What is WordPress?
WordPress was released in 2003 by its founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
After its release, WordPress became one of the most powerful web publishing platforms. The major aspect of the WordPress platform is that it is completely free for all sorts of users. Anyone can use WordPress without having much knowledge or technical skills, or learning a programming language.
This article is just a simple introduction to WordPress for beginners. This CMS enables you to create your own beautiful websites or blogs, and eCommerce stores as well.
WordPress is an open source blogging, free online tool and a content management system (CMS) which is based on PHP and MySQL. It is the most powerful and famous blogging platform which is currently used by over 60 million websites online. WordPress is a project backed by its parent company, Automattic, which likewise uses different WordPress associated products and services, such as WordPress.com, VaultPress, JetPack, VideoPress, WordPress VIP, Gravatar, and numerous others.
Thousands of free plugins, widgets, and themes are available for WordPress, making it more powerful, flexible, and expandable. The availability of these plugins and themes enables you to change the entire look of your website or blog pretty easily and in less time. Most of the world’s leading websites use it for managing their content online.
WordPress is not only user-friendly but also SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly as well. It enables web crawlers and bots to easily recognize your website content. WordPress’s continuous updating mechanism makes websites or blogs quick to adapt to changing technology. A huge team of talented and skilled developers have made contributions to WordPress to convert it into a powerful web publishing platform.
WordPress in a glance
What is WordPress?
- A free online and open-source blogging tool.
- A content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL
- 100% free
- It enables you to create a website or blog.
- Used by famous blogs, news outlets, celebrities
- Highly flexible and expandable
- User and search engine friendly
Interesting facts about WordPress
- Popular sites like CNN, TechCrunch, Forbes, etc are running on the WordPress VIP platform.
- Currently, 60 million plus websites are powered by WordPress.
- Using WordPress, many people are making money online.
- You don’t need to learn any programming or coding languages to operate WordPress.
- WordPress contains 35,000+ plugins at the moment.
- Compared to Joomla and Drupal, WordPress is very simple to handle.
- Currently, WordPress has 51 translations.
- Per month, WordPress blogs have billions of page views.
- WordPress is the most widely used Content Management System (CMS) in the world.
- 100% free to use.
Why give WordPress precedence over other blogging platforms?
Many new bloggers wonder why they should choose WordPress to create their website. The answer is that WP is the best. It’s more popular and better than other content management systems, and it’s better than any free hosted blogging platform. Some of the sites you visit daily are powered by WP. Let’s learn why you need this powerful CMS.
1. WordPress is better for the future.
It surprises me how many new bloggers only think about now, when really we should be thinking about the future benefits that can come from blogging. Think about it. Famous bloggers such as Nick Denton, Ewdison Then, Michael Stelzner, Ben Huh, Darren Rowse, etc. had to start somewhere. Something clicked in their heads and said this blog could actually go somewhere in the future. True bloggers and the people who expect something from their blog or website never start off with a free hosted platform. Never! You have to use WordPress. Blogger is not cutting it if you want to be a successful blogger.
Free web hosting sites decrease your chances of making money and being shared. I weighed my options and it was clear to me that I had to get my own hosting and start with WordPress. All business owners think about the future and with blogging the mentality never changes.
2. You’re in control with WP
With WordPress, you are the owner. You are the CEO. With WP, you don’t have to worry about your site being shut down for any reason, because you are in full control and your site will be hosted on your own server.
3. WordPress is better than Joomla and Drupal for beginners.
WordPress is super easy to set up. It cuts the setup time compared to these other content management systems in half. If you are a young blogger and you want a CMS that is easy to set up and user-friendly, then you need WP. Not only that, but did you know that WP has twice the number of downloads than Joomla and Drupal combined? 12 year old kids are building awesome blogs with WordPress and they are killing the blogging community.
There is a reason why WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world. WP has a bigger community. There is more support, more developers, and more clients for your business. Nobody wants a complicated site. WP is very easy to manage and most of your needs are just a click away.
4. WordPress is a money and time saver.
It would be easier for you, because it is so easy to use that a layman can do it. You don’t have to worry about hiring outside designers for simple tasks. You can do it yourself. WordPress could save you hundreds and thousands of dollars in the long run. WP even allows you to add a Paypal account to your site for free for business or donations instead of an expensive monthly shopping cart. That means instead of losing, you are gaining.
5. WordPress is search engine friendly.
In fact, we love ready to use things. Whether it is food that you pop out of the box and throw in the microwave or gadgets that we can plug in and start using immediately. WP does basically all the onpage SEO work for you. All you need to do is activate a free SEO plugin such as Yoast or All in One and you will be able to start dominating the web with your awesome content immediately. Google will be your best friend.
Please visit also: SEO Tips to Consider while Launching a New Website
6. Flexibility
You can do everything on WordPress. The website possibilities are endless. With WP, you can create an awesome video blog site, an eCommerce site, etc.
7. Awesome and huge number of themes
WordPress offers users thousands of free and awesome themes. They are very easy to customize. As soon as you set up your WP, all you have to do is go to your dashboard, go to appearance, and click on themes. Once you are there, click on add new and you will find thousands of free themes to choose from. If you don’t want any of the free themes, you can buy a super fast premium theme such as Genesis or the Thesis Theme.
8. Plugins
Once you talk about the huge number of themes, you have to talk about the enormous number of plugins that WP has to offer. There are over 31,000 free plugins. There are plugins for everything. You have plugins for search bars, contact widgets, Facebook Like Boxes, social sharing, cache, beautiful slideshows, comments, email lists, games, and the list goes on. A beginner can easily make an eye-dropping site in minutes. Notice I said that there are over 31,000 thousand free plugins that will accommodate your site’s needs. Don’t forget that there are also more advanced, cheap plugins that you can buy from sites like Envato Market.
Please Visit Also: Top 40 Must Have WordPress Plugins [updated 2020]
9. Support
There is more WordPress support than any other CMS or blog platform on the web. If you do run into any problems, there are a plethora of forums you can go to and people you can talk to for help.
10. The WordPress resume speaks for itself.
The top bloggers and websites are on WordPress. Sites like Forbes, TechCrunch, BBC America, and more all use WP. WordPress has great credentials.
Lastly
If you want sites such as the ones in the WP showcase for your blog or your business, then choose WP today. Don’t procrastinate. The longer you wait, the longer it will take to make a living online. You know WordPress is the best and you know you’re going to choose it.
About The Author
Nohman Habib
I basically work in the CMS, like Joomla and WordPress and in framework like Laravel and have keen interest in developing mobile apps by utilizing hybrid technology. I also have experience working in AWS technology. In terms of CMS, I give Joomla the most value because I found it so much user freindly and my clients feel so much easy to manage their project in it.
