In today’s digital world, having a professional and efficient website is one of the main necessities for any business. Site design and management may have been a complex process in the past and required advanced technical knowledge, but now, thanks to content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, anyone can create a powerful and attractive website without the need for programming experience. With its simple user interface, extensive features, and high flexibility, WordPress has become one of the most popular website design platforms in the world.
WordPress is so popular in the world that two out of every five websites are designed and developed with WordPress. It doesn’t matter what kind of website you want to design, with WordPress it is possible to design any type of site in the shortest possible time. With WordPress, you can design websites that look very professional.
But why WordPress? This platform is not only ideal for beginners but also allows professional users to design and create more advanced websites by installing various plugins and themes. From personal blogs to online stores and corporate sites, WordPress has been able to cover the various needs of users by providing simple and expandable solutions. In this article, we want to talk more about website design with WordPress, how to work with it, and its extensive capabilities.
Table of Contents
What is WordPress?
WordPress is one of the most popular and widely used content management systems (CMS) in the world. CMS refers to software that allows users to manage the content and structure of their website without the need for programming. WordPress is very popular among professional and beginner users due to its simple user interface, various features, and expandability.
Why is WordPress the most popular CMS?
WordPress is a combination of simplicity and power. This platform easily allows users to create and manage a site from scratch without complex technical knowledge. Also, a large community of developers and designers support WordPress and this has made thousands of themes and plugins available. Users can easily change the appearance and functionality of their site with a few clicks or add new features.
Here are three main reasons why WordPress is popular and different compared to other CMSs:
1. Simplicity and easy access
One of the outstanding features of WordPress is its ease of use. Even if you have no programming experience, you can create a professional website with a few simple clicks. With an intuitive and friendly user interface, WordPress allows users to work with it, create new pages, and customize the appearance of their site. Also, tools such as the block editor (Gutenberg) which is present in WordPress itself, allow designing and setting up pages without the need for advanced technical knowledge.
2. Expandable capabilities
WordPress is a very flexible platform thanks to a variety of plugins and themes. Plugins are plugins that add various functionality to the site, from SEO and website security plugins to plugins that provide online stores or contact forms. In addition, there are thousands of free and paid templates (themes) that allow you to change the appearance of the site exactly according to your taste and needs and add new features whenever you want.
3. Strong support
Another important reason that makes WordPress an ideal choice is its incredibly strong support. WordPress is famous for its large user community. Thousands of developers, designers, and users around the world actively participate in WordPress communities, blogs, and educational resources. This dynamic community helps you find a solution quickly whenever you encounter a problem or have a question. Also, there are tons of free guides, video tutorials, and plugins to help you get the most out of WordPress.
What websites is WordPress suitable for?
One of the great advantages of WordPress is its flexibility. With the help of this platform, you can launch any type of site:
Personal blogs: WordPress originally started as a blogging platform and is still an ideal choice for those who want to start their blog.
Online Stores: With the powerful WooCommerce plugin, WordPress has become an e-commerce platform. Businesses can sell their products online, manage inventory, add multiple payment gateways, and achieve a complete online store.
Corporate and business sites: WordPress allows businesses to create professional and official sites. There are many templates available for corporate websites that allow you to showcase your services, team introductions, and portfolios.
Portfolio and Personal Sites: Designers, artists, and freelancers can use WordPress to build portfolios or personal sites and showcase their portfolios and contact information.
Forums and Social Networks: With plugins like BuddyPress, you can turn WordPress into a social networking platform or forum and create a space for user interaction.
How is website design with WordPress?
Building a website with WordPress is a simple process that is done in several steps. Even if you have no experience in website design, with this guide you can easily create a professional website.
1. Choice of host and domain
Host: The host is an online storage space where the website and all files and data related to it (such as images, videos, texts, and site codes) are kept. You need to rent space for your site from a hosting company.
Domain: The domain is the same internet address that users enter in the browser to access the site. The domain should be short, memorable, and relevant to the content of the site.
2. Installing WordPress
After buying hosting and domain, you need to install WordPress on your hosting.
3. Basic WordPress settings
After installing WordPress, now you need to enter its management section. This section is where you manage your site. For example, in the first step, you can set things like site language, date and time, site name, and related descriptions.
4. Choose the right template
Now it’s time to look at the appearance of the site. WordPress has thousands of ready-made free and paid templates. The template is the design and appearance of the site. For example, if you have a store site, you can choose a template that is specific to the store. If you want a blog, choose a blog template.
After choosing a template, you can change the appearance of your site, including colors, fonts, and even different sections of your site, by clicking on the “customize” option.
5. Add content to the site
Now that the site is ready, it’s time to add the site content. Content includes text, photos, videos, and anything else you want users to see on your site. WordPress has a simple editor that helps you add text and images easily.
6. Plugins
WordPress has plugins that add new features to the website. For example, if you want to have an online store, you can install a plugin called WooCommerce that turns your site into an online store. Or, for example, if you want to increase the security of your site, you install security plugins.
What is a WordPress theme?
