When asking ‘What is WordPress’, the easy answer is: WordPress is an open source content management system (CMS) which is available to download and install on your web server for free.
It began life in 2003 as a simple CMS when two developers came together with a unified vision for a modular-based CMS in the open-source market.
They quickly developed the standards for WordPress to accept ‘plugins’ as forms of new functionality, and ‘themes’ so it could have it look and feel changed without affecting the content.
Through the years WordPress has evolved past its roots as a useful blogging platform, and into a sophisticated yet simple-to-use, structured and well-documented content management system. In doing so it has surpassed the usability and popularity of many commercial CMS’ which, themselves, have had billions invested in them.
Now that over 20% of all websites on the Internet are built in WordPress, the first war for dominance in the CMS marketplace has been won.
Installing WordPress
On installation, WordPress copies a range of files to your chosen root location (usually www.website.com). It also creates a MySQL database, which it will use to store content, settings, plugin settings (when you get them), Theme settings (when you get one), and image references. Images are usually stored in a subfolder called ‘/uploads’ – underneath this WordPress automatically creates folders named after today’s year and month. This way your images are grouped conveniently into timed folders, and can be referenced easily from within your page editor and via the media library.
WordPress is reliant on a ‘Theme’ being installed, so it comes pre-packed and configured with its own default theme. This is one of the first areas addressed when setting up your WordPress site. It is important to get the look and feel right, and for you to be able to preview your text and images in the way your chosen theme displays them before publishing them.
An alternative for a theme is a ‘theme framework’. This provides more flexibility and future-proofing, and is the method we use at WebSwift.UK
Now you know What is WordPress
… so get started with WordPress:
Or learn how to transfer your website to WordPress:
