Series: Building AwesomeWildStuff.com From Scratch | Post #1: Laying the Foundation — WordPress on Azure App Service
Difficulty: Beginner–Intermediate | Time: 30–45 minutes
Welcome to the Build!
Hey makers, creators, and anyone who’s ever thought “I want to build something AWESOME on the internet!” — welcome to Post #1 of the AwesomeWildStuff.com build blog series!
I’m John O’Neill Sr., and I’m building AwesomeWildStuff.com from the ground up — a place where we imagine, design, and produce unique products, teach STEM concepts, and bring a mobile makerspace to schools and communities. And I’m going to document every single step so YOU can follow along and build your own site too.
Today we’re laying the foundation. We’re deploying WordPress on Azure App Service — Microsoft’s managed hosting platform — starting from a completely blank slate. Why Azure? Because it’s enterprise-grade hosting that scales with you, it plays beautifully with Microsoft 365 (which we already use for email), and it gives us total control over our infrastructure. Plus, I already run two other sites on Azure — azureinnovators.com and jtcustomtrailers.com — so keeping everything in one ecosystem makes system administration way easier.
Let’s go!
What You’ll Need Before We Start
Before we dive in, make sure you have these things ready:
- An active Microsoft Azure subscription (if you don’t have one, head to azure.microsoft.com and sign up — they offer free credits for new accounts!)
- A domain name you own (ours is awesomewildstuff.com)
- Access to your domain’s DNS settings
- A Microsoft 365 account with email configured (optional but recommended — we use in**@**************ff.com)
- About 30–45 minutes of uninterrupted time
Part 1: Creating Your WordPress Site on Azure
Azure makes this incredibly straightforward with their WordPress on App Service marketplace offering. It bundles everything you need: the web server, MySQL database, and WordPress itself — all preconfigured and optimized for Azure.
💡 Pro Tip: If you’re brand new to Azure, don’t panic! The Azure Portal looks complex at first, but we’re only using a small piece of it today. Think of Azure like a massive workshop — we’re just walking over to one workbench.
Navigate to the Azure Portal
Step 1: Open your browser and go to portal.azure.com. Sign in with your Azure account.
Step 2: In the search bar at the top, type “WordPress” and select “WordPress on App Service” from the Marketplace results. You can also navigate directly to: https://portal.azure.com/#create/WordPress.WordPress
Configure the Basics
This is where we set up the core details of our site. Here’s what to fill in:
Project Details
Step 3: Subscription: Select your Azure subscription from the dropdown.
Step 4: Resource Group: Click “Create new” and give it a meaningful name. I use something like “rg-awesomewildstuff-prod” so I know exactly what it is at a glance. The “rg” prefix is an Azure naming convention for resource groups.
💡 What’s a Resource Group? Think of a Resource Group like a toolbox. It holds all the Azure resources (web server, database, etc.) that belong to one project. When everything is in one group, it’s easy to manage, monitor costs, and clean up if you ever need to.
Hosting Details
Step 5: Region: Pick the region closest to your primary audience. Since AwesomeWildStuff is based in Ohio, I’m choosing “East US”. If your audience is global, East US or Central US are solid defaults.
Step 6: Name: Enter your site name. This becomes your initial URL: yourname.azurewebsites.net. I’m using “awesomewildstuff” — we’ll add our custom domain later.
Hosting Plan
Step 7: Choose your plan. For most production sites, the Standard plan is the sweet spot — it gives you custom domains, SSL, staging slots, and enough performance for real traffic. If you’re just experimenting, you can start with Basic and upgrade later.
| Plan | Best For | Custom Domain | SSL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free/Basic | Testing & hobbies | Basic only | Basic only |
| Standard | Production sites | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Premium | High-traffic sites | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
WordPress Setup
Step 8: Site Language: English (or your preferred language).
Step 9: Admin Email: Enter your admin email. I’m using jo*******@**************ff.com.
