What is WordPress?
Simply put, WordPress is the world’s most popular platform for building a website.
Why? It’s easy to get started, simple to use, and unbelievably flexible. From stunning portfolios to online stores to simple WordPress blogs, everyone can build the site of their dreams (whatever it may be) and with hardly any help along the way. But we’ll get more into all that in a moment with our WordPress guide.
The Ultimate Content Management System
WordPress is a content management system, or CMS for short, which means that while you provide all the content that makes up your site (such as images, text, videos, etc.), the platform does all the coding and organizing for you — so you don’t have to be experienced to build a beautiful, functional website.
Open Source, Open Use
Since WordPress is open-source, that means you’re free to modify and build upon its software. Thousands of volunteers the world over work to improve the platform every day, and it’s free to use without paying a licensing fee.
Evolution & History
Since its birth in 2003, WordPress has evolved from a simple blogging tool to the most popular content management system on the web, running over a quarter of the world’s websites.
| May 2003 | WordPress is launched by college freshmen Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. |
| Aug 2006 | The first WordCamp is held in San Francisco, CA. |
| Dec 2008 | WordPress reaches 500,000+ downloads |
| Nov 2011 | WordCamp grows to 52 events worldwide. |
| Dec 2011 | WordPress.org claims 22% of all new and active domains. |
| Dec 2012 | The WordPress.org community grows to 20,000+ people. |
| June 2014 | 25 million downloads. |
| Oct 2014 | WordPress is published in 120 languages. |
Why Use WordPress?
Easy
Most WordPress themes can be set up and customized with zero codings required. With an incredibly intuitive dashboard, no WordPress developer is necessary for you to make the updates you need.
Quick WordPress Installation
It only takes a few minutes and Bluehost’s one-click install to use WordPress. That way, you can start creating your website as soon as you have the inkling to build it.
Mobile-Friendly
A website that’s not responsive may as well be invisible. With WordPress, most themes are optimized to work well and look good on all types of devices.
Affordable
WordPress is open-source, which means its source code is available to you free of charge. You still need a place to store and run the code, but the code itself is free and keeps your costs down.
…and Everything Else
From updating your site on the WordPress mobile app to assigning specific permission levels to your site’s contributors – WordPress has all your needs covered.
Flexible
Whether you’re building an online store or a private WordPress blog, this platform provides thousands of themes and plugins to make your site look and function exactly how you’d like.
Easy
Most WordPress themes can be set up and customized with zero codings required. With an incredibly intuitive dashboard, no WordPress developer is necessary for you to make the updates you need.
Quick WordPress Installation
It only takes a few minutes and Bluehost’s one-click install to use WordPress. That way, you can start creating your website as soon as you have the inkling to build it.
Mobile-Friendly
A website that’s not responsive may as well be invisible. With WordPress, most themes are optimized to work well and look good on all types of devices.
Affordable
WordPress is open-source, which means its source code is available to you free of charge. You still need a place to store and run the code, but the code itself is free and keeps your costs down.
…and Everything Else
From updating your site on the WordPress mobile app to assigning specific permission levels to your site’s contributors — WordPress has all your needs covered.
Beautiful Themes
Choosing a theme for your new website can be the most exciting part of the building process. Looking for a design that’s simplistically modern? Check. More colors and images? Check. With thousands of free and premium themes to choose from, you can be certain there’s a theme for that.
Templates are easily modified too. Fonts, colors, headings, images, the content itself — all can be easily changed within the intuitive WordPress dashboard. For more specific needs, you can build custom themes too. From online stores to blooming blogs to stunning portfolios, it’s easy to find the right style solution for your unique website.
Functional Plugins
On top of looking good, WordPress provides you with the ability to expand your site’s overall functionality through plugins.
For example, you may be looking to set up an online store for your business. Or you may need to capture someone’s contact address via a form. A myriad of available plugins can help you add these (and many more) capabilities to your site.
What can plugins do?
- Check comments for spam
- Improve your SEO
- Display media such as
slideshows, galleries, and sliders. - Speed up your site
- Subscribe visitors to an email list
- Help you set up an online store
- Connect your account with Google Analytics
- Add more advanced navigation
- Protect your site against hackers
- Build and run multilingual sites
- Check comments for spam
- Improve your SEO
- Display media such as
slideshows, galleries, and sliders. - Speed up your site
- Subscribe visitors to an email list
- Help you set up an online store
- Connect your account with Google Analytics
- Add more advanced navigation
- Protect your site against hackers
- Build and run multilingual sites
