What happens when you google “WordPress”?
Googling “WordPress” is perhaps one of the few confusing things about WordPress.Here’s the problem; when you google the term “WordPress” you’ll find two primary results:
- WordPress.com
- WordPress.org
Even though basic common sense would suggest that both these sites should be the same, they’re not.In fact, they’re very different. Here’s what is WordPress when looking at the .org vs .com:
- WordPress.com is a fully commercialized online platform.
- WordPress.org is the open source software project that we’ve been describing above.
So, what is WordPress.com? WordPress.com was created as a solution for people who don’t necessarily want to deal with the raw WordPress software on their own but instead would prefer to have someone handle it for them. So, what you do get with WordPress.com is the ability to create an account – your user profile – and then use a simplified version of WordPress that’s already been preinstalled on the platform’s servers. You can create a website that way quicker than with standard WordPress, but you also give up some of the functionality (unless you’re willing to pay a small fee). Here’s more info on the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.In short, we recommend the WordPress.org version to most people.
How to use WordPress & how does WordPress work?
Let me briefly tell you how to get started with WordPress and then point out some further reading – should you be interested in learning more.
So, to use WordPress, you must follow either of two paths:
Case (a): If you want to build a fully featured website with WordPress
For that, you need two elements:
a domain name – the address of your website; for example, ours is wbedesign-mrazy.com
a web hosting setup – aka. web server – the place where your website is going to be kept
Though it might sound technical, getting your hands on both is rather straightforward. There are companies that can register a domain name on your behalf and also grant you access to a web server. They will also take care of installing WordPress for you. One of such companies is Bluehost.
We wrote about the whole process of getting a domain, hosting and installing WordPress from start to finish over here. I highly recommend you check it out if you’re going to be building a WordPress website on your own. The good news is that you can do it in 15 minutes or less. Yes, you’re reading this right, from scratch to a perfectly functioning WordPress website in 15 minutes.
Alternatively, if you’re interested in a particular type of website, we have material on how to build those as well:
- How to Create a Portfolio Site
- How to Start a Personal Blog
- Building a WordPress Photography Website
- How to Build a Non-Profit Website
- How to Build an Amazon Affiliate Store
- How to Build a Coupon Site
- How to Create a Wedding Website
- How to Create a Freelance Website
- How to Create a Fitness Website
- How to Create a WordPress Service Website