Step 10: Admin Username: Choose something secure — never use “admin”! I use a unique username that’s not easily guessable.
Step 11: Admin Password: Make it strong. Mix uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols. Minimum 12 characters. Record it somewhere secure.
⚠ Security Note: Your WordPress admin credentials are the keys to your entire site. Use a password manager like LastPass, Bitwarden, or 1Password. NEVER use “admin” as your username — that’s the first thing attackers try.
Configure Add-ins (Advanced Tab)
Step 12: Click “Next: Advanced >” to see the add-in options.
Azure offers several optional add-ins during setup. Here’s what I recommend:
- Azure Front Door: Optional. This caches your content on servers worldwide so your site loads fast everywhere. This costs extra so we’re leaving it disabled for now.
- Azure Blob Storage: ENABLE. This offloads your media files (images, videos) from the web server, improving performance and keeping storage costs low.
- Email with Azure Communication Services: Optional. We’re enabling it to make sending emails from our site easier later.
- Managed Identity: Leave ENABLED (it’s on by default). This handles secure authentication between Azure services without you managing passwords.
Review and Create
Step 13: Click “Review + create”. This will accept defaults for the remaining tabs. Azure will validate your configuration.
Step 14: Review everything one more time. Check your resource group name, region, plan, and admin email.
Step 15: Click “Create” and sit back. Azure will deploy your WordPress site. This typically takes 5–15 minutes.
You’ll see a notification when deployment is complete. Click “Go to resource” to see your shiny new App Service!
🎉 Milestone! Congratulations! You just deployed a WordPress site on enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure. That’s not a small thing — give yourself a high five!
Part 2: Your First WordPress Login
Now let’s log in and make sure everything is working.
Step 1: From your App Service overview page in the Azure Portal, find the “Default domain” — it will be something like awesomewildstuff.azurewebsites.net.
Step 2: Click that URL to see your site’s front end. You should see the default WordPress theme. It’s not pretty yet, but it’s ALIVE!
Step 3: Now navigate to your admin dashboard by adding /wp-admin to the URL: awesomewildstuff.azurewebsites.net/wp-admin
Step 4: Enter the admin credentials you set up during deployment.
Step 5: Boom — you’re in the WordPress Dashboard! This is mission control for your website.
Part 3: Installing Our Plugin Stack
Plugins are what turn a basic WordPress install into a powerhouse. Think of them like attachments for your maker tools — each one adds a specific capability. Here’s the plugin stack we’re installing and why:
| Plugin | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Elementor | Our page builder — drag-and-drop design without coding. This is how we’ll build our pages. |
| Forminator | Flexible contact forms. Powers our “Contact Us” page. |
| Yoast SEO | Search engine optimization — helps Google find and rank our content. |
| Wordfence Security | Firewall and malware scanner. Your site’s security guard. |
| App Service Email | Azure-specific email integration for the App Service environment. |
| Smush | Automatically compresses images so your site loads faster. |
| UpdraftPlus | Automated backups. Because stuff happens and you need a safety net. |
| Exclude Image Thumbnails From UpdraftPlus | Keeps backup sizes manageable by skipping auto-generated thumbnails. |
| Code Snippets | Lets you add custom code without editing theme files. Clean and safe. |
How to Install Plugins
Step 1: In your WordPress Dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
Step 2: Search for the plugin name in the search bar.
Step 3: Click “Install Now” next to the correct plugin.
Step 4: After installation completes, click “Activate.”
Step 5: Repeat for each plugin in the list above.
💡 Pro Tip: Install all your plugins first, THEN activate them. Some plugins have dependencies or configuration wizards that are easier to deal with one at a time.
Part 4: Connecting Your Custom Domain
Right now your site lives at yourname.azurewebsites.net. That’s fine for testing, but we need it at awesomewildstuff.com for the real deal. Here’s how to make that happen:
Step A: Add the Domain in Azure
Step 1: In the Azure Portal, go to your App Service.
Step 2: Find and click “Add custom domain.”
