Your website
WordPress, explained for people who own one
Roughly two in five websites run on WordPress. If yours is one of them, there are about six things worth understanding, and none of them require you to touch code.
What it is
The two WordPresses, which is the first confusion
- WordPress.org is free software you install on hosting you control. You own everything and you are responsible for keeping it updated.
- WordPress.com is a hosted service run by a company, with plans and limits. Simpler, less control.
- Most business sites built by an agency are the first kind. If you are not sure which you have, ask who your hosting provider is. If there is an answer, it is almost certainly .org.
How it works
Themes and plugins, in one sentence each
- A theme controls how the site looks. A plugin adds something the site can do.
- A contact form is a plugin. A store is a plugin. A security scanner is a plugin. Each one is software written by somebody else, running on your site.
- That is the whole reason plugin count matters. Every plugin is another thing that needs updating and another thing that can break.
What to check
What you are actually responsible for
- WordPress core, your theme and every plugin all release updates, frequently for security reasons.
- A site nobody updates does not fail immediately. It quietly accumulates known vulnerabilities that are published, catalogued and scanned for automatically.
- This is the single most common reason a small business site gets compromised, and it has nothing to do with being targeted.
Worth knowing
The questions worth asking whoever built it
- Who holds the hosting and domain logins.
- Which parts can I edit myself without calling you.
- Who applies updates, and how often.
- Where are the backups, and has anyone restored from one.
- What happens to the site if we stop working together.
The short version
You do not need to learn WordPress. You need to know who is responsible for updating it, and where the backups are.
Start here
Not sure who is responsible for your WordPress site?
Send us the address. We will tell you what version it is on, what needs updating, and whether anything is exposed. It takes us about ten minutes and costs nothing.
800.274.6775Free consultation · Family owned · Never outsourced
- You talk to the people who do the work, not an account handler.
- Fixed scope and fixed price before anything starts.
- You own every file, every login, and every asset. Always.
- Straight answers, including when the answer is that you do not need us.
Tell us about your business
A few details and we will follow up within one business day.