WordPress powers 34% of the internet. If you think about the millions of websites out there, that’s a LOT of websites!
So what is WordPress and why is it so popular? WordPress is an open-source Content Management System (CMS), with thousands of pre-made themes and more than 50,000 plugins. That means it’s free, easy to use, super powerful and you can do just about anything with it.
Here are a couple of questions we often get about WordPress that’ll explain it a little more:
What does open-sourced mean?
Open source programs are free or very low cost and developed by teams of people, often on a volunteer basis.
What is a Content Management System CMS?
A CMS is software designed to make it easier for people who aren’t developers to create and manage a website without having to learn to code.
Is it actually free?
While the WordPress software is free, you still need to pay for someone to host your website as you would with a traditional (code) website. There are also free and paid themes and plugins – so you can choose options to suit your budget.
Isn’t it only for blogging?
No, not anymore. It may have started out that way but has progressed way beyond being a simple blogging platform.
What are themes and how do they work?
Think of it this way, WordPress is a plain vanilla sponge cake and a theme provides the delicious icing and toppings for the cake. WordPress themes provide a template to define the appearance of the site. Themes define things like the color scheme, layout and font choices.
What are plugins and do I need them?
Plugins are like the apps you have on your phone. They extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress website. So it all depends on what you want to do with your site. For example Woocommerce is a plugin that is added to WordPress to convert a normal site into an online store.
Do I need to know how to code to use WordPress?
Not at all, but it can be helpful if you do. When it comes to WordPress, even coders don’t need to code.
I’ve heard that WordPress is bad for SEO is this true?
No it’s not true. If it were you wouldn’t see any WordPress sites on your Google search results page. WordPress on its own doesn’t optimise for SEO but there are plugins that do. The plugins actually make it simpler – no need to remember things like tags and image alt text when you can optimise all the various SEO elements in one place.
Now do you understand why it’s so popular?
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