Step 3: Click “+ Add custom domain.”
Step 4: Select “All other domain services” (unless you bought your domain through Azure).
Step 5: For TLS/SSL type select SNI SSL (this option is free)
Step 6: Enter your domain name (e.g., awesomewildstuff.com) and click “Validate.”
Step 7: Azure will show you the DNS records you need to create. Keep this page open — you’ll need it for the next step.
Step B: Configure DNS Records
Head over to where your DNS records live. Sometimes this is where you registered the domain — GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, wherever you bought your domain. In our case DNS lives at Azure DNS. Update the DNS records:
| Record Type | Host/Name | Value/Points To |
|---|---|---|
| A | @ (root) | Your App Service IP addresses (shown in Azure) |
| TXT | asuid | Domain verification ID (shown in Azure) |
| CNAME | www | Your default domain name (ours is awesomewildstuff.azurewebsites.net) |
Step 8: Back in Azure, click “Validate” again. Once the green checkmarks appear (DNS propagation can take a few minutes to a couple hours), click “Add.”
Step C: Enable SSL (Free!)
Step 9: In the Azure Portal, go to your App Service > Custom domains.
Step 10: You’ll see a “Binding” column next to your domain. Click “Add binding.”
Step 11: Select “App Service Managed Certificate” — this is a FREE SSL certificate that Azure manages and auto-renews for you.
Step 12: Click “Add.” Your site is now secured with HTTPS!
Step D: Update WordPress URLs
Step 13: Log into your WordPress Dashboard.
Step 14: Go to Settings > General.
Step 15: Change both “WordPress Address (URL)” and “Site Address (URL)” from the .azurewebsites.net address to your custom domain: https://awesomewildstuff.com
Step 16: Click “Save Changes.” You’ll be logged out and will need to log back in using the new URL.
⚠ Be Careful Here! If you mistype the URL in Step 14, you could lock yourself out of your site. If that happens, don’t panic! You can fix it by connecting to your site via SSH (Azure Portal > Development Tools > SSH) and editing the wp-config.php file to add: define('WP_HOME','https://yourdomain.com'); and define('WP_SITEURL','https://yourdomain.com');
Part 5: Essential First Settings
Before we call it a day, let’s knock out a few critical settings:
General Settings
- Site Title: Your brand name (AwesomeWildStuff for us)
- Tagline: Something that captures YOUR mission (ours is “Imagine it. Design it. Build it. Make it awesome.”)
- Administration Email: in**@**************ff.com
- Timezone: Set to your local timezone (Eastern for us)
Permalink Settings
Step 1: Go to Settings > Permalinks.
Step 2: Select “Post name” — this gives you clean, readable URLs like /my-awesome-post instead of /?p=123. It’s better for SEO and looks way more professional.
Step 3: Click “Save Changes.”
Discussion Settings
- Review your comment moderation settings under Settings > Discussion.
- For now, I strongly recommend requiring comments to be disabled or at least manually approved to prevent spam.
What We Built Today
Let’s recap what we just accomplished:
- Deployed a WordPress site on Azure App Service with a MySQL database
- Installed and activated our essential plugin stack covering page building, security, SEO, email, forms, backups, and performance
- Connected our custom domain (awesomewildstuff.com) with free SSL encryption
- Configured essential WordPress settings including permalinks
That’s a HUGE first day. We went from zero to a fully functional, secured, enterprise-hosted WordPress site. The foundation is laid and it’s rock solid.
Coming Up in Post #2
Next time we’re going to take this blank canvas and start making it look like AwesomeWildStuff. We’ll dive into Elementor, set up our brand colors and typography, and start designing the homepage. It’s going to be where the visual magic starts happening!
Got questions? Hit us up at le***********@**************ff.com. And if you followed along and built your own site — tell us about it! We want to see what YOU’re creating.
Stay awesome. Stay wild. Keep making stuff.
— John O’Neill Sr.
Founder, AwesomeWildStuff | AWS Solutions LLC