BETA
As a free, open source CMS, WordPress has played a huge part in helping to democratize web publishing. It is the name behind a powerful and customisable content management system, that allows users to build; from simple to complex websites without the necessity of coding skills.
WordPress can be used for building an array of different websites for different purposes. It can be easily mastered by the most dedicated beginners in a relatively short time span.
And most of all, it’s the innovative plugins and themes that can help transform a basic blog into a full functioning business website.
WordPress comes in two forms; WordPress.com and WordPress.org. With WordPress.Org, users typically host and self manage their WordPress websites with one of the popular website hosting providers. This is often referred to as self-hosting.
Whereas with WordPress.com, which is often referred to as managed hosting, users can simply register and immediately start using WordPress without having to deal with any of the technical tasks that may be required with self-hosting.
You may have already heard it being said that due to its popularity, WordPress makes an ideal target for hackers. Whilst this may be partly true, there are also a number of precautionary steps you can take to at least secure your valuable content.
You see, also due to its popularity there are dedicated maintenance and security related services, plus plugins you should know about. A knowledgeable and helpful website hosting provider is also essential for if anything goes wrong.
The following are recommendations for your consideration
WordPress out of the box comes equipped for optimising your site for search engines.
However, with the aid of specific plugins you can better ensure that you are making the most of your use of keywords and how you structure and format the text and meta data for your individual pages
Top 3 WordPress SEO plugins:
Visual Page Builder Guesstimated Popularity
There’s good reason why Elementor is the most popular, or rather mostly used WordPress visual page builder. It’s the only one readily available to users from the WordPress.org repository (plus it works just great!).
However, this is no reason why you should dismiss the other professional offerings available. Take Divi by Elegant Themes for example, where state of the art visual web page editing is at its finest. Plus, there is a thriving and supportive community of developers and enthusiast using Divi.
If you are a web agency, designer or developer, you always have the option of offering a specialised Divi design service.
And then, there is ThriveSuite, a collection of tools for building professional conversion focused websites and streamlined customer and student funnels for online courses and eCommerce.
The services mentioned above are intended to cover a range of different requirements. From basic blogging to full-blown eCommerce websites.
NB: PRICES MAY VARY OR CHANGE DUE TO SPECIAL OFFERS OR REVISED PRICING
To start developing your WordPress website locally, download MAMP or MAMP Pro.
MAMP provides users with a local server environment and is available for both Mac and Windows.
MAMP has all the tools needed to run WordPress on your desktop for development.
The WordPress software, itself, is free and is an open source platform. Which means you can also modify the code for individual and specific needs as well as redistribution.
You can readily build an online store using WordPress with the Woocommerce plugin. Plus there are many other methods by which you can showcase products of your WordPress site. Learn More
No coding skills are required for using and building elaborate, professional websites using WordPress. However, a little knowledge and familiarity can be very useful.
WordPress is a web-based platform. So, any conventional operating system and web browser is suitable.
There are a numbers of methods combining plugins such as Woocommerce and payments systems like PayPal, Stripe and Payoneer…
The best between the two versions of either WordPress.com and WordPress.org, depends on a number of factors including affordability, skills and technical knowledge. However for most part Website Developers will often take the WordPress.org route for their clients, as this route allows far more flexibility and control.
Yes – you will first need to export the blog posts using the WordPress Export function found under the Tools tab from your WordPress Dashboard.
An .xml file will be generated, which you can download and save to your computers desktop. Now you can import the content to a new WordPress blog.
Again, under the Tools tab, use the Import function to upload the xml file containing the content from the old blog.
If you are looking for something besides WordPress’ free page builders or Gutenberg. A good page builder can cost anything from $45 – $300 a year for a single or multiple sites.
However, dependent on the page builder suite you choose, some services offer lifetime access for around $250 USD, for example.
Yes, again with the right WordPress plugins you can build a full-on, streamlined course, complete with content protection, payment buttons, video, and more.
Thrive Apprentice is a good example of this and is part of the Thrive Suite of WordPress Conversion Focused Plugins.
Page Builders provide a more intuitive and visual method for building custom WordPress page layouts and landing pages.
The more advanced WordPress page builders all provide a drag and drop visual page editing experience and allow the creation of custom page layouts that can be saved as templates and even shared with other website projects.
Yes, there are libraries with 100 to 1000s of professionally designed templates available for you to replace with your own content.
Disclosure: Please bear in mind that some of the links on this site may be sponsored links and if you make a purchase I may earn a commission. Please also keep in mind that the companies and the products I mention are ones that I use myself, or have tried. And are mentioned for their quality or usefulness I have experienced myself