What Is WordPress and How to Use It

WordPress is the most widely used content management system in the world. It is free, flexible and supported by a large community, which is why so many businesses, bloggers and marketers learn to work with it.

This guide explains what WordPress is, what it is used for, its strengths and weaknesses, and how to use WordPress to start, optimise and protect a website.

WordPress is a content management system (CMS): software for building and running websites, blogs, online shops, news sites, member areas and other kinds of pages. It started in 2003 as a blogging tool, is written in PHP and is open source under the GPL licence, so anyone can use, study and change it, as the WordPress project explains on WordPress.org.

Is WordPress free? The software itself is. What you pay for is everything around it: web hosting, a domain name, and any premium themes, plugins or development work you need. There are two ways to use it:

• WordPress.org gives you the software to install on hosting you choose. You have full control, and you are responsible for updates and security;
• WordPress.com is a hosted service run by Automattic. It has a free plan and paid plans, and handles hosting and maintenance for you, with fewer options on the cheaper plans.

The main idea of the WordPress CMS is that people without coding skills can add and change content: write text, add images and video, build forms and adjust page layouts in a visual editor. Developers can go much further by building custom themes and plugins.

WordPress is used by small businesses and very large organisations alike. Its official showcase includes the websites of NASA, Rolling Stone and The White House.

WordPress began as a blogging platform and now runs almost any kind of website. Thanks to themes and plugins, it adapts to many business needs. Common uses include:

• company and small business websites;
• blogs and news sites;
• online shops, usually with the WooCommerce plugin;
• portfolios for designers, photographers and artists;
• CV and personal websites;
• membership websites and online communities;
• forums;
• event websites with bookings;
• online courses and e-learning platforms.

If the project needs features WordPress does not handle well, such as complex calculations, large databases or unusual workflows, a custom web application may be a better fit. That is when businesses look at frameworks such as Laravel website development.

According to W3Techs, as of October 2026 WordPress is used by 39.5% of all websites and by 58.2% of the websites whose CMS is known. Several things explain its popularity:

1. Ease of use. You do not need to code to run a WordPress website. Choose a theme, adjust it and add your content, and the site is ready.

2. Flexibility. WordPress suits personal blogs and large company websites. Themes and plugins let you shape the site around your needs.

3. Security support. The WordPress security team releases fixes for the core software, and security plugins such as Wordfence add firewalls and malware scans. A site is only as secure as its weakest part, though, so outdated themes and plugins remain a risk.

4. Useful features out of the box:

• plugins that extend what the site can do;
• built-in blogging tools;
• a large choice of themes;
• the block editor for creating pages and posts;
• a media library for images, video and documents;
• clean, editable page addresses and other basic SEO settings.

Is WordPress good for SEO? It gives you what you need for a good start, and plugins such as Yoast SEO add titles, descriptions and sitemaps. Results still depend on content, speed and structure. Our WordPress SEO guide for beginners covers the details.

These are the main pros of WordPress for a business website:

1. A simple editor. You can format text, add images and update pages without touching code.

2. Quick installation. Most hosts install WordPress in one click, and the manual installation usually takes a few minutes.

3. A huge choice of plugins. The WordPress plugin directory lists more than 77,000 free plugins (as of October 2026) for forms, galleries, bookings, speed, security and much more.

4. Easy design changes. You can switch themes without losing your posts and pages, although the layout of some pages may need adjusting afterwards.

5. Open source. You own your website and can move it to another host at any time. Thousands of developers build themes and plugins, so help is easy to find.

6. Regular updates. New versions add features and close security gaps. Since WordPress 5.5 you can turn on automatic updates for plugins and themes.

WordPress also has cons that are worth knowing before you choose it:

• on self-hosted WordPress, updates, backups and security are your responsibility, or your developer’s;
• too many plugins, or badly built ones, slow the site down and can conflict with each other;
• popular software attracts attackers, so a neglected site is an easy target;
• complex custom features often need a developer.

If you are wondering how to use WordPress for the first time, these five steps get a simple website online:

Step 1: Choose a domain name
Pick a short name that reflects your business and is easy to remember, ideally with a .co.uk or .uk ending for a UK business.

Step 2: Choose hosting
Decide between WordPress.com, which includes hosting, and self-hosted WordPress.org on a host you choose. Self-hosting gives you more control and the freedom to install any theme or plugin.

Step 3: Install WordPress
Use your host’s one-click installer, or download WordPress from WordPress.org and run the installer. Then log in to the dashboard.

Step 4: Choose a theme
Browse the themes and choose one that fits your business and works well on phones. Install and activate it, then add your logo, colours and fonts.

Step 5: Add pages and posts
Create the main pages, such as Home, Services, About and Contact, and start adding blog posts. Our step-by-step guide on how to build a website with WordPress covers each stage in more detail.

If you would rather have a team handle it, see our WordPress website development services.

WordPress works well with the basic settings, but a few checks make a real difference to how the site performs:

1. Make sure it works on phones.
Most themes use responsive design and adapt to different screens, but not all of them are comfortable on a smartphone. Check font sizes, the menu, forms and how plugins display on a small screen.

2. Keep everything up to date.
Updates bring new features, fix bugs and close security gaps. This applies to WordPress itself, your theme and every plugin.

3. Check plugin compatibility.
Before a major WordPress update, make sure your key plugins support the new version. If you can, test updates on a copy of the site first.

4. Speed up the site.
Compress images, use a caching plugin, remove plugins you do not use and choose hosting with enough resources. A cache stores ready copies of pages, so they load faster.

For help with rankings and traffic, see our WordPress SEO services.

Security protects your website, your customers’ data and your reputation. These steps follow the official WordPress hardening guide:

1. Use strong passwords.
Choose a long, random password for every admin account, and avoid names and dictionary words. A password manager makes this easy.

2. Turn on two-step verification.
WordPress does not include it by default, but a security plugin adds it. Each login then needs a code from your phone as well as the password.

3. Update regularly.
Keep WordPress, your theme and your plugins up to date, and delete the ones you do not use. Outdated software is a common entry point for attackers.

4. Avoid predictable usernames.
Do not use “admin” or “webmaster”. If your site already has such an account, create a new administrator with a different name and remove the old one.

5. Use a security plugin.
Plugins such as Wordfence or Sucuri scan for malware, block suspicious traffic and alert you to problems.

6. Make backups.
Keep regular backups of the files and the database in a separate, safe place, so you can restore the site if something goes wrong.

For most small and medium business websites, yes. WordPress has been developed for more than two decades and keeps evolving: as of October 2026, the latest major release is WordPress 7.1, released in August 2026. Several things keep it relevant:

1. A large community. Documentation, forums and tutorials cover almost any question.

2. Plenty of specialists. Many designers and developers work with WordPress, so you are not tied to one supplier. If you need a design made around your brand, a web designer can build a custom theme.

3. Flexibility. WordPress handles blogs, company websites, shops and membership sites, and themes and plugins allow deep customisation without coding.

4. A large share of the CMS market. Because so many websites use it, hosting, plugins and support for WordPress are easy to find.

WordPress is a sensible choice for anything from a simple website to a large content site, as long as someone looks after updates and security. If you are planning a WordPress website and want an honest view of the options, get in touch through our contact page.