Review and feedback on CMS WordPress
WordPress is a free open source CMS that suits both novice users and professional developers. Here are just the first in order to understand the capabilities of the engine, at least at a basic level, you need to be ready to study instructions, guides and forums with tips.
WordPress can be used to create blogs, company websites, landing pages, online stores, portals with the ability to register users. The functionality of the engine largely depends on what plugins are installed on it - and also on the skills of the webmaster: open source allows experienced developers to customize the system for themselves.
Many users start out with WordPress on their way to web development. This is not the easiest solution because there really is a lot to learn to create and customize a website. However, the engine updates clearly demonstrate that it is moving towards simplification, although deep customization still requires programming skills.
Although we are focusing on wordpress here, there are better alternatives to wordpress too.
What's new in WordPress 5.5.1?
Major updates in recent versions concern the Gutenberg block editor. For example, in version 5.3, a new Group block was added, which allows you to divide the page into several parts, and in the Columns block, support for fixed column widths appeared. In addition, text and background controls are now available in title blocks. The possibilities for deep customization have also expanded - now, the preferred style can be set to any block that supports this function.
Version 5.4 has two new blocks - social icons and buttons. With their help, you can quickly add interactive elements to the interface for going to pages in social networks, reposting, opening other sections of the site. In addition, there are new ways to work with colour: you can use gradients in the button block and skin.
There are also less noticeable improvements. For instance:
Images are automatically rotated when loaded according to built-in landmarks.
The extended health check screen recommendations indicate potential site issues.
When you log in, you are periodically prompted to confirm your email address to reduce the likelihood of the site being blocked due to a change in the administrator's email address.
The last major WordPress update is version 5.5. It has updated three key areas - engine speed, search capabilities, and security.
Lazy loading of images. Images placed on the page are not loaded until the user scrolls to them. On mobile devices, this technology also prevents browsers from loading images intended for other devices - for example, widescreen photos for the desktop. This saves traffic and reduces the load on the battery.
New XML sitemap that helps search engines find important pages right away.
Ability to enable automatic updates for plugins and themes, as well as support for manual updates via downloading ZIP files.
Much attention has been paid to the visual editor as well. It has new templates with combinations of text and media files, from which you can assemble beautiful layouts. All available blocks are now collected in a catalogue available in the editor. In addition, there was a built-in image editing - you can crop, rotate and scale photos directly from the image block.
WordPress is the most popular system in the world. This fact is usually enough to immediately draw close attention to it. But it's much more interesting to understand why developers love WordPress so much. We have identified several reasons:
Flexibility due to the open-source engine.
Unique extensibility provided by a huge plugin base.
Multifunctionality and ease of use.
If you have never created a website before, then you will be surprised how easy it is to do it in WordPress. Even to get additional features, no special knowledge is required - in most cases, it is enough to install the required plugin. Experienced developers, on the other hand, value WordPress for its common PHP language and detailed documentation.
Before you start creating a WordPress site, you need to choose a suitable hosting and purchase a domain. Some hosters offer special rates optimized for working with the engine, but you do not need to buy them - for the first site, ordinary shared hosting is fine.
Even a novice webmaster shouldn't have any problems with installing WordPress - on most hosting sites; the system is deployed in a few minutes in one click. This also applies to the latest version. However, you need to be careful with updates. The main danger is the incompatibility of the engine and plugins after the update.
If you already had a site with an old version of WordPress, but now you decide to upgrade to 5.5.1, then it is recommended to disable all extensions before updating and then enable them one by one and check the functionality.
Once installed, WordPress is a fairly crude system that requires additional configuration. At a minimum, you will have to:
Go through all the settings sections to specify the name and address of the site, the type of permalinks, the format of the main page and other parameters.
Select and install a template.
Add and configure plugins for spam protection, SEO optimization, sitemap creation, name transliteration, etc.
All these actions you will perform through the administrative panel. It has been completely translated into Russian and made very logically. The control panel is an excellent example of a balance between functionality and simplicity. It is convenient to use it in all browsers and even on mobile devices without installing any add-ons or applications - although they are also available for iOS, Android and Windows.
The main menu of the control panel consists of the following functional sections:
"Console" - the main page, which collects general information about updates, news, comments.
"Records" - all materials posted on the site with the ability to edit them, add new ones and delete unnecessary ones.
"Media files" is a manager of images, videos, tables and other types of files uploaded to the hosting.
"Pages" is a section for managing static information - for example, the "About" page, terms of use or advertising. It offers the same functionality as Posts, except that published content does not appear in the blog feed.
"Comments" - all discussions on the site and moderation tools.
"Appearance" - tools for adding and customizing themes, including a built-in editor for template files.
