What is Wordpress?
WordPress is an open-source Content Management System. It makes things simpler for anyone who plans to build a website from scratch. Although there are several WordPress CMS alternatives, it still reigns as the most popular CMS with more than 27 million websites using it.
The CMS WordPress, rose as a blogging platform and evolved into the CMS it is today. It is used for building websites by almost every industry and is an ideal choice for ones, not much familiar with the technical aspects of building a website.
A striking advantage of WordPress CMS is that it is FREE. You don't have to pay a penny to use WordPress. What will cost you is buying a domain and the hosting services for it.
Why do you need WordPress?
To develop and manage a website using minimal resources, a CMS as powerful as WordPress is a necessity. If you are looking for a free website builder with incredible scalability and flexibility, there's nothing that can top WordPress, yet.
WordPress CMS offers thousands of themes and plugins - with several free ones for the pick. You can customise your website, just as you like, with every element being editable. All these edits can be performed with zero coding skills. With WordPress forums and numerous tutorials available, you will never be stuck.
Even if you are planning for a blog or an eCommerce website, the CMS WordPress can make things simpler. WordPress is easy to use, and more importantly, it has a shallow learning curve. As WordPress is known for being impressively SEO-friendly, even if you are starting a blog or a business website, you will benefit a lot from it in the long run. To make minor changes to the website or update contents, you don't require the assistance of a developer either.
What are the advantages of WordPress?
Apart from being free, secure, easy-to-use and highly customisable, WordPress CMS has an enormous list of advantages, making it an exemplary CMS for businesses of all types and sizes. To list a few among them:
- Search Engines love WordPress. WordPress websites tend to rank higher
- Most themes are mobile responsive
- Impressive Social Media Integration
- Stable, as WordPress always keeps up with the latest technologies
- Wide range of themes and plugins to choose from
- Clean structure - faster loading websites
- Easily assign website roles as authors, editors, admins and such
- Scalable - Grow your website with your business
- A supportive community
- As WordPress is browser-based, you can edit your website from any part of the world
- Adaptable - Make any website as you wish
Which all domains can use WordPress?
Although the CMS WordPress started as a blogging platform, it has evolved into a website builder that can create any type of website. You can start as small as a single page website, and later even extend it into an online store - The possibilities are limitless.
Simply put, WordPress is omnipotent. Every and any website can be made with WordPress. With 36% of all sites on the Internet using WordPress, it is clearly evident how flexible and scalable the WordPress CMS is. Here's a list of few types of websites the CMS WordPress can prove to be helpful for:
Blog
As discussed, if you are planning for a blog, there's no better choice than WordPress CMS. It is clean and simple to use, and you can start with publishing in no time. As the CMS WordPress started as a blogging platform, it has a robust set of features made specifically for blogging, raising it far above any other CMS platforms.
For a blog, as well as other businesses, SEO is a primary matter of concern. With WordPress CMS, you have the upper hand in the SEO game. WordPress achieves this feat by using high-quality code and semantic markups. In short, Search Engines love WordPress, and they always rank WordPress-powered websites higher.
eCommerce Websites
Scalability, fast-loading web pages, responsive designs - These might be some basic requirements for setting up an eCommerce website. Not surprisingly, WordPress can do it all. With an enormous list of plugins, your website can be customised to your liking, and at the same time, provide an elevating experience to your customers.
An impressive benefit of WordPress CMS is its scalability. You can quickly transform your personal blog into an eCommerce site using WordPress Plugins, all without losing the essence of your website. Plugins such as Woocommerce and the might Yoast SEO can easily remodel your personal website into a solid eCommerce website. Also, with WordPress, frequently updating products of your website is easier.
Business Website
A business website tends to grow and expand exponentially with time. With an increase in the client list or with expansion overseas, the website must be able to accommodate these changes. For this, a CMS as flexible as WordPress is a blessing.
With the expansion, a business website must be equipped to provide localisations, specific to the geographical locations of the customers seeking your business's services. With several plugins to choose from, localisation can be done with least efforts in WordPress CMS. Your employees, from any part of the world, can update contents of the website, requiring just a computer and an Internet connection.
