“What is WordPress, exactly?”
Have you ever found yourself asking, “What is WordPress?” Well, here is your answer. The following is an edited excerpt from my guide book titled “A Beginner’s Guide To Building An Internet Presence” and you can download it for free.
WordPress CMS – Content Management System
You’ll see much talk about content management systems (CMS) on the interenet and the reasons, why or why not, to use one. You may even see people questioning whether WordPress is actually a true CMS or even what is WordPress.
Let’s look at the later first by examining what a CMS is. A CMS is a software solution that you use for managing the content on a website. This content might be audio, video, images, documents, or text. A CMS should also allow for multiple people to edit and create content. If we look at the capabilities of WordPress, I would have to argue that it has grown into a full CMS solution.
Now comes the decision on wether or not a CMS is right for you and your website, specifically WordPress. In the beginning WordPress can be a little overwhelming. This is because WordPress is a complete software solution. You are not just putting documents on a web host like in the early days of the web.
So, what is WordPress? It is a modern software application that runs on your web host’s servers. Learning to use new software is always a little overwhelming at first but after we have got over the hurdle of “how to use it” and have moved on to just “using it”, WordPress is a very efficient and effective tool.
What is WordPress Used for?
Now that we’ve established what is WordPress and that it is as flexible as it is useful, let’s take a look at how you can use WordPress as your hub.
The websites that we started with in the late 90s were static, meaning the content never changed. The opposite is true these days. Most websites that are on the internet today are dynamic, the content is always changing. In fact, the mark of death on a website is one of those banners that reads “Last Updated “¦” and the date is older than a month or two.
The benefit to having new and dynamic content on your website is the ability to attract return visitors. This method of attracting new visitors (customers or clients) is called inbound marketing or content marketing. These are essentially the same name for the same method. This method allows you to attract new visitors to your site via traffic sources like search engines or social media.
If you want to have return visitors to your website then you better make sure that you are giving them a reason to return. To do this, you need to:
- Give your visitors something new.
- Let your visitors interact with it.
- Give your visitors a voice.
- Respond to your visitors.
- Let your other visitors respond to your visitors.
All of this can be accomplished with WordPress.
Your main goal is to engage your audience which leaves them wanting more. Their natural inclination is to explore your website and see what else you have to offer them.
Users of WordPress (this would be you) are able to create a new page or post with as great of ease as sending an email or writing a document in Microsoft Word (actually MS Word is more complicated). Most importantly, you don’t even need to know how to write any kind of code.
WordPress Resources
In the sidebar to the right you will find some WordPress related articles that I have written and can be found in the archives. I thought it would be more convenient if I grouped them altogether under a common theme. Take your time and read through them and you might just gain a better understanding of WordPress and how it can better help you build an internet presence.
For a more comprehensive WordPress tutorial you will want to take a look at my WordPress course. Click on the image below and learn how to build a website from scratch.
Want to Learn WordPress? Check Out My Course!
