What is WordPress?

Roundpeg is a Digital Marketing Agency that builds WordPress websites. That seems like a simple sentence, right?

But what is WordPress? How is WordPress different than other websites and web builders, and why is it better?

What is WordPress?

There’s a reason we’re exclusively a WordPress shop. At Roundpeg, we want to build sites that can be managed by anybody. We feel our clients should be handed something that they’re comfortable working with, be it swapping out text or running updates. WordPress is the perfect fit.

What started as a blogging platform has transformed into a user-friendly Content Management System which has all of the design capabilities of a traditionally-developed website without any of the headache of learning the code and file structure. You simply install the open-source software, pick a theme, and get to building.

How does it work?

WordPress website build-outs rely heavily on three different components: WordPress core files, Plugins, and Themes.

I like to imagine we’re building a new house when embarking on a new site’s development. We’ve already gotten our mailing address and lot when we purchased our domain and hosting, and now we’re ready for construction.

To start our build, we need a good foundation. This is the WordPress installation on your server, and it acts as the groundwork atop which you’ll craft your house. Your new WordPress website can take many shapes, but it’s all reliant on this solid foundation.

Next up comes the skeletal frame which acts as the house’s structure. This is your theme. Themes can look and act a great many ways: some rely heavily on templates, while others (such as Roundpeg’s favorite, Divi) allow a much greater degree of creativity and flexibility with your design.

No home would be complete without the drywall and paint that makes your home unique. These are the plugins you choose to round out the functionality of your site that your theme and the WordPress core files might not provide.

The last step is adding your images and content. These are the house’s furnishings, what truly make your site unique.

Why is WordPress better?

If you’re curious as to why over 1/3rd of the top 10 million websites run WordPress and why over 75 million web projects have used the CMS, you can read more on that here. The skinny is that WordPress is supported by a worldwide team of development superstars, it’s easy to maintain, doesn’t require you to dig through code to get things done, and its entirely free to download and install on your server.

WordPress ain’t going anywhere, and we’re only going to see it grow in the coming years. Sure, you can cheap out with a page builder like Squarespace or Weebly – but if you’re serious about your web presence, the choice is simple. WordPress is the way.