At first glance, understanding WordPress and its ecosystem can seem like a confusing step when we don't have some of the basics to understand it. Theme, plugin, host, domain name, HTTPS protocol, SSL certificate... Don't all these terms sound familiar? However, you need to master this basic knowledge to navigate serenely on WordPress.
However, don't panic. In this article, we will give you the 9 things you need to know to get started with WordPress.
What is WordPress?
How can you understand WordPress without knowing its origins and what it is used for?
For starters, WordPress is the most popular and widely used free, open source content management system ( CMS ) in the world. As of June 2021, nearly 41.7% of all websites created were powered by this CMS, making WordPress the international market leader. Every day, more than 500,000 new websites are created on the web. Do these figures make your head spin? It's enough! And you're probably wondering why WordPress is so popular.
WordPress is known for its infinite customisation and modularity. The large number of themes, plugins, widgets and its position with regard to natural referencing make it the unique solution for all types of projects with the most diverse requirements. Originally developed as a blogging tool, the WordPress CMS has built up a wide range of features over the years, giving rise to the behemoth we know today.
WordPress.org Vs WordPress.com: what are the differences?
Are you convinced by the benefits of WordPress and want to go with the undisputed leader in CMS? Good. First of all, it is important to clarify one point, because you will often hear about two sites with similar names, but at the same time so different.
WordPress.org
WordPress.org is the official site for the original non-corporateversion of WordPress; this is where you can download WordPress.
WordPress.org lists a large number of free plugins and themes, giving you an unlimited customisation experience just a click away. You'll find extensive documentation, video workshops to learn and grow WordPress, a forum with an active community, and articles about the latest CMS news.
WordPress.com
Not to be confused with WordPress.com, the WordPress. com service is a simplified version of WordPress marketed by an American company. This site offers the possibility of hosting your content online with a turnkey package. However, although the company stands out for its low-cost packages, WordPress.com remains very limited.
Acquiring plugins for your website's natural referencing or for your online business will therefore force you to go through the checkout. Moreover, the lack of several key features makes it a service not necessarily adapted to all types of projects. For example, you will not be able to place your plugins and ads on your site, or install custom plugins and themes.
Using a web agency
When you want to start a website creation project and you don't have the technical knowledge to implement it, you can quickly find yourself lost. Faced with the flood of elements to master and take into account to create an efficient website with WordPress, and the need to touch the source code sooner or later to go further, it is more than advisable to call upon freelancers or web agencies such as INGENIUS.
These WordPress specialists will be able to provide you with expertise and a quality solution without you having to pull your hair out over your piece of HTML that is struggling to work the way you want it to.
Are HTML, CSS, PHP or JavaScript unknown to you, or are they dialects of alien civilizations? Does deciphering a line of PHP code seem like an insurmountable challenge? Are the terms SEO, plugins, themes, digital marketing all far from your field of understanding? Delegate!
Indeed, using a WordPress web agency to design and maintain your website will guarantee you the best web solution for your project and business. Made up of experienced professionals and specialists, the expertise of a web agency is usually based on a global turnkey service shared between several domains: web creation and development, digital strategy, design, maintenance and monitoring, security, editorial content writing, referencing, social networks, etc.
At INGENIUS, our WordPress-based services meet the needs of our clients with a team of recognized experts. We guarantee quality support by paying attention to the smallest details that can make our clients' projects a success.
Our solutions cover the full range of possibilities offered by WordPress: custom WordPress website creation, turnkey websites for coaches, artisans and solopreneurs to convert prospects into customers, dropshipping services on WooCommerce that guarantee concrete results, E-commerce website creation and management, maintenance and security, and optimised search engine optimisation services.
Interested? We invite you to discover all our services and subscriptions on our internet site developed of course on WordPress 😉
What is a web host?
If you're going down the WordPress path, you'll hear about web hosting at some point. But what is that? Well, think of it as a hosting rental service, but digital. You rent storage space on secure servers to store your website data. So you can access it anywhere, anytime.
