You may not be inherently familiar with WordPress websites, but if you have visited any professional or personal websites in the past 24 hours, you have encountered a site powered by WordPress.
Approximately 810 million websites use WordPress, representing 43% of all websites on the internet. WordPress is utilized around the world, from small business websites to high traffic websites like BBC America and the Wall Street Journal. These websites promote big brands, share insider news and breaking news coverage, publish popular weekly online magazines, and more.
Simply put, WordPress is the leading provider of modern websites, and the WordPress platform is a website builder that every marketer and small business should know.
Even if you have viewed or used a website that WordPress powers, there is still a lot to understand outside the site features. A WordPress-based website can be transformed into any style, and for any purpose. This includes serving as the official site of a global recorded music company, to being the backbone of an official news source.
Using WordPress to power new or existing websites requires a little expertise to understand the fundamentals and the many options for these dynamic websites. Therefore, before you launch your new WordPress-based website, familiarize yourself with the following guidelines, best practices, and great examples of what a website powered by WordPress can achieve.
Who Uses WordPress?
The Basics of Creating a WordPress Website
WordPress Website Fundamentals
Purchasing and Launching a WordPress Site
Navigating through a WordPress Website
The Benefits of Using WordPress for Your Website
What’s the Best Way to Create a WordPress Website?
Are You Ready to Launch Your Next Web-based Project with WordPress?
Brief History of WordPress
WordPress was first developed in 2003 by American blogger Matt Mullenweg and British blogger Mike Little. WordPress websites were initially focused on creating user-friendly community blogs. However, the popular website builder quickly grew in popularity and adaptability in the years that followed.
In 2005, themes – or tools for the foundational design of WordPress websites – were introduced, followed by a rapid release of multiple plugins. By 2011, the WordPress CMS (content management system) was deemed one of the easiest and most flexible for web development. Furthermore, by 2022, an estimated one-third of the top million most-visited websites and over 40% of all websites on the internet are powered by WordPress.
WordPress remains one of the most popular content management systems today. Therefore, the number of websites on WordPress continues to grow as more and more website builders discover its well-earned reputation as the dominant content management system in the online world.
Who Uses WordPress?
Here are some examples of popular websites using WordPress in unique ways.
WordPress websites can be created for any purpose and by any entity, from personal websites to big brands. With that being said, there are a few great examples of how household names create and utilize websites that are powered by WordPress and use the website builder in ingenious ways.
Tip: Because all of these popular websites use WordPress, they can all be copied from or borrowed from in terms of style and functionality. In fact, when it comes to web design, one of the best first steps to creating your own WordPress site is finding styles, themes, and elements that will benefit your website and web pages from the inside out.
Microsoft News
Microsoft News uses the WordPress site’s grid layouts for its website. This allows it to prioritize and highlight recent news, breaking news, and other stories as they trickle in via reporters or press releases.
Skype Blog
The Skype blog, which is part of Microsoft, uses a similar layout to Microsoft News to share Skype tutorials, Skype features, and heartwarming stories about how Skype is used to connect people around the world.
TED Blog
The TED Blog, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization committed to spreading ideas, uses its WordPress website in a unique way by transforming its video content to written form for website browsers. (Note that video content can also be included in every WordPress website!)
BBC America
BBC America’s website is distinctive as it includes content in written form, highlighting its popular television series and breaking news contributions. It’s also one of the many e-commerce WordPress sites where browsers can purchase BBC America-themed merchandise.
PlayStation Blog
The PlayStation Blog’s WordPress-based website features trending news on game releases and other advancements, encouraging browsers to purchase their gaming systems and other products.
cPanel Blog
cPanel, the most popular control panel in WordPress hosting, naturally uses WordPress to power its own cPanel blog and share news and updates related to its unique features compared to other, multiple platforms.
Vogue
This popular weekly magazine that focuses on celebrity style and fashion has every edition published since 1892 on its WordPress website. This makes it one of the most diverse portfolios of historic content on the web.
Angry Birds
On the Angry Birds WordPress website, you can watch videos, purchase merchandise, read about updates, and even download the popular Angry Birds game itself – in fact, there are more than 2 billion website users!
Etsy Journal
The Etsy Journal is well-known as the blog component of the new global economy of Etsy. This site is essentially a forum for featured artists, local artists, and any crafty website browser who wants to connect in a creative online space.
Flickr Blog
The Flickr Blog shows the strength of a WordPress site. Flickr Blog uses WordPress to power an untold number of images and videos that are constantly shared daily through this popular platform.
Sony Music Blog
The Sony Music blog is another example of a big brand utilizing a straightforward WordPress blog. WordPress is used to share news on featured artists, new releases, and other press releases or highlights stemming from the large Sony Music corporation.
The Basics of Creating a WordPress Website
Creating a WordPress site from scratch takes time and deep knowledge of the fundamentals that go far beyond creating content.
As such, website builders will want to keep the following guidelines in mind and keep an eye on all the intricate details along the way, from the Alexa ranking to features like the full-screen slider and everything in between.
WordPress Website Fundamentals
The WordPress Content Management System is designed to be intuitive. This means that it provides an instinctive way to create, edit, and manage the posts and web pages that appear on your website.
WordPress has a full set of features out of the box. However, there are two primary ways to go beyond the basics:
- Themes: Themes are the backbone of your website and determine the overall style, layout, colors, font choices, and framework of all of your posts and web pages. There are more than 31,000 WordPress themes to choose from, including some that are time-tested and used by most websites that WordPress powers. Moreover, some of them are custom created by developers.
