Introduction to WordPress Course

WordPress Course - Learning Outcomes

In this session you learn what WordPress is, discuss what you can achieve using WordPress, explore examples of WordPress sites, clarify what open source means, and briefly discuss the importance of themes and plugins.

What is WordPress?

Demonstrating WordPress at its core, this course empowers you to create your own website or blog. Millions and millions of websites are built using WordPress ranging from online stores and small businesses to renowned entities like NASA, the Walt Disney Company, and the Facebook Newsroom, this platform packs a punch.

WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS)

But first things first, WordPress is a CMS or content management system. In simple terms, it is a free tool or platform that will help you create, edit, and manage your own website or blog without the need to learn code. Whether you’re a small business owner, a passionate blogger, or an aspiring entrepreneur, WordPress provides the perfect platform to showcase your ideas, products, and services to the world.

Examples of WordPress Websites

Knowing more than 40% of all the websites in the world are built using WordPress, you can absolutely rest assured that it is an extremely reliable, secure, and sustainable platform. Let’s look at a few examples to see what types of websites have been built on WordPress.

First up, we have the Art Gallery of Ballarat, which is situated in here in Australia. They have an extensive collection of artwork, host exhibitions, and also sell jewelry, gifts, and accessories.

A business website of a plumbing company based in Cape Town is our next step. And as you will notice, the homepage is full of helpful information. We read about the services, see testimonials, and find out where they are situated and how to contact them.

The third example is a food blog named Minimalist Baker, where you find simple recipes, shop for kitchen utensils, and also learn more about baking and cooking.

The last example is of a website named Mrs. O. Around the World. It is a luxury travel blog filled with travel hacks, guides, and more.

WordPress as Open Source

Something else to mention is that WordPress is open-source. That means it is free software that anyone is downloaded and ready to use. It also means that anyone can contribute to the code or in other areas of WordPress to help improve it. Even you can get involved.

Themes and Plugins

Whilst building your WordPress site, there are two important elements to remember: themes and plugins. You will need a theme that will determine the look and feel of your website. And there are thousands of free and premium themes to choose from. Secondly, WordPress allows you to install plugins to add extra functionality to your website. Plugins can, for example, be added if you want to sell products on your site, improve the security or speed of your website, add forms and much more.

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