Community Forums
Online community forums will attract a diverse crowd of members. With notable happenings within the 'niche' of the forum, there will be sudden surges in traffic. The CMS WordPress is developed to handle such situations easily. By incorporating reliable servers and WordPress, the website will stay solid, all the time.
For an online community forum to reach greater glory, social media integration is a must. With social media integration, members of the community forums can log in using their social handles, share impressive posts, and so much more, enabling members to spread the word. A majority of the themes in WordPress are, by default, mobile responsive. This will prove to be indispensable for a community forum as most of the members will be accessing it using their smartphones.
Portfolio Websites
A portfolio website must be aesthetically pleasing and compelling. It must wholly convey the skills and experiences of the owner, and mark a lasting impression on the visitors. With an enormous list of themes and plugins to choose from, the CMS WordPress is an ideal choice for building a mind-blowing portfolio website.
As WordPress CMS requires minimal technical knowledge to use, updating your recent achievements or your latest successful project doesn't need a developer to do it for you. With the first impression being the most important, WordPress lets you conveniently state your skills, in style.
Wiki Websites
With the advent of the Internet, easiness in accessing information through knowledge bases like wikis has been a splendid advantage. Building wikis are a great way to share information and using WordPress makes the process effortless. As most wikis require an organised structure and easily navigable modules, a CMS as robust as WordPress is quite the right choice.
With the CMS WordPress, there are several plugins to facilitate features such as member login, peer communication, editable website contents, and so much more. As the CMS WordPress is easy to manage and update, your efforts in managing the website are minimal. With a variety of themes to choose from, you can develop and publish your wiki in no time.
How can WordPress help your business?
A successful business requires a website that initiates growth and adapts with expansion. With WordPress, expansion is easy. As WordPress CMS is continually perfected, your website stays up with newer technologies and is never left behind.
As a business's website is the first thing a potential customer looks up for, it is integral that the website is built to impress and interact with the customers. With WordPress, setting up an elegant website is easy and cost-efficient. With powerful plugins such as Yoast SEO, marking your online presence is no more an arduous task.
WordPress CMS is developed with an eye for perfection. By using it for your website, you are enabling your website, and ultimately your business, to cross limits.
How to install WordPress?
Installing WordPress is as easy as pie. Your intro to endless possibilities takes a few minutes for setting up. Although several hosting services provide automatic WordPress installation, follow the steps below, and you can do it on your own:
Download and Extract WordPress
Step 1: If you are uploading WordPress to a remote server, download the package to your computer and unzip it.
Step 2: Check the server compatibility and install with Git, Composer or as a zip package.
Step 3: If you are familiar with using console-based tools and have shell access to your web server, you can directly download WordPress to your web server using wget or lynx. The format is wget wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz. Then use tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz to unzip the package. The package will be extracted to a folder named wordpress in the same directory as latest.tar.gz.
Creating a Database and a User
If you are using a hosting provider, then you may already have a WordPress database. But if you don't have one, you can easily create your WordPress username and database using phpMyAdmin. You can also make use of other tools such as cPanel and Plesk for the same. The steps to use phpMyAdmin to create a database and user are as follows:
- Choose a name for your Database ( WordPress, blog or anything that makes sense ).
- Enter the name into the Create Database field and choose the collation that best suits your language and encoding requirements.
- Click on the phpMyAdmin icon to return to the main page and click on User’s tab
- Click Add User to create a user
- Enter a username
- Enter a secure password
- Set all options at their defaults, under Global Privileges
- Click on Go.
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The database and the user is now created. To edit the privileges of the user, visit the Users tab and click on Edit Privileges for the user.
To provide access to the user for the WordPress database, visit the section Database-specific privileges, select the WordPress database under the Add privileges to the following database dropdown menu, and click on Go. The page will now refresh the database privileges. Now click on Check All to select all privileges. Now click Go.
