WordPress has a long-established reputation for being an excellent website creation tool. Aside from being completely free, the platform offers everyone, from beginners to experienced developers, an intuitive way to build and manage professional websites. Even better, it is constantly being updated with new features and improved functionality. In this post, we take a closer look at WordPress and discuss what it can do for you in 2024.
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A multi-functional CMS
Essentially, WordPress is a content management system that helps users with little or no technical know-how to build and manage professional websites. The platform’s control centre is the admin dashboard, an easy-to-use feature that gives access to all the different functions of the software. From here, you can create, edit and delete posts, pages, menus and media, as well as change settings and modify the website’s appearance. The dashboard is also the place where you manage plugins, the add-on tools that provide a huge array of additional functions and features.
Plugins are an essential element of the WordPress experience. There are around 60,000 free plugins available from the WordPress repository and thousands more paid-for plugins available online. Plugins are designed to add more features and functions to your site and these cover virtually every different need you can think of, whether it’s turning WordPress into an eCommerce site, improving security, enhancing SEO or automating marketing emails. The range is vast, new ones are constantly added and most are regularly updated.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an important aspect of website management as it helps your site appear in search engine results and thus drives new visitors to your site. WordPress developers are aware of this and have hardwired the platform with features that help sites rank better on search engines. That said, there are now all-in-one SEO tools, ideal for beginners, that take WordPress SEO to the next level.
WordPress also gives website owners complete control over their users. Its user management features enable you to assign people different roles, with each role dictating what they can and cannot do on the site. For example, an administrator can have full site control while a subscriber would only be able to manage their own profile. This control is essential for both security and preventing others from making unwanted changes to the site.
For more, read:8 Indispensable Plugins for WordPress Functionality
New features
WordPress is in continuous development so there are regular improvements to look forward to. One of the most significant recent advancements is the block editor, a feature that has transformed how you can construct pages and edit content. Highly flexible and easy to use, it removes the constraints of hard-coded templates, enabling you to build bespoke layouts and designs that are the right fit for your needs.
Artificial intelligence is one of the most sought-after technologies, and plugin developers have been quick to build it into their software. While we are still at the beginning of this evolution and there are undoubtedly great strides to be made in the future, you can already use AI-enabled plugins to improve SEO, automate and personalise content curation, recommend products and make predictions based on user engagement data. The most helpful thing about these plugins is that they carry out complex functions without users needing the technical skills to implement them.
Performance enhancements
Website performance is an area that site owners need to keep their eye on, as issues like slow loading times and crashes can seriously impact SEO, sales and brand reputation. While there are many factors affecting site speed and performance, including the quality and type of web hosting, WordPress continues to make improvements to its software to make it faster and more reliable.
Using too many plugins has been an issue in the past for WordPress, as each plugin increases the number of server resources that a website uses. For this reason, WordPress has focused on optimising resource management so that plugins have less of an impact. As a result, caching is better integrated and there have been image optimisation improvements, both of which help websites load quickly without compromising on quality. Other enhancements, like lazy loading and compression, also help to minimise load times.
Built-in security
Given the vast number of threats around today, WordPress has worked hard to tighten its security. This includes features like strong password enforcement, two-factor authentication and regular auto-updates for core and plugins. There are also improved monitoring and notification systems, so you are alerted quickly if any potential security risks are identified.
Beyond WordPress, you’ll find that WordPress Hosting providers have also developed security solutions that specifically address the threats associated with the platform. These include daily backups, web application firewalls and malware scanning.
Building online stores
While eCommerce functionality doesn’t come out of the box with WordPress, anyone wanting to build an online store with the platform can do it easily with the WooCommerce plugin. Installed in just a few clicks, this free industry-leading software has been used by many leading brands to build some of the most powerful online stores. WooCommerce integrates perfectly with WordPress and provides a user-friendly dashboard for managing products, orders and customers. At the same time, you get a range of product listing and payment gateway options, as well as the ability to integrate inventory management and shipping solutions.
Additionally, WooCommerce is one of the few plugins that has its own set of plugins, with eCommerce developers providing a wide range of additional features that enhance your online store, from product recommendation engines and subscription services to product search features and members-only areas.
Find out 10 Reasons to Build an Online Store Using WooCommerce
What can you use WordPress for?
While we have already mentioned using WordPress to build online stores, in reality, the platform is so versatile you can use it to build almost any type of website. Originally developed as a blogging tool, it remains ideal for that purpose and has moved with the times so it can be used for vlogging and podcasting too.
One of its prime uses is to build business websites. With thousands of professional themes and plugins for SEO, social media and customer relationship management (CRM), businesses big and small find it ideal for building an online presence, interacting with customers and easy content management. It’s also ideal for creative professionals, like artists, architects and designers who need a website where they can display portfolios of their work and encourage new leads.
WordPress is also great for building online communities and forums. With plugins like BuddyPress, it is possible to create community sites for different groups, whether it’s a local community project or a global website for people wanting tips on using WordPress – and there are plenty of those.
WordPress Hosting Solutions
WordPress is a unique platform, and this means it has its own set of needs when it comes to hosting. One of the biggest advantages for those who use WordPress is that some web hosting providers have developed hosting specifically designed to enhance its performance, strengthen its security and boost its SEO. Others have gone even further, providing tools, like WordPress Toolbox, that make it even easier to manage your site.
DiscoverThe Benefits of the WordPress Toolkit
These specialised hosting solutions feature WordPress-optimised servers, SSD storage, NGINX cache, PHP7+OPcache and HTTP2, all of which help to speed up loading times and cut bounce rates. In addition, they come with free daily backups, free SSL certificates, one-click installers, application firewalls configured for WordPress, and 24/7 technical support, so that if an issue arises, it can be fixed quickly. No other platform benefits from such bespoke hosting solutions.
Conclusion
In 2024, WordPress stands out as a powerful and versatile platform which can be used to make virtually any type of website. Its enormous range of plugins and themes, together with its block editor, enables you to create unique, professional websites with all the features and tools your business needs. What’s more, when combined with WordPress Hosting, you can take your site’s performance, reliability, website management and security to the next level.
Find out how our WordPress Hosting solutions can help you get the most out of your WordPress website.