The theme determines the overall design and layout of the site. Templates determine how pages, images, text, and menus are displayed to users. WordPress has thousands of free and paid (premium) themes. Here is the difference between the two:
Free Templates:
These themes are available in the WordPress repository and you can install them for free. Many of these templates are simple and practical and are considered good options for starting work. But sometimes they have more limited capabilities than paid formats.
Premium templates (paid):
Premium templates have more advanced designs and usually come with more features. Also, support and regular updates are provided by their creators. If you want to have a special and more advanced site, paid templates are a good option.
How to choose the right format?
When choosing a template for your site, you should pay attention to several important points. These tips will help you choose a template that is both beautiful and functional:
1. Responsiveness of the template
One of the most important points in choosing a template is its responsiveness. A responsive website is a website that can be displayed correctly on any device (mobile, tablet, or computer). Today, many users use mobile phones to visit sites, so the site must work well on small screens. Fortunately, most modern WordPress themes are responsive, but it’s best to check this feature before choosing a theme.
2. Simplicity and ease of use
It is always better to choose a template that is simple and user-friendly. Complex templates with busy designs may look attractive at first glance, but sometimes they can make the site difficult for you and your users.
3. Loading speed
In addition to being one of the important factors in attracting and retaining users, site speed is also considered one of the important factors of website SEO. If the template you choose is too heavy and takes a long time to load, users may leave the site quickly. Try to choose a template that is optimized and has a good loading speed. Faster sites both provide a better user experience and rank better in search engines (such as Google).
4. Support and updates
If the theme you choose is updated regularly, it shows that its developers care about their theme and fix potential issues. Especially if you are using premium themes, make sure the theme has active support and regular updates. This makes the site more secure and ensures better performance.
Plugins and plugins in WordPress
Plugins are powerful tools that add new features to your WordPress site. For example, by installing a plugin, you can create a contact form, increase the security of the site, or even turn your site into an online store. WordPress allows you to easily install, activate, and manage plugins.
Like WordPress themes, plugins are divided into free and premium (paid) categories. You can download free plugins from the WordPress repository, but premium plugins offer more features and better support.
Introducing some essential plugins for a WordPress website
To start working with WordPress, it is necessary to install some plugins, which are introduced in this section:
1. SEO plugins
Plugins that exist for site SEO help to review and improve site content in terms of SEO. It also provides suggestions for keyword usage in content, meta descriptions, and internal linking. Yoast SEO and Rank Math are two popular SEO plugins for WordPress websites.
2. Security plugins
Site security is one of the most important parts of any website. Site security plugins help protect your site from attacks and hackers. These plugins provide features such as a firewall, site scanning for malware, and monitoring of inbound and outbound traffic. Wordfence plugin is one of the WordPress security plugins.
3. Cache and speed optimization plugins
Site speed is a key factor in user experience and Google ranking. Cache plugins increase the loading speed of site pages by storing them. The faster your site loads, the more satisfied users will be. WP Super Cache is one of the popular plugins to improve the speed of WordPress websites.
4. Contact form plugins
Another popular free plugin is the plugin for creating a contact form. Using this plugin, you can create different contact forms and communicate with users. Contact Form 7 is one of these plugins.
5. Store plugins
If you are planning to start an online store, WooCommerce plugin is the best option. This popular plugin allows you to add your products, create a shopping cart, and make online payments.
Installing and managing plugins
Installing and managing plugins in WordPress is very easy. You can add the plugins you need and manage them easily with a few simple clicks.
Install the plugin
To install the plugin, first enter the WordPress dashboard and go to the Plugins section from the left menu.
Click on Add New.
Now you can search for your desired plugin from the WordPress plugins repository.
Once you find the plugin, click on the Install option and then select Activate to activate the plugin on your site.
Manage plugins:
After installing the plugin, some plugins have settings that you need to configure. For example, the SEO plugin may ask you to enter keywords or the security plugin may require firewall settings.
To access the settings for each plugin, go to the plugins section in the dashboard and click on plugin settings.
Always check for plugin updates and keep them up to date. Regular updates improve the performance and security of your site.
Remove or disable plugins.
Sometimes you may need to disable or remove a plugin that you no longer use. For this, it is enough:
Go to the plugins section.
Find the plugin you want to deactivate and click Deactivate.
If you don’t need that plugin anymore, you can click on the Delete option.
Site customization in WordPress
Customizing the site is one of the most important parts of designing a site with WordPress, which allows you to adjust the site according to your needs and tastes. In WordPress, there are several tools for site customization, the most popular of which are Gutenberg, Elementor, and Visual Composer. Each of these tools will help you design and edit your website pages. Here we will review each of these tools.
Edit pages with Gutenberg tools.
Gutenberg, the default WordPress editor, uses the block format to create and edit pages. With Gutenberg, each element of a page (such as text, images, buttons, etc.) is added as a separate block.
In Gutenberg, you can add various blocks to the page by clicking the “+” button; Like blocks of text, images, gallery, video, etc.
Each block has its settings. For example, for the block of images, you can adjust the dimensions and display mode, or for the block of text, change the font size and color.
