WordPress is the first content management system I learned. Way back in 2007, I was tasked with creating a custom WordPress blog theme to mimic the company’s main website (which was not built on WordPress).
So I dove in with both feet and created a theme design that some at the company thought actually looked better than the main website.
That was how I got my feet wet with WordPress development (I’d been blogging with WordPress for a few months before that, and doing some design and dev for a few years).
In all the years since, I’ve never found a CMS I liked working with more than WordPress.
That’s because WordPress is awesome. Seriously, it can do so much, and it does so much on the web that you might not even be aware of.
Below are 13 things you should know about WordPress, whether you want to get started as a developer or blogger, or are just curious about what WordPress can do.
WordPress is very popular
More websites are powered by WordPress than any other content management system (CMS) in the world (a CMS is a piece of software that lets you easily write, edit, and publish content on the web). In fact, WordPress powers 4.5% of the ENTIRE internet.
Somewhere between 50 and 60% of websites that use a CMS are built on WordPress. There are 17 blog posts published on WordPress sites every second of every day.
High Profile Brands Using WordPress
So many sites you’d recognize use WordPress. CNN’s blogs are built on WordPress, as are Reuters’, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.
Mashable, The Next Web, and The New Yorker are also all built on WordPress.
Other notable brands using WordPress include People Magazine, The Rolling Stones, Vogue, MTV News, Facebook (for their Newsroom), Harvard Business Review, and NASA, among lots of others.
If WordPress is powerful enough for these sites, then it’s powerful enough for almost any site you need to build!
WordPress is Not Just for Blogging
WordPress got its start as a blogging platform, but somewhere along the way, developers realized you could do so much more with it.
Now, WordPress is behind everything from e-commerce sites to communities to online courses.
Whether you want to create a basic website for a local business or a huge online store selling thousands of products, it can be done with WordPress.
And, of course, it’s still great for blogging!
WordPress Without Coding
WordPress lets you extend what it can do through the use of plugins. There are both free and paid plugins out there that can do virtually anything you might want to without the need to write code from scratch.
Right now, there are over 45,000 free plugins in the official WordPress directory. That doesn’t include all the premium plugins that can add even more functionality to your sites.
Plus, if you know PHP (the language WordPress is built on) you can further customize any plugin you want to do exactly what you need it to do.
Or, build your own plugin from scratch.
WordPress Skills are Useful
Developers aren’t the only tech pros out there who need WordPress skills. Entrepreneurs can seriously benefit from knowing WP, because it’s such a great tool for setting up an online business (including creating online stores, landing pages, and more).
Knowing how to set up WordPress, customize a theme, and install plugins can save you tons of money when you’re just getting started.
Marketers can also make use of WordPress skills. You can use it to create landing pages and for publishing blog posts.
Knowing the ins and outs of how WordPress’s code works gives you the advantage of not having to wait for your developers to make minor changes, or for someone else to set up a new page or website.
