The Ultimate Noob Guide to WordPress- [Plus 7 Stunning Statistics]

What is WordPress?

Very simply put, WordPress is one of the most popular ways to create and operate your own website or blog. As a matter of fact, over 40% of all websites on the internet are powered by WordPress. It means that for all the websites you visit, more than one in four of them are likely to be powered by WordPress. 

You’d like to know that WordPress is an open-source content management system that lets anyone modify the software for free. It is licensed under GPLv2. A content management system like WordPress allows users to manage crucial elements of their website – like content – without having to learn anything about programming.

In a nutshell, WordPress makes website building accessible to everyone – even for people who aren’t developers.

What’s Unique About WordPress?

Being open-source software, the platform is not limited to copyright or trademark. More importantly, the WordPress Core is developed and maintained by a dedicated community of developers. If you’d like to know more about the WordPress community, try attending one of the WordCamps.

This is great for users for various reasons:

• The platform has always been and will always be free to use.
• Various free and affordable tools are created for general use with WordPress.
• WordPress is designed by its community in a manner to make it user-friendly and to be able to provide features that are needed the most by website creators. 
• WordPress gives you the freedom to choose how you want to use and interact with the software. It also allows you to modify it via coding and other tools as you please.

It’s the least to say that WordPress is a tremendously popular platform. This means that you will find a lot of sources online which can guide you to use it more effectively. There are plenty of online documents, forums and community support, blogs, and even dedicated courses to help you learn. 

And no, WordPress is not just for beginners!

The beauty of WordPress lies in the fact that it is scalable. With time and usage, you will acquire more skills and will be able to do more with WordPress. While WordPress allows you to create small blogs, it also enables you to create large websites and online stores. 

Types of Website WordPress Can Make

Several years back, WordPress was primarily used as a tool to create blogs and not typical websites. But over the years, several changes have been made to the core code, along with changes in the entire WordPress ecosystem of themes and plugins. With that, it’s possible to create any type of website with WordPress.

Not only can you create websites and blogs using WordPress, but also eCommerce stores. In fact, it is one of the most popular ways to create an online store currently. You can create the following using WordPress:

• Websites for business
• Online stores / eCommerce sites
• Blogs
• Portfolios
• Resumes
• Forums
• Social media networks
• Sites for membership
• And pretty much anything you can think of

WordPress.org Vs. WordPress.com

There are several differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. They are as follows:

• WordPress.org, often called self-hosted WordPress, is the free, open-source WordPress software that you can install on your own web host to create a website that’s 100% your own.
• WordPress.com is a for-profit, paid service that is powered by the WordPress.org software. It’s simple to use, but you lose much of the flexibility of the self-hosted WordPress.

Most of the time, when people say “WordPress”, they mean the self-hosted WordPress available at WordPress.org. If you want to truly own your website, self-hosted WordPress.org is almost always the best option.

All you need to do to get started with self-hosted WordPress is purchase web hosting and a domain name.

Who Created WordPress And Since When Has It Been Around?

WordPress was created as a standalone project all the way back in 2003, originating as an offshoot of a previous project called b2/cafelog.

WordPress remains an open-source software that is made by a gigantic community of contributors. But originally, WordPress was created when Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little collaborated to create it.

Ever since Matt Mullenweg has largely been the face of WordPress. Mullenweg also founded Automatic, the company behind the for-profit WordPress.com services.

It has been a long journey of evolution since the inception of WordPress in 2003. We can safely say that WordPress has evolved into one of the most popular solutions to create any kind of website. Thanks to its huge and dedicated community of developers.

Popular Sites Created Using WordPress

WordPress is used by people from all sorts of backgrounds. Be it a business of any size, individual, or any kind of organization. In fact, on an instant note, the very site that you’re reading this blog on is created using WordPress. Very many popular entities use WordPress as well. Here are a few examples:

The Whitehouse

WordPress powers the official Whitehouse.gov website.

Microsoft

Microsoft uses WordPress to power its official blog. It also uses WordPress to power blogs for specific products like Windows and Skype.

The Rolling Stones

Even famous bands love WordPress! The Rolling Stones’ website is powered solely by WordPress.

Let’s Look At Some Figures

WordPress Fascinating Facts and Figures

1. WordPress Is Used by Over 35% of the Web

It may sound incredible, but WordPress has grown to be the most popular content management system (CMS) on the web. According to WordPress.com and Netcraft, this number is closer to 35%. The reason for this success is due in part to WordPress’ unrivaled adaptability, which allows it to be used in a variety of settings from tiny personal blogs to big corporate websites and even Fortune 500 companies such as Sony Music and Forbes.

