Many people are familiar with the name WordPress, but do you know the story behind it?
In 2003 Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little began work on a new project after graduating from college. They were looking to make a new version of an early blogging software called cafelog, which they both liked to use, but was no longer in development. This would eventually become the WordPress we know today. Their goal was to make it as easy as possible for anyone, regardless of skill level, to have a website that looked good on any device without needing special skills or knowledge.
In this article, we’ll be going over why WordPress has remained so popular after all this time and why you should be using it too.
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WordPress is the most popular CMS out there because it is open source, constantly updated, and free to use. This means that anyone can take WordPress and add to it or make their own version that works best for them. The platform has a long history of updates, with 32 major releases since its inception. New versions release every five months on average, making WordPress more than an attractive option for small businesses looking for web development resources.
Being open-source means that you will have complete control of your WordPress website. You can edit the code, connect it to your preferred servers, make a website from scratch and adapt it to WordPress, make your own plugins, and many other things that other CMSs don’t have. This transparency and freedom have helped WordPress stay updated and relevant as the internet has evolved.
WordPress is a great CMS for beginners. WordPress comes with built-in templates and themes that you can customize, so little to no coding skills are needed, making it perfect for someone who doesn’t have any web development knowledge but wants their site or blog up quickly. The website’s backend will also show you how easy WordPress is–click on “Add New Post” from your dashboard and start typing in some text!
WordPress offers users a fantastic user experience because there are very few hoops to jump through, which means less time spent learning and more time creating content.
Plugins are a vital part of your WordPress website and can give you the edge over your competitors. Over 50,000 free and paid plugins in the WordPress repository allow you to add virtually any functionality to your website. You can find a plugin that suits your needs, from SEO tools, translators, popups, antivirus, or more. You will also find many free updates made by people who understand what it means to be passionate about their work (and yours).
You don’t need to know how to code the functionality you need; someone has probably already done it. Plugins will make your life easier.
Search engines are in love with WordPress websites. They crawl them more than any other site; it’s easy to see why! The code behind WordPress is super simple and search engine friendly. It helps the bots find your content quickly so you can grow your audience and make money online too.
This also helps to get your website to appear higher in search results, which drives more traffic to your website. Having good SEO practices baked into your website can put you far ahead of the competition.
Search engines are constantly searching for the latest and greatest content. Every time we add or update a post, WordPress sends an update ping to search engine bots, alerting them of our new or updated blog posts. This keeps your site up-to-date in their index so that they can return with new results for you every day!
When WordPress was first created, its website creator program offered some basic functionality, but it was not designed for people to make more advanced websites. As the internet grew more sophisticated with their websites, users noticed WordPress was missing some key features they were used to from their existing websites. In 2011, WordPress.org introduced the official power users site builder, which has since been updated and renamed the Ultimate customizer.
It is an extremely powerful way to build a complex WordPress website that can suit anyone’s needs. Users can build a website from scratch and easily customize their existing website or upload a website already created, such as a business site or social media page.
To make some customizations to your WordPress website, you must go to Appearance and then select Customize. There you will find several options to visually modify your website.
There are amany CMS options out there, but none of them compare to WordPress’s wide adoption. They also tend to lack the collaboration from third-party developers to create plugins and other valuable tools that we’ve come to know and love. WordPress has all the tools you need for your website, and it’s an excellent tool for those with or without web development experience.