What Is WordPress? A Beginner’s Guide

Key takeaways:

• WordPress is a leading website-building platform that powers a large portion of all websites online. Its user-friendly nature, adaptability, and large support system make it a popular choice for various users.
• You can build almost any type of website with WordPress because of its core features and extensive collection of plugins and themes. From blogs and online stores to portfolios and business sites, WordPress offers the tools to create diverse online presences.
• WordPress offers two main paths: the self-hosted WordPress.org, which provides full control, and the managed WordPress.com, which simplifies website management. Choosing between them depends on your budget, technical skills, and how much control you want over your site.

WordPress maintains its position as one of the leading website builders in the market, powering over 43% of all websites on the internet. This makes the platform the backbone of the modern web for individuals, small businesses, and large corporations alike.

Users often praise WordPress because of its versatility, ease of use, and the expansive ecosystem that supports it.

In this article, we’ll learn more about what WordPress is and what it offers to users who are looking to build their online presence.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a user-friendly website builder that empowers users of any skill level to create their own websites. It was originally a blogging platform, which we’ll get into later, but over time, WordPress evolved into a tool that can support various website types.

WordPress is a great choice for beginners because it’s a content management system (CMS). A CMS allows you to create, edit, manage, and publish web content without needing extensive coding skills.

Plus, WordPress is an open-source software. This makes it ideal for startups or small businesses since you can use WordPress without paying licensing fees. This, in turn, enables users to allocate their budget to other areas of their ventures.

What is WordPress used for?

WordPress helps users build almost any type of website they need. Its core team of developers works with WordPress contributors to launch a range of features, plugins, and integrations. These allow users to custom-build their WordPress websites.

Here are a few kinds of websites you can create with WordPress:

Blogging sites

WordPress provides basic blogging features to help you build and manage a blog site. You can create and format blog posts using the WordPress Editor. You can also upload various media formats, like images and videos, to engage your audience.

Additionally, WordPress offers multiple themes with responsive designs, customization options, and layouts tailored for blogs. The platform also includes a built-in comment management feature to encourage reader interaction.

If you need help with search engine optimization (SEO), WordPress has the Yoast SEO plugin that offers insights into content optimization.

eCommerce stores

WordPress allows users to add eCommerce functionalities to their site to build a fully functional online store. One of its most popular eCommerce plugins is WooCommerce.

With the WooCommerce plugin, you can:

• Sell physical products, digital downloads, and services
• Manage inventory
• Organize products according to categories, attributes, and tags
• Add customer reviews to product pages
• Set currency and measurement units based on your location
• Upload unlimited product images
• Accept payments through secure payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe
• Offer shipping options to customers, such as pick-up or delivery

Portfolio websites

Building a portfolio website with WordPress is also possible. It has themes designed for portfolios, mostly with grid or gallery layouts to showcase projects visually. Many of these themes provide minimalist design options to keep the focus on your work.

You can also upload high-quality images and videos and create captivating galleries. Add to that, you can seamlessly integrate positive client testimonials into your site to entice potential employers or customers to reach out to you.

To enhance your portfolio further, use the following plugins:

• Envira Gallery and NextGEN Gallery for creating and managing image galleries
• WP Portfolio for customizing portfolio templates
• Elementor and Divi for designing unique portfolio layouts

Business websites

With its extensive features and tools, WordPress offers a solid foundation for any business site. You can create an informative “About Us” page to share your company’s story and integrate lead generation forms to connect with potential clients.

In addition to that, you can create pages to describe your products or services and add your contact information. Plus, WordPress is search engine-friendly in nature, which can improve your business’ online visibility.

Consider using the WPForms plugin to create contact forms, as it helps simplify customer inquiry collection.

If you have a presence on other social platforms like Instagram, we recommend the Smash Balloon plugin. This tool enables you to effortlessly display your social feeds on your WordPress site.

Membership sites

WordPress is the perfect choice if you want to build a community around your expertise or offer exclusive content to a dedicated audience. It allows you to create membership-based websites with restricted access to content.

The platform enables you to:

• Manage user registration and login
• Create member profiles
• Offer different subscription plans with varying access levels
• Process recurring payments using plugins

Popular membership WordPress plugins include MemberPress, which is best known as a learning management system (LMS) plugin. It’s an ideal choice for those who offer online courses and need an all-in-one solution.

With this tool, you can set release dates and access expiration for your educational content. It also allows you to customize coupons and automate billing settings.

What to choose: WordPress.org or WordPress.com?

The terms “WordPress.org” and “WordPress.com” often confuse beginners because they share the “WordPress” name. However, they’re different in many ways.

Here’s a breakdown of their key differences:

Choosing between these platforms depends on your specific needs, technical skills, budget, and the control and flexibility required for your website.

Check out our article that focuses on comparing WordPress.org and WordPress.com to help you choose the best fit for your small business.

