In unadorned terms, WordPress is a straightforward path to create your own website or blog. Being a CMS (Content Management System), it is the most in-demand website management system in use. Created on May 27th 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little as a blog creating site it has grown steadily over the years and now forms fully functional websites, mobile websites and powers 30% (approximately 19,500,000 websites) of the Web. Amazing isn’t it…
“WordPress is a software designed for everyone, emphasizing accessibility, performance, security, and ease of use. We believe great software should work with minimum set up, so you can focus on sharing your story, product, or services freely. The basic WordPress software is simple and predictable so you can easily get started. It also offers powerful features for growth and success.” – WordPress.org
How big is WordPress?
As mentioned above, WordPress claims a 30% share of the Web. I decided to poke through the statistics to try and find out a bit more about where they come from. Of course, one must keep in mind the scale of the web: 30% market share is huge. As I began writing this post, WordPress (version 4.9) had been downloaded 148,781,990 times. In just the time I finished, that figure had risen to 149,077,881 (A whooping 704,109 downloads within this lapse of time)
Who uses WordPress?
Why WordPress?
1. It is free
Yes, you read it right, WordPress is 100% free.WordPress can be downloaded from https://wordpress.org for self-hosted installation. WordPress has a sister website https://wordpress.com which however is not free as it is a hosted solution (this allows users to use this software directly on the internet).
2. Open-source Software
Open-source software is a computer software whose source code (Source code is the set of instructions and statements written by a programmer using a computer programming language.) is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to analyze, change, and administer the software to anyone and for any purpose and blah blah blah!!!
Simply, WordPress has released the code, thus you can modify it the way you like and also redistribute it. Therefore it is written in unison by thousands of programmers around the world today, with each and everyone of them adding their own ideas making WordPress better everyday. (Do not panic!! WordPress is secure, as it has security updates frequently)
3. Ease of Use
A few couple of hours of messing with WordPress is sufficient enough to create your first basic functional webpage. Its simple structure makes it one of the most versatile or rather the most versatile website management system available today.
WordPress is also available in many other languages apart from English However it is not available in Sinhala or Tamil. (Lets hope it will soon be out, which would prove to be helpful for Sri Lankan businesses), thus making it a more effortlessly adaptable website management system.
Being 100% customizable it helps the user to explore various themes, designs and functions allowing the user to be creative to the utmost without hesitation.
4. You Have Control of Your Site
There is no need for expensive visits from a web designer to make plain sailing updates for your website any more. With WordPress you can be your web designer. Changes on your website from simple price changes to more advanced theme changes or building an inner page in your website could be done in a swish and flick with WordPress.
How to get started?
If you think WordPress is for you, buckle up and start using it right away. If you want to start a blog or create a website for your business there are a few ways you’d have to consider on how you will be using WordPress.
Option One: Do it yourself.
As stated many times above WordPress is very simple to learn. Learning it to start your own blog would be smart so that you wouldn’t have to spend a lot on expensive web designers for small changes (even those the size of a full-stop).
If you have a small business and sufficient amount of time in your hands, constructing your website using WordPress and doing the future developments on your own would be the most cost-efficient method.
However it would dearth quality, a unique design, and optimization which requires a level of professionalism to achieve.
Option Two: Hire a Freelancer Developer.
A Freelance Developer can be a student or even a professional web designer who works on his/her own. Quality can be assured. Future developments will be done suitably, if you stick to the same freelancer throughout.
Unfortunately it will lack a unique design as the freelancer will have more tendency to use simple templates which are already available on wordpress. SEO Optimization in the core of the website will be moderate, thus prone to the danger of never being visited on the internet.
Option Three: Through an agency.
This option is quite suitable for corporate business where there is need for more elegance and quality. There are web development agencies in Sri Lanka with multi-skilled professionals working around the clock creating unique designs for the website and also helping you strategize future developments for your site. SEO Optimization which is one of the specialities of an agency will make sure your website will not hover about aimlessly in the internet, instead on the list of top results of a web search relating to your business.
Having a website is not merely enough, focus should be placed on attracting as many customers as possible, which is yet another strength of an agency. They can help complete your marketing goals, therefore increasing the stability of your business.
This would cost some bucks initially, but is worth in the long run as the benefits reaped are much more than the resources spent;.
Well that’s about it on what WordPress simply is and how you could get started on it.
For more information visit the following webpages:
https://www.codeinwp.com/blog/wordpress-statistics/
https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/editorial/just-how-big-is-wordpress-exactly
Cheers,
Tony Jesuthasan
