We all know that in the digital age, creating an online presence has become a necessity. Also, if we want to create blogs and websites with WordPress CMS, I can say that it is the most popular platform. Moreover, since it is a powerful content management system, we can easily manage our content.
In addition, you can be an individual blogger or develop websites focused on large businesses. Plus, with WordPress’s open-source structure, you can also customize themes & plugins. In this article, I will tell you exactly what WordPress is and what its essential aspects and features are.
What is the WordPress Content Management System?
WordPress is a popular system for making blogs and websites; nearly 70% of websites use it.
WordPress lets us create many types of blogs today. It is a free website builder that makes this possible. Its founder is Matt Mullenweg, who used PHP and MySQL to build it. He made it with a GPL license and code that can be changed.
WordPress grew fast due to its license, ease of use, and great content tools. Another reason for its growth is the large group of developers and designers who created plugins and themes for 200 million users in 2009.
Automattic, the company behind WordPress, also offers a free blog hosting service. This service makes it easy to manage pages outside the regular blog order. It provides a complete system for managing content, starting with simple blog software.
While the community built most of WordPress, some Automattic employees also helped. A community tests each new version. Versions still being worked on are called Beta or Release Candidates.
WordPress is open-source software with a GPLv2 license. It uses PHP and a MySQL database. Because it is open-source, many developers make and share plugins.
Making a blog with WordPress is easy. You can also build a free website with lots of themes and plugins.
In short, WordPress is free software for making a blog or website without needing to know coding.
Features of WordPress
WordPress was made to create a simple, beautiful, and well-made publishing system. It is built with PHP and MySQL and has a GPL license. This software focuses on design, web rules, and being easy to use.
By default, it is set to run one blog per site or setup. However, you can run several blogs with one or a few databases by making some changes.
Other features are as follows;
- It provides easy installation, upgrades, updates, and customization.
- It includes sustainability and security with automatic updates.
- It provides support for multiple authors or users along with various user profiles by creating different levels of permissions.
- It supports numerous blog structures.
- There is support for creating static pages.
- It can classify articles and static pages with categories, subcategories, and tags.
- It enables reverting published content to draft.
- It supports password-protected content.
- There is support for broadcasting via e-mail.
- It supports importing all content from other different blog structures with RSS.
- It supports automatic draft saving during the article preparation process, so possible connection errors are not lost.
- It allows for the sharing of trackback and pingback communication tools between blogs.
- It allows editing permalinks via mod_rewrite.
- It allows articles to be published on different platforms with RSS and Atom connections.
Structure
WordPress is a system for making websites that organizes posts by date. It also has features like fixed and changing pages. The website’s layout depends on the theme you pick. So, the look of the site should match the system and theme you choose.
WP’s philosophy adheres to elegance, simplicity, and W3C recommendations but can vary according to the theme. The system provides management and execution processes, as well as plugins and widgets. Posting content can be classified using categories and tags similar to keywords.
Multiple Blog Infrastructure
WordPress lets you have one blog per setup by default. But you can make more blogs in different folders using the same database. WordPress Multisite enables you to manage many blogs in one setup. This makes it easy to create different blogging systems.
WP Multisite also helps users build and manage blog groups. You can control all blogs from one admin dashboard.
WordPress Themes
WordPress themes are design templates used to create a blog’s look and structure. They are published after being examined, checked, and officially approved. A central official community of professional users also manages these themes.
Widgets
WordPress has a Widget system that makes it easy to design blogs. It works well for both personal and business blogs. However, some widgets do not work with specific themes. This problem depends on the person who made the theme.
WordPress Plugins
Several paid and free plugins develop beyond a simple blog, making it a flexible and practical general-purpose system.
The most popular WP plugins are;
- Yoast SEO
- WPForms
- Constant Contact
- SeedProd
- MemberPress
- UpdraftPlus
- WP Rocket
- Sucuri
- Google Workspace
- SEMRush
- LiveChat
- WP Mail SMTP
- Insert Headers and Footers
- WPML or Polylang
- WooCommerce
- Broken Link Checker
- Akismet
What are WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
There are two different platforms on which you can use WordPress. These;
- WordPress.com
- WordPress.org
You don’t need to buy hosting and domain names on WordPress.com. In other words, it is a platform that permits you to create a free website with the extension domainname.wordpress.com.
On WordPress.org, you can create a website or blog that you can completely control. Plus, by purchasing a hosting and domain name, you can download the WP installation files to your PC. Thus, you can create an independent structure by copying these files to the server you purchased hosting from.
What Types of Websites Can One Create with WordPress?
Many well-known websites use the WP infrastructure. So, what websites can we create after installing WordPress?
- Trade Sites
- Job Sites
- Forum Sites
- Blog Sites
- Social Networking Sites
- Membership Sites
- News Sites
- Portfolio Sites
WordPress Sample Site
An example of a website using WP is The Official Microsoft Blog. This website is its official blog and uses the WordPress CMS system.
Open the Microsoft Blog website and click Right Click / View Page Source.
On the page source that opens, press Ctrl + F.
Type [WordPress] into the search container and press Enter. In the image below, line 56 shows that Microsoft uses the WP infrastructure in its blog structure.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- What is WordPress, and what does it do?
- What can we do with WordPress?
- Is WordPress difficult to learn?
- Is WordPress paid?
Conclusion
In the end, WordPress is a flexible platform. It works well for both new bloggers and skilled developers. Also, its easy-to-use design offers many plugins and themes.
In addition, WordPress’s strong community helps us create unique online experiences. In addition, its open-source nature encourages innovation. It also allows us to develop websites without technical barriers.
WordPress is an excellent tool for both personal blogs and large networks. As you move forward in the digital world, a free CMS system can help your content reach its full potential.
TolgaBagci
Hi, I'm Tolga, a computer expert with 20 years of experience. I help fix computer issues with things like hardware, systems, networks, virtualization, servers, and operating systems. Check out my website for helpful info, and feel free to ask me anything. Keep yourself in the loop about the newest technologies!