"Plugins" - section for adding, removing and configuring extensions.
"Users" - managing all registered visitors, adjusting access rights.
"Tools" - WordPress service features such as import and export.
"Settings" - the main parameters of the site: name, language, mail, file format, rules for generating addresses, etc.
Within each section, there are thematic subsections containing their own sets of settings. All this makes the system highly customizable.
For advanced users who know how to work with CSS and PHP, WordPress offers a built-in code editor. With its help, the site can be deeply customized by adding widgets and blocks or, for example, replacing standard comments with an application from a third-party service. True, when making serious changes, it is recommended to unload the template files from the hosting and edit them on the computer, first creating a backup copy - this allows you to quickly return the theme to its original state if necessary.
The main tool for adding pages and posts is the Gutenberg visual editor. The classic editor offered limited content management functionality. To add additional features, users had to install plugins, which is not always convenient, including due to the increased load on the server. The Gutenberg editor addresses this issue by offering content function blocks:
heading, paragraph, quote, list;
image, gallery, audio, video and file;
code and markup elements;
widgets and inserts from popular services.
Each block can be configured individually. To add a widget to a page or a post from Twitter to a post, you do not need to work with the code: just select the appropriate block and provide a link to the content of interest, after which it will appear in the editor field. Permanent block combinations can be saved as templates, increasing the speed of publication creation.
Basically, Gutenberg allows WordPress users to do what website builders have long been suggesting - focus on how the content will look without being distracted by complex configuration settings. In visual editing mode, you can immediately evaluate how the page or post will be displayed, and you can make changes to the interface without resorting to editing the code.
Many WordPress users didn't like replacing the classic editor with Gutenberg. For those who prefer a traditional text / HTML editor, the Classic Editor extension has appeared in the plugin list. After adding it, you can choose with which editor you will add content - classic or visual.
Designs and work with templates (themes)
Websites are built on the basis of templates, of which a huge number have been developed for WordPress. The standard theme catalogue is available from the engine control panel in the "Appearance" section. Here you can select and install a template from the library, as well as download files downloaded from other sources.
Finding free templates for WordPress is not a problem - even if the theme is not Russified, you can fix it manually or using special programs. Version compatibility is much more difficult. However, the official plugins are updated fast enough so that there are no problems. If you have a paid template with support from developers, then there should be no errors either. Only old free themes that are no longer supported by the creators cause problems.
To avoid unnecessary problems, before installing the template, make sure that it is optimized for the latest version of WordPress. If there are no suitable options, then it does not matter. The same Gutenberg editor can be used to customize the template that would have required code changes in the past.
In the functionality of WordPress, we have already explored what the new editor is capable of. In fact, you can use it to customize the site's interface by creating new pages and adding widgets and blocks to them. If you have had experience with website builders, then you will instantly understand how it works. But even if the WordPress site is the first one, there will be no difficulties. With the help of widgets, plugins and shortcodes, you can quickly build the look of the page you want.
In addition, each WordPress theme has its own settings that allow you to upload a site logo, change the colour scheme, create the main menu, and enable/disable the display of individual widgets. The number of configurable parameters varies depending on the template, but the basic set is present in any theme. If you know how to work with CSS and PHP, then there will be even more possibilities for customization thanks to the open-source code of the engine and the built-in code editor, in which all template files are available.
Optimization (SEO) and promotion
When analyzing the pages at the top of the search results, it becomes clear that most of them are made in WordPress. This is due not only to the popularity of the engine itself but also to its promotion capabilities. When used correctly, the content is well-indexed by robots and ranks high.
Basic WordPress is not the best example of SEO optimization. But if you work a little with the engine, then you can achieve good results in search results without any problems - of course, taking into account the publication of useful and interesting content.
The first step to optimizing your website is choosing an SEO friendly theme. For a template to be considered as such, it must meet a number of requirements, including layout according to CSS3 and HTML5 standards, as well as fast page loading. If you buy or download a free theme from a third-party site, pay attention to its description - it should contain an indication of SEO friendly or SEO Optimized.
After choosing a suitable theme, you need to change the default configuration for WordPress.
In the general settings, specify the site address in the same style - with WWW or without WWW. In order for search engines to accurately identify the site at the specified address, add it to Yandex. Webmaster and Google Search Console.
Set the format of links like "site/category/post name". Go to the "Permalinks" section in the settings, select the "Custom" option and insert the value /%category%/%postname%.html into the field.
Further optimization of the engine is possible only with plugins. The first extension to install is Cyr to Lat. This plugin will automatically transliterate the names of pages and posts in Cyrillic to Latin. This will avoid the difficulties with an encoding that search engines face due to addresses with Cyrillic characters.
