Why Use WordPress? The Answers You Need For Your Website

<2>Why Use WordPress?: A General System Overview

Are you looking for an intuitive and user-friendly content management system to create a website for your business? Have you considered using WordPress but aren’t sure if it’s the right platform for your blogs and SEO content?

If so, this article is just the article you need. In it, we will answer important questions, like “Why use WordPress?” and “How do I use WordPress?” We will also go into great detail and cover specific topics, like setting and adjusting featured image size and dimensions in WordPress.

Want to know how to add plugins and customize your site theme? We address those points, as well. By the end of this article, you will have all the information you need to create a functional, SEO-optimized site using WordPress. Let’s get started!

Why Use WordPress to Build Your Website?

If you research content management systems, you will encounter names like Shopify, Magento, Wix, and WordPress. Before we get into the specific features and capabilities of WordPress, it is crucial to understand what makes this system unique in a crowded marketplace.

For starters, it is a more versatile option than Magento and Shopify. While these two programs include some plugins and theme options, they are for e-commerce. If you are not opening a basic online store, or if you want to have an SEO blog on your website, then you will need a system like WordPress or Wix.

WordPress vs. Wix/Squarespace

Now that we’ve narrowed down your options a bit let’s address how WordPress outperforms both Wix and Squarespace. The latter sites are perhaps the two most prominent content management systems in competition with WordPress, but neither offers the same plugins, customizability, or SEO value.

WordPress is an entirely free and open-source software. “Open-source software” means that you have unfettered access to use, study, change and distribute WordPress’s source code. For most users, an OSS enables them to create their plugins, generate new themes, and optimize the site to meet their needs. 

WordPress is also adaptable, so you can create any website type that you want. In addition, WordPress is easy to learn and even supports numerous types of media. Many competitors only accept specific media formats, which means that you would need to tailor your content to match standard programming.

With WordPress, you will have total control of your website, which allows you to revamp the layout, upload new blogs, and even change the themes at any time.

WordPress is truly adaptable, allowing you to scale your site with new themes and plugins as your business expands. As you can see, understanding the various available themes and plugins is at the heart of creating an organic, interactive site.

WordPress Featured Image Size and Dimensions

During your quest to build an SEO-friendly website on WordPress, you will encounter various tech terms and phrases, such as WordPress featured image size. 

“How to know featured image size” is undoubtedly one of the most commonly researched questions by new WordPress users. Also known as a post thumbnail, a featured image’s size is in pixels.  

Image dimensions are also an indicator of image size and are expressed as a number times (multiplied by) a number. For example, your image size and dimensions maybe 200X400 pixels. While it may not seem like a significant concern, having the appropriate image size and dimensions is essential for SEO purposes and affects your web page’s cohesiveness.

A featured image expresses in multiple ways, which will largely depend on the theme and layout of your site. For example, you can place the featured image on your archive page, above a blog post, or in the header. You should place your image in a manner that compliments written content.

What is the Ideal WordPress Featured Image Size?

One of the essential parts of creating a high-performing WordPress site is your theme. A good theme will tie all of your content together and draw additional website traffic. On the other hand, a poorly chosen theme can have adverse effects and diminish conversion rates.

While it would be highly convenient to have a one-size-fits-all featured image size, this is not always the case. Your theme and plugins will determine which image sizes perform the best on your site. However, a 1200X628-pixel feature image performs well with the majority of WordPress websites.

How to Edit Footer in WordPress

As you might have guessed, the “footer” of your site refers to the foot or bottom of your website page. Since WordPress is an open-source platform, you can edit the layout and content of your website’s footer.

“How to edit footer in WordPress” is a frequent question. The simplest way to do it is through the “Appearance” tab. Select this tab, then select the “Theme Editor” widget that is standard with WordPress. You should have access to this without needing to download any plugins.

Underneath the “Theme Editor” tab, you will see what is known as a “file tree,” which simply refers to the list of files that appears beneath the primary theme editor tab on your site. Select the appropriate file, which will most likely read “footer.php.”

