How to Easily Use a Free WordPress Hosting Custom Theme
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) and is often used by bloggers, journalists, and other content creators. It is highly flexible and has a large community of developers that contribute new themes and plugins to the ecosystem. This makes it easier for anyone to get their hands on a professional-looking blog or website.
However, using WordPress to launch a blog isn’t the most convenient process. You will need a web host that supports PHP and has a custom theme installed. For a long time, we’ve used Bluehost to host our WordPress blogs. They offer a one-click install of WordPress, have a money-back guarantee, and offer free backups.
WordPress also has a built-in support system that makes installing 3rd-party themes much easier. So instead of having to go through the arduous process of downloading and installing the theme yourself, you can simply use the WordPress install tool to install the theme and follow the onscreen instructions.
Get A Web Host That Supports PHP And Has A Custom Theme Installed
Before you start using WordPress to create your blog or website, you will need to get a web host that supports PHP and has a custom theme installed. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of various web hosts, with a focus on price and customization.
Pro: Cheapest Host Available
One of the biggest pluses of using Bluehost is that it’s one of the most affordable web hosts available. The price is also incredible because they include everything you need to get started, including a free domain and an email marketing account that can be used to send out periodic emails with special offers and tips. So if you’re looking for a web host that provides a good value for your money, Bluehost is a great option.
One of the cons of using Bluehost is that they don’t offer any customizations beyond the default WordPress theme. But if you’re looking for a free option that doesn’t cost a fortune, this is the one for you.
Con: No Custom Site Themes Available
The other major downside to using Bluehost is that they don’t offer any custom site themes. This means that, aside from the default WordPress theme, you will have to either find a 3rd-party theme or design one yourself. But even then, you will only get a limited number of customization options, which are mostly aesthetic. So if you’re looking for a host that provides a variety of site themes, Bluehost might not be the best choice.
WordPress also offers a massive number of free themes and plugins that you can use to style your blog or website. However, not all free themes and plugins are created equal. Some are seriously bloated with advertisements and may hinder your website’s performance. So, to avoid any problems, you should stick to well-known and trusted themes and plugins that are maintained by reputable developers. These types of plugins and themes have proven to be good choices over the years and are generally easy to use.
Pro: Free Support
Another major pro of using WordPress is that it has an incredible support system. When you sign up for a hosting account with Bluehost, you will receive access to a live chat support team that is available twenty-four/seven. This is invaluable because WordPress is extremely flexible and often has issues that require professional help. For instance, if you’re getting blank pages when posts are published or if the formatting for some reason becomes distorted, the live chat support is always available to help.
One of the main cons of using WordPress is the same as the con for using Bluehost: it’s the lack of customizations. But if you’re looking for a CMS that has a large community of users and is relatively simple to use, this is the option for you.
Con: Security Issues
WordPress also has a bad reputation of being a bit more insecure than the average web host. This is mainly due to the fact that it has a massive community of users who often have sloppy code and disregard best practices. So if you’re looking for a secure option, WordPress might not be the best choice. Luckily, there are many other web hosts that provide a good balance between security and performance. If security does matter to you, take your time to research the best web host for the job. In most cases, you will be hard-pressed to find a more secure and reliable option than WordPress itself.
Pro: SEO Friendly
WordPress is quite literally the king of SEO. This is because it was designed with SEO in mind and has a huge number of options that can be used to optimize a blog or website for search engines. The best part is that you don’t have to be an expert in SEO to make use of all the features. Like most other content management systems (CMS), WordPress comes with some basic SEO settings that you can use to get started. From there, you can take advantage of all the different widgets, plugins, and themes that can be used to further optimize your site.
Another major plus to using WordPress for SEO purposes is that it provides complete control over the look and feel of your blog or website. This means that you can tweak practically every aspect of the design, including the header, the blog post formats, and the footer. You can also use third-party tools to further optimize your site and track its performance in real time. This makes it much easier to see what changes work and what don’t.
On the flip side, there’s also a huge number of plugins that are specifically designed to hinder SEO. Some of these plugins are so notorious for being overbearing that they’ve become a sort of Hip Hop vs Search Engine battle. The majority of these plugins provide some sort of visual contrast or animation that draws the eye of the search engine crawlers directly to key pages on your site.
Pro: Large Community
Another major pro of using WordPress is that it has a fairly large and active community of users and developers. Like I said, WordPress is extremely flexible and has a fairly large number of options that make designing a blog or website simple. This means that if you’re looking for a tool that is well-known and relatively easy to use, you’ll have no trouble finding the source code for a WordPress theme or plugin.
In most cases, all you need to do to start using a theme or plugin is to locate the file on your computer, and then just double-click it to install the item. This is much simpler than having to install and configure a whole slew of different extensions for your web browser.
WordPress also has a fairly large and active community of users and developers. This means that if you ever have any questions about the CMS or any of the various plugins or themes that are available, you can find the answers to your questions quickly. In most cases, you’ll just need to search for the topic that you’re interested in and you’ll find relevant results.
Cons: Poor Database Performance
Another major con of using WordPress is that it has fairly poor database performance. For the average person, the database for a WordPress site will run extremely slow. It’s not uncommon to see database performance decrease as the size of the site grows. If database performance is a concern for you, then you might want to look elsewhere for a blogging platform.
In some cases, it’s not even necessary to hit the database all that much to get the response that you’re looking for. This makes caching very useful because it allows for much faster database access and increased performance for your site. There are also plugins that are available to further improve database performance. But in most cases, you won’t need these because all you need is a decent internet connection and some common sense.
Con: Limited Customizations
One of the major downsides of using WordPress is that it has relatively few customization options. When you compare it to other content management systems like Drupal or Joomla, you’ll see that there aren’t many differences between them. WordPress’ main goal as a product is to make blogging easy and accessible for everyone, and it does this quite well. But if you’re looking for a tool that offers a variety of customization options, then WordPress might not be the best choice.