To optimize, you will also need to install one of their powerful plugins - All in One Seo Pack or Yoast SEO. After adding them, a new section will appear in the editor, where you can specify the title, description and keywords of the post. But the impact of SEO plugins on WordPress is not limited to this: there are a lot of options in their settings, for which there are separate guides for working. All in One Seo Pack covers all optimization needs, from meta tags for search engine spiders to creating an XML sitemap. Yoast SEO offers no less functionality, so it will be difficult to make a choice, but in any case, you will get very powerful website promotion tools on WordPress.
To improve behavioural factors, it does not hurt to connect an online consultant widget and install an online calculator to calculate something right on the site. You can use a CRM system to work with clients and process orders/requests. Of course, we recommend adding buttons for social networks. Such tools have a positive effect on website promotion in the search engines Yandex and Google, add weight to the perception of the site and are able to bring customers.
The engine itself is distributed free of charge. You can download it from the official website or install it directly from the hosting admin panel - most hosters provide this option. You can also not pay for plugins and templates: even if some extension is distributed for money, you can almost always find a free alternative that will do the job just as well.
If you still want to install a premium theme, then prepare between $ 50 and $ 100. In this price range, there are a huge number of options on different theme sites, such as TemplateMonster. The cost depends on the functionality of the theme, its prevalence and the degree of the seller's popularity. Popular template stores average $ 75, but you can find options for both $ 45 and $ 600.
The situation is similar to plugins. The price is usually tied to what opportunities they offer. Often a free light version of the plugin is available in the WordPress directory. If you use it but at some point understand that there are not enough tools, then you can easily upgrade to the Pro version. Expanded functionality isn't the only benefit of the paid plugins. You also give money for support from the developers, which ensures compatibility with new versions of WordPress.
Advantages and disadvantages
The main plus of the latest versions of WordPress is the development of the Gutenberg editor, which adds a visual content management mode. Its appearance demonstrates the movement of the system towards simplification, lowering the entry threshold for novice webmasters. Gutenberg makes installing a number of extensions pointless by offering similar functionality in the base CMS.
Version 5.5.1 finally has support for lazy loading images. This will noticeably affect the speed of page loading, especially on mobile devices, where high-resolution images added for the desktop will no longer be loaded.
Other advantages of the system after major updates remained unchanged:
built-in file manager, which has become even more convenient to use thanks to the introduction of the Gutenberg editor.
an extensive library of plugins that extend the basic functionality of the engine;
a competent community and a large number of training materials.
With a change in the updated policy, a problem may appear - the frequent occurrence of problems with the compatibility of templates and plugins. If earlier large updates arrived twice a year, now the developers will send them more often. But there is a way out - you can not update immediately but accumulate versions with changes. In addition, in WordPress 5.5.1, update management has become even more convenient - now you can install plugin and theme updates automatically or download them manually via ZIP files.
Even if you don't pay for themes and plugins, you will still need money for a WordPress site - at least in order to purchase hosting space and register a domain name.
The best site for WP projects is Bluehost hosting. It has an official recommendation from WordPress.org - the developers of the engine. They recommend Bluehost as one of the best CMS optimizations. Independent experts agree with the WordPress developers, who, on an ongoing basis, include Bluehost in the rating of the best ratings in the world.
To understand why Bluehost.com has so many positive reviews, just look at the list of its advantages:
Automatic installation of CMS WordPress on hosting in one click!
Server uptime rates are steadily approaching 100%.
Using a CDN to quickly deliver content to users.
Hosting web projects on servers in different countries of the world.
Free domain and SSL when paying for the plan.
Support for one-click installation of a large number of web applications.
Prompt technical support that answers questions through tickets, online chat or by phone.
Bluehost has special rates for WordPress sites. They are based on shared hosting and come in two lines: WordPress Hosting and WP Pro. The first one is suitable for small projects and consists of three tariffs. In the minimum configuration for $ 3.95 per month, you get 50 GB of SSD, on which you can create one site. At higher tariffs, the restriction on the number of sites and the available disk space is removed. All service packages include a free domain and SSL as a gift.
The WP Proline provides more powerful solutions that allow you to create professional WordPress sites.
Build ($ 19.95 / month) - The foundation for launching a professional website with a built-in analytics centre, 100+ free themes, daily backups, and malware protection.
Grow ($ 29.95 / month) - All Build features plus additional SEO tools, video compression up to 10GB / month, premium support.
Scale ($ 49.95 per month) - All Grow features plus unlimited backups, PayPal integration, unlimited video compression, advanced search, live chat support.
