If you have been asking what is WordPress, you are researching one of the most important decisions you will make for your business’s online presence. Understanding what is WordPress and whether it is the right platform for your website can save you significant time, money and frustration down the line. This guide covers everything you need to know.
What Is WordPress?
What is WordPress in simple terms? WordPress is a content management system, commonly known as a CMS, that allows you to build and manage a website without needing to write code from scratch. It is the platform that powers over 43 percent of all websites on the internet, from small local businesses to major global brands and news publishers.
WordPress was first launched in 2003 as a blogging platform and has since grown into the world’s most widely used website building tool. It is open source software, meaning it is free to use and continuously developed and improved by a global community of developers.
When people ask what is WordPress, the answer they need depends on what they are trying to do. For a small business owner, WordPress is the platform that allows a professional web designer to build a completely custom website that looks and functions exactly as the business needs it to, without the limitations and branding of closed platforms like Wix or Squarespace.
What Is WordPress Used For?
WordPress is used for almost every type of website imaginable. Business websites, ecommerce stores, blogs, news sites, portfolios, membership sites and more are all built on WordPress every day. The flexibility of the platform means that what is WordPress capable of building is essentially unlimited.
For small businesses, the most common uses of WordPress are:
A professional business website that ranks on Google, converts visitors into enquiries and represents the business credibly online. An ecommerce store built with WooCommerce, WordPress’s dedicated ecommerce plugin, that sells products or services directly from the site. A blog that generates organic search traffic and builds authority in a specific market or industry.
What Is WordPress.com vs WordPress.org?
One of the most common sources of confusion when people ask what is WordPress is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
WordPress.org is the self-hosted version of WordPress. This is what professional web designers use to build business websites. You download the WordPress software and install it on your own hosting account. You have complete control over every aspect of the site, from the design to the functionality to the SEO settings. There are no limitations imposed by a third party platform. This is the version of WordPress that byoliver uses to build every client website.
WordPress.com is a hosted service that uses the WordPress software but wraps it in a platform with significant limitations. Free and lower tier plans include WordPress.com branding on your site, restrictions on which plugins you can install and limitations on what you can customise. While WordPress.com is fine for personal blogs, it is not the right choice for a business that wants a professional, fully customisable website.
When a professional web designer talks about WordPress, they mean WordPress.org.
What Is WordPress Good For?
Understanding what is WordPress good for helps clarify whether it is the right choice for your business website.
SEO performance
WordPress is widely regarded as one of the best platforms for SEO. You have complete control over every technical SEO element of your site, from meta titles and descriptions to schema markup and sitemaps. Google indexes WordPress sites reliably and the platform’s structure is well understood by search engines.
Flexibility and customisation
What is WordPress capable of in terms of design? Essentially anything. Unlike closed platforms that restrict you to templates and limited customisation options, WordPress allows a skilled designer to build a completely unique website that looks nothing like any other site on the internet. Every byoliver website is built on WordPress specifically because of this flexibility.
Plugin ecosystem
WordPress has a vast ecosystem of plugins that extend the platform’s functionality. Whether you need a contact form, an ecommerce store, a booking system or advanced analytics, there is a reliable, well-supported plugin available. This means WordPress can grow and evolve with your business rather than becoming a limitation.
Ownership and portability
When your website is built on WordPress, you own it. The files, the content and the database all belong to you and can be moved to a different hosting provider at any time. This is a significant advantage over closed platforms where your site exists within their system and leaving can mean starting from scratch.
Long term cost efficiency
What is WordPress worth in terms of long term cost? The software itself is free. The ongoing costs are hosting, which is a modest monthly expense, and the expertise of a developer to build and maintain the site properly. Compared to the subscription costs of closed platforms combined with their limitations, WordPress typically delivers significantly better value over time.
What Are the Limitations of WordPress?
A complete answer to what is WordPress requires honesty about its limitations as well as its strengths.
It requires expertise to set up correctly
WordPress is powerful but it requires knowledge to configure properly. A WordPress site that is set up without the correct security settings, caching configuration, image optimisation and SEO foundations will underperform compared to one that is built by someone who knows the platform well. This is why professional WordPress development produces significantly better results than DIY builds on the same platform.
It requires ongoing maintenance
WordPress core, themes and plugins require regular updates to stay secure and functional. A WordPress site that is left without updates becomes vulnerable to security issues over time. This is not a reason to avoid WordPress but it is a reason to ensure your WordPress site is properly maintained after launch.
The learning curve for self-management
For business owners who want to manage their own site after launch, WordPress has a learning curve compared to simpler drag and drop platforms. Most byoliver clients are happy to leave the ongoing management to byoliver as part of their monthly retainer, but for those who want to update their own content, a brief handover session is usually enough to cover the basics which byoliver is more than happy to help you get up and running with.
What Is WordPress Like to Work With as a Business Owner?
For most small business owners, the honest answer to what is WordPress like to work with is that you will rarely need to interact with it directly. A professionally built and maintained WordPress site runs in the background while you focus on running your business.
Your web designer handles the technical setup, the plugin management, the security monitoring and the ongoing updates. When you need changes made to the site, you either make them yourself through the straightforward WordPress editor or request them through your web designer. The platform stays out of your way and the site keeps performing.
Why byoliver Builds Every Website on WordPress
byoliver uses WordPress for every website build because it is the platform that gives small businesses the best possible foundation for long term online success. The SEO capabilities, the flexibility, the ownership model and the large support ecosystem all make WordPress the right choice for businesses that want a website that actually works for them rather than just existing online.
Every byoliver WordPress website is built from scratch using Elementor Pro for design, with proper technical foundations, fast UK hosting and ongoing monthly maintenance included in the retainer. The result is a website that is custom, fast, secure and built to rank.
For more information about WordPress itself visit wordpress.org.
Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress
What is WordPress in simple terms?
WordPress is a free, open source content management system that powers over 43 percent of all websites on the internet. It allows web designers to build fully custom websites without building everything from scratch.
Is WordPress free?
The WordPress software itself is free to download and use. You do need to pay for hosting to run a WordPress site, and professional development and ongoing maintenance are additional costs.
What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
WordPress.org is the self-hosted, fully flexible version used by professional web designers. WordPress.com is a hosted service with significant limitations on the free and lower tier plans.
Is WordPress good for SEO?
Yes. WordPress is widely regarded as one of the best platforms for SEO, particularly when combined with a plugin like Rank Math that gives complete control over every technical SEO element.
Does byoliver build websites on WordPress?
Yes. Every byoliver website is built on WordPress from scratch, using Elementor Pro for design, with fast UK hosting and ongoing monthly maintenance included.
Is WordPress suitable for ecommerce?
Yes. WordPress with WooCommerce is one of the most widely used ecommerce solutions in the world, suitable for everything from small product ranges to large online stores.
