How to Make a WordPress Website in 2020 – Step by Step Guide

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool written in PHP. It is probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today.

WordPress is highly customizable. It has literally thousands of plugin pieces of software. If you’re ever curious about who uses WordPress, head on over to the WordPress site showcase and you’ll be impressed by the number of well-known sites and famous people using WordPress to power their websites.

• Started as a blogging tool in 2003.
• Built on PHP programming language and MySQL database.
• It open source meaning anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.
• As of February 2016, WordPress is used by 59.1% of all the websites whose content management system we know. This is 25.8% of all websites.
• WordPress is used by many popular website like: New York Observer, New York Post, TED, Thought Catalog, Williams, USA Today, CNN, Fortune.com, TIME.com, National Post, Spotify, TechCrunch, CBS Local, NBC etc.
• Around 15,886,000 websites on the entire web use WordPress.
• 22% of new domains in the US are run with WordPress.
• 120 languages are in use at WordPress.com sites

Benefits of WordPress:

WordPress is highly customizable. It has literally thousands of plugin pieces of software so you can use your site for just about anything. That’s always a bonus. WordPress has a thriving community of developers constantly improving the software and creating plugins to expand the software. Some of Features are listed below:

It’s free

There are some costs associated with running your website on WordPress, but the software is free.

How many times have you been given something for free that is fully functional and ready to use? If you want to upscale your site a little with premium themes and plugins then you are going to save of money over what you would pay for a custom designed site.

Easy to learn

Managing a WordPress site is intuitive, making it easy to use.

Secure (mostly)

WordPress is developed with security in mind and is battle tested.

Powerful

WordPress has a large network of developers who are constantly making it better and more powerful.

Extensible

There are thousands of plugins, themes, and tools to add functionality to your WordPress site.

SEO friendly

WordPress is built with SEO in mind and uses SEO-friendly permalinks.

Search engines love sites that are easy to index and that have frequently updated content. Just by running your business or personal site and communicating with your readers in a way that’s natural to you, you’ll be producing fresh,relevant content the search engines can’t wait to get ahold of.

Community Support

WordPress isn’t just a software, it has become a community. Some might even say a movement.

They are informal, community -organized events put together by other WordPress users just like you. You’ll meet people of all backgrounds, ages, and nationalities at WordCamps .

There are thousands of people and hundreds of resource and tutorial sites set up just to help you with your WordPress site.

Which WordPress is right for your business?

WordPress.com is a commercial site where you can host your own site for free, but with some limitations. Started as a blogging tool in 2003.	WordPress.org is where you can download a copy of the WordPress software for free. There are less limitations, but more expertise and setup is required.
Limited control of your content, i.e. you must pay to remove ads.	Regularly updating your WP version, themes, and plugins.
No FTP access to your files.	Keeping your site secure for your visitors and protecting your site against hackers and spam.
Limited to WordPress.com themes – you can’t upload your own.	Installing and setting up your WordPress site.
No custom plugins.	Backing up your whole site regularly in case it breaks.
Limited storage space.	Resolving problems with your site and server if they arise.

Comparison between WordPress.com & WordPress.org

	WordPress.org	WordPress.com
E-commerce	Allowed through plugins	Functionality does not exist
Customize look and/or functionality	Download, install, and/or create your own themes and plugins.	No custom themes or plugins available.
Control the amount of storage for videos, images, etc.	This is determined by the host your choose.	Limited amount available.
Included Maintenance	None. Unless you hire a developer.	Full maintenance of WP, themes, and plugins included.
Custom web address (url)	Buy your own domain (cost vary) and point it to your host.	Buy your domain via WordPress.com and point it to your account.
Scalability	Scalable and extensible	Not scalable
Website support	None included. Unless you hire an expert (additional cost).	Full support included.

How to install

• Install Local server (XAMPP Or WAMP)
• Start Server
• Copy WordPress package from source and paste in www Directory.
• Open phpMyadmin & create database.
• Open wordpress package in browser (localhost/your folder name), Configure according to your database name & password.
• Run & Install.
• Login in Admin Panel (localhost/your folder name/ wp-login.php).
• Visit front site and you have successfully installed your wordpress.

Primary Content Types in WordPress

Posts

Typically used for blog posts, announcements, content that is available for comment. Can be categorized and tagged.

Pages

Typically used for static content such as the homepage, about, contact, etc. Can’t be categorized, but can be structured with subpages.

Media

Images, videos, documents, and other content that may be contained in a page or post but is not text.

What are themes?

A WordPress Theme is a collection of files (called template files) that work together to produce a graphical design interface for a WordPress website.

A WordPress theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software.

What is a plugin?

Plugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress. The core of WordPress is designed to be lean and lightweight, to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat.

Plugins then offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.

Hire an expert

The power of WordPress comes from its extensibility and flexibility. Tthere are several ways to accomplish your goals, but you may need to invest in working with a WordPress developer to get things done correctly.

After all, a WordPress expert can likely get things done faster and without the frustration of you having to research plugins, themes, etc.