The latest service pack is suitable for e-commerce. But if you want to create a store on WordPress, then it is better to immediately go into another category of tariffs called eCommerce. Here are service packages optimized for WordPress and WooCommerce, the most popular e-commerce plugin. The cost of the tariffs is from 6.95 to 12.95 dollars per month. All packages have a built-in theme tailored for sales, free SSL and a free callback widget.
For large projects, Bluehost also offers VPS and Dedicated rentals. Virtual servers start at $ 18.99, and physical servers start at $ 79.99. All the features of shared hosting are available for them, but some tools need to be installed manually - for example, a backup system.
The domain name of the site is also registered with Bluehost. The rental price for a year depends on the domain zone. For example, an address like mysite.com can be purchased for $ 11.99 and mysite.blog for $ 16.99. The cheapest solution for Bluehost is a.SPACE domain. National zones are not represented in the catalogue, so if you want a site in.RU / RF, then buy a domain on another site and then link it to a project on Bluehost in a few clicks.
WordPress counterparts and competitors
With its open-source code and many extensions, WordPress offers functionality that only a few web development tools can provide. But when creating a website, it is not the power of the tool that is more important, but its effectiveness for the implementation of the project. If you look at WordPress from this position, you can find many services that are much easier to learn and do the job just as well.
Best WordPress Alternatives
uKit is a website builder for business, where you can assemble a one-page page, a business card, a company website or a small online store in a few hours. Intuitively simple and straightforward. Its tools are selected so that the service is convenient for novice webmasters. uKit offers several hundred thematic templates, made at a very good level, and the sites created on it are no different from the projects of professional developers.
uCoz is the only website builder competitor that can easily compare to WordPress in terms of functionality. The service uses a modular system that makes it versatile. What is added to WordPress as plugins are presented on uCoz in the basic package or available for installation as a module. The builder can be used to create any type of site, from a one-page site to an information portal with a forum, blog, and user registration.
Wix - Can be an alternative to WP when it comes to customizing the look and feel of your site. The constructor offers a huge number of colourful design themes made by professional designers. Basic functionality is higher compared to WordPress. In the built-in Wix App Market, the user can find dozens of useful applications and integrations with third-party services that extend the functionality of the service. So when creating, for example, an online store, choosing between WordPress and Wix is a very real situation.
Drupal is a free content management framework. More flexible, versatile, but also much more difficult to work with when compared to the WordPress CMS. Contraindicated for beginners, strong programming skills are required. Suitable for creating stores, news portals, social networks, corporate and other large-scale types of sites. It is impractical to use it for business cards, landing pages and other things in this spirit. There are many templates and modules, but their number is several times less than those on WP. Suitable for professionals only.
Joomla is a slightly more complex free CMS compared to WP. Usually, newbies choose between these two engines. The number of templates and plugins is very large but still noticeably inferior to that on WP. Best used for creating business cards, corporate websites, shops and social networks. Not so good for creating blogs, landing pages and forums. Basic coding skills are required - knowledge of HTML / CSS, the page code is easier to edit here than on WP with its PHP base. Good SEO opportunities, but the level of security in the stock suffers—balanced and popular engine for beginners.
Despite the fact that WordPress, in the latest versions, is moving towards simplifying content management tools, it is still far from top builders in this regard. In fact, Gutenberg is the same extension that adds visual editor capabilities to the CMS, only provided in the basic package.
The logic of working with Drupal is complex and inaccessible to beginners. This engine is usually used by webmasters who have been developing sites on the same WP for a long time, wanting to get more scalability for large projects. Joomla is comparable to WP in complexity and many features, but still not so easy to use, has a slightly different specialization.
On constructors, the ease of learning is not limited only to the design of pages and content. When creating a site on uKit, uCoz or Wix, the user does not need to worry about anything at all, except for the design and content, which are fully customizable in visual editing mode. To fully manage WordPress, however, coding skills are still required. On the other hand, it provides more customization options, which not all designers can boast of.
Conclusions and recommendations
WordPress is one of the best website building tools out there, which has gotten a bit easier with the release of version 5 thanks to the introduction of a visual editor. However, in terms of creation and reconfiguration, there are no major changes. Users still have to choose to host, take care of security on their own and follow the updates.
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WordPress 5.5 offers almost unlimited functionality, which is based on open source code and a wide range of extensions. However, not every project requires such versatility and power.
uKit and Wix are much more efficient to use if you need to create a company business card website, landing page or a small online store - these builders offer all the necessary tools.
uCoz - it is wiser to choose when it comes to a complex project - at least it will eliminate the need to select hosting and monitor updates.
However, WordPress is one of the top website building tools used by both beginners and seasoned developers alike. It can be used to solve various problems, but only you yourself know whether it is suitable for the implementation of your idea.
