30 questions and answers from WordPress that you should know
Fernando Tellado November 26, 2018
WordPress is currently the king of the creators and managers of web content but, despite its dominica email list popularity and frequent use, there are many questions that require a response, sometimes not as obvious as it might seem.
In this article I want to share 30 questions and answers to questions about WordPress that, regardless of your level of knowledge, you should know if you want to move with ease in the creation and management of websites and content. These are doubts that frequently arise in our face-to-face and online classes .
Furniture store ads1. What is WordPress and what is not?
WordPress is a platform for creating, managing and publishing content, a CMS or Content Management System , open source and GPL license. With it you can create websites, customize their appearance, create an online store, a web application, a digital newspaper or a simple blog. WordPress is especially efficient with search engine optimization (SEO) .
WordPress is not a web cover editor although you can incorporate it, it is not a word processor even if it includes it, it is not an online store even if you can create it, it is not a company nor is it sponsored by any company although most use it.
Cyber Security2. How many types of WordPress are there?
There is only one WordPress , which you can download from WordPress.org, totally free and free, expandable and customizable to infinity. Also, there are more and more web hosting companies that incorporate their installation with a click.
It usually generates confusion that the company Automattic, by Matt Mullenweg, one of the creators of WordPress, offers a freemium blog creation service (free basic services, with premium payment options) in the WordPress.com domain, which uses WordPress as a platform. But WordPress.com does not offer a complete WordPress but an adaptation of it, limited in its operation. WordPress.com is great to know the tool, enter the world of web creation and create a free blog. All the content generated in WordPress.com can be exported to the full version in a very simple way. However, it does not offer infinite customization possibilities and can install plugins (which add more functionalities to the basic installation)
Of course, WordPress.com is perfect to know WordPress and start publishing and make brand quickly and easily without having to hire an accommodation on your own.
Network Protection3. Is WordPress safe?
With WordPress you can sleep peacefully. Although there is a permanent urban legend out there that spreads that open source software is more insecure than the license fee, under the premise that if the company charges you it will take over and keep your system safe … but reality tells us just the opposite.
It is precisely the opposite. When an open source software community, Open Source, is active, it is the best guarantee of security, because there are not a few but thousands, maybe millions of users who will contribute their bit to improve the system they use, and they share it with everyone else in a totally open and, above all, immediate way.
This is especially true in WordPress, where there are millions of users and companies that use it every day but also actively collaborate in their code, solving instantly any, not already incidence, but possible vulnerability that they find, solving it immediately thanks to the updates Automatic WordPress, which is updated without user intervention when the versions are security and maintenance.
Unlike with licensed payment software, in which when there is a vulnerability, the first thing that gets started in the company that sells it is its press machinery to mitigate the impact of the problem, thereby solving the vulnerabilities it always takes weeks or months, at best, and sometimes even paying extra costs.
In free software, such as WordPress, it is just the opposite. When the minimum possible vulnerability is detected, it is communicated in the working groups of the code and a solution is created to generate an update that avoids problems for the users. It is true that you will read about this or that vulnerability that affects WordPress sites, but it is always WordPress sites that are not updated, the true golden rule of WordPress security .
Twitter Cards4. Does WordPress only serve to create blogs?
WordPress adapts to you and the needs of your project. It is true that WordPress began its journey as a platform for blogs, very oriented to the publication of content, even thinking about journalists and writers, but thanks to being an open and scalable platform, it is currently the most used system by all types of developers and designers for create all kinds of websites, digital platforms and web applications.
In fact, currently the greatest use given to WordPress is not for blogs but for corporate websites, digital newspapers and ecommerce online stores , where it demonstrates all its flexibility and potential, as well as simplicity.
Everything is so simple to do in WordPress that gives the false feeling of being a system for beginners but it is precisely the development and web design professionals who most appreciate this facility when it comes to creating, designing, managing and publishing, they get the same that with other systems but faster and better, with what they offer to their clients the added satisfaction of the reduction of production times of their web projects.
