Wordpress.com claim that '37% of the web is built on Wordpress' which is a big claim for something that started off as a blogging platform. Wordpress has evolved and now produces much more than just blogs which is why so many sites use it.
There can be some confusion when people talk about Wordpress because there are two different ways to have a Wordpress site.
1. use wordpress.com2. use 'self-hosted' WordpressWordpress.com is a way of creating a site online using Wordpress and can be done for free. The free wordpress.com sites show adverts and unless you pay for an upgrade you will be unable to use your own domain name.
Self-hosted sites use the same free, open-source software but are installed onto your own hosting service. This is how we set up Wordpress sites for our customers. These sites don't have adverts and there is no extra cost for using your domain name.
In Wordpress you log in to yourdomain.com/wp-admin which takes you to a dashboard where you can make changes. You can have pages or posts and from the dashboard you can select if you want your front page to be a static page or if you want it to display a list of all your most recent blog posts.
Wordpress content is saved separately to the theme which means you can change how your site looks relatively easily. Many free themes are available but if you want precise control of how your site appears then you can get a custom theme made. We have experience of taking psd files created by graphic designers and turning them into fully functional Wordpress sites. Alternatively, you can sketch some ideas on a piece of paper and we will work with you in an iterative approach to tweak the theme until you are happy with it.
Plugins are used to add different functions to Wordpress. Many are free, some are "premium" and are sold by companies that developed them. We offer the service to write you a plugin that will make Wordpress do what you want it to.
When you write content on a Wordpress page you do it by adding content in 'blocks'. We can make custom blocks that make your job of adding content even easier. Recently a customer wanted a block that flipped an image over when the user clicked it we were able to write that block for them so adding flipping images is quick and easy for their staff to do.
Wordpress sites are great for adding content easily but they are not so good at performing complex tasks or being fast. To solve this issue we can use your Wordpress site to feed information to a much faster page which helps with search engine optimisation. To do this we use Gatsby which produces extremely fast sites with excellent SEO.
We set up Wordpress sites frequently so if you want us to set up a site for you and hand it over for you to take from there then that's a low-cost way for you to get your company online. We also offer Wordpress support packages for you to access help and advice whenever you need it. Should the worst happen and you have a website disaster then our Wordpress recovery service will get you back on track.
In summary, there are many aspects to Wordpress and we think it is a flexible, reliable and accessible way to manage your online content.