Today, WordPress is the most popular content management system: it has been used to create a myriad of different websites. Initially, it was designed to be a platform for bloggers, but its functionality was extended significantly. Should you create a WordPress-based website? This article is here to answer this question.
Key advantages of WordPress-based projects
The primary advantage of this CMS is the fact it’s totally free. Besides, WordPress provides a wide range of free plugins.
WordPress installation is very simple – a user doesn’t have to possess any special technical skills, and many hosting providers have WordPress already built in their service. Manual installation takes up to 10 minutes.
Convenient content management is possible thanks to numerous plugins that facilitate publishing considerably. The content manager doesn’t need even HTML knowledge.
Inner optimization – plugins allow for organizing comprehensive inner linking, automating title and description creation, image naming and many other details that impact SEO.
Main disadvantages of WordPress-based websites
The most considerable drawback of this system is conflicting plugins. They should be installed with particular accuracy: prior to every installation, a website backup copy should be made to restore it in case of failure. That will help you to get the website up and running in a few minutes without losing visitors.
Another serious disadvantage is the absence of decent plugins for payment process. That’s why WordPress isn’t recommended for eCommerce stores.
Lack of creative potential. Even if paid themes are used, this CMS doesn’t allow for developing some truly unique and outstanding project design. For this reason, a website doesn’t stand out from the crowd, which results in high bounce rate and lower search engine conversion.
Therefore, WordPress is a great platform for creation of minor websites, blogs or corporate stores without online payment methods.
WordPress plugins for improving your website
Although WordPress already includes a few essential instruments and widgets, its functionality can be extended with the help of plugins. Plugins are installed on WordPress interface (the Plugins section in Control panel).
There’s a large variety of plugins for any task, and most of them are free. At the moment, WordPress provides over 21,500 plugins that can be sorted by categories, name, or rating.
- Use Akismet to eliminate spam
WordPress leverages visitor comments for users to share their thoughts about your content. This is a useful option for blogs that allows creating your own business community, improving visibility and website rating in the search engines.
However, as soon as you start drawing the attention of visitors and potential clients, you also attract spammers who can clutter comments with ads and annoying messages. Spam comments are easy to detect, but deleting them takes some time.
Today, Akismet is the most popular and efficient antispam plugin for WordPress. It detects spam comments automatically, including the messages with links to other websites and useless content. When Akismet detects a spam comment, it blocks it and puts in the spam section to be checked by admin, which prevents website cluttering. Akismet is free for personal blogs, and it’s a non-expensive business solution.
- Automatic search engine optimization with WordPress
As soon as you have your website up and running, there’s a lot of work ahead. Now it’s time to attract visitors! Search engines are a major source of traffic, but you need to gain a decent rating first. To put it simply, the closer is your website to the top of the results page, the more is the chance that someone will visit your pages. SEO (search engine optimization) is website improvement that makes it comprehensible and boosts ranks. A worthy WordPress SEO plugin can provide you with all necessary tools for website optimization.
One of the most widespread SEO plugins is Yoast. This is a multi-functional plugin that performs automatic SEO optimization and helps the user with that. For example, it offers the most suitable keyword for each page and gives recommendations for raising your position in search engines.
- Find a plugin that suits your website
While some plugins extend the functionality of all widespread content types, other WordPress plugins are developed for certain kinds of websites. The inbuilt WordPress plugin search instrument is very efficient for finding a suitable plugin.
For example, you can publish your projects on the website using Portfolio plugin. It helps you to generate the portfolio section with projects and descriptions. No matter what kind of content you publish, there’s always a plugin that will help you to upgrade your website.
Read more to learn about extended WordPress functions and instruments for getting your website to the next level.
Setting up a blog on a website
Since WordPress was initially created as a blogging instrument, even its latest versions presuppose that your blog is the core of your website. Although having a blog is important, the vast majority of business websites use a different approach: they launch pages as the main content and use blog posts additionally.
So if you want your home page to be a static one, you can change one setting in the WordPress control panel. First, you need to make sure that you’ve created a static page that will serve as a homepage, and have another page where your blog posts are placed. You can leave the blog page empty since WordPress will receive every message automatically.