SEO Marketing Plan shop furniture5. Is WordPress good for SEO and web positioning?
Google loves WordPress and fits like a glove, and part of the great success of WordPress is how well it positions in search engines from the moment it is installed and has its first content.
The virtues that highlight WordPress as an unbeatable platform for search engine positioning are many but these are the fundamental ones:
Nothing else installed automatically communicates through pings to the main directories and contents the publication of any content.
WordPress automatically inserts the main meta tags of SEO in your pages and cover from the installation.
Compatible with the system of pingbacks and trackbacks , which notify other linked content sites and receive notifications of links.
Clean and well structured code that meets web standards and new technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3.
The themes for WordPress are organized by blocks, helping the searchers to dissect the web in the main content and accessory areas.
Organization of content by keywords in categories (generic) and tags (specific tags of each publication) that help search engines to organize publications, and visitors to improve the SEO of the web while browsing the different sections and internal links of automatic way
Through plugins you can take the possibilities of positioning in search engines of WordPress to infinity, defining SEO titles for each publication, label, even images.
I recommend you take a look at the advanced SEO positioning courses available at Aula CM both in its face-to-face and online version , where you will learn how to position your website from the first moment.
Campaign Timing6. WordPress is slow?
Definitely not . WordPress uses databases to store its content, which normally should slow down the load if we compare it, for example, with a page programmed exclusively in HTML, but using the WordPress internal cache and plugins that store not only static but also dynamic cache and memcache you can show your web as fast and more than if it were in plain HTML since in addition to the static content it also shows from the cache the dynamic content (queries to the database) and the memcache (the administration of the content manager).
This is true with all content managers or CMS, since web browsers do not show, do not “understand”, programming languages such as PHP, and have to “translate” what you have programmed into HTML to show it. The content managers, for this reason, perform the “translation” in order to generate the resulting HMTL and that your browser can show you the content of the website you visit. Facebook, YouTube, and of course WordPress, are programmed in PHP, and everyone has to carry out this process, which if no action is taken, would slow down your website due to this additional task.
The cache system creates a kind of, say, ” still photos ” of your content, static or dynamic, in HTML that is displayed to your visitors instead of making the usual queries and requests of each element to be displayed, which greatly accelerates the loading of your web. Instead of every WordPress visit, check the latest version of the content and each image and file in its entirety, a process that requires process time and consumes server resources.
In addition, in WordPress, the cache is regenerated every time you publish a new article or page, or a visitor leaves a comment, so your visitors will always see the fully updated version of it. The cache, in addition, protects you from denial of service attacks, since it prevents them from overloading your server.
Custom Coding7. Do I need to know how to program?
Although WordPress is created with PHP, it uses MySQL to manage the databases and converts it to HTML so your browser interprets the content and shows it, you do not need to learn to program to use WordPress and create shocking websites.
Unlike in the old publishing systems, in which you had to modify each HTML file manually and upload them individually to the server, with WordPress you create your content, expand the possibilities of your website and modify your design from a visual environment, without needing Install any application on your computer, from wherever you are.
Content Management8. Is any hosting worth?
If you have to buy a hosting plan for your WordPress, you should only take into account 2 basic requirements that it must offer:
Apache or Nginx.
PHP programming language version 5.2.4 or higher.
Databases MySQL 5.0 or higher
You will find in the market two types of offers of operating systems for web hosting: Linux or Windows. Always hire Linux hosting, it is more compatible with web technologies. You do not need to know Linux, so do not worry if you use Windows on your computer.
Planning9. Do I lose content if I change the theme or design?
Not at all. The theme is design, it is the suit that you put on your WordPress to show it to the outside in the best possible way, and your content is in another layer that does not affect the change of theme. You can change the subject as many times as you want without affecting your entries, pages or comments, the only thing you will notice is that the content will be displayed differently, or you may not see it as you are used to, but it will continue there.
