It is estimated that 22 out of 100 new active domains are running WordPress, a surprising statistic considering the abundance of website support options available today. WordPress is gaining widespread use mostly due to the open-source nature of it’s code and it’s intuitive functionality for content managers. It’s popularity has even reached websites large and small as companies such as CNN, TIME Magazine and NBC Sports are now using WordPress to manage content.
Basically WordPress is an application that resides on the server that houses the website. Built into the application is the WordPress admin area or website ‘back-end.’ It’s through this area that web pages, posts, media, and other information can be created, uploaded, edited or deleted. This moves site maintenance from the old days of relying on developers and webmasters to make changes and updates to posts, pages, menus and media. Today with WordPress virtually anyone with some training can manage the website’s content after initial site creation. Click here to see a picture of the WordPress admin area.
WordPress is theme-based, meaning clients can often get an idea of the look and feel of a website before making a decision on the direction they would like to go. Additionally because of the open source availability, there is an abundance of third party applications and features that can add special feel and functionality to the website. Sounds easy right?
Often times these pieces, coming from different sources to include web development companies and freelance coders, can conflict and be difficult to piece together. This is where the site designer comes in to make these parts function and flow correctly often by including his/her own custom coding.