Why should you use WordPress?

Determining why you should use WordPress for your website means understanding its key features and benefits. Consider the reasons below to decide whether WordPress can be an asset to your business.

WordPress is an open-source platform with a global community

When a platform is an open-source software, its source code is free for anyone to view, modify, and enhance. This freedom empowers you to tailor your site to your needs with few limitations.

Its open nature also encourages a collaborative environment where users help each other, share knowledge, and contribute to making WordPress better for everyone.

Today, WordPress has a large and supportive global community of users, developers, and designers. These collaborations have resulted in online forums, tutorials, and countless resources that offer guidance and solutions.

WordPress is a user-friendly CMS

WordPress provides a CMS dashboard with a user-friendly interface. That means website creation and management is simple, especially for beginners. It also offers easy-to-use editors that allow you to format text, add media, and structure your pages in whichever way you intend.

With WordPress, you can also:

• Schedule posts to go live at specific times
• Manage comments from your visitors
• Restrict admin access to important parts of your website

With most of the technical complexities taken out of building your site, you can focus on creating engaging website content instead.

While it’s easy to get started with WordPress, it also offers plenty of advanced features and customization options for more tech-savvy users.

Its open-source nature allows for deep customization of the code, which enables developers to create custom themes and plugins to meet even the most complex requirements.

The way WordPress caters to beginners and advanced users makes it a versatile website builder.

WordPress has extensive themes and plugins

Themes and plugins allow you to extend the core capabilities of WordPress to build a website that matches your vision. Themes primarily control the visual appearance of your site, including its layout, colors, and fonts.

On the other hand, plugins add features and functionalities to your webpage. This enables you to incorporate components effortlessly, such as:

• Shopping carts
• Social media integration
• SEO tools
• Advanced security measures

The WordPress ecosystem has a vast library of both free and premium themes and plugins. This wide selection boosts your chances of finding solutions that meet your needs and budget.

WordPress is flexible in design and functionality

One of WordPress’ notable features is its flexibility in terms of design and functionality. Due to its extensive options of themes, templates, and plugins, building almost any type of website with WordPress is possible.

You can customize parts of your webpage to align with your brand and goals. For example, you can create a music website where you can design dedicated events pages and sell digital downloads and merch.

You can also set up a landing page for a product launch with a call-to-action (CTA) section and a signup form for email subscriptions.

This adaptability is one of the reasons why WordPress is a go-to platform for individuals and businesses alike.

WordPress is scalable

WordPress is built to grow with your website as your traffic and content increase. It’s best to select a hosting provider that can scale its resources as needed to avoid issues like downtimes and security breaches.

Beyond that, you can leverage plugins and various functionalities within WordPress to address the growing needs of your website.

What companies use WordPress?

WordPress powers large and complex websites across different industries. Here are a few globally recognized organizations and companies that use the platform:

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent U.S. federal government agency. This organization is responsible for the nation’s civilian space program, aeronautics, and aerospace research.

NASA has led numerous space exploration and scientific discoveries. Notably, it achieved milestones like the first human landing on the Moon and contributed greatly to our understanding of the universe.

Spotify’s “For the Record”

The “For the Record” website is the official newsroom and online hub for Spotify. It features updates, stories, and insights about the company, its technology, and various aspects of the audio streaming world.

Disney General Entertainment Press (DGE Press)

The DGE Press is the publicity arm for Disney’s television content portfolio. It handles media relations, publicity campaigns, and promotional activities for shows airing across the following platforms:

• ABC
• Disney+
• Hulu
• FX
• National Geographic
• Other platforms under the Disney General Entertainment umbrella

What is the history behind WordPress?

Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little launched WordPress on May 27, 2003. This was after the two decided to create their own blogging software after the developers of b2/cafelog discontinued their platform.

They took the existing code and built upon it with the initial goal of creating a user-friendly system that simplified blog creation.

Over time, WordPress evolved from its early days as a simple blogging platform. As it grew, the ability to install WordPress became increasingly easy, which attracted a larger number of users beyond bloggers.

An important aspect of this growth was the introduction of themes. This addition enabled users to change their sites’ appearance without needing to code.

With each major update, WordPress often released new default themes that showcase the platform’s growing design capabilities.

Today, the platform continues to power websites of all sizes and offer users endless possibilities to turn their vision into a reality.

Get your small business online with WordPress

With its open-source code, supportive global community, and beginner-friendly platform, it’s no wonder WordPress is one of the world’s most widely used website builders.

Its versatility makes it perfect for bloggers, small businesses, large companies and organizations, and almost anyone looking to establish an online presence.

When you’re ready to build a WordPress website, consider Network Solutions’ WordPress hosting services. We offer secure and fast web hosting and automated core updates, so your site is always up to the latest version of WordPress.

Read our beginner’s guide on getting started with WordPress to help you build your WordPress site.

Frequently asked questions