WordPress Hosting Guide

"Technology is best when
it brings people together."

- Matt Mullenweg,
Founder of WordPress

Categories

So you're thinking about building
a website. Our WordPress Hosting guide can help.

If not building one, then at least
improving upon the one you already
have. Either way, the good news is
that your biggest problem won't
be a matter of if you can get online
(these days, anyone can!).
No, your biggest stumbling
block will be a matter of how. Learning WordPress is not as complicated as you may think. All you need is to follow our video tutorials and our step-by-step instructions to create a fully functioning and well-designed website.

Where do you begin?
Which hosting plan do you select?
Will you have support along the way?
Luckily, much of the world
has already asked these questions
and figured out the best solution
for you, and we can prove it
with one statistic:

- 27% of the world's
websites
are powered
by WordPress. -

You've found the right WordPress handbook and guide to
learning all about WordPress:
what it is, how it works,
why it's great, terms you
should know, and loads more.
WordPress has revolutionized
what it means to "easily get
online", and you're about to learn
how to take the reins for yourself.

What is WordPress?

Simply put, WordPress is the world's
most popular platform for building
a website.

Why? It's easy to get started,
simple to use, and unbelievably
flexible. From stunning portfolios
to online stores to
simple WordPress blogs,
everyone can build the site of their
dreams (whatever it may be) and
with hardly any help along the way.
But we'll get more into all that in a
moment with our WordPress guide.

Why Use WordPress?

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Beautiful Themes

Choosing a theme for your new
website can be the most exciting
part of the building process.
Looking for a design that's
simplistically modern? Check.
More colours and images? Check.
With thousands of free and
premium themes to choose from,
you can be certain there's
a theme for that.

Templates are easily modified too.
Fonts, colours, headings, images, the
content itself — all can be easily
changed within the intuitive
WordPress dashboard.
For more specific needs, you can
build custom themes too.
From online stores to blooming
blogs to stunning portfolios,
it's easy to find the right style
solution for your unique website.

Functional Plugins

On top of looking good, WordPress
provides you with the ability to
expand your site's overall
functionality through plugins.

For example, you may be looking to
set up an online store for your
business. Or you may need to
capture someone's contact address
via a form. A myriad of available
plugins can help you add these (and
many more) capabilities to your site.

What can plugins do?

  • Check comments for spam
  • Improve your SEO
  • Display media such as
    slideshows, galleries, and sliders.
Let the Numbers Speak
for Themselves

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WordPress.org
vs. WordPress.com

What's the difference?
You're not alone if you've ever been
confused about this one.
So let's get straight to it:

The biggest difference
between WordPress.org
and WordPress.com
comes down to who
is hosting your site.

With WordPress.org, you host the
site yourself — meaning you
download the WordPress software
and install it on your own web server,
wherever that may be. With
WordPress.com, the hosting is
provided for you right
on WordPress's own servers.

There are more differences than
simply who is hosting your site of
course, so we broke them down
for you in this quick guide:

Learn WordPress

WordPress Walkthrough Series

Part 1: Welcome to our
WordPress Tutorial Series

This series of WordPress tutorials
will walk you through everything you
need to set up and operate an
effective website. It's much easier
and quicker than you anticipated,
and it costs you next to nothing.

20 Terms You Should Know

Not everyone can be a web expert,
but it helps to at least know the
basics. Here's our list of the top 20
web-related terms you are most
likely to stumble upon
as you enter the world of WordPress.

Backups

A replica of your website that is
either stored on your server or in
another location. Creating frequent
backups is always a good idea
should your site ever become
infected with malware.

CMS

CMS stands for content
management system, which is
a fancy way of describing a
software application or tool
that one can use to design,
manage, and publish a website
without having to
know how to code.

CSS

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets,
is a style language that is used
to write formatting instructions
or rules that tell your browser
how your content should
look in terms of layout and style.

Is WordPress
right for me?

WordPress for Bloggers

Bring your blog to life with easy-to-manage dynamic content. Custom layouts, themes, plugins, and more can be easily added to provide the creative flexibility you need. Plus WordPress is SEO-friendly to ensure your blog is found by the right people.

WordPress for Designers

Go above and beyond your clients' expectations, no matter their request. WordPress provides unlimited templates, plugins, and other resources that allow you to hand over a beautifully designed yet easily managed website. Take advantage of the huge open source community to help tackle any roadblocks you encounter along the way.

Ready to get started?

Setting up a basic WordPress
website is remarkably easy.
In fact, most people can go from
start to finish in about 30 minutes —
without any advanced tech skills or
special training.
We'll walk you through it.

Build My Site

WordPress FAQ

With WordPress.org, you must host the site yourself — meaning you download the WordPress software and install it on a web server. When you use WordPress.com, however, the hosting is provided by WordPress.

It's easy! Use this step-by-step guide to get your WordPress blog up and running in five minutes.

One of the best ways to get more traffic is to focus on search engine optimization. SEO will help your site show up higher on Google's results page, meaning more potential customers will find your site when they type in related keywords. If you need help putting together an SEO strategy, give Bluehost a call at 1800-419-4426.

Short answer: yes! WordPress is an ideal solution for a wide range of sites. Whether you're looking to create a blog, build a site for your business, or start an online store, WordPress is the right tool for the job.

Community-driven innovation. When you build your website with WordPress, you're leveraging the knowledge and experience of thousands of WordPress experts around the world. That makes WordPress secure, scalable, and responsive to your needs.

And it's easy to get started! Since the user interface is simple, novices to can immediately build and manage a website. And if you're a pro, advanced features and increased flexibility can easily be unlocked by adding plugins.

Coding isn't required. Thousands of premade themes make it easy for beginners to manage a successful website, blog, or estore without knowing a line of code. Users with a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript will be able to build more customized sites with advanced functions.

First you'll need to get space on a server to install WordPress. Hosting is available for WordPress.com users on WordPress's servers.

If you're using WordPress.org, you can rent space on a server from a web hosting company like Bluehost. In addition to offering a one-click WordPress install, we've been recommend by WordPress for more than ten years. If you're ready to get started, follow this step-by-step guide to set up your WordPress website.

Additional
Resources

References

  1. https://www.codeinwp.com/blog/wordpress-statistics/
  2. http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/wordpress-statistics/2/