2. Each month, 70 million new posts and 77 million new comments are made by individuals

Every day, there are over 2.3 million new blog entries on WordPress blogs alone! 97,222 every hour, and 1,620 posts every minute is a staggering number to consider. When we’re talking about 300-word articles on average, we’re talking about almost half a billion words being produced each minute using WordPress

3. “WordPress” is looked up 2.94 million times on the internet every month

The search term “WordPress” is searched 2,940,000 times every month by people from all around the world, according to KWFinder, a trustworthy keyword analysis tool. You can readily imagine how much greater the overall search volume would be if we included all relevant long-tail keywords.

4. The typical WordPress developer makes approximately $51,000 per year

According to PayScale’s statistics, the average WordPress web developer makes around $50,000 per year.

5. There are now 54,000+ free plugins available

The Plugin Directory, which currently has over 54,000 plugins and 1.5 billion total downloads, is up for debate as to whether or not WordPress should take more proactive measures to reduce the number of useless or outdated plugins in its directory. Nonetheless, you may rest assured that if you run into a problem or require a solution, “there’s a plugin for that.”

6. WordPress 5.3 has had more than 7,000,000 downloads

WordPress 5.3 has been downloaded over 7 million times, which is a significant increase from WordPress 5.2 (which was installed more than 4 million times). Simply glance at the download counter to witness how quickly the number increases.

7. So far, there have been 1,063 WordCamps

WordCamps are informal, locally organized events that explore all things WordPress. Matt Mullenweg started the first WordCamp in San Francisco in 2006, and there have since been over a thousand more.

Reasons To Use WordPress?

More than 40% of all the websites on the internet are created and managed using WordPress.

But why should you use it as well?

Well, there are several reasons to use WordPress if you want to create your own website, no matter what kind of site you want to create. Here are some reasons why:

Free And Open Source

One of the major advantages of WordPress is that it is free and open source. While there is a cost that you need to pay for hosting, there will never be a cost for using WordPress software. This is not the case with its alternatives like Squarespace. 

Moreover, there are lots of open-source plugins and themes to choose from. You have the freedom to decide how your website appears and functions.

An Extensible Software

With WordPress’ gigantic ecosystem of themes and plugins, you can easily modify your website even if you aren’t a developer. 

• Themes – these primarily determine how your website looks.
• Plugins – these primarily determine how your website functions. Plugins can be something small, like a contact form, or huge, like creating an eCommerce store.

As of now, there are more than 50,000 free plugins and 5,000 free themes to choose from on WordPress. Along with that, there are lots of premium options as well. 

It Is Easy To Install

You don’t need to be a tech genius to create your own website now. You can install WordPress on your site just with a few clicks. In fact, these days most of the hosts offer to preinstall WordPress so that your site is ready to function right away. If not that, then they provide dedicated tools that make the installation process super easy. 

Should I Install WordPress On My Personal Computer?

It is a good idea to install WordPress on your personal computer. There are several reasons for that. You are going to build a new site from scratch or experiment with an existing site. It is a better option to install it on your personal computer and experiment with it by trying on new themes and plugins, without the fear of breaking it.

A Flexible Software

As you must be aware by now, WordPress is suitable for creating any type of website. And the best part is that your website can evolve with you over time. 

There are a plethora of plugins that let you expand your website in various manners. Be it adding a forum to your website, or adding a social network, WordPress lets your website evolve in a tremendous range. 

You are never limited to a given set of functions, you can always expand and evolve.

There Are So Many Platforms To Help You With WordPress

The popularity of WordPress is one of the biggest advantages of using it. It is super easy to find help if you ever face any issues using WordPress. There are tons of blogs, tutorials, forums, social media groups, and developer communities that you can turn to for help. 

Bottomline

WordPress is undoubtedly one of the most popular ways to build a website. And there are several reasons for it. With WordPress, you can create any kind of website, from a blog to an eCommerce store.

Please remember that WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two separate things. And in most scenarios, WordPress.org is what you need to build your website. Self-hosted WordPress.org gives you maximum ownership of your website and the freedom to decide how your website appears and functions. WordPress.org gives you access to all the perks and benefits of the WordPress community.
While self-hosted WordPress.org is relatively easy to use, there might be a number of points where you may need professional help. If you are looking for expert solutions and want to hire a WordPress developer for your website, let’s get connected for a free consultation session today.