What Are the Major Components of a WordPress Website?
WordPress websites make up around 39.5% of the internet.
That is a HUGE chunk, and with good reason. WordPress is one of the best web development platforms available. It’s ideal for almost any business. There’s a wide range of functions you can add to a WordPress site to make it work exactly how you want it to.
If you’re interested in creating a WordPress site for your business, you should start by knowing what the major components of a WordPress website are.
What Are the Main Components of a WordPress Website?
WordPress has a wide range of options, and your website can look and work however you want it to. Here are the 5 core components that every WordPress website consists of.
Domain
The domain of your WordPress website is the web address. This piece of text identifies where people’s web browsers will go when they click on a link to your site or enter it into their address bar.
Website domains are typically a word or short phrase, followed by a TLD (top-level domain). There are several very common TLDs such as .com, .org, and .net. While these are typically quite popular, you can set your domain to have any TLD that you’d like.
It’s always a good idea to pick a domain name that is the same as your business name. If not, then maybe one that matches the nature of your business or the industry that you’re in.
Imagine you created a website called letsgetthisbread.com and every visitor who arrived there was expecting a Bakery website. As cute as it sounds, you will wonder why no one visit’s your site for financial advice. Instead they just ask, “Where’s the link to the fresh baked sourdough recipe?” Awkward.
If you don’t want a traditional TLD, you could choose one that lines up with your industry, too. Technology companies often use TLDs like .tech, or a clothing company might go with something like .fashion. Uncommon TLDs are generally cheaper, so you could save some money by doing this.
There are plenty of sites you can use to buy your domain name. GoDaddy is the most well-known, but a Google search will give you several others to choose from. The domain registrar you go with won’t affect the performance of your site in any way.
Hosting
Where your website is hosted refers to the section of server space your website is located in. You essentially rent out this space from a hosting company as you’ll be using their equipment to store your website. You’ll pay for this monthly, yearly, or for multiple years at a time.
There are two main hosting options. The cheapest option is ‘shared hosting’ which is best for basic websites with few features and generally low traffic. It’s called shared hosting because a single server is shared between multiple websites (sometimes thousands), which means the resources can be very limited.
Larger sites on a shared server may use a lot of these resources. If you have a website on a shared server, it might often have issues with loading times, server errors, etc. Shared hosting might also not be very secure, and if the host isn’t taking proper security measures, your website could be vulnerable. So in this case, sharing is NOT caring.
For a far superior form of WordPress hosting, you want to go with ‘dedicated hosting’. This means your site will have its own resources and your own server space. This way the performance of your site won’t be affected by any others.
Theme
WordPress themes can be used to easily give your website a fresh look. There are countless themes available, so if you already have a website design in your head, we’ll likely be able to find something pretty close.
If you find a theme that you like and want to make some changes, the team at Your WP Guy can handle that with ease. It’s possible to build a site from scratch, but it’s generally much easier to start with a theme and make edits to get things where you want them.
There are plenty of free themes to choose from, or if you’re happy to pay for a premium theme, you can get something a bit more impressive. Many themes receive routine updates that can include a range of improvements. We can make sure your theme is regularly updated to the latest version so that you get the most out of it.
Plugins
Much like themes, there are a huge number of WordPress plugins available. These are what give a WordPress site functionality and make it incredibly easy to implement new features.
Whatever functions you want on your website, you’ll be able to find the right plugin. This includes things such as:
- Accepting credit card payments
- Displaying pop-ups
- Collect contact form submissions
- Booking reservations
There are also different plugins that visitors to your site won’t directly interact with, such as plugins for security or image optimization.
Whatever features you want your site to have, we can find the most suitable plugins, and ensure they’re kept up to date. This will keep your site working properly and maintain the best level of security.
Content
Content is everything that your audience will see when visiting your site. This means the copy, images, videos, etc. Your content is what you’ll use to portray your brand image to your customers.
Depending on your business and how you want to do things, you might do this in several ways. Blog posts are a very popular choice, as they can answer questions for your customers and provide them with value. They also work great for SEO (search engine optimization) to improve the ranking of your website in search engine results.
Make sure that whatever content you use sends the right message to your customer about what your company stands for and what you do. Communicate effectively, and use a range of content types to add some variety to your website.
Getting the Most Out of Your Site
With an understanding of the different components of a WordPress website, you should have an idea of how yours will come together. Maintaining a site can be hard work, especially if you don’t have much experience. Hiring a WordPress management service is often the best thing to do.
Your WP Guy offers various WordPress management plans and can take care of a range of tasks such as routine updates, security installation & monitoring, and daily website backups. To find out more click here to schedule an appointment today.