��WordPress is just for a blogger, isn’t it?’, That may have been true at one time in the distant past but has certainly not been the case for a long time now.
So what is WordPress?
WordPress is a CMS or better known as a Content Management system. One of the reasons WordPress is such a popular CMS with its ease of use for content managers, meaning there is little need to contact your designer every time an alteration to your site content is needed (though we are happy to help with these if needed). The control panel can be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. There is even a mobile app for those who may want to edit there site content from there mobile or tablet devices.
WordPress also comes with the inbuilt functionality to create different content types to fit the needs of the site. By default, these content types are ‘Pages’ and ‘Posts’, but additional types can be created for many different uses such as Galleries, Project showcase pages, or even product pages.
WordPress Themes
Whether you are looking to create a blogging website or using WordPress to build a simple business website, you will need a theme to display your content to your site visitors on the frontend. Themes can be purchased or gained free of charge from the WordPress store but offer little creativity or customisation to match the look and feel you are after for you to display your content.
You could hire a website designer like Mosaic Digital Media Ltd, to build you a custom theme for your WordPress blog, website or WooCommerce store. By hiring a reputable designer you have greater ability to make your website your own by using your branding, colours, images and content to the best of its ability.
Vibrant WordPress Plugin Ecosystem
WordPress boosts a considerable number of plugins to help extend the functionality of your website. Plugins can help you to; managing site content, optimising the site for search engines, secure your site, and help to keep your site running fast. Some of the common plugins we use include;
Advanced Custom Fields – Extends your ability to create easily editable fields for pages, posts and custom posts types.
Yoast – This is a Search Engine Optimisation plugin which helps us to ensure your site is performing to its best potential on Google, Bing, etc.
W3 Total Cache – A caching plugin which helps us to ensure your site running as fast as possible.
WP smush – In this age of ever-increasing photo quality and size, this plugin helps make sure the images being uploaded to your site are optimised to ensure they do not slow your pages down.
Defender – With the ever-increasing security risks of the web we use to Defender as an additional line of defence to keep your site safe and secure from attacks.
WordPress offers other plugins and lots of websites on Google give you a better idea of new and useful plugins to solve any problem you may face.
Does WordPress Offer an Ecommerce Solution?
The short answer to this is yes. If you are looking to start a small online business selling digital or physical products WordPress offers several solutions for your website.
WordPress has several plugins that offer different e-commerce solutions however the leader in this field is WooCommerce. WooCommerce is provided by the guys at Automattic who create several plugins but the most successful creation is Woo.
WooCommerce gives you the ability to take your ordinary WordPress website blog or website and turn it into a fully functioning store within a matter of around 60 minutes of work. WordPress and WooCommerce is a great solution for anyone looking to start up an online business.
Who uses WordPress?
A survey conducted by W3Techs revealed that 30% of all websites are now powered by WordPress. Notably, websites powered by WordPress include:
So what is it that attracts big brands like these to use WordPress over other CMS’s and what makes WordPress more than just a blogging platform?
As you can see WordPress is much more than a blogging platform, with its ease of use as a CMS, ability to have custom themes, e-commerce solution and it’s plugin ecosystem it is easy to see why small businesses all the way up to big brands use WordPress and the use worldwide is growing.