Make a note of the hostname listed after Server. This will, in most cases, be localhost.
Setting up wp-config.php
For setting the wp-config.php, you can either manually set it or let WordPress do it while running the installation script. To set it manually:
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Access the extracted WordPress package and rename the file wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php.
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Open the file in Text Editor
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Under the section labelled // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** // enter your database information as follows:
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DB_NAME - The name of the WordPress database you created
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DB_USER - The username you created in phpMyadmin (or the tool you used)
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DB_PASSWORD - The password for the username
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DB_HOST - The hostname listed after Server, in most cases being localhost.
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DB_CHARSET - The database character set which is normally set unchanged.
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DB_COLLATE - The database collation, which is normally left blank.
Under the section labelled * Authentication Unique Keys and Salts., enter your secret key values. The secret key values make your site harder to attack by inserting random elements to the password. When that’s done, save the wp-config.php file.
Uploading Files
The website files need to be uploaded depending on where on your domain the WordPress site needs to appear:
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If it is in the root directory of your website, then it must be in, for example - example.com
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If it is in the subdirectory of your website, like a blog, then it must be in, for example -example.com/blog
For Root Directory:
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Using an FTP client, upload all contents of the wordpress directory into the root directory of your website.
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If you are using shell access to install WordPress, move all contents of the wordpress directory into the root directory of your website.
For Sub Directory:
- Rename the wordpress directory to the desired name. Using an FTP client, upload the directory into the desired location within the root directory of your website.
- If you are using shell access to install WordPress, move the wordpress directory into the desired location, with the root directory, and rename it to the desired name.
Running the Install Script
Use a web browser for script installation.
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If you set the WordPress files in the root directory, then visit, for example - example.com/wp-admin/install.php
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If you set the WordPress files in a subdirectory, then visit, for example -example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php
If WordPress can’t find the wp-config.php file, you have to create and edit the file. You will require to write the database details to a new wp-config.php file.
Once the WordPress installation is successful, a login prompt will be displayed.
Who Uses Wordpress?
The WordPress CMS is used by a diverse group, ranging from small businesses to International Corporations. Here are some notable ones:
What is the latest WordPress version?
WordPress undergoes a continuous process of development, ensuring top-level security and features. The latest version of WordPress is 5.3.2
WordPress vs Alternatives
| CMS | WordPress | TYPO3 | Shopify | Drupal | Joomla |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open-source |
Yes |
Yes |
Paid |
Yes |
Yes |
| CMS Market Share |
65.72% |
1.44% |
6.87% |
4.63% |
5.90% |
| SEO - Utilisation |
High |
High |
Moderate |
High |
High |
| Industries Using |
Retail, Consumer Goods, Design, Education Management, Entertainment, Food and Beverages, Computer Software, Nonprofit Organisation Management, Marketing and Advertising, Internet |
Retail, Restaurants, Hospitality, Construction, Recreational Facilities and Services, Automotive, Computer Software, Education Management, Entertainment |
Retail, Apparel & Fashion, Wholesale, Restaurants, Consumer Goods, Health, Wellness and Fitness, Food & Beverages, Computer Software, Furniture, Design |
Computer Software, Information Technology and Services, Nonprofit Organisation Management, Hospital & Health Care, Education Management, Retail, Construction, Financial Services |
Corporate websites or portals, Online commerce, Small business websites, School and church websites, Personal or family homepages, Community-based portals |
| Learning Curve |
Shallow |
Steep |
Shallow |
Steep |
Steep |
| Documentation |
High Availability |
High Availability |
Limited Availability |
High Availability |
High Availability |
| Extension Availability |
High |
High |
Moderate |
High |
High |
| Community |
A vast and helpful community |
An enthusiastic community of supportive developers |
An engaging community of merchants and partners |
A vibrant community of developers from all around the world |
An energetic community of developers, for informative discussions |
| Security |
High |
High |
High |
High |
Low |
| Multilingual Support |
70 languages |
50 Languages |
20 Languages |
100 Languages |
75 Languages |