For today’s blog post, we created a beginner’s guide for those who want to create their WordPress website. If you are unsure what CMS stands for or what the difference is between a webshop and a service website, you will find your answers here. We will look at critical questions you need to understand before creating your WordPress website such as what types of websites are there, how a website is built, and what are the pros and cons of WordPress. Also, didn’t forget about hosting services either, so no matter which part of website development is still in a blur, reading this article will give you a good chance to clear things up for you, and gain a better understanding of the topic. At the end of the article, you will have a deeper understanding of the world of WordPress. Ready? Without further ado, let’s see what definitions you will often come across while developing your WordPress website!

Types of website

Basically, when it comes to WordPress website types, there are 3 different types: service website, webshop, and hybrid solution website. But let’s see what is the difference between these 3:

Service website

If you are a service provider, let’s say you offer car repair services, your website will be the place where you can present the services your business offers. Think of it as your online business card. On a service website, you can show the service you provide, details and references, reviews from your previous customers, and the data required to establish contact. This can be a contact page displaying your phone number, email address, office address, and a contact form that your customers can use to reach out to you. 

Webshop

In short, a webshop is an online store that is used to sell products. Its purpose is for the sale to take place through a specific process, without the intervention of the seller. A webshop is usually much more complicated and complex than a service page. Because in addition to the mandatory elements – such as the main page, about us page, blog section, and contact page – there are also product pages, product categories, a checkout page, the cart page, a page for shipment and payment conditions, etc. 

Not to mention how much automation runs in the background, such as payment, invoicing, sending letters, and so on. In the case of webshops, a relatively serious and complex system is needed. WooCommerce is an excellent solution to building your webshop, so 

Hybrid model

We talk about this when, for example, a business sells products too in addition to its services.

Technical structure

Now that we have taken a look at website types, let’s see some useful definitions you will come across when creating your website. Luckily, creating a website has never been as easy as it is today. In most cases, no programming knowledge is required, instead, your website can be easily assembled from ready-made components. But what are the most common definitions you need to understand? Let’s see them!

To make it easier to understand, first, we will take the example of building a house: 

Domain: This stands for the street and house number where you are building your house

Hosting: It means the lot on which the house is standing.

CMS: This includes the walls of your house, the roof, the rooms, the living space

Template: It stands for the look of the house, the color of the walls, and all the designer accessories you use to make it look better.

Plugins: All the individual extra equipment and functions, such as air conditioning or dishwasher.

Now let’s approach it professionally, shall we?

Domain: This is the access path of your website, you will have to type it into the browser, for example platinaxe.com 

Hosting: Hosting is a server on which your website runs. All elements related to the website can be found here: program codes, images, and videos.

CMS: It is a content management system (CMS) that helps you put together and operate your website without any programming knowledge.

CMSs can basically be divided into two types:

• Open source, like WordPress – this one is ideal for service sites
• A rental box solution like Shoprenter – this one is ideal for webshops

Template: The template defines the look of the website. You will need to set the layout and decide how the uploaded content should be displayed. This includes colors, shadows, borders, and spaces. As the templates evolve, editing the WordPress page will become more and more user-friendly.

Plugins: Extensions are additional elements of the website, they give extra functionality to the page. This can be a simple cookie warning, SEO settings, firewall protection, or webshop functions. To learn more about WordPress plugins, click here!

What is WordPress?

WordPress is, therefore, a content management system (CMS), which was developed to make website editing as simple as possible for anyone without programming knowledge. WordPress is very easy to use and flexible enough to create almost any website with it, be it a blog, portfolio, business, company website, or webshop. There is no web page editing need that cannot be met with it, so it is no coincidence that it is hugely popular and that the number of WordPress users is constantly growing.

Currently, based on recent data, 65.2% of