WordPress FAQs : Most Frequently Asked WordPress Questions [PDF]
According to the stats, hundreds of new users (beginners) join WordPress every day and those beginners have hundreds of questions to ask. In this post, I will be trying to answer WordPress related FAQs.
Here, I will be covering the WordPress (WordPress.org) related most frequently asked questions which I found to be important to know for beginners.
You’ll also get a free PDF containing all the important WordPress FAQs at the end of this post.
So, let’s get started…
WordPress FAQs
1. What are the differences between WordPress.org & WordPress.com?
However, these two services are quite different from each other but beginners get confused between these two. Differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com are written in the table below:
| WordPress.org | WordPress.com |
| It allows you to have self-hosted websites. | It doesn’t allow to have self-hosted websites. |
| You have a full domain on WordPress.org. e.g. YourDomain.com | You only have a sub-domain on WordPress.com. e.g. YourDomain.WordPress.com |
| You have full access to all your content. | You do not have full access to all your content. |
| WordPress.org provides the World’s most popular CMS software for free. | WordPress.com uses the software and allows people to have blogs for free (some premium packages too). |
| You get all features of good CMS software. | There are limited such features. |
Basically, non-profit WordPress Foundations owns the open-source CMS software WordPress.org but WordPress.com is owned by Automattic and which uses the CMS software by WordPress.org.
2. When was WordPress started?
WordPress was started back in 2003 by Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg. This well-architectured software was created as a personal publishing system.
3. Which languages have been used to build WordPress?
Today, WordPress mainly consists of PHP and MySQL languages. It also consists of little JavaScript and a large amount of HTML-CSS.
4. How much does it cost to start a WordPress website/blog?
To start a self-hosted WordPress blog/website, first of all, you need to get a Domain (e.g. YourDomain.com) registered for yourself. You can buy the domain from variously available registrars online like NameSilo, NameCheap, GoDaddy etc. Generally, buying a domain will cost you around $5-10 (sometimes it can cost $0 and sometimes it costs a lot more than that).
After buying the domain, you need to buy the Hosting from hosting providers like Bluehost, Namecheap, Hostgator, Siteground, WPEngine etc. Generally, hosting will cost you as per your traffic needs and anything between $2 and $300 (sometimes it may cost more than that) per month.
5. Can one make money with WordPress websites?
Yes, of course.
Many digital marketers out there are making money using their WordPress websites. People are heading over to WordPress rather than creating a coded one because it’s easy to update and manage.
Some marketers out there earn more than 6-7 figures using affiliate marketing and digital marketing on their WordPress websites.
6. What are some good free WordPress themes for blogging?
However, there are thousands of free and premium WordPress themes available but only a few works as per the expectations. Here, I have tried to mention some of the WordPress themes good for blogging:
- Hestia(Free+Premium): The very theme is used at our website digiTechnolog. Hestia is fully responsive, elegant looking, fast loading, SEO friendly and highly customizable WordPress theme.
You can download the theme Hestia here.
- Astra(Free+Premium): Astra is also an fast loading, customizable and SEO friendly WordPress theme. I guess this is the only WordPress theme which offers such a large number of customization option in its free version.
You can download the theme Astra here.
- Twenty Seventeen(Free): This theme is offered by WordPress itself. The theme lacks in customizability but loads very fast and is SEO friendly too.
You can download the theme Twenty Seventeen here.
- Schema(Premium): The theme is famous for its ultra-SEO friendliness, responsiveness and high customizability.
You can download the theme Schema here.
There are a lot and all can’t be mentioned here but these are one of the best themes as I have personally used these.
To know more details about these themes, you can take a look at my post, Best FREE WordPress Responsive Themes.
7. What are some examples of big companies/brands using WordPress to create their websites?
Some big notable brands also use WordPress websites in order to promote their business. Few great examples are:
- Mercedes-Benz
- BBC America
- Official Star Wars Blog
- Sony Music
- MTV News
- Beyonce Official
- Microsoft News Center
- Bata
- Time Inc.
