What is WordPress? How to learn WordPress?

What is WordPress?

WordPress is the most used and popular CMS or blogging software in the world today. A recent survey revealed that more than 43 percent of all websites on the Internet today are built using WordPress.

So you can understand how important this software is now for a web designer, web developer or a common blogger. But if you are new to various website based tasks, then you might have various questions about WordPress.

Also Read: What is domain? What is the importance of domain name?

For example, what is WordPress, how to learn WordPress, how to install WordPress and many more such questions. The most important thing is that if you really want to work and learn WordPress, you need to know the right answers to these questions.

So in today’s episode we will try to describe the correct answers to all these questions related to WordPress in a detailed and appropriate manner. So that you don’t have to be confused about any information related to WordPress. But for that you have to patiently read the entire article till the end. So let’s get started.

What is WordPress?

Simply put, WordPress is an internet software that can be used to create a website or blog site. In other words, if you are a web designer or blogger or want to be, then you can easily create your website through WordPress.

And if we say a little more technically, WordPress is a blog publishing application and also the world’s number one CMS or Content Management System Software. Here CMS software means a software through which all types of website content management is done and blogs are published.

Content is the main component of a website. In this case, content can be any type of images, colors, articles and any other information used on the blog site. Content management is the process of arranging the contents of the website properly. And WordPress is one such content management system or CMS.

WordPress is the world’s leading CMS software. It first debuted on May 27, 2003 by Matt Mullenweg. And since then its popularity is gradually increasing with time.

Some of the unique features of WordPress are at the root of this huge amount of popularity. For example, it is a completely free CMS software developed by PHP and MySQL. That means it has premium themes as well as many free themes that don’t cost you any money to use. Using it you can get premium level services for free and build and run websites.

Besides, those who are not professional web developers or web designers can also use this software to create completely professional websites for free. Or even if you don’t have any coding knowledge, you can develop a website using WordPress if you know how to use WordPress properly.

How to learn WordPress

WordPress is the world’s number one CMS software and blog publishing application. Nowadays most bloggers, web developers, web designers, freelancers and even general businessmen use WordPress for their business website management.

So there is a lot of demand for WordPress related jobs in the freelancing marketplace as well. Because everything depends on the website now due to the increase in the use of internet. So website development related work is also many. But in this case, the number of skilled workers is also insufficient. So you can earn a lot of money by working online or offline by learning WordPress.

Moreover, if you want to blog or start a website for your small business, then you can create a website yourself using WordPress for free. Because we already know that using WordPress does not require any coding knowledge, it can also be done using free themes without premium themes.

So if you are interested in working with websites then you must learn WordPress. Now you may be wondering how to learn WordPress.

Then listen. Learning WordPress is not terribly difficult or time-consuming. In this golden age of internet when nothing is impossible. Learning the workings of WordPress is also not complicated there. Rather anyone can learn it at home.

Because you will find many video tutorials and content on the internet to learn WordPress. One can easily learn WordPress from those tutorials by setting aside some time daily. Besides, those who are professional bloggers or web developers can also take WordPress training directly.

Basically, you don’t need to spend a lot of time or money to learn WordPress. Basically all you need is a working computer or laptop, internet connection and necessary time and dedication.

Now you go to YouTube and search for wordpress tutorial, then you can see many domestic and foreign tutorials there. By looking at these you will know the basics of WordPress.

In this way, after learning the basics of WordPress from various tutorials, then you have to learn how to use it practically. For this first install the Xampp software and then download the WordPress software from there and then install it.

Once WordPress is installed, start learning to use WordPress in a consistent sequence. For example-

1. First, learn where the WordPress dashboard or control panel options are and what they are used for.

2. Next you need to learn the most important aspect of WordPress i.e. theme customization. A WordPress theme is the framework of a website.

That means how a website will look will depend on the theme you use. Each theme has different features, colors, fonts and styles.

You will find many such free themes in WordPress. There are many premium themes as well. You can learn to use free themes first. Later you can use premium theme if needed.

