Is WordPress good for beginners?

Is WordPress good for beginners? Absolutely! If you're unfamiliar with WordPress and how it works, it can come across as confusing and difficult at first. In this post, we will discuss what you need to know about WordPress, how it works, and if it's easy to pick up. 

WordPress is about as easy to use as your word processor, like most things in life, a little practice and getting to grips with the fundamentals of WordPress will prove key to understanding every nut and cranny. 

As we dive deeper into WordPress, you will find that it grows and expands allowing you to learn as much about WordPress as you'd like. 

Initially, you may be confused about WordPress, it's understandable with so much going on. That's why it's imperative we cover for core basics of WordPress.

What Are WordPress Plugins? 

A WordPress plugin is essentially a miniature application (code) that " plugs in" to your WordPress site. To break this down in simpler terms, this just means an additional bolt of functionality that is added to your WordPress site. 

One of the great things about WordPress is the vast number of plugins available! WordPress has thousands of developers that have written plugins that you can add to your WordPress site. 

Plugins can allow small changes to bigger overhauls on your site. A good example would be the popular plugin WooCommerce. This transforms your WordPress site into a fully-fledged, functioning eCommerce store. 

Or, you can add smaller plugins such as a contact form plugin, allow visitors to your WordPress site to submit inquiries to the site owner. There are some WordPress plugins that don't even have a front-facing role. A good example of this would be caching plugins to help improve site performance or plugins to help improve SEO to help you rank better on search engines. 

Check our top plugin list you should be using if you're a freelancer. 

What Are WordPress Themes? 

A WordPress theme is composed of folders and files, that come together to create the aesthetic look of your WordPress site. A theme comes with template files, images, stylesheets, and sometimes JavaScript files. 

Just like WordPress plugins, there are thousands of free themes available to download and change the look of your site. 

What do WordPress themes do? The theme will take the existing content and data stored on your WordPress site and display it in the browser. When you pick a WordPress theme, you decide how you want the content to look. Picking a good theme and having a page builder can make a whole lot of difference when building your WordPress site. 

Why use WordPress? 

You're probably asking yourself, " Why should I use WordPress" well, you've come to the right place. Pondering these questions means you must have done some research about WordPress a bit, or, come across it online through a blog post, or even told about WordPress by a colleague at work. 

We'll break down key points and benefits of using WordPress, to help you with the decision of picking WordPress over other content management systems. 

1. WordPress is free software and open-source. Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org are free to use and download. In short, WordPress.org is a self-hosted version, a quick summary of this would be that you can host your WordPress site yourself and take control over your site. At Snappy Host, we offer the self-hosted version. The WordPress.com version is good for beginners, however, it's not particularly recommended for businesses to use. You're restricted in what you can do and comes with higher price plans. 
2. WordPress is adaptable. One of the biggest misconceptions is that WordPress is primarily used for building a blog. At the launch of WordPress, this was in case the fact, but, during the time and development of WordPress, it has moved away from blogs, to be more versatile in what your WordPress site can be. WordPress is still fantastic for its blogging functionality. It offers the fastest ways to write and publish blog posts and that's straight out of the box WordPress installation. See WordPress in Action
   The possibilities are endless. Here are some great examples of what you can achieve with WordPress. 
   1. Blogs
   2. Forums
   3. eCommerce Sites powered by WooCommerce.
   4. Galleries
   5. Business websites
   6. Membership websites
   7. Portfolios
   8. Learning platforms 
   9. Job boards
3. WordPress is easy to learn and has a large community. With WordPress being open-source software, it can literally be used by anyone. The userbase is not limited to the pricing, paid support, or even level of knowledge. Don't get me wrong, there are so many things to learn about WordPress, but with a little time and dedication, anyone can play around with the WordPress dashboard for a few minutes and understand how the interface works. The WordPress interface is user-friendly and intuitive to use. There are plenty of resources on the internet to gain access to the software, vasts amounts of blog posts, forums, video tutorials, webinars, books, etc. You can of course get premium support from WordPress, however, you can pay the money for support or go through the WordPress forums for help. 
4. WordPress is not difficult to manage. Web agencies and other development companies will often try to sell you a pricey plan (Possibly a large upfront charge) and recurring monthly payments to " maintain" your WordPress site. The problem with this is that WordPress isn't at all difficult to manage/maintain if you learn the ropes and go through the proper channels, website management boils down to a few things:
   1. Checking if the server is OK.
   2. Checking daily security reports.
   3. Keeping backups of your site on a daily/weekly basis. 
   4. Ensuring WordPress themes and plugins are all up-to-date.
   5. Testing for overall functionality and any broken links on your site. 
   6. Improving the speed of your site and boosting your SEO. 

So, Is WordPress Good For Beginners? Bet Your Bottom Dollar It Is!

WordPress has a strong following across the globe. Developers may rather use other platforms, but that does often come with coding challenges and learning curves and is less user-friendly. For bloggers, businesses, freelancers with clients, and eCommerce pros, WordPress is the choice for you. 

I hope this article has answered any questions you had and given you an understanding of what WordPress is and how it works.