Today, there are a large number of service providers on the market offering website hosting in various forms: shared or mutualised, virtual or dedicated hosting, etc. In France, OVH, 1&1 and PlanetHoster are the key players in the sector.
INGENIUS pays particular attention to working with the best web hosts. Ensuring that our customers receive the quality and speed of hosting that they expect is a priority.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is an identifier, or the equivalent of your postal address in digital form, that you enter in the address bar of an Internet browser to access your website. A domain name consists of a string of characters followed by an extension starting with a dot. Depending on the country or the type of project, there are several types of extensions:
- national domains such as .fr, .be or .uk ;
- generic extensions, the best known of which are .com, .org and .net.
Take the time to think carefully about the domain name you wish to acquire. A short and easily memorable name is preferable. As for the extension, this will depend on your project and your ambitions. If you are unsure, we recommend that you seek advice to choose the most suitable extension and domain name.
Which WordPress website for my project or business?
In 2021, 1.86 billion websites existed on the web. However, within this impressive number, we find the same design patterns. Let's try to make an overview of the different types of websites we can find on the web.
The showcase site
As its name suggests, a showcase site is the digital window of your project or business, just as the window of your traditional neighbourhood florist can be. The purpose of a showcase site is to present your activity, product or service on one page. It is designed to provide an online presence for the company, community, craftsman or individual by presenting the essential elements of a project or business, but without direct sales. A showcase site is therefore an excellent way to convert new prospects into customers.
E-commerce
If you are one of the 81.4% of French people who buy on the Internet, you are probably familiar with e-commerce.
Quite simply, an e-commerce site allows a company to sell a good or service to a consumer online. These sites offer the possibility for an Internet user to browse through different categories of products on offer, to access a product sheet, to add this product to a shopping basket, then to validate it and finally to proceed to online payment after having entered their personal information.
The blog
A blog is an online space similar to a newspaper. It allows one or more authors of a website to express their views on a subject.
The blog is often used by entrepreneurs and companies to present expertise on a specific theme while allowing them to set up an editorial content strategy and work on their natural referencing (SEO).
A web-app
A web-app (or functional site) is a web application that can be used online through a web browser and allows a high level of interactivity with the user. It can be a social network such as Facebook or Twitter, an online email application such as Gmail, or an online booking site such as AirBnB.
An intranet site
An intranet site allows its users to inform themselves, communicate and work together. This type of site with restricted access is often used by companies or local authorities who wish to develop a working and communication tool that brings together all their employees in a single space.
A wiki
A wiki is a website open to all, collaborative and contributory. It allows Internet users to pool their knowledge to feed a database on any subject. The most famous of these is Wikipedia, but there are many others dealing with specific subjects.
Article, plugin, theme... What do these terms mean?
Here you are: you have chosen the WordPress CMS to create your website. However, there's one thing that bothers you: you don't speak WordPress. You often hear about plugins, themes or posts without really knowing what all these terms mean.
Don't panic! We've thought of everything, and we've provided these essential points to help you get comfortable with the WordPress ecosystem.
An article or post
Articles (or posts) are the DNA of your blog or website. In its early days, WordPress was designed as a blogging platform, but it has since been expanded to include all the features we know about for creating all types of websites.
An article allows you to highlight text, format it, and insert media to discuss a specific topic. It has a publication date and an author to create chronological content.
It can be shared on your social networks to promote it. Sharing buttons in the body of the article also allow your visitors to spread it. Readers can interact with it in a dedicated comment area to give their opinion or take part in a debate. Integrating the article into an RSS feed will allow readers who subscribe to your feed to receive it as soon as it is published on your website.
For a company or a project, articles are not to be neglected. They play a fundamental role in a well thought-out editorial strategy. They allow you to work on the natural referencing (SEO) of a website to position its content at the top of the results on search engines.
