. The classic forum question and answer format, where each comment has its own thread, is still the world\u2019s favorite method to hold candid conversations online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many successful businesses have used forums to grow their brand, engage with their users, and foster an online community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why you should create an online forum for your business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Creating a forum website allows you to house meaningful discussions and gauge how customers feel about the company. By commenting on the forum and answering questions, users are investing in your business, which makes them feel part of the brand, not just a customer but an active participant in the company\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses use forums to answer common questions that people have about their products and services and resolve user issues. In addition, having an online forum allows you to collate meaningful data about your customers. You can learn more about who uses your product and gain more granular insights about the demographic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, an online community means a large influx of traffic to your domain which can improve your SEO and digital marketing efforts. Over time, the discussions on the forum will expand to include many topics related to your industry, and these threads will be indexed in Google. This means that new potential customers have a higher chance of discovering your brand via search engines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building your own forum website doesn\u2019t require extensive development knowledge or huge initial investment. With Elementor and WordPress<\/a>, you can design a fully functional and cost-effective forum website with no need for prior coding knowledge. Elementor\u2019s features<\/a>, templates, and drag & drop editor<\/a> allow you to custom-design your very own forum website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how to create an awesome forum website in WordPress and Elementor<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What should a forum website include?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before we begin with our guide to creating the site, we first need to understand the key ingredients of a forum website and its role. Here are some of the important pages and elements that every forum website needs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Homepage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The homepage<\/a> on an online forum acts as the central hub. Here, you should display the brand name, logo, and a smart catchphrase that encourages users to get involved in the conversation. It should also, feature recent posts, popular threads, and links to the various subcategories on the forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The navigation menus<\/a> for the homepage and the rest of the pages on the forum website should include links to all the relevant pages on your main website that you want forum users to access. These may include the about page<\/a>, product and services pages, and contact us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Community Pages<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On a forum website, a lot of the content will be restricted to logged-in members, and some will be personalized to the user. You can decide which content to restrict, such as particular threads, or a list of members and their user profiles. You can opt instead for all content to be unrestricted, this depends on the nature of your forum and how you want to set it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any event, community pages should be user-friendly with intuitive navigation so that users can easily locate the discussion they\u2019re looking for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can achieve this by creating a sidebar with quick links, such as \u2018hot\u2019 and \u2018trending\u2019 which direct users to the recent, popular posts. And, by adding a search function<\/a> with advanced filtering options that allow users to find specific threads and comments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Forum threads<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The thread pages themselves should be organized in a clear, readable manner so users can scan the thread and easily follow particular discussions, and questions and answers. Each comment should display the user\u2019s handle with a link to their profile and display a picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To improve the UX of the forum, consider adding a like feature, enable linking to individual replies, and allow users to sort by popularity and recency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Create a forum Website \u2014 A Step-by-Step Guide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Step 1: Choose your domain name<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When you set out to create your own website, the first thing you need to do is get a domain name and a web hosting service. Your domain name will allow visitors to access your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 2: Choose your web hosting plan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The hosting plan will allow you to house all the files that make up your site. Your hosting server is where you will install WordPress and the add-ons mentioned in this tutorial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s great about WordPress hosting<\/a> is that it’s optimized specifically for WordPress performance, security needs, installation, and onboarding processes. There is a long list of WordPress hosts<\/a> to choose from, and many considerations to factor into your selection process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as hosting plans go, they range from affordable shared hosting plans to more expensive managed WordPress hosting and premium dedicated servers. To make your lives easier, we recommend several hosting packages<\/a> that are fully compatible with Elementor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve signed up for your hosting plan, you will receive a welcome email that will have all the details related to your account. Find the login link to your hosting account area and use the username and password to log into your account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 3: Install WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The next step is to install WordPress<\/a>. <\/strong>After you have logged in to your hosting account, click on the My Accounts tab and then log in to your cPanel. In cPanel, click on the WordPress icon in the auto-installers area and follow the steps to install WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After WordPress has been installed, go ahead and visit your WordPress site. Enter the name and password you\u2019ve set up and click \u2018Log In\u2019 to access your WordPress dashboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Textual link) See our full guide on how to install WordPress here: How to Install WordPress<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve downloaded and installed the WordPress software, you can take advantage of the WordPress CMS platform. The flexibility of WordPress lets you choose from tens of thousands of WordPress templates, themes, and plugins<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 4: Install Elementor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The next step is to install Elementor, a visual website builder that greatly simplifies the WordPress website building process. Sometimes, WordPress can be an intimidating tool that seems too complex to use on your own. However, by using a visual site builder, you can create your site quickly, efficiently, and comfortably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New. Search for Elementor Website Builder and click Install. When Elementor has been installed, click Activate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Elementor is free, depending on the features you want you\u2019ll also need Elementor Pro<\/a> to take full advantage of Elementor\u2019s capabilities. Visit Elementor.com and purchase the Pro version of the plugin then install and activate it in the same manner as above. Once Elementor Pro<\/a> has been installed, you\u2019ll need to enter your license by going to your WordPress dashboard and navigating to Elementor > License.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because you\u2019re going to be using Elementor Theme Builder<\/a> and your template kit to design your entire website, you don\u2019t need to look for any design elements in your active WordPress theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, you just want the most lightweight, performance-optimized foundation, which is what the Hello theme from Elementor<\/a> provides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get started, go to Appearance \u2192 Themes \u2192 Add New and search for \u201cHello Elementor\u201d. Then, install and activate the theme<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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