WordPress- What Is It Anyway?

WordPress began as a blogging platform, but because of it’s role as a content management system, and the ability to create pages as well as posts people quickly realized that it could also be used as their main website.

The beauty of WordPress has always been the ease in which you can add or change content, via the use of a familiar wordprocessing type editor rather than needing to code. People that began using WordPress as their main website also noted that because they were adding new content more often, they were appearing higher in search engine searches. Especially those that blogged, meaning new content was being added frequently.

There is also the benfit of being able to add ‘widgets’ to the sidebar(s), these widgets allow you to add functionality to your site by adding things like contact forms, your twitter stream, search capabilities for you site and many, many more.  In fact I am confident in saying that there is a widget for just about anything you may want to add to your site.

There are also plug-ins that add capabilities as well. Many will add widgets that can be used in your sidebars, others help you integrate services that you use, such as aWeber, Mailchimp and Tungle into your site. The number of plug-ins are staggering and new ones are added all the time.

There are two WordPress versions-  WordPress.com where you create a site on the WordPress servers. This version is very limited in what you can add and how much customization you can do.  The version most people are talking about is the WordPress.org version, in which you can install the framework on your own hosted domain. For free.

As the word got out about these benefits of using WordPress as a website framework people began building ‘themes‘ some are free, others are premium, they all allow customization without needing to make coding changes. Each theme, especially the free ones, have a certain ‘look’ to them.  Others, the Headway theme in particular, is more like a framework itself, allowing you to create a totally unique look, feel and function to your WordPress site.

Although the themes can help you create your look and brand your business, the actual simplicity of creating and changing posts, pages and sidebar content remains the same.

This is important, because although you still may desire to hire someone to create your site if it’s going to require a great deal of customization, it’s very easy for site owners to maintain it once it’s complete. When using WordPress there is no longer the need to contact a web designer to change photos or other content on the pages, or to post the latest special your business is running.
I share a few of the things that I think make WordPress so great in this video and a tutorial on installing WordPress here .  If you have questions concerning using WordPress feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me.

If you are overwhelmed by trying to build your own WordPress site (with or without Headway) several of my services may be just what you need.  For those of you who want to do it yourself but just need a little help, my coaching services may fit the bill.  And if you just want someone else to build it and give you a completed site ready to be maintained and updated by you, my site designing and building services are for you. Check out the Hire-A-Geek section to contact me regarding any of these services.