3. After learning WordPress theme customization, now you have to learn the use of WordPress Plugins. You can add various functions and features to your website by using WordPress plugins. For example- social media sharing option, social media profiles, email box, author box, related articles option etc.

After learning these few things, you can create your own website through WordPress. But if you are a more advanced level learner then you can learn HTML and CSS. This will increase your skills as well as demand in the marketplace.

How to install WordPress

To install WordPress first we need to have domain and hosting. Here domain (domain) means the name of your website and hosting (hosting) is the place where the files of that website will be stored.

Domains and hosting are usually purchased from different companies called LiveServers. But since I will be using WordPress as an open source here, we will know how to install WordPress for free i.e. without buying domain and hosting. But later we will definitely learn how to install WordPress on a live server.

First we need a local server to install and use WordPress for free. In this case we can use our computer as a local server. But for that all we need is:

• PHP
• Database
• Web server (web server) and
• Browser

You can download them separately and turn one computer into a local server if you want. But it is relatively time consuming and troublesome. So the easiest way is to download PHP, Database and Web Server – these three things together as a package software.

There are many such package software on the internet. Among them some notable software are xampp, wamp, lamp and mamp. Any one of them can be downloaded to work. But I personally prefer xampp software.

So let’s know now how to install WordPress through local server.

Install Xampp package software

Xampp is a completely free software. Go to your computer browser and search by writing xampp or download the software according to the operating system from this link.

Once downloaded, open the software. When the software opens, select Apache and MySQL options from its home page and click on the start button. Clicking on the start button will show green color below the options written Apache and MySQL. And if it doesn’t come then you know it’s not turned on.

Note: If you have Skype running on your computer, there may be some problems while using xampp. That’s why Apache and MySQL options don’t start even if you click the start button during power on. So first stop Skype on the computer or if you forget, close it later and click on the start button again.

Download WordPress

Once Apache and MySQL are up and running, LocalServer is now fully ready to install WordPress. Now open the browser on your computer and go to the address bar and search by typing localhost.

Then a new window will open on the computer screen. From there click on the option written phpMyadmin and enter the next page.

From this page click on new option to create database. In this case click on the create option with a name of your choice.

Once the database is created, download WordPress from this link. Then enter the folder named xampp on the computer. Inside this folder you will find another folder called htdocs.

Now create another new folder from this folder. Now unzip the downloaded WordPress zip (.zip) file from this folder.

Unzipping will add another new folder named WordPress. Inside this folder you will find many files and folders. Now copy and paste these files and folders outside the wordpress folder. Now delete wordpress folder and wordpress zip file.

Now go to the browser again and search by typing localhost in the address bar. Then another new page will open on the computer screen. Once the page opens, the main task of installing WordPress will begin.

Install WordPress

First select the language (English) from the language option of the page. Then click on the continue button and enter the next step.

Now let’s go! Click on write option. Then a new page will open.

At this stage, enter the name of your database in the database name field and enter root in the user name field. After that without changing anything else click submit button and enter next step.

Now select only Run the Installation option from the new page. As a result, another new page will appear in front of you.

Enter the name of your website in the Site Title field and enter admin in the Username field. Then set a strong password in the password box.

Now enter your email address in the Your email field. Then click on Install WordPress at the bottom of the page.

After some time you will get a Success message when WordPress is installed. From here click on the log in button or go to the address http://localhost/wordpress/wp-login.php and enter the password you have given in the admin and password field.

After clicking on the log in button, you will be logged in to WordPress. Now you can arrange the website as you wish, post and add pages from the WordPress dashboard or control panel.

Our last words

So friends! We hope you have already got the answers to your questions about what is WordPress, how to learn and how to install WordPress through our article.

But one thing to remember is that there is no end to knowing and learning. If you really want to become a WordPress expert and work on it, you need to do a lot of research, know and practically learn about it.

For example, you have now learned how to operate wordpress using localserver or localhost. But if you want to become an expert then you should also learn how to run WordPress using liveserver. Which we will discuss in the next blog.

Thank you