Explained in layman’s terms
At its core, WordPress is the simplest, most popular way to create your website or blog—WordPress powers over 43.3% of all the websites on the Internet. Yes – more than one in four websites you visit are likely powered by WordPress.
What Kinds Of Websites Can WordPress Make?
Many years ago, WordPress was primarily a blog creation tool rather than a more traditional website. That hasn’t been true for a long time, though. Thanks to changes to the core code and WordPress’s massive ecosystem of plugins and themes, you can create any website with WordPress.
For example, not only does WordPress power a considerable number of business sites and blogs, but it’s also the most popular way to create an eCommerce store! With WordPress, you can create:
- Business websites
- eCommerce stores
- Blogs
- Portfolios
- Resumes
- Forums
- Social networks
- Membership sites
- And…pretty much anything else you can dream of.
Who Made WordPress, And How Long Has It Been Around?
WordPress was created as a standalone project in 2003, originating as an offshoot of a previous project called b2/cafelog.
WordPress is open-source software, so nowadays, it’s made by a massive community of contributors. But if we were to trace WordPress’ origins back to its roots, its original creation was a collaboration between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
Since then, Matt Mullenweg has primarily become the face of WordPress. And he’s also the founder of Automattic, the company behind the for-profit WordPress.com service.
Thanks to its contributors and massive community, WordPress has pushed forward and developed into the most popular solution for creating any website.
Why Should You Use WordPress?
Over 43.3% of all the websites on the Internet use WordPress, including well-known entities like the White House and Microsoft.
But what about you? Why should you use WordPress?
Well, no matter what type of website you want to create, there are plenty of reasons to use WordPress. Here are some of the reasons:
WordPress Is Free And Open Source
One of the most significant benefits of WordPress is that it’s free, open-source software. While you will need to pay a little for hosting, you will never have to pay to use the WordPress software, which isn’t the case with alternatives like Squarespace or Wix.
You can also find many open-source plugins and themes to change your website’s appearance and function.
WordPress Is Extensible
Even if you aren’t a developer, you can easily modify your website thanks to WordPress’ massive ecosystem of themes and plugins:
- Themes–Primarily change how your website looks.
- Plugins–Primarily change how your website functions. Plugins can be small, like a contact form, or huge, like creating an eCommerce store.
There are over 50,000 free WordPress plugins and 5,000 free WordPress themes, and tons of premium options. That to say – you have plenty of choices!
WordPress Is Easy To Install
Think you need to be a tech genius to create your website? Think again! You can install WordPress on your site by clicking a few buttons.
Nowadays, most web hosts either:
- Offer to preinstall WordPress so that your site is ready to go immediately.
- Give you dedicated tools that make the install process very beginner-friendly
Conclusion: WordPress Is Flexible
WordPress is great because it lets you create almost any type of website. Better yet, your website can also evolve with you.
Want to add a forum to your existing WordPress site? No problem – install the bbPress plugin! Want to add a social network? No worries! Just use the BuddyPress plugin.
You’re never locked into specific functions – you can constantly adapt and evolve.
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