Make the desired changes to your footer’s coding and simply press “Update File.” Your website now has a custom footer. Be careful; a mistake here could crash your website. That said, WordPress does check the code itself before allowing you to save changes.

There is an alternative should you prefer to make edits in your controlled environment. If you want to go this route, open up your WordPress installation titled “wp-content/themes/[name of your theme]/footer.php.” You should see your currently installed theme name in the center of that address.

After you access the appropriate file, edit the coding on your personal computer. Once finished, all you need to do is upload the altered file to your host site.

Does Theme Affect How to Edit Footer in WordPress?

With all the talk of themes and plugins earlier on in this article, you may be concerned that these factors will drastically change how to edit a footer in WordPress. Fortunately, the basic footer-editing process is the same for virtually every theme, and the plugins should never affect the editing process.

However, some themes do include a shortcut for editing the footer. If the theme author had WordPress Customizer plugins, you would select the “Appearance” tab followed by the “Customize” tab. Then, given a list of options for editing the layout and contents of your site’s footer appears.

How to Duplicate a Page in WordPress

We weren’t kidding when we said that WordPress is highly versatile and user-friendly. One of the most significant benefits of being an open-source content management system is access to hundreds of plugins. These plugins facilitate the performance of various tasks on your website, including page duplication.

There are several ways that you can duplicate your existing WordPress website pages, and all of them start with downloading plugins. Of the various plugins available, three are the most popular for copying your site pages. They are:

Duplicate Post Plugins

It may sound a bit redundant, but this series of plugins is named “Duplicate Post.” They allow you to duplicate either your post or entire pages of your site. The plugins can help you differentiate your original website page from the clone with simple prefix and suffix options.

Duplicate Page and Post Plugins

This alternative to our first option has a just-as-obvious name. Like the plugins described above, this option allows you to clone a single site post or an entire page. It does not have as many features as “Duplicate Post,” but it is swift at cloning your website.

Duplicate Page

We promise that many of the other plugins incorporate more creative names. However, it seems the duplication plugin makers decided to keep things pretty bland. “Duplicate Page” is one of our most feature-laden cloning plugins. It is easy to use but just a bit slower than our second choice.

Why Duplicate Pages in WordPress?

One of the most common inquiries we receive is “how to duplicate a page in WordPress.” However, you may be wondering why anyone would want to duplicate existing website content.

The primary reason that website owners want to duplicate content is to protect all of their hard work. Whether you partner with a web-page designer or build your site on your own, the process involves hours of dedication. If you do not have recent backup files, a website crash will force you to start from scratch.

How to Edit HTML WordPress

Another common question we receive concerns editing HTML on WordPress. While you have likely heard the term “HTML,” you may not know what it is or how it affects your site.

Simply put, HTML is the industry-standard markup language for creating sites. Without proper HTML implementation, your prospective clients will never get the chance to see your SEO-optimized blogs or other content.

Not only will you need HTML for individual blog posts, but it is also crucial for your site’s theme. Here’s how to edit HTML WordPress and get the most out of SEO best practices.

Edit HTML WordPress for Singular Blogs/Pages

The most straightforward editing process involves altering HTML for individual blogs, service pages, and other SEO-related content. The best way to do this is by installing Gutenberg, which is a WordPress block editor.

The editing plugin has a “Custom HTML” block that makes altering your page extremely easy and efficient. All you need to do is paste the HTML that you have chosen into that block, and the editor will take care of the rest.

Edit Source Code

Editing source code is much more complex than HTML editing for blog pages. A single misstep can undo all your hard work and render your website virtually useless.

The best thing to do for editing source code on your WordPress site is to partner with an industry expert, like Firetoss.

How Firetoss Helps With WordPress Sites

We develop, build, and manage digital brands across various industries. We can even coach you through simple tasks, such as how to duplicate a page in WordPress. Our diverse in-house team can create a custom site for you from the ground up, all while optimizing your blogs and other content for SEO. If you want to take your industry by storm, you need an innovative partner, like Firetoss.