WordPress – What is it? And why you should use it?

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a freely available open source content management system for websites. It’s by far and away the internet’s most popular content management system. Whilst it’s hard to verify, estimates suggest that it accounts for somewhere between 25% and 30% of all websites. You read that correctly. Up to 30% of the internet’s websites are built on WordPress.

Many critics of WordPress will tell you that because it’s open source, WordPress is insecure. It’s open source, but it’s anything but insecure (as long as you make sure to keep your site up to date.) There are many thousands of people working tirelessly to ensure that if any WordPress vulnerabilities are found they are quickly patched up. This is why you should always update your website when a new version of WordPress comes out (or get someone to maintain your website for you.)

Whilst the backend of WordPress looks the same (or very similar) for all users with a WordPress website, the actual websites themselves can look very different. This is because every WordPress website has a theme which acts as a presentation layer. If you have a WordPress website you can change the look and feel of your website by installing a different theme. Every website must have a theme for it to function. There are a number of freely available themes, you can also get paid themes that are adaptable or you can get a developer to build you your own unique theme.

Why you should use WordPress…

Whilst different themes have different functionality your website can be further enhanced with different plugins. There are tens of thousands of different plugins available, each serving a particular purpose – from email forms, to e-commerce, and plugins that help with Search Engine Optimisation just to name a few.

WordPress websites are easy to update. You can log into your website on a computer and make changes to pages or posts. There are also Apps available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Blackberry that you can use to update your pages or posts.

WordPress is popular because it is search engine friendly- it has a clean permalink structure and it allows you to categorise and tag posts. If you are looking at building your own website you would definitely be well-advised to build your website using WordPress.

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