WHAT IS WORDPRESS

You might be asking yourself, “What is WordPress?” “What is WordPress used for?” WordPress
powers nearly a third of the world’s websites. With tools for everyone from personal bloggers
to large corporations, this powerful site builder and content management system (cms) aims to
make it possible for anyone to create an online presence in minutes. The wordpress platform is
flexible, scalable and always free to use. Here’s a look at some of the key features of the world’s
most popular site building software.

BRIEF INTRO ABOUT WORDPRESS

WordPress began in 2003 as a piece of free blogging software created by Mike Little and Mike
Mullenweg, who continues to run WordPress.org, the company that makes WordPress available
to anyone who wants to create a website or blog. In developing WordPress and making it
perpetually free, its creators hoped to “democratize publishing” by designing a site building
program that could allow anyone to have a voice and presence online.

The features that made WordPress so appealing to bloggers and other kinds of Internet publishers
also appealed to a far wider audience, including some of the most prominent companies in the
US and around the world. Now, WordPress is the platform of choice for a long list of household
names including Sony Music, Variety, Time, Inc. and the Disney Company, along with millions
of smaller business and personal sites. The most recent version of the platform has been
downloaded over 22 million times so far, and new versions continue to be developed by the large
WordPress user community.

WordPress Works for All Users

As its creators intended, WordPress can be used by anyone, from a complete beginner to a
seasoned developer. For new users with no design or development experience, a WordPress
website can be set up as a “one-click install” on a hosting platform, using one of the hundreds of
free-to-use WordPress themes. These themes allow users to customize a variety of features such
as the site header and colors, right from the dashboard, with no need to know any code at all. 

For users with experience in website design or development, WordPress allows access to all
parts of the software including its theme and plugin systems, application framework, and scripts,
so that it can be customized to suit the needs of any site. Because WordPress can be modified in
a variety of different ways, it can be adapted and changed to grow and change to meet the
evolving needs of an expanding business.
Reason For wordpress Popularity
One reason WordPress is so popular is because of its virtually endless flexibility. WordPress
comes with access to an extensive gallery of free themes that users can choose from at any time
to set or change the look and functionality of a site. Beyond that, anyone can buy and install a
custom WordPress theme created by designers from all over the world. 

WordPress can also be tailored for a variety of additional functions with a long list of plugins
that add features, such as online storefronts, magazine layouts, and galleries to a basic
WordPress theme. WordPress Plugins can also be purchased from third-party developers and
installed through the site’s WordPress dashboard. Site owners can mix and match plugins to fine
tune the site and extend its features, and even inexperienced users can install and start using with
only a few clicks of a mouse.

WHY USE WORDPRESS

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) which makes creating and managing content
a breeze.  You don’t need to know how to write html or css in order to set up, run and manage a
WordPress website (although it doesn’t hurt, It powers about 25% of the worlds website, making
it the most popular CMS.

WordPress:

 Is well supported.
 Is open source and FREE!
 Is easy to install.
 Has thousands of free and paid themes to choose from.
 Has thousands of free and paid plugins that let you expand on core WordPress
functionality in near limitless ways.
 Is search engine friendly.
 Is a great blogging platform.
 Is highly extensible.  If you can’t find a plugin or theme for your needs you can create
your own or hire a developer to create a plugin or theme for you.

Installing WordPress
We use LocalWp to install Wordpress. Details and step are on the video
Elementor is a drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress. This plugin helps you create beautiful
pages using a visual editor. It’s designed for you to build dynamic websites quickly.

This WordPress plugin is an all-in-one solution — letting you control every part of your website
design in a single platform. You can customize your website to fit your brand with motion
effects, multiple fonts, and enhanced background images.

Why You Should Use Elementor

Elementor works for all types of professionals on your team. If you’re not tech savvy, the visual
editor gives you the flexibility to drag any of the 90+ widgets to create content, like buttons, star
ratings, and progress bars. ForWordpress developers, it’s still a top-choice platform with script
optimization, custom attributes, and rollback versions.

What Can You Build With Elementor?

Elementor is an effective tool for building anything — from entire websites to specific landing
pages. You can design sales pages, promotional pages, and even custom forms. If you can
imagine it, this platform can help you design it.

