Even novices who know very little about technology have heard of WordPress. That’s partly because it has been around for a very long time—since 2003, to be exact—but it’s also because it’s an extremely popular platform for building websites. Chances are, you have visited multiple sites that utilize its intuitive website design tool, whether you know it or not.

When you’re finally ready to make the transition from being a website browser to a website creator, it’s well-worth your time to consider WordPress. However, as a beginner, there are many things you are unlikely to know.

Many Hosting Options

If you’re just getting started, you may not really know what web hosting even is. WordPress makes it easy. You can feasibly create a simple website and make it live on the web without really even realizing what you’re doing. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that defaulting to WordPress is your only option.

There are many WordPress web hosting services to choose from. What kind of hosting you choose depends on your specific needs. If you’re just getting started and don’t expect that much traffic, defaulting to a simple hosting service might not be a problem. However, if you expect to grow your site quickly, if you know you already have a large built-in audience, or if you want managed hosting or a virtual private server, you may want to consider other options.

Design a Website for Free

Did you know you can design a WordPress site for free? If you aren’t at all familiar with website building, and you’re just getting started learning about it all, this might surprise you. It might also surprise you to learn that you can build a beautiful, professional, high-quality website for free.

There are a few things you need to know about why WordPress is free. First, it’s important to know that your website will function as a subdomain of WordPress.com. The WordPress name will show up in the search bar and indications that it’s run by WordPress will be present on your website.

It’s also important to know that you will be limited to just a few themes with limited capabilities. The good news is that WordPress is so massive, and there are so many paid tiers and functions to choose from, that you can update your site to a paid plan quickly and easily. Whenever you want, go for the Project Cool which is a good starting point for more information on this.

Offer Coupons

One of the best things about WordPress is the fact that it is open source. That means you can use, modify, and build upon the software in any way that you choose, but it means everyone else can as well. Over the years, many people have created plugins for anything and everything you can imagine. That includes offering coupons directly on your website!

Offering a quick and easy coupon that customers can see as soon as they visit your site is a great way to get them to make a purchase. With multiple plugins to choose from, you can find one that works for you.

Get Customer Feedback

If you’re starting a website to sell products or services, and you have been in business for any amount of time, you understand the importance of customer feedback. The trouble is, getting it isn’t always easy. Reaching out individually can be complicated and time-consuming. WordPress makes it easy through the use of plugins that enable you to get customer feedback.

There are multiple plugins to choose from that enable you to collect feedback automatically from customers. You can then turn around and display that feedback on your website without any hassle.

Book Services

There are many functions that used to be difficult to incorporate into a website unless you hired a developer to do it right. That’s not the case anymore. Because WordPress has been around for so long, and because its open source software enables any developer to create a plugin, you can do complicated things with your website relatively quickly and easily.

Booking services is just one example. Instead of taking phone calls all day long, a plugin allows your clients to book services directly online. The best part is, because it’s done online, all the information can automatically be uploaded into a calendar so you can see exactly who is scheduled and when.

SEO Is Built In

If you’ve done your homework, you know that your website needs to include SEO. Without it, search engines aren’t going to rank your site on the search results page, which means people searching the internet won’t be able to find your website.

There are plenty of things you have to do to make SEO work for the content on your site, but WordPress makes it easy to build in many SEO features that you can’t miss.

WordPress is the best choices when it comes to SEO because:

  • It focuses on the user experience, encouraging them to spend more time browsing your site.
  • Links are simple and informative, making each page easy to identify by users and Google.
  • Metadata can be added to each page in just a minute or two.
  • Alt text is extremely easy to add to images.
  • Load times are fast, especially with the right plugin.

Create a Multi-Site Network

It’s always good to know that you can scale up your site as time goes on, but it’s also good to know that you can create a multi-site network to reach the most customers, clients, and readers. When you choose WordPress, you don’t have to worry about switching to another platform as your digital footprint gets bigger and bigger. Multiple websites can be managed from the same dashboard, which makes managing those sites a breeze.

Are you ready to get started building a new site? There’s a lot you don’t know about WordPress, even though the platform has been around for years. Armed with the items on this list, you can decide if using the WordPress platform is right for you.