One page
A page allows you to create static content, such as a home page, contact us page or about page. This is timeless content that is intended to last over time, unlike articles that allow for discussion of a specific topic at a specific time.
Here, there is no author, no date of publication and no comment space. The essential elements and characteristics of your project or company are presented in a structured way, respecting a hierarchy used in all your pages.
A plugin
A plugin is an additional extension to WordPress that adds new functionality to your website or extends it. These extensions are written in a programming language called PHP and are developed by people in the WordPress community, so they are not people who work directly for WordPress.
Today, tens of thousands of plugins are available. Most plugins are free, but some are not. Whatever your need, a plugin will meet it.
A theme
In WordPress, a theme is a set of template files and CSS style sheets that determine the graphic identity of your website.
For any business, the perfect theme exists. Each theme has its own design and features to enhance your content and user experience. Running a travel website? Create a theme that adapts to the seasons! The great thing about WordPress themes is that they are easily manageable, and you can change them at any time as long as you know how to touch a few lines of PHP and CSS code.
On the internet, the choice is vast. There are many free and paid themes, and WordPress.org lists many of them. Can't find the perfect one? No problem! It is entirely possible to create your own customised theme to meet your every need. But there more than ever, you will need to know web programming language. The other possibility is to entrust the creation of your website to a professional web agency such as INGENIUS who will take care of making the ultimate custom WordPress theme to make your business take off.
Security on my WordPress site
Security is a crucial issue on the Internet. As WordPress is an open source CMS, it is better to take care of the security of your site. So be careful with the themes or plugins you might install! Especially since the RGPD law of 2018, you have the obligation to protect your data and those of your users.
To secure a website, there are several good practices to put in place, such as having security plugins, regularly updating your site, or customising the URL of your login page. It is also possible, and even essential, to migrate your site to the HTTPS protocol by installing an SSL certificate.
HTTPS is a security protocol that guarantees the protection of a site's user data. This protocol is visible to the Internet user who clicks on the address bar of his browser when consulting any website of companies concerned about the security of their data. It is represented by the letters HTTPS at the beginning of the link and is accompanied by a padlock and a "connection is secure" message.
The HTTPS protocol is also a way of ensuring that the site consulted is the right one, and not a fraudulent copy. It aims to reinforce the perception of reliability of a target audience, prospects or customers, and therefore indirectly improves your referencing.
The migration of your website to the HTTPS protocol is carried out thanks to the installation of an SSL certificate. Much like an identity card, an SSL certificate guarantees the identity of a site. Since WordPress requires an SSL certificate to function properly, it should be installed without undue delay.
SEO for my WordPress site
First and foremost: when you embark on the path of creating and managing a website, you cannot escape SEO.
SEO comes from the English term "Search Engine Optimization". Depending on preference, SEO is also called natural or organic search engine optimisation.
SEO is a set of good practices and actions that allow you toimprove your positioning in the results of a search engine and thus generate more traffic on specific keywords.
WordPress is one of the best content management systems (CMS) for SEO. With an effective SEO strategy and the addition of original, rich and relevant content, you can easily increase the visibility of your project or business online.
However, working on the SEO of your WordPress website is a long-term job, which requires mastering 3 fundamental pillars: technique, content, and reputation. To help you in your approach and get more customers thanks to natural referencing, INGENIUS proposes to save hours of learning and mistakes by entrusting your referencing to professionals.
Our automatic Genius SEO service works on the 3 pillars mentioned above: link building, content creation, performance and speed optimization of your WordPress... In only 8 months, you will notice an overall increase in your website's position on search engines.
To find out more about our Genius SEO service, we invite you to visit our offer to discover more.
Ready to get started?
Have you reached the end of these 8 must-know points to get started with WordPress without closing your web browser? Congratulations!
And you, if you had to name one essential element to get started with WordPress, what would it be? We're curious!
