What is WordPress?
If you’re thinking about getting a new website and you keep hearing about WordPress websites and aren’t even sure what that is, then we can help. First, let’s look at the question, “what is WordPress” and then see what WordPress can do for you.
WordPress originally started out as an open source (free) blogging platform. It’s also a Content Management System or CMS.
A CMS is a software program that allows you to manage the various pages on your site. Before we had a CMS if you wanted to update your site you had to edit the individual HTML pages in your FTP server.
To make a long story short, WordPress provides a free and powerful way to manage the content of your website.
Isn’t WordPress just for blogs?
Yes, it’s true that WordPress started out as a blogging platform, BUT nowadays a large number of major websites use WordPress for their regular non-blog type website.
How much does WordPress cost?
This is the great part. Since WordPress is open source, it’s totally free. You don’t have to pay anything to set up or maintain the software. Also, since it’s one of the most popular open source platforms out there, they keep it updated with all the latest improvements and upgrades done to WordPress that don’t cost a dime.
Can I use my domain name, or does it have to have a wordpress.com ending?
Everyone wants the best domain name possible for their company. If you have a domain already selected, then there is no reason you can’t use it. There’s a big difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. If you use WordPress.com, then you must host your site with them, and your site will have a wordpress.com ending. If however you host your website and use the WordPress platform, you can have any domain name you want.
Don’t all WordPress sites look the same?
They certainly can, but they don’t have to. At the end of the day most sites these days have a header section, and navigation section, the main content area a sidebar and a footer. How you style all of those elements can make the difference between a generic looking WordPress site, and an original, stylish CMS website.
How does a WordPress site differ from a “real website”?
A lot of people don’t realize that a WordPress site is just a series of HTML pages, styled with CSS. That’s exactly what almost all websites are made up of. The only thing that makes WordPress different from a site you would build with Dreamweaver is that it uses PHP ( a programming language) to dynamically manage the pages of the website
But I want my site to be original and built using a template
Here’s a dirty little secret most website designers don’t want you to know about. Even the highest website designers in the world, the ones who charge over $50,000 a site, still use templates. They might not call them templates, but what they do is copy and paste large chunks of code they use as a framework for all of their sites, and then just add some styling to make it look original. You can do the same thing with WordPress themes, but for a fraction of the cost.
What is WordPress?
The facts are that most large companies use WordPress to drive their sites. Customize a WordPress site to fit any design, and it’s inexpensive and easy to do so. So, what is WordPress? It’s pretty much anything you need it to be.
We hope this cleared up some of the misconceptions about WordPress you might have had. Let us show you how we can build a beautiful, 100% custom website using WordPress for your company. There is no risk with our free custom mock-up offer.
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