- Plugins: While themes dictate your site’s overall style and layout, plugins are the extendable features you can add to your varying pages and functionality. For example, you can install a Google Analytics plugin to track your website traffic, or the popular Yoast plugin, which helps monitor if your website is SEO friendly.
Purchasing and Launching a WordPress Site
The first question for a website built by WordPress is whether a website builder wants to use WordPress.org or WordPress.com to get started. Additionally, there are key differences between these two options, which boil down to web hosting.
- For a WordPress.org created site, the site builder has full control over all customizations and controls of the website. However, there is a lot more work and responsibility involved from the get-go. With a WordPress.org site, you’ll need to purchase the domain name, upload and install the plugins you’ll need, create and adjust the background code, install security measures, and ensure that your website works on all popular web browsers.
- A WordPress.org website is completely free, but a website builder must pay for all the elements that go into using WordPress as a fully functioning website.
- For a WordPress.com site, a lot of the heavy lifting is already accomplished. WordPress.com handles all the foundational elements of most websites built by WordPress, including website hosting, domain name, and server management. There are a number of customization options with a WordPress.com site. This allows for some flexibility when it comes to layout and design, and most personal websites can be created with ease via a WordPress.com backbone.
- The cost for these all-in-one WordPress.com sites varies based on storage capabilities, customizations, and how much technical support will be needed in the future. Businesses using WordPress to generate online sales will likely want the commerce or executive options, which have far more features, including the ability to conduct e-commerce operations.
Navigating Through a WordPress Website
Once you have your website up and running, as a website builder or content creator, you’ll spend the majority of your initial time in the WordPress Dashboard. This is the first screen you’ll see when you log into your WordPress site. Therefore, when launching your WordPress website, you’ll want to pay attention to the following sidebar menu items listed below.
Users
- The users are the people in your company or small business who can access, edit, or post to your WordPress site. There are multiple categories of WordPress users, like authors, who can create posts but can’t change your template or plugins, or Administrators, who have access to every function within the site.
Media
- Media is your library of images, videos, and linkable files (like PDFs), that can be plugged into any section of your website, from header images and banners to individual posts and pages.
Appearance
- Appearance is where you will customize your website’s overall layout and style. This includes your theme (you can only use one at a time), your widget and widget areas, your overall menu for your website pages, and other essential elements of your site. Once you have set up the appearance of your WordPress site to your liking, you should avoid making additional changes without an expert website designer, as the slightest alteration can break the entire look and functionality of your site.
Posts and Pages
- The posts and pages menu items allow you to create new content in the form of standalone website pages. For example, the home page or “contact us” page, or for individual posts, like in a continually updated blog. Again, an expert website designer can help you navigate these differences and determine whether you’ll need to use pages or posts to create a streamlined, accessible, and informative WordPress site.
Plugins, WooCommerce, Products, and More
- Depending on what you want your website to accomplish, there are multiple options for businesses that want to enhance their profits by offering online sales of their products and services. Your best bet for launching an e-commerce website is to partner with an expert in both WordPress and eCommerce, who can help you drive sales efficiently and easily with every click.
Remember that the above list is just a sample of the many features that a WordPress site can offer. A professional web hosting and website design partner will be able to introduce you to these waves of features and will help you identify the best theme, plugins, and other tools to use to grow your business and your online presence.
The Benefits of Using WordPress for Your Website
There is a reason why the world is continually using WordPress as the foundation of their websites. There are a far-reaching range of benefits of a WordPress-created site.
- WordPress works well with SEO, with many plugins available to help you track and maximize your online presence.
- WordPress allows for easy e-commerce. Including multiple features and plugins that can drive sales, donations, and the purchase of goods and services.
- WordPress supports all media types, including images of all sizes, videos, and other multimedia content.
- WordPress is globally accessible and is easily displayed on the most popular web browsers.
- WordPress is mobile friendly, with layouts that can change based on screen size or device, depending on the theme. (Again, an experienced website design partner can help ensure that your website is optimized for all devices.)
- WordPress can be used for everything. From film reviews to next web trends, every topic, subject, aim, and ambition can be tackled with a WordPress site.
- WordPress is versatile. With the right website designer, you can ensure your site stands out in a crowd.
What’s the Best Way to Create a WordPress Website?
It Begins with an Expert Partner!
WordPress may be designed to be intuitive, but creating a WordPress website is more complicated than you think.
WordPress sites and their associated plugins and themes need to be routinely updated to function. Additionally, there can be technical challenges along the way that only an experienced website developer and designer can identify. Some plugins and themes do not play well together. Moreover, other obstacles exist when creating the layout, style, and functionality that perfectly suits your ambitions.
In addition, websites built by an expert designer will inherently have a better online presence. An experienced website designer like ContentFirst Marketing can tackle all the details of a smart and elevated design, as well as the SEO, security, hosting, and other factors that will lead to higher web traffic, and higher profits for your business.
Are You Ready to Launch Your Next Web-based Project with WordPress?
At ContentFirst Marketing, we have everything a business requires to create a powerful and successful WordPress website. From the fundamentals of website building to digital marketing, e-commerce services, attention-grabbing content, and more, we know all the factors that make a website stand out on the internet.
Your next great website starts with reaching out to our marketing experts. Connect with us today for a free consultation. We will also present some examples of the many successful websites built by our team over the years.
With ContentFirst Marketing at your side, you can create a WordPress website that your company will be proud of and generate new business well into the future.