Setup Campaign10. Is it bad to install many plugins?
Plugins are small applications that extend or improve the functioning of WordPress, and the amount of them you use should be based on your needs. As in any software, it is not necessary, or even good, to have installed applications that you are not going to use, and the same rule must be applied to WordPress.
However, you can install as many plugins as you want, try them, and leave those you are going to use active, the rest, when you have tried them, it is best to turn them off and erase them, they will only take up space and resources on your server.
But no, it is not bad to install many plugins, the important thing is that they are well programmed and updated. They hurt you more 2 plugins with a badly programmed code that 20 with clean and effective code, which use standard functions.
SEO Tag Optimization11. Labels or categories?
Both are taxonomies, ways of organizing content, but they work and are used differently. The main differences are the following:
The categories have hierarchies, there may be subcategories, the labels are not, they are unique.
The categories are the main sections of content (themes) on which you will publish content on your website. They must be created before starting to publish.
Tags are keywords, often used, that you use in your publications, and you must add them after writing each entry or page, and before publishing it, using those that appear in that specific content.
Campaign Tweaking12. What are Widgets and what do they do?
Widgets are small boxes of content, usually dynamic, used to show navigation resources, texts, banners, links, etc. in the zones defined by the active theme as widgets areas. Depending on the theme used, you can have one or several areas of widgets or sidebars, which are added simply by dragging and dropping the widget over the widgets area where you want it to be displayed.
You will see the widgets in the side areas of any website or blog, showing social links, welcome texts, advertising banners, Facebook “Like” boxes or Twitter timeline and the like.
Upload Manager13. Can I upload any file?
No, for security reasons, by default, WordPress does not allow uploading all types of files. You can upload, and use for your publications, virtually any image, audio and video file, the most common document files and also compressed files. But you can not upload programming files and scripts, to avoid code injections and hackers.
Link Building14. What are Pingbacks and Trackbacks, and what are they for?
Both are ways to automatically notify other sites that in your publication there is a link to your website or a specific page of your website if your content management system is compatible with pingbacks and trackbacks. Likewise you will know if someone has linked you.
WordPress is compatible with the pingbacks and trackbacks, but you can activate them or leave them inactive at will from the management of comments adjustments since when you get a pingback it will be shown as if it were one more comment, in which instead of username you will see a link, which is where you were linked from.
Pingbacks and trackbacks are part of the “glue” of the web, and makes the contents relate to each other and generate “conversation” between similar web sites.
Twitter Analitics Activity14. Should I enable comments and moderate them?
WordPress offers comment system by default, but it is the decision of the administrator to enable or not, depending on the type of site you have and the services and conversation you want to offer your visitors.
The main points in favor of having the active comments are:
The comments also “count” as content of your publications, improving your SEO as long as the content of them is related.
Allow the interaction of visitors, loyalty to your readers / customers.
Create community on your website.
And the drawbacks to keep in mind would be these:
You are legally responsible for all the content of your website, and since the comments are content that is on your website, any illegal declaration could affect you.
They are the main objective of spammers, who will want to introduce links in comments of your publications.
In short, it is good to have active comments in the entries of your website but, to avoid spam and possible legal claims, the best thing is the previous moderation, so that no comments are visible until a moderator approves it.
Twitter Analytics Followers15. What role do I assign to different users?
WordPress is a multi-user environment, in which you can add as many users as you want. There are also several default user profiles that you can assign to users:
Subscriber: Most basic level; You can only modify the data of your user profile and comment without having to identify yourself in each comment.
Contributor: You can create entries and send them for review, not publish them directly; You can not upload files to your publications. You can only modify your entries.
Author: You can create entries, upload files to them, publish them and moderate comments to their entries. You can only modify your entries.
Editor: In addition to the author’s capabilities you can also create pages, and modify entries and moderate comments of any user.
Administrator: You have access to all the WordPress functionalities, including the installation and activation of themes and plugins, change of settings and creation of users.
