Understanding Wordpress: A Brief Overview
Wordpress is arguably one of the most popular content management systems in the world. It started off as an easy way to create a blog without any code or tech skills required. And through the extended functionality of plugins and themes it has quickly evolved to become of the one most robust and feature-rich platforms on the web.
Wordpress.org
The original creator of Wordpress. You can download a copy for free on this site and install it locally on your machine or on a web server of your choice. You can also learn more about Wordpress directly from the source.
Wordpress.com
The commercial version of Wordpress that includes one-step turn key hosting. With Wordpress.org you still have the additional step of needing a place to host your website, however Wordpress.com takes care of that for you. Wordpress.com is a quite different than your typical hosting provider. They exclusively host Wordpress sites so your performance will be optimized, there is also no configuration required and they offer a large number of free themes and plugins right out of the box. The downside however is that they heavily moderate the types of features you can use on your site until you upgrade to a higher tier package. Limiting the option to use whatever you want in exchange for a higher fee keeps many users from staying with this solution long term.
WPEngine.com
The best place to host a Wordpress site on the web. And if someone builds a good alternative they will buy them out and integrate their user base (I’m looking at YOU Flywheel). WPEngine is rock solid, with the highest level of performance and and support that you can find for Wordpress hosting. Their sales, support, and engineering staff is available 24/7 for chat and phone support. They provide a number of additional advanced features for free like a Content Distribution Network, SSL Certificates, and Image Optimization. While on the higher side from a pricing perspective, remember that you are paying for the quality of service and the support. This is my recommendation to 100% of businesses who are tired of their existing site being slow but don’t yet have a dedicated “web person” to manage their site. It is also a great alternative for agencies who host lots of websites and are tired of the constant cycle of base-level maintenance, user management, and password resets for their clients.
Shared Hosting:
If you Google “website hosting” you’ll be inundated with choices for traditional hosting sites. The key difference between these services and a platform like Wordpress.com or WPEngine is that shared hosting companies offer Wordpress in addition to dozens of other solutions. This means that there will be more steps involved in getting your site up and running, and that your Wordpress site will not be optimized in any of the ways a dedicated Wordpress Host would be. The benefit of these services is cost however, you typically get a domain name (custom web address) for free for your first year, and they will automatically connect it for you. They offer free email services, and the annual cost is typically a fraction of what you will pay for a dedicated Wordpress solution. For small personal sites like a portfolio or blog, or a small startup business, this is cost effective place to get started.
Choosing A Theme:
There are hundreds of free Wordpress themes available for download, and most of them aren’t very good. Once you have your hosting provider set up I recommend going to ThemeForest.net or Elements.Envato.com
ThemeForest offers Wordpress bundles where you get lifetime updates and and a few months of support from the author for your site theme. Depending on the theme that you choose they also come with premium plugins bundled with it, and demo content to get your site design off on the right foot. You can easily build out your entire website with just a few clicks and replace the text and images with your own for a customized look.
Envato Elements offers an all-you-can-eat subscription service that includes photos, videos, graphics, and more for a low monthly fee. In exchange you have access to a large library of content which includes Wordpress themes and plugins.
Advanced Features:
Would you like to sell products or take payments for your services on your website? Would you like to have a form where candidates can upload their resume and send it directly to your email? How about live chat, analytics, or video conferencing capabilities?
Wordpress is endlessly expandable through the use of third party plugins. Any functionality you could possibly want is just a few clicks away. It is important to remember that the more you add to your website the slower it will become, so after a certain point you will need to upgrade (or optimize) your site to provider your visitors with a better experience.