- Mozilla Blog
- Katy Perry
- Inside Blackberry
These were the lists of some big brands out there who use WordPress CMS for their websites.
8. What are some important WordPress plugins for a blog?
There are hundreds of WordPress plugins available for you to use but for a normal blog like compile.blog few plugins are needed which are WP Super Cache, Contact Form 7, Google XML Sitemaps, All in One SEO Pack, Autoptimize, AddToAny Share Buttons, MCE Table Buttons, UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore etc.
You can know more about the Important Free WordPress Plugins for Blogs and Websites here.
9. How can I install different themes on my WordPress website?
In order to install themes, you will need to head over to Appearance >> Themes page in the WordPress admin panel, then click on Add New, select theme of your choice and click install.
If you have the theme in ZIP format then after clicking the Add New button, click the button called Upload Theme, select your ZIP file and click install.
You can find the theme of your choice by searching in the search box.
10. How can I add posts and pages on my WordPress websites?
In order to add different blog posts in your website, you will need to login to your WordPress admin panel and go to Posts >> Add New, write your post and publish it.
To add pages in the website, go to Pages >> Add New, design your page and publish it.
11. How can I add different forms inside my WordPress posts and pages?
You will need a form plugin in order to add different kinds of forms. Contact Form 7 is one of such plugins which is known for its simplicity and high customizability.
Using Contact Form 7 plugin, you can create Subscribe Forms, Contact Forms, Survey Forms etc. in just a few clicks.
12. Can I install WordPress locally on my computer?
Yes, you can.
You can use this local installation of WordPress for testing purposes. You can use XAMPP server for installing WordPress locally on your computer. Whether you run Windows, Linux or Mac; you can install WordPress locally on your computer.
People use local WordPress for creating and designing their websites before putting them live to avoid any kind of mistakes and testing.
WPBeginner has written a very good post on installing WordPress locally on your computer which you can take a look at here.
13. How can I track my WordPress website’s performance?
There are lots of services which you can use on your website in order to keep track of visitors and other important things related to your website.
I generally used to use Google Analytics on my website but for the last few months, I’m using a plugin, JetPack by WordPress.com. You will need to install the JetPack plugin on your website and create an account at WordPress.com and then you will have a track of all the activities on your WordPress website.
You can also integrate Google Analytics into your website. For this, first, you have to create an account at Google Analytics using your Gmail account, add your WordPress website to the account and get the tracking code by going to the ADMIN >> PROPERTY column >> Tracking Info >> Tracking Code >> Website tracking.
Since you have got the analytics tracking code, now you can add this code to your WordPress by inserting the code directly into your header.php file or by using plugins like Google Analytics and WP Google Analytics and inserting your tracking code.
In order to add the code manually to your website, you need to login to your WordPress admin panel and go to Appearance >> Editor where you should find header.php in the right-hand side Theme files column. Open the file by clicking on to it and paste the tracking code after the <body> tag as shown in the image below.
14. Can WordPress be hacked?
✅ The world’s top hackers claim that anything and everything can be hacked. Yes, everything is hackable.
WordPress is called to be safe and secure but it doesn’t mean that it cannot be hacked. If safety measures are not taken properly then there are chances that your WordPress site may get hacked.
You should use some WordPress security plugins like Sucuri (Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening) and Wordfence (Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan) to keep your site safe from brute force attacks and other security threats.
15. What are the signs of a hacked WordPress website?
Followings are the signs which may let you know if your WordPress site has been hacked?
- If some bad texts or links are added to the website.
- If there’s a sudden drop in your traffic.
- If you are not able to login to your site.
- If some extra user accounts are added suspiciously to your website.
- If the website becomes too slow suddenly.
- If server logs show some unusual activities.
- If you’re unable to receive emails sent to you at your domain email address.
If you notice anything unusual then it may be the case that your WordPress site has been hacked and you should get it recovered soon.
