WordPress is one of the most versatile web design platforms available. WordPress is also user friendly with themes and plugins that make it easy to create a unique website without knowing a lot about coding or design. However, there is more that you can do if you understand basic coding and design elements.

What Type of Coding Does WordPress Use?

WordPress uses a variety of code including HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript. When you use the code, you maybe overwriting defaults or designing something that is completely unique. Understanding the coding and the coding standards set forth by WordPress is essential if you plan to code your own plugins or design.

Do I Need to Be Able to Code to Use WordPress?

WordPress does not require you to learn how to code to create a website for you or your business. WordPress has a variety of themes that you can choose to use and that you can customize by adding your won photos or logos. There are also a variety of both free and paid for plug-ins that can help with your websites functionality like setting up a shopping cart or providing a contact form on the page.

How Can Learning Coding Help Me with WordPress?

Learning the coding can help you if you want to become a WordPress web designer. Learning to code can allow you to tweak the plug-ins that you use or to create a unique design. If you want to become a full-time web designer, you can become more independent by learning to code, and stop relying on or paying for plugins for the sites you design. Learning to code can also help you to find any issues that may develop in your website and then know how to fix them on your own.

Where Can I Learn WordPress Coding?

There is information learning coding for WordPress on the WordPress site. Many universities and community colleges will offer basic classes that can get you started. There are also tutorials available online that make it easy to learn if you are self-motivated and dedicated to completing the design on your own. If you are a hands-on learner the tutorials may be enough to get you started and going. As you begin to code, you may decide that you want to take a class that can teach more about the entire design process.

 

Many people may have originally heard of WordPress when people began blogging because it was a popular platform for bloggers. One of the main benefits of WordPress is it is so user friendly and there were a number of themselves available for people to use, it quickly gained popularity. While WordPress is a very good blogging platform, it is capable of doing so much more than just serving as a blog.

WordPress Is Used by Well-Known Companies

There are a number of well-known companies that use WordPress as their web platform. This includes companies like The New Yorker, Variety, Time and The New York Times Company. The designers for these sits were able to effectively use the WordPress platform to design pages that share information in unique ways. Each of the brands are distinctive from each other and visiting the sites, you are likely able to recognize them without seeing the name of the website.

WordPress Supports Retail Sites

There are plugins available that allow you to create a site that can handle selling items on the WordPress platform. While WordPress may not have been originally designed for ecommerce, the development team through the years have worked to make it possible. When looking at the different plugins available to do this, be sure to carefully check the security information. While many feature and plugins of WordPress are free, it is worth the added security and support that is available by using a plugin that you pay for.

WordPress Has a Community and Support

Since WordPress is such a popular platform a support community has been created around it. This community offers design solutions like themes or plugins. They may be able to help when you run into an issue with plugins not working together or be able to recommend the security measures you need to take to keep your website secure. This makes WordPress a great choice if you are designing your own website for your business, along with more flexibility than other web platforms that are more limited in the different formats that you use.

WordPress Scales Well

When you design in another platform, your site might not scale from mobile to tablet to a laptop well. Since the majority of people are spending their time online on their phones or tablets, it is important to have a site that scales well for your business. WordPress does it for you without causing any issues. This will keep your customers and followers happy.

Posts Make It Easy to Keep Customers Informed

Another advantage of WordPress is the blogging function. While you can design a website that does not include blogging, you can easily work one in if you want to. Posting is easy and it can give your customers something new to look at and read every day.

 

WordPress offers a lot of flexibility in web design. It is an extremely versatile platform and one of the most popular web design programs available. Your website is an important part of your business. Hacks may want to take it over or try to get to your customer’s information on it. It is important that you take care to protect your website.

Perform Regular Updates

One of the ways to keep your website safe from attack is to regularly update WordPress. The updates help to protect you against vulnerabilities. If you continue to run older versions of WordPress, you put yourself at risk of being hacked. You should also update any plugins that you have on your site to the latest version.

Back Up Your Site on a Regular Basis

It is important to regularly back up your site. This will allow you to quickly restore your website if it is attacked or if the server that it is hosted on is attacked. Try to back up at least quarterly. If you work with a web designer, he or she may offer a backup service that is part of a security and maintenance plan, if not you will need to back up the site yourself.

Strengthen in the Log In

It is important to take steps to the strengthen the log in options for your website. You can install two-factor authentication. You should use named accounts instead of the default admin account. You may also want to limit the number of failed login attempts and disable any newly registered accounts to your website.

Remove Default Settings and Unused Themes

There are default settings and unused themes that may exist in the plugins that the creators make and leave as a backdoor and away into your website. Deleting these and changing the default settings can help you add a layer of protection to your website.

Set Up Notifications

If you set up notifications of attempted logins and changes made to your website. This will allow you to know right away if your website is under attack and let you take action immediately. This is can also alert you to attempts that try to breach a firewall or if you are under a DDoS attack.

There are a variety of different web design platforms that you can choose to design your website on. However, not all the options are equally good. Some options have just a few basic elements that you can use to create a site, meaning that many of the sites look the same. Other programs may be too complicated to use and may leave you frustrated with the end results. Here are four benefits of choosing WordPress to build your website.

1. WordPress Is Search Engine Friendly

One of the biggest benefits of using WordPress is that it is search engine friendly. This is important because you want your website to come up in a search when a potential customer is looking for a business like yours. WordPress makes it easy to use labels and keywords in a way that is great for the search engines, but does not involve keyword stuffing or other practices that the search engines no longer favor.

2. WordPress Is Easy to Use

WordPress is easy to use. It is a straightforward program that allows you to easily format and create your own site that does exactly what you want it to. The coding is not that difficult and there are a number of plug-ins that you can use to incorporate different aspects like social media into your website.

3.  WordPress Makes Blogging Easy

Along with the static pages for your website, WordPress has an easy to use blogging feature that allows you to quickly create posts that can keep your customers or your fanbase up to date on the happenings at your business. It is also a great platform if your primary business is content creation through a blog or similar website. The blog posts are archived and easy for people to go back and search if they want to.

4. WordPress Is Customizable and Versatile

WordPress allows you to create a site that is unique to you or your business. You can change everything from the background color to the page layout, and you can do it completely from scratch. However, there are many themes you can use if you do not consider yourself a designer. Another option is to hire someone to design the site for you. After the design is complete you can make updates or blog posts and keep the site updated.

Learn the difference between a post and page in WordPress.