Where to get WordPress

WordPress is free and available for free download from the official website of WordPress – www.wordpress.org. Certainly, there are other third party websites and sources where you can still download WordPress for free, but the best source remains the official website of the developers.

WordPress Hosting

For you to have a live WordPress website on the internet, you must have a hosting account. Currently, there are two primary options which you use to host your WordPress website. The first option is the free method where you let WordPress host the website on your behalf. In this case, your website will appear as a sub-domain within the root of the official WordPress URL. This can be a good choice when you are just starting out with WordPress, and you don’t intend to do serious stuff like e-commerce with the site. It is ideal if you are new to the CMS and you want a great way to learn more and practice with the software.

The second option is to self-host the WordPress website. With this option, you will have to purchase a hosting package from of the numerous providers and use it to host your website. This method allows you more flexibility than you would ever have if the site were hosted by WordPress. You will have the pleasure to run the site on your domain, and you will have the ability to use premium themes and plugins without any problems.

Installing WordPress

Once you have downloaded WordPress and secured a hosting account, either free or you have purchased a package of the hosting company, you have to install it before you can start to upload various content to it. The installation process can also be done in two different ways. The first is the manual way, in which you will have to create the database on the hosting account then upload WordPress to that account manually through ftp or other similar methods. This is quite advanced and may not be recommended for beginners.

The second method is the automatic installation done directly from your hosting account. Most of the hosting companies will provide WordPress installation scripts which offer one-click installation of the software. The installation scripts do everything for you and all you to click and follow the instructions.

WordPress Themes

WordPress themes are responsible for the aesthetic appearance of the WordPress websites. With just a simple click, you can overhaul the entire appearance of the website and give it more professional looks. It is because of the existence of thousands of WordPress themes that  anyone can have the ability to make dazzling websites without any knowledge or advanced web design skills.

WordPress themes also exist in two categories. There are the free themes and the premium themes. The free themes are available for free download, but you may find that they have limited capabilities with regards to robustness. Premium themes, on the other hand, are available for purchase. They come with extensive functionalities that make it possible to have any kind of website you want. The prices of the free theme range, with the most advanced ones costing a little higher than the rest.

WordPress Plugins

Whereas themes affect the aesthetics of WordPress sites, plugins affect the effectiveness and the functionalities of the WordPress websites. With the use of plugins, WordPress is turbo-charged to perform more advanced tasks that would not have been possible with the basic WordPress installation. Just like with the themes, there are thousands upon thousands of WordPress plugins, some available for free while other available for purchase.

WordPress security

WordPress is an open source application. By being open source, it means that its source code is accessible to the public to investigate and modify if necessary to make it suit their needs. As such, there is a vibrant community of WordPress developers trying their best to ensure that the CMS offers the best performance.

However, by being open source, even hackers and other people with malicious intents have access to the code and are always trying means and ways of hacking into the sites to cause havoc. The CMS is fairly secure but, there are instances when hackers managed to hack some of the websites. The best way to avert these kinds of dangers is to use the recent version of WordPress, make regular backups of the websites and install relevant plugins for additional security.

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The fact that it is intuitive and easy to use makes it favorable for even persons who have no knowledge of web design or coding. This, together with the fact that it is friendly to the search engines usually makes it the first choice platform for most people just getting into the world of web design.

You should, however, note that the ease of use of the platform is not a guarantee that every website making process will be smooth. It is upon the developer to adhere to strict web design practices and guidelines to ensure that they make the websites in the right way.

Related to this also, there are certain common mistakes that WordPress web designers are fond of making, and these ends up jeopardizing the quality of their works. Watching out for these mistakes and avoiding them makes the design process easier and leads to good stable WordPress websites. Use these tips to avoid the common WordPress mistakes to become more proficient in WordPress website design-:

Use a reliable web hosting company

Unless you are using the free hosting services provided by WordPress, you are likely to self-host your WordPress website. One of the common WordPress mistakes that people do is choosing the wrong host for their websites. The hosting company is of crucial importance to the operation of your website since they will determine the uptime of your site in the Internet.

You should always use reliable web hosting companies with little or no downtimes so that you are guaranteed that your website will be live for most of the times. The last thing you want is for your e-commerce website to go down when you are accepting orders because the sites are not hosted by a reliable hosting company.

Use updated themes and plugins

Themes and plugin help in extending the functionality of the core WordPress engine. They give you the ability to do more than what the base code of WordPress would have done. However, it is regrettable to note that the use of WordPress themes and plugins is a very common WordPress mistake being committed by even some of the experienced designers.

While using the themes, it is imperative that you use the most recent versions. Using outdated versions will hinder you from reaping the maximum potential and most importantly, outdated themes and plugins can provide backdoors for hackers and other malicious people who might want to hurt your website.

Make the website mobile friendly

Ever since the surge in growth of mobile traffic, it is important for every website to be mobile friendly. A mobile friendly website simply refers to a website that can render properly in mobile devices such as Smartphone and tablets. The main reason for making your WordPress website mobile friendly is to take advantage of the immense mobile traffic for the growth of your website.

If the site can’t be accessed via the mobile devices, it implies that you will miss out on a huge chunk of the mobile traffic, and this will curtail the growth of your website. Be careful not to fall a victim of this common WordPress mistake.

Change the permalinks

One of the greatest advantages that WordPress have over the other CMS in the industry is its custom link structure. WordPress gives you the ability to do away with the default link structure to a more customizable one which is not only easily recognizable to human but also loved by the search engines. Changing the link structure is a breeze, but it is one of the common WordPress mistakes made by many people. Always be sure to change link structures for better search engine rankings which will ultimately lead to more traffic.

Back up your site regularly

With all the hackers on the Internet and the security loops available in WordPress, every site is vulnerable to getting hacked. To stay safe, you need to make it a habit of backing up your website on a regular basis. This is the only way to save time and valuable resources should you wake up one morning and find that someone has hacked your website. You can use backup features provided by your hosting company.

Alternatively, you can make use of backup plugins which will give you the ability to back automatically up your website on a regular basis. This is a common WordPress mistake that saves you a lot of time and pain when your site is hacked

Remove the default tagline

It is always disgusting to see a live website still showing the default WordPress tagline of “Just Another WordPress Site.” Avoid this common WordPress mistake by replacing it with your tagline.

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