How to Create a Website for WordPress – A Beginner’s Guide

The number of websites has dramatically increased in the last few years. In fact, there are now more than 4.8 billion active websites across the world – three times the number of active mobile phones. This makes it more important than ever to have a website. If you’re looking to create a website for your business, you’ll need to consider a lot of factors, not the least of which is making sure that your website is built using a trusted platform.

Is WordPress Trustworthy?

WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) in existence, especially with bloggers. Its popularity mainly stems from its flexibility and the fact that it is free. That said, it is not always the best choice for building a business website. If you’re looking for a CMS for building a corporate site, consider looking into other platforms.

What Is a CMS?

A Content Management System or, CMS, is a software that allows you to easily publish content on your website. Using a CMS allows you to focus on what’s important to you – growing your business – and not worry about the nitty-gritty of managing content on a website.

CMSes make publishing content simple and streamlined. They take the drudgery out of writing and editing content so you can stay focused on growing your business.

Why Use WordPress?

If we were to pinpoint the reasons why WordPress is so successful and loved by so many, it would definitely have something to do with its open source nature and its extreme flexibility. WordPress is open source software, which means that its code is freely available for anyone to study and learn from. This encourages community participation and collaboration, which in turn, further enhances the software’s overall quality.

WordPress is also extremely flexible, which allows you to tailor it to the way you want your blog or website to appear. You don’t have to adhere to any specific format because the platforms supports a wide variety of customizations.

WordPress also happens to be one of the most secure CMSes available. It is extremely reliable and its security is among the best in the industry. In fact, WordPress is so secure that it is sometimes referred to as the “the Swiss Army Knife of Websites” because of its many essential functions that make building a website easier and more convenient for any user.

What Makes WordPress So Special?

WordPress is highly adaptable and flexible, as we mentioned. This makes it easy to use because the platform supports a wide variety of functions and tasks. Some of its features make it particularly suitable for use as a website building platform, as follows:

  • It is super-easy to use. Even beginners can get up and running with WordPress in no time at all.
  • It is completely free. There are no hidden costs or limitations with WordPress. You can use the software and the hosting services to build your website absolutely free of charge.
  • It is open source. Meaning that it is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and improve. This encourages community participation and collaboration, which further enhances the overall quality of the product.
  • It is highly configurable. This allows you to completely customize the look and feel of your website. Plus, with the plethora of widgets and plugins, you can further expand on the functionality of your site.
  • It uses a highly secure and scalable database system. This allows you to feel confident that your website will function and look the same even after a few months or years of heavy use.
  • It has a robust affiliate program. This allows you to earn a commission when a user clicks a monetized link or buys a product that’s promoted on your website.
  • It provides an all-in-one solution. This means that WordPress can handle all the technical aspects of web publishing (creating a website, building a blog, handling affiliate marketing, etc.).

WordPress vs. Static Blogs

At this point, you might be thinking that with all these advantages, why would anyone ever want to use static blogs? The answer is actually quite simple. While WordPress is a fantastic choice for building a blog or website, it is not the only option. In fact, there are alternatives that allow you to build a website that looks and functions just like Facebook or Google, which are all the rage these days.

A static blog is simply a blog without any CMS-like functionality. Essentially, it is a blog that is not tied or dependent upon any other platform or codebase. This means that if you want to make changes to the layout or function of your blog, you will have to go in and do it manually. While this might sound like a chore, it should be noted that most static blogs are extremely easy to use because they are not designed to be complex or have a large number of features. For instance, Tumblr and Blogger both allow for very basic customization through their interfaces. This makes it much simpler to get your blog up and running quickly or even to make small changes as needed. When it comes to scalability, most static blogs can be hosted cheaply on a service such as GoDaddy’s Shared Hosting Packages.

The bottom line is that while there are many reasons why you might want to use WordPress for your business, or even just as a personal blog, it is not the only game in town. There are alternatives that provide you with all the same advantages, but without the need for a middleman such as WordPress.