16. How to get back my hacked WordPress website?
You may lose your search engine’s ranking or even lose your entire website data if your WordPress site is hacked.
Here are few ways using which you can use to get back your hacked WordPress website.
- You can restore your complete website from backup if you had created backup earlier.
- Ask your hosting company to help you get your site back.
- Do malware scanning and removal. You can use a WordPress plugins like Sucuri and Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) for auditing your site and checking for any malicious files or codes.
- Change your passwords.
- Limit the login attempt. You can take a look at the post How and why to limit login attempts in WordPress by WPBeginner.
- Check user permissions.
There are chances that you may not get back your website after following these steps. In that case, you should immediately consult a professional to do it for you.
17. What are the steps that I can do in order to speed-up my WordPress website?
No one ever likes to visit slow loading websites until it’s the last option. In Google’s newer updates, it considers the website’s loading speed too in order to rank them. If your site’s speed is slow then it doesn’t only disappoint your users but negatively affects search engine rankings too.
You can check tools like Experte PageSpeed, GTMetrix, Google PageSpeed, and Pingdom in order to test the loading speed of your website.
Below are few tips using which you can optimize your site’s load speed to a greater extent.
- Use a highly optimized, SEO friendly WordPress theme.
- Use a caching WordPress plugin like WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache etc.
- Use server scaled and optimized images on your website. I use TinyPNG in order to compress my images.
- Use sites like YouTube and Vimeo to host your videos.
- Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
- Use gZip Compression and Browser Caching.
- Keep your WordPress version, themes and plugins always updated.
By following these steps you can considerably increase your site’s loading speed which will also help in increasing your search engine rankings.
Adding a navigation menu to your website is quite an easy task for you to do.
Go to Appearance >> Menus and create a new menu (if not already) by clicking on the create a new menu option. You can different pages, categories, posts and custom links to your menu.
You can add these menus to your site’s header, sidebar or footer.
Many free themes do not provide an option using which one can directly remove the footer credits of the theme and replace it but few free themes offer an option to replace the footer theme easily and directly.
Theme Astra does provide an option to replace the footer credits on your own.
However, there are few ways using which you can remove the footer credit of almost any WordPress theme. I have attached a video below which shows ways to remove the footer credit from WordPress themes.
20. Can I change the WordPress host?
Yes, you can.
I, generally, install the plugin All-in-One WP Migration by ServMask for migrating my host to another hosting service provider. For that, you need to install the All-in-One WP Migration WordPress plugin and Export your whole website to File (which is free) and Download & keep the backup file (.wpress file) safe.
After you have downloaded the file (.wpress) host your domain at your desired host, install blank WordPress and install the same All-in-One WP Migration plugin. After that, choose the option Import, select the option File, choose the file that you had downloaded and start uploading.
Wait… and voila! Done.
Note that at the time of exporting the site, if the file size is more than 512MB then this free version of the plugin won’t work and you need to buy the premium version of the plugin.
If you’re tight on the budget then consider other options for host migration. Some hosts offer free migration from the previous host too.
21. How can I take the regular backup of whole my website?
There are many WordPress plugins that can create a backup of your website. I too was hunting for a good plugin and finally got one.
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin is the one that works perfectly for me. I have used this plugin to automate the backup into my Google Drive.
There are many options that you can play with using the plugin. There are options for scheduled backup, cloud backup (Google Drive, Amazon S3, UpdraftPlus Vault, Dropbox etc.) in this plugin.
I’ve added the video below which will walk you through the installation and setup of the plugin UpdraftPlus.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=566Zw8e84lE%5D
The video will show you to set up the plugin to automatically backup your website to cloud storage like Google Drive and Dropbox.
Final Words
Quite long… huh.
I have written this vast post for all those who have just joined WordPress and have a lot of FAQs related to WordPress. The post contains 20+ most frequently asked WordPress related questions and will clear all your doubts related to starting a new WordPress website.
You may encounter some FAQs which aren’t mentioned in this post, you can ask those in the comments. I try to reply to all the comments.
