Not sure what WordPress is?

So what is WordPress? Have you heard about the WordPress blogging tool but you aren’t quite sure what it actually is? WordPress is a blogging platform and content management system that you can use to create a website.

WordPress has become extremely popular during the last 5 years or so due to it’s ease of use and the fact it makes it very easy to setup a professional looking website. Not only that, it allows you to very easily update the content on your own website without having to understand web design or website development.

WordPress gives you the power to run and administer your own website without having to pay a website developer to do this for you. Once WordPress is installed, a Theme is added, the site is customised to suit your brand and you have the basic pages built you are ready to take control.

This gives you the ability to easily update your website whenever you need to. WordPress has an admin area, you simply login with a username and password then you have access to all of the admin tools which let you update your own website.

Without getting too technical, WordPress is basically a script that gets installed on the web server where your domain name is hosted. It runs via a database which stores the information about your content.

Why do you need WordPress?

WordPress can be used to create a simple personal blog website similar to a Blogger or Tumblr web blog. It is very easy to use WordPress in a blogging style as this is its default layout, basically you can easily upload text, images and videos to tell your story.

With Tumblr recently being acquired by Yahoo, there has been word that many Tumblr users are jumping ship and moving their blogs over to WordPress. Did you know that you can import your Tumblr blog into your WordPress site with just a few clicks? You can do this under Tools/Import in your WordPress menu.

WordPress is also being very widely used by businesses for their own websites. Within the last few years the number of businesses using WordPress has skyrocketed.

WordPress is ideal for making a professional looking website that is well suited to business use. You can develop a website with WordPress a fair bit quicker than if you were coding one from scratch, plus you get the added benefits of all of the functionality that can be easily added via Plugins.

These days it is imperative that your website displays well across all devices including mobiles and tablets – this is known as Responsive web design. You can now choose from many different Responsive WordPress Themes that give your website this functionality straight out of the box. You want your website to look just as good on mobile devices as it does on desktops and laptops, and now it is very simply done just by using a Responsive WordPress Theme.

WordPress Admin Main Menu Features

• Dashboard – An overview that also contains some help articles and other WordPress related news and information
• Posts – Just like a normal blog post on a blog style site
• Pages – A normal page layout, like a regular page on any website. A page can consist of multiple posts
• Media Library – Where you upload images and videos to for using on your WordPress site
• Links – AKA the “Blogroll”. This is where you can add links to other websites you like that will be displayed in the sidebar or footer on your site
• Comments – This is where you can moderate, approve or delete comments by users on your WordPress blog posts
• Appearance – This is where you can apply your Theme, choose your Widgets, create custom navigation menus and edit the background
• Plugins – Here you can install, upgrade, activate and deactivate WordPress Plugins. You can also search for plugins directly in the WordPress Plugin Directory and install them directly into your site
• Users – This sections shows you all of the registered Users for your WordPress site. You can assign User access levels here
• Tools – Access the Press this bookmarklet and the Categories and Tags Converter

WordPress Themes

A WordPress site looks very basic and plain until you find and install what is known as a WordPress Theme. Think of a WordPress Theme like a skin that styles the WordPress site.

The theme is basically what gives a WordPress website its look and feel. There are thousands of free WordPress themes available in the WordPress themes directory. There are also many companies that develop professional WordPress themes that you need to buy for a small fee. The benefit of buying a theme is that they are usually better quality, and also you get support from the company you bought it from.

Check out this site that reviews WordPress themes and plugins called Find WordPress Themes. We are big fans of the the Genesis Framework and the premium WordPress Themes made by StudioPress. This blog runs on a StudioPress theme called Generate.

The Genesis Framework adds some really good functionality to WordPress particularly for SEO(Search Engine Optimisation). If you are running a WordPress site based on the Genesis Framework you will not need a seperate SEO plugin like Yoast as all of those features are built into Genesis.

WordPress Plugins

WordPress has many addons which are known as Plugins which can add extra functionality to your website. If there is some tool or feature or function you need for your website, you can almost surely find a WordPress plugin that will do the job for you.

For example embedding videos, creating subscriber lists, adding social media icons, creating forms, creating a shopping cart, creating call to action buttons and just about anything else you could want to do with your website. You can find WordPress Plugins listed in the WordPress Plugin Directory.

There are many plugins that we use on our WordPress sites and can definitely recommend. Some of our favourites are WordPress SEO by Yoast, Contact Form 7, W3 Total Cache, MaxButtons Pro and All In One SEO Pack.

The benefits of using WordPress to build your new website

• You can easily manage and update your own content on your website via an easy to use admin panel
• Responsive WordPress themes will ensure that your website looks fantastic on all devices
• You will save time on the actual development of your website compared to building a website from scratch
• Plugins will add the extra functionality you need to achieve what you need your website to do
• You can create a very professional looking website by choosing the right WordPress Theme
• You can search engine optimise your WordPress website easily with an SEO plugin
• We can design, build and optimise your WordPress site for you
• There are a number of shopping cart plugins you can use with WordPress so you can sell your products online

What is WordPress Web Hosting?

To get a website that runs on WordPress you will need a domain name registered and a web hosting plan. Your domain name gets set up on a web hosting plan which then enables you to have a WordPress website installed and built on that web space.

We specialise in WordPress web hosting, our web servers are perfectly configured to run WordPress websites. We can also install WordPress for you so you don’t have to worry about any of the technical stuff.

Get WordPress Web Hosting Now!

Conclusion

We can definitely recommend WordPress for your next website project, its rapid development time and ease of use make it perfect for small to medium business websites and personal blogs.

Hopefully we have explained clearly for you what WordPress is, what it can do and why you need it! If you have any questions regarding WordPress website development or WordPress web hosting plans feel free to Contact Us.