Now proceed to settings and select reading. The first setting defines what’s reflected on the home page. Now you need to select the static page for visitors to see and another page for your blog or news.
This minor change can make your website look more professional. Besides, you can integrate a widget with the latest messages/posts on the main page – WordPress offers a pattern widget that displays the last posts.
Some beginners wonder where they can find tutorials and manuals for WordPress website creation. Why you should start learning WordPress, and where to get the educational content.
Why you should learn WordPress?
WordPress is an exceptional instrument that allows you to create blogs and websites absolutely for free. Both website and blog are equally crucial for business. Here are a few reasons to start learning WordPress right now.
WordPress can be downloaded from WordPress.org without any charge. Besides, there are millions of educating videos, tutorials, and websites dedicated to WordPress-based website development. To top it off, there are thousands of free themes for customization of website and blog design – they are simple in use and installation.
WordPress provides thousands of plugins that extend website functionality and help users to create any type of website, be that a coupon aggregator, video website, online casino, etc. WordPress itself and its plugins are updated automatically making maintenance easy as never before.
The last but not the least is the fact that WordPress boasts free technical support of plugins and themes. It’s the right choice for starters and professionals.
Let’s observe a few educational material sources for WordPress starters.
The first thing that springs to user’s mind is the official website WordPress.org: it offers video tutorials and a free forum for users. There’s also a helpdesk where you can leave your questions about WordPress – they’ll be answered by other users online. Most of them are patient and can describe everything in detail.
The full range of educational materials for mastering WordPress can be found on YouTube.com. Here, you can find a tutorial for any WordPress module or any error people face during WordPress blog creation. Thousands of videos will educate you on using themes, plugins, software and all the rest tools for WordPress website creation. Resources are free, and you can play videos again and again to understand the information better.
WordPress integration with third-party programs and services
When creating WordPress based web-applications, developers connect them with third-party programs and services via different API. APIs are also used to extend the functionality and user experience of WordPress application. WordPress REST API allows for a more efficient connection between applications and services. Developers use the plugin to get access to other websites and services despite the difference in data form and programming languages.
JSON data format
For WordPress to interact with software and services by sending and receiving JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) objects, developers can use plugins. JSON is a modern data format. It’s convenient for reading and provides coders and decoders for the vast majority of programming languages. Therefore, WordPress and third-party software suits can exchange data in a mutually comprehensible way. Developers are free to connect WordPress applications to various programs and services by writing a simple JavaScript code.
REST model
Using the Representational State Transfer model, WordPress has developed a versatile connecting plugin. Aside from simple data format, REST allows developers to use popular HTTP models, such as POST, GET, DELETE и PUT, and facilitates the exchange of data in XML and JSON formats. REST methodology simplifies the interaction between two programs and exchanges data between WordPress apps and other websites and XML and JSON services.
Compatibility with other programming languages
When creating WordPress-based websites, programmers have to write a PHP code. Today, PHP is the most popular server programming language. However, it lacks a few additional functions provided by modern programming languages, such as Ruby, Java, and C#. For this reason, many developers prefer writing code using modern programming languages. WordPress REST API simplifies the connection of applications with other websites and services regardless of server programming language. Flawless connection eliminates the compatibility issues.
Simplification of web-application development
WordPress REST API simplifies the creation of web-applications complying with different business demands. Since developers can use a plugin for accessing data and resources of third-party providers, it allows for improving the appearance and functionality of a web application. Some developers can create their own websites without relying on the traditional WordPress interface. They can also use the instrument for the creation of WordPress application in new, more efficient ways.
Sometimes a person doesn’t have much time and experience of web-development, but needs a website. That’s where a CMS (Content Management System) comes in handy. Such systems feature a convenient interface, useful content management instruments (for instance, visual editors), and tools for website adaptation and improvement. Alternatively, website constructors can be used – they don’t have to be installed because all changes are made online. However, constructor providers force users to use the proprietary hosting because it’s more profitable. Besides, the design of a website made in an online constructor is limited by a few patterns.
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