Gutenberg is very suitable for creating simple pages and managing content in WordPress, but if you are looking for more features and greater flexibility in design, it is recommended to use more professional page builders such as Elementor and Visual Composer.
Elementor
Elementor is one of the most popular and powerful WordPress page builders that allows users to design professional website pages without coding. Using this tool, you can easily place different elements on the page by dragging and dropping (Drag & Drop) and see the result of the changes in the moment.
Visual Composer (WPBakery Page Builder)
Visual Composer or WPBakery Page Builder is another powerful WordPress page builder that has similar features to Elementor. This tool also allows users to design their pages by dragging and dropping various elements without the need for coding.
Comparison of Gutenberg, Elementor, and Visual Composer
If you are looking to create simple and fast pages and do not need complex designs, Gutenberg is a good option. This editor is light and simple, perfect for creating blog posts or content pages.
If you want to create more complex designs and need full control over page details, Elementor is a better choice.
Like Elementor, Visual Composer is suitable for complex designs. Although this tool was used more in the past, today Elementor has become very popular due to its simpler user interface and more features.
WordPress website SEO
SEO or search engine optimization is a set of techniques that help the site to be seen better in the search results of engines like Google. In other words, with SEO, you can optimize your site so that when users search for a topic in Google, your website is ranked higher in the results. This will drive more traffic to your site and get more visitors.
Why is SEO important?
Attracting traffic: Most internet users access websites through search engines such as Google. If the site is not optimized, the probability of it being seen in the search results will decrease.
Increasing the credibility of the site: When the site ranks higher in the search results, users will trust that site more, and this will increase the credibility and professional appearance of the site.
Business growth: Site SEO, especially for store websites, leads to attracting new customers and increasing sales.
Create an online store with WordPress.
One of the biggest advantages of WordPress is that you can use it to set up an online store. This possibility is provided by a very popular and efficient plugin called WooCommerce, which by installing it on your WordPress site, you can set up your online store and sell your products online.
WooCommerce is a free and open-source plugin for WordPress. This plugin offers extensive capabilities for selling physical and digital products, order management, online payment, and shipping.
WooCommerce features
Product Management: You can manage your products in WooCommerce. This includes adding new products, setting prices, managing inventory, and setting up shipping and taxes.
Payment methods: This plugin supports various payment methods; including famous internet payment gateways such as PayPal, and Stripe and local gateways such as various banks.
Shipping and Shipping: Using WooCommerce, you can make shipping settings based on different regions and different shipping methods. You can also calculate the shipping cost by weight or region.
Reports and Statistics: WooCommerce provides detailed tools for tracking sales, inventory, and financial reports.
Extensive customization: WooCommerce is fully customizable and you can change the look and feel of your store using various themes and plugins.
WordPress website security
The security of WordPress sites is one of the most important issues that you should pay attention to. Due to the high popularity of WordPress, this content management system (CMS) is the main target of hackers and malware attacks. By taking simple but effective measures, you can increase the security of your WordPress website and protect it from threats:
1. Regularly update WordPress, plugins, and themes
WordPress, plugins, and themes regularly release updates that include bug fixes and security improvements. One of the main reasons for websites being hacked is the lack of regular updates. Always make sure that the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) and all plugins and templates used on the site are updated to the latest version.
2. Use of security plugins
Security plugins are one of the most effective tools to protect your WordPress site from threats. These plugins provide various features to increase the security of the site. Some popular security plugins include:
- Wordfence
- iThemes Security
- Sucuri Security
3. Two-Factor Authentication
Using two-factor authentication (2FA) is one of the best ways to increase the security of your WordPress site. In this method, in addition to entering the password, the user must also enter an additional code sent via mobile phone or email. This greatly prevents unauthorized access.
4. Use a strong password
Using weak passwords is one of the most common reasons for sites to be hacked. Make sure your WordPress admin password is strong and complex and includes upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.
5. Limit failed login attempts
Another security solution is to limit the number of unsuccessful attempts to enter the site. Hackers may try to break into your site using brute force attacks by trying different password combinations. By using plugins like Login LockDown, you can limit the number of times you are allowed to log in to the site.
6. Regular backup of the site
One of the best ways to deal with security attacks and unforeseen problems is regular backup of the site. If the site has problems or is infected by hackers, you can use these backups to restore your site to a healthy state. Plugins like UpdraftPlus and BackupBuddy allow you to regularly and automatically back up the site.
7. Use of SSL
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a security protocol that encrypts the communication between the user’s browser and the site’s server. Using an SSL certificate, sensitive user information such as bank card information is encrypted during transmission to the server. In addition, using SSL helps improve the site’s ranking in Google search results. Sites that use SSL are displayed with the HTTPS prefix.
8. Website Firewall (Web Application Firewall)
A website firewall (WAF) is an additional layer of security that inspects incoming site traffic and stops suspicious attacks. Many security plugins include a firewall, such as Wordfence. Also, CDN services like Cloudflare include firewalls that protect your site from DDoS attacks and other threats.