Check out this restaurant website built with Elementor.

Is Elementor free?
Elementor offers a free plan as well as multiple paid subscription plans. The free version comes
with all the features you need to create a strong user experience on your site, including a drag-
and-drop editor.

If you want to access more advanced functionality, such as the ability to add forms and custom
CSS, you can upgrade to the pro version. Elementor price is tiered as follows: 
The Admin Area
Once you’ve installed WordPress you will want to navigate to the admin area (also referred to as
the back-end).

The admin area is where you will manage your new website, add posts and pages, choose a
theme, add plugins, create navigation menus, place widgets and so on.  This area is for you and
any users you choose to give access to.  

To navigate to the admin area, visit http://yourdomainname.com/wp-admin (replace

yourdomainname with your actual domain name) and login with the credentials you created
when installing WordPress.

If you are viewing the front-end (what everyone visiting your website sees) of your website and
you are logged in, you can easily navigate to the back-end by clicking your website’s name in the
“admin bar” which is the bar at the top of every page with a black background and several menu
items.

Choosing a Theme
Choosing a theme is one of the first things you’ll want to do when setting up your WordPress
site.  Themes set the overall design for your site.  Each theme offers different options and page
templates, so it is important that you carefully review a theme before settling on it.

Themes are separate from you content, so if you do decide to change a theme, your content will
remain in place.

 If you aren’t logged in, log in. Now, navigate to the admin area.  Remember, you can log in by
visiting http://youdomainname.com/wp-admin (where yourdomainname is the name of your
domain).
 Next, find the “appearance” menu item in the long menu found on the left side of the admin
area.  Then choose the sub menu “themes”.
 Click “Add New” at the top.
 Choose and install a theme from the list of themes.

Setting Up a Theme
Each theme will be a bit different to set up as the setup process is largely left up to the developer.
You will have to refer to the theme’s documentation for how to set it up. Look for the readme
file (or similar) in the theme’s folder.

There are some theme options that will remain the same across every theme.  These options can
be found in the admin area by clicking appearance->customize.
The most confusing option I’ve found is the “static front page”, specifically when it comes to
setting up your blog.  To set up your blog you will first need to create a blank page.  You can
give the page a name like “blog”.  Now go to the customizer (appearance->customize), select
“static front page” and set the dropdown under “posts page” to the blank page you just created.

The process will be similar for your homepage. You will create a page and give it a title like
“home” (you can give it whatever title you want though) then go to the WordPress customizer
and select your homepage as your front page.

It’s important to include a link to your blog and homepage somewhere in your menu.  More on
that later.

These options are for the most part self-explanatory. You will find a place to upload your logo,
give your site a title and much more.  Play around with them and have fun!

Creating Pages
Pages are similar to blog posts, however they won’t show on your blog.  Pages are meant for
pages like “About Us”, “Contact Us”, “Our Team” and so on.  

To create a page:

 Click “pages” in the admin area.

 Click “add new” at the top.
 Add your title and content.
 Choose a template which is a dropdown found under page attributes.
 Publish your page or save it as a draft.

Page templates will take your content and title and present them as different layouts.  Common
templates include a full width page and left and right hand sidebar pages.  Page template
selections vary by theme.

You can design your page using the built in WYSIWYG editor or if you are familiar with HTML
and CSS you can click the “text” tab at the top left of the page editor and enter your HTML and
CSS there.

You will probably find the WYSIWYG editor to be a bit lacking for page designs. There are
some themes like Divi which have a page builder included. Keep in mind that these are not really
professional methods for building and designing websites and they are geared toward DIYers. If
you are serious about creating a website for your business, consider hiring a professional (like
myself) to design and build your website. There’s nothing worse for you business than a home-
made website.

Writing a Blog Post

Writing a blog post is simple.  

 Make sure you are in the admin area, then in the left hand menu, click “posts”.
 Click “Add New”
 Add your title, content, categories and tags.
 Click “publish” or “save draft” if you would like to save a draft that you will publish later.

Blog Post Categories

While it’s not necessary to use categories, they can help organize your site’s content, especiall if
you have hundreds of blog posts. When creating or editing a post you will see a meta box (one of
the white boxes to the side or below the editor) with the word “Categories” at the top. Here you
can add new categories and select the categories you’d like to add your blog posts to.

Think carefully about the categories you’d like to use and keep them simple. For example, if I
were running a website on WordPress, I’d probably use categories like Themes, Plugins,
Reviews and Tutorials. These categories are easy to understand and would keep the site easy to
navigate.

You may be wondering now how an end user can find these categories. You will need to either
add these categories to a navigation menu or widget. More on that later.

There are of course several other nuances when it comes to publishing and managing blog posts.
Most of them are self-explanatory, but if you ever get stuck, Google is your friend.

The Media Library

WordPress includes a media library for managing all of you pictures, videos and file uploads.

The media library can be found in the admin area in the left menu.  Click “media” to navigate to
the media library.

Any media you upload can be used in your posts and pages.

It’s important to understand that once you’ve uploaded a file (image, video, etc.) that it is now
on your server (your website) and doesn’t have to be uploaded again.

Adding Media to a Post or a Page

When creating or editing a post or page click “add media” which is a button found just above the
content area.  You can include existing media already uploaded to your website or upload new
media.  Try not to upload the same file more than once as it will take up extra space and add
clutter.  If you’ve already uploaded the file, select it from your media library!

Setting Up Menus
People need a way to navigate through the content on your website.  This is where menus come
in.  

Each theme has different menu locations.  Every theme should have at least one menu location.
Some themes will have several menu locations such as the main menu, top menu and footer
menu.  Menu locations are theme dependant, so make sure to choose a theme that supports the
menu locations you need.  You can however hire a developer to modify an existing theme to
support any menu location.

 In the admin area select “appearance” from the left menu.

 Select the sub-menu “menus”.
 Click “create a new menu”.
 Give the menu a name.
 Click “create menu”.
 On the left hand side you will see a list of pages.  Select the pages to add then click “add to
menu”.
 You can now drag and drop the pages in the order you like.
 You can also create sub-menus by dragging any menu item underneath it’s parent and
positioning it slightly to the right.
 Click “save menu”.

Now you have a menu created, but you haven’t placed it anywhere yet.  If you haven’t placed the
menu somewhere, it won’t show!

 There is a tab near the top of the page called “manage locations”.  Click it.
 Select the menu you just created from the dropdown for your desired theme location and then
click “save changes”.
 You menu will now appear in the front-end.

When you navigate to appearance->menus you’ll see to the left you can choose categories,
custom links and sometimes more things you can add to menus depending upon the theme and/or
plugins you have installed.

Widgets
Widgets can do all sorts of different things from showing your latest blog posts to showing
recent comments.  The most common place for widgets is in the sidebar.

To place and choose widgets:

 In the admin area click the “appearance” menu, then click the sub-menu “widgets”.
 Now on the right hand side of your screen you will see the available widget areas.  Every theme
will have different widget areas.
 Expand the widget area you would like to add a widget to by clicking the little arrow.  
  Drag a widget from the list of widgets into that area.
 Expand the widget you just added by clicking it’s arrow.
 Select and enter your desired options.
 Click “save”.

Plugins
Plugins are used to expand upon the core functionality of WordPress.  If you ever find yourself
needing to do something with your website that WordPress doesn’t do by default, you’ll want to
try to find a plugin.

Some common plugins are used for:

 Contact forms (Contact Form 7)

 Website backups (Updraft Plus)
 Security (Wordfence)
 Portfolios
 eCommerce (WooCommerce)
 Quizzes (WP Pro Quiz)
 Courses (WP Courses)
 Membership Restriction (Paid Memberships Pro)
 Invoicing (Sprout Invoices)

To install a plugin:

 In the admin area select “plugins” from the left menu.

 At the top click “add new”.
 Search for the desired type of plugin you are looking for.
 Click “install” for the plugin you would like to install.
 After the plugins is installed, click “activate plugin”.

The plugin will now be installed and ready to use.

Every plugin will be different.  You will have to refer to the plugin’s documentation on how to
use the plugin.

Try to only install plugins that have good ratings and are tested with your version of WordPress.
While rare, a plugin can break your site.  Installing only trusted plugins will reduce this risk.

It’s also a good idea to only install plugins that you absolutely need. Installing too many plugins
can slow down your site.

Users
WordPress has a fairly powerful user management system built in.  There are many different user
roles to select. These roles give your website’s users access to different features in your
website’s back-end.

The most powerful role is the “admin” role.  The administrator can do anything.  There are no
restrictions and thus you should be very careful who you assign this role to.  Someone with this
role could delete your entire site, so make sure you only give administrator access to people you
trust or your web developer if they request access.

To manage your users you will need to click “users” in the left menu in the admin area.  Here
you can manually add, edit and delete users.  You can change their contact info, passwords,
names etc.  You won’t generally want to change other user’s info, but you may have to from time
to time.  The most common operations you will be using here will be adding new users and
changing their permissions.  

To add a new user:

 Click “add new”.

 Fill out the required info and save.

To change user permissions:

 In the user area, click the user’s name you would like to edit.
 Where it says “role”, select the appropriate role.
 Scroll down and click “update user”.

Here’s a brief description of each role taken from WordPress.org:

 Administrator – nothing is off limits* (see note below)

 Editor – has access to all posts, pages, comments, categories, tags, and links.
 Author – can write, upload photos to, edit, and publish their own posts.
 Contributor – has no publishing or uploading capability, but can write and edit their own posts
until they are published
 Follower (public sites) / Viewer (private sites only) – can read and comment on posts and pages

For a more thorough list of user roles and capabilities

visit https://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/

Shortcodes
A shortcode is a simple way of including dynamic (changing) content into any post or page.
Many plugins will include shortcodes and often it’s only a matter of finding it and copying and
pasting the shortcode where you’d like.  This is how many contact forms work.
Shortcodes begin and end with square brackets like [].  Each shortcode will have a name as well
like “contact-form”.  So the “contact-form” shortcode would look like [[contact-form]].  There is
an opening and closing square bracket with the shortcode name inside.

You can include shortcodes in any page or post simply by pasting it in or typing it in.  Spelling
errors will cause the shortcode to not work.  If the shortcode does not exist it will not do anything
either.

Here’s a more detailed article on shortcodes:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/05/wordpress-shortcodes-complete-guide

Should You Build Your Own WordPress Website or Hire a

Professional
This all depends upon your business, goals, expectations and of course your budget.

If your goals are to set up a blog you can share with friends and family, then by all means make
your own website.

If you are a busy business owner looking to grow your business, please hire a professional. Your
business will thank you.

Why Hire a Pro?

A lot more goes into building a website than you are probably aware of. Everyone knows a
website has to look good if it’s going to be taken seriously and perceived as being credible. This
is likely something you won’t be able to achieve on your own. It takes thousands of hours to get
good at designing websites and good website design is only the first step in succeeding online.

You may be thinking that you can grab a theme or template and that’s going to be good enough.
Yes, there are some amazing looking themes, but you won’t find one that perfectly suits your
business, branding and messaging. You should never squeeze your business identity into a
prepackaged theme. You should be designing your website around your business and your
customers. Do you really want to compromise your business and messaging to save a few
dollars?

Some professional devepoers and designers will start with a theme, but customize it to suit your
business and it’s messaging. This gives you the best of both worlds. It saves time (and thus
dollars), but no compromises are made with your business and messaging.

Consider as well the amount of business you expect to come from your website. For small
businesses this is usually tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands per year. Medium and large
sized businesses can see millions through their website every year.
So, aside from a nice design, what else is there to think about when creating your website? A lot
of things!

 User Experience.
 Navigation Structure.
 Search Engine Optimization. Can people find your website and it’s content through search
engines?
 Site speed. If your site is slow it will be penalized by search engines and abandoned by users. A
good web developer can help you improve your website’s speed.
 Maintenance. Themes and plugins and the WordPress core need regular updates. Ignoring this
can lead to security holes, broken sites, and hacked websites.
 Website backups!!!
 Driving traffic to your website through paid advertising.
 Conversion rate optimization (CRO). This is the process of optimizing your website for
conversions like leads and sales.
 How your website is going to help you achieve results with your digital marketing efforts.

You can see there’s a lot to think about when it comes to your business and its website!

Conclusion
While I’ve covered the most important aspects of WordPress, there’s a lot more to discover and
learn.  This post is only meant as a quick starting guide.  The best thing to do from here on out is
to get your feet wet.