You may have heard of bloggers and website owners raving about WordPress and how great the platform is. Now, you want to know more about what WordPress really is and how it works.
Learning WordPress does not require a lot of time, energy, or money. It is not complicated by any means and anyone can learn it on their own time.
Yes, WordPress certainly is not the only web hosting platform available online but it is one of the most popular ones, making it an undeniable leader in this realm. In fact, it is used so frequently that 40.6 percent of the internet’s websites are run on WordPress. That is millions upon millions of web pages are powered solely with the help of this versatile platform.
But what really is WordPress? How does it work? What is it made of? And most important of all, why is it so popular? Let’s have a look.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a free and open-source website hosting platform. It is technically a content management system (CMS) meaning it lets users, business owners, and bloggers manage their content in one place.
WordPress lets users create websites easily without writing a single line of code. It does that by providing ready-to-use templates for different kinds of website platforms, whether it is fashion, beauty, or eCommerce.
It is the most popular platform to build websites of any kind. If you want to build any type of website, WordPress is the go-to option for most people.
Powering so many websites across the web, WordPress provides people with countless job opportunities around the world. There are millions of websites making money with the use of WordPress.
Previously, hosting a professional-looking website was something that could not be done without the help of programmers. But now, WordPress has provided laymen people who are not familiar with the concepts of coding to create beautiful websites and earn money through those websites.
Why is WordPress So Popular?
WordPress owes its popularity to a lot of its features. Let’s have a look at some of the reasons why this platform is so famous.
- WordPress is free. You can download it right now free of cost and get started.
- It is an open-source platform. Which means that it is built on a community of people that collaborate to help improve the platform on a regular basis. Anyone is free to contribute to the WordPress software and make it more versatile and secure than before.
- It is extremely versatile. One of the biggest reasons why WordPress is so popular is the diversity it offers in terms of usage. It can be a simple blog site, a photo site, a professional corporate website, or a portfolio website, WordPress has something for everyone. It can handle it all.
- WordPress stays up to date and modern. If you are looking for a new feature, best believe WordPress is going to have it.
- It is great accessibility features. WordPress is an extremely user-friendly platform. It is designed to be easily used by everyone, including those with impaired vision or dyslexia.
- It is extremely customizable. Apart from its many templates, WordPress offers a wide array of plugins and custom features to add to your website. This allows you to create web pages where you can express yourself freely and in a much more creative way.
Components of WordPress
WordPress is built upon a few fundamental components that are mentioned below-
WordPress Core
WordPress core is the foundation on which the site is built. It is a set of files that make up the platform. These files contain the code that runs WordPress. So, when you install WordPress, you are essentially adding these files to your website.
WordPress Database
Any website needs a database to work. A database is where all your content is stored. This is something that users should not mess with as everything on the database is automatically managed by WordPress itself.
Themes and Plugins
WordPress contains additional files that include themes and plugins that provide users with customization options.
These files are separate from the core files. The themes and plugins are essentially extra files that you add to your website. Again, this is not something you should mess with on a deeper level. WordPress will take care of it for you.
The Admin Screens
The WordPress admin screens – also known as the dashboard – is where everything comes together.
There is where you will manage most of your website by adding themes, plugins, and content along with making any modifications in settings.
What Kinds of Websites Can WordPress Make?
While WordPress is widely used for blogging purposes, it comes with a diverse range of functionalities. You can create any type of website with WordPress including:
- Business websites
- Corporate websites
- Government websites
- eCommerce stores
- Personal portfolios
- Forums
- Social networks
- Membership websites
- Resumes
Is WordPress Good for Beginners?
Apart from its versatility, ease-of-use is another reason why WordPress is so popular. Learning its fundamentals take no time at all and you can do it at your own pace.
It is a great platform that will grow and expand with you the more you use it.
Before WordPress, building websites was something very technical and reserved for the pros. Only developers with a good understanding of HTML, CSS, and other programming languages could design and build websites.
WordPress breaks that inaccessibility barrier and lets everyone create a beautiful website and run it.
As a beginner, you can stick with the basics of WordPress and use its point-and-click interface to run things. As you get familiar with the platform, you can dive deeper and learn about custom themes and plugins. You can even code up a theme or feature to go along with WordPress if you are an expert.
In any case, with WordPress, you can keep it as simple as you want while still going as far as you can take it.
Does WordPress Require Coding?
Working with WordPress is easy with only a few basic skills required. You do not need to know HTML or other programming languages to get a website started on WordPress. They may be helpful but certainly not something that is necessary.
The majority of WordPress users do not possess any coding skills but still have been using the platform effectively for years without any trouble.
How Does WordPress Work? A Step-by-Step Guide
Now that we know the fundamentals of WordPress, we can go ahead and take a look at how it works and how you can navigate through it step-by-step.
But before we do that, you need to know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
The key difference here lies in who is hosting your website.
With WordPress.org, you host your own website.
With WordPress.com, the platform takes care of everything for you. While this is much easier to start with, it also makes for less freedom.
WordPress.com has the following drawbacks:
- You can only place your site under a subdomain.
- WordPress’s own ads and branding cannot be removed from your site.
- There is a limited allotted disk space of only 3GB.
- You cannot monetize your blog or website.
- Additional plugins and themes are not available on the platform.
If you do want to monetize your website, you will have to pay at least $8 monthly on WordPress.com plus the cost of the domain name (around $15 annually). This would mean spending over $100 per year to run your website on WordPress.com
On the other hand, on WordPress.org, you can run your own self-hosted website at only $35 for the first year and then $50 every following year.
With that out of the way, let’s get started with how you can get a website up and running on WordPress.
Pick a Name
First thing’s first! You need to pick a fun name for your website.
Make sure the name you choose is original and not too difficult. Think of how you can use words that represent your niche without sounding too complicated.
Domain Wheel is a tool you can use to find whether the name you are thinking of is available or not.
Buy a Domain Name and Start Hosting
This step can sound deceivingly complicated. All you have to do is locate a reputable web host. Bluehost is a good one for this purpose.
Bluehost is a hosting service that WordPress itself recommends to users. You can host your WordPress website on Bluehost while scoring a domain name for free.
All you need to do is visit the Bluehost website and choose a hosting plan. From there, the process is fairly straightforward.
Install WordPress
The next step is to install WordPress.
You can do this manually. If you are using Bluehost, it is going to guide you through the process of installing WordPress on your hosting setup. This process is a lot simpler.
All you need to give Bluehost is your username and password along with the name of your new website. Once that is done, you will be ready to go in no time.
Familiarize Yourself with the WordPress User Interface (UI)
Once the hosting is set up, visit your website by going to the admin panel by typing a URL with this format:
After logging in, you will land on the main WordPress interface. Have a good look at what the page presents as these are important fundamentals that you need to keep in mind before going forward.
At this stage, you can make some basic setting changes such as:
- Adding permalinks. These are individual web page addresses (URLs). For example, for your “about me” page, the URL would commonly be YOURSITE.com/about.
- Making your website public.
- Setting your website title.
- Allowing (or not) for comments.
- Choosing your time zone
Design Your Website
This is where you can have the most fun on WordPress.
You can start by picking a theme for your website. You can install any theme you like and change it if you need to in the future.
Once you’ve installed a theme you like, you can then customize the theme to your liking. To customize a theme, go to Appearance > Customize. You will see the main WordPress Customizer Interface. From there, you can change anything from typography to colors on your homepage.
Get WordPress Plugins
Plugins can take your WordPress website to the next level and I highly recommend using one. They extend the functionality of your website by adding extra features.
Here are a few great WordPress plugins that are also free:
- Yoast SEO. helps you make web pages rank better on search engines such as Google.
- lets you add interactive contact forms on your website to help your audience connect with you easily.
- Provides automatic backup of your website.
- Optimizes your images to load faster and take up less space.
- Wordfence Security. Makes your website more secure against threats and attacks.
- Google Analytics. Provides analytics for your website traffic.
Create Pages
There are some web pages that every blogger or business owner should have on their website. These include:
- About Me Page
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Store
- Home Page
Start a Blog
Even if you are someone who uses WordPress for business and eCommerce purposes, starting a blog can greatly improve your website’s visibility.
A blog is one of the most effective ways of bringing traffic to your website and exposing people to your products or services.
In fact, 55 percent of marketers prefer blogging as their top choice as a marketing tool.
Running a blog is a fairly straightforward process. Publish informational and useful articles. Make sure the articles are SEO optimized. And keep on posting consistent content.
You can do all of this right on WordPress!
The Bottom Line
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) that exists. It is famous amongst the general population due to its ease of use and the way it lets you conveniently navigate through the different aspects of the website.
The cool thing about the whole WordPress process is that you can do everything on your own without hiring professional help. It gives you all the tools needed to start your own website in possibly the most budget-friendly solution available online.
