Introduction to WordPress
WordPress is a powerful tool for creating and managing your websites and blogs. Whether you’re a beginner, a hobbyist, or a pro web designer, WordPress is built for you. Understanding its core concepts will enhance your experience, and help you unlock its full potential.
WordPress: What is it?
WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS). It allows you to host and build websites. WordPress contains plugin architecture and a template system, so you can customize any website to fit your business, blog, portfolio, or online store.
How Does WordPress Work?
WordPress stores your content on a server. When someone visits your site, the server sends your site content to their browser. WordPress uses a database to store and retrieve content, and it can serve different content based on the URL the visitor enters.
The Importance of WordPress Themes and Plugins
WordPress Themes are files that work together to create the design and functionality of a WordPress site. Each Theme may be different, offering many choices for site owners to instantly change their website look.
Plugins extend and expand the functionality of WordPress. They’re apps that let you add new features and functionality to your website, like adding contact forms, improve SEO, or create an online store.
WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
WordPress.com is a hosting service, while WordPress.org is a software. With WordPress.com, they take care of all the technical aspects for a fee. WordPress.org is free but you need a web host to install it.
WordPress.com is easy and takes care of security and backups. But, it has limited customization options and you don’t fully own your site. WordPress.org gives you more control and you own your site fully but you need to manage software, security, and backups yourself.
Installing WordPress
WordPress is quite easy to install. Most web hosts offer 1-click installations for WordPress. If your web host does not provide this, you can manually install WordPress in your web server by downloading the WordPress software and uploading it to your server.
Creating Your First WordPress Post
Creating your first post in WordPress is also very simple.
- Go to your WP admin panel
- Click the ‘Posts’ tab
- Click the ‘Add New’ sub-tab
- Start filling the blanks: enter your post title in the upper field, and enter your post body content in the main post editing box below it.
- Click ‘Publish’.
Maintaining and Updating Your Site
It’s important to update your site to keep it secure, and add new features. To update your WordPress site, go to Dashboard > Updates and click “”Update Now””.
WordPress has so much more to offer. As you become more familiar with it, you will discover that it is not just a blogging platform. It is a powerful CMS that can be used to build almost any type of website. For more tutorials and helpful guides on WordPress, be sure to stay updated with our blog.