In its simplest terms, WordPress is the most popular way to create and manage your own website or blog. In fact, worldwide, WordPress powers over 43.3% of all the websites on the Internet. Yes more than four out of ten websites that you visit every day are likely powered by WordPress. On a more technical level, WordPress is “an open-source content management system licensed under GPLv2” , which means that anyone can use or modify the WordPress software for free. The end result is that WordPress makes building a website accessible to anyone. It is even available people who aren’t developers. Very simply, “WordPress is a factory that makes webpages”.
WordPress: A Content Management System
WordPress is a content management system. It is basically a tool that makes it easy to manage important aspects of your website, such as content, and it does so without to site owner needing to know anything about programming or coding. With WordPress, to publish a website you only need to install WordPress (which is FREE), and then purchase a domain and some hosting service. And for the most part, these beautiful WordPress websites you frequent daily do so with two components….themes and plugins.
- WordPress Themes: WordPress users may install and switch among thousands of different themes. Themes allow users to change the look and functionality of a WordPress website without altering the actual code or, most importantly, the site’s content. Every WordPress website requires at least one theme to be present. Themes may be directly installed using the WordPress Dashboard, an administration tool or back office for your site. WordPress themes are generally classified into two categories: free and premium.
- WordPress Plugins: Plugins are architecture that allow users to extend or modify the features and functionality of a website theme or blog. WordPress.org listed almost 60,000 plugins available for users. Plugins “make your website do something” that it would normally take hundreds if not thousand of dollars in special coding to do. Plugins also represent using a special development tool or strategy that can transform WordPress into all sorts of software systems and applications such as to display your website as a “store” and run a payment system. With plugins, your business website is limited only by the imagination and creativity of WordPress plugin programmers.
Why You Should Use WordPress
One of the most common misconceptions about WordPress is that it is just used as a blogging platform. But WordPress is so much more. True, WordPress started as a state-of-the-art blogging tool, it has evolved into the world’s most powerful website builder available. It is a robust content management system (CMS) that absolutely anyone can learn to use and here’s why you should use it too.
- WordPress is FREE: WordPress is free software. It means you are free to download it, install, use and modify it to match your whatever your needs. You can literally use it to create any kind or type of website.
- WordPress is Easy to Learn and Use: In spite of being the most flexible and powerful platform for website construction, WordPress is very easy to learn and to use and even for beginners. It comes with a simple dashboard with table of contents style menu options listed in the WordPress sidebar. You can easily create content pages, posts of articles, you can customize your website design, add navigation menus for visitors, and much more.
- WordPress is Completely Customizable: Most individuals initially using WordPress are not web designers or have any experience at programming. As a matter of fact, most people start using WordPress without any prior knowledge of how to even design a website. For such non-tech savvy folks, WordPress is the perfect solution because there are thousands of free website templates (themes) that you can choose from. There is usually a picture-perfect WordPress theme just right for you, whether you are starting a blog, building a business site, or even launching an online store.
- WordPress is SEO Friendly: The best website in the world won’t be a success if it doesn’t get any traffic or visitors. Your site needs SEO or Search Engine Optimization. And the good news is, , WordPress is built with search engine traffic in mind. WordPress is written using high-quality code with semantic markup. In day-to-day non-geek terms, this means Google and other search engines love WordPress. This is why WordPress sites tend to rank higher than others in search engines.
WordPress is Here to Stay
One of the most important characteristics about WordPress is that as a platform and management tool, WordPress is here to stay. That’s because it is open-source software. It’s not maintained by just one company. Even if WordPress disappears, anyone can simply fork its code and launch it with a different name in a matter of minutes. It is constantly being updated and upgrades by thousands of individuals. And with the thousands of exciting themes and plugins, your business website can always be utilizing the latest ideas and innovations to keep your business (and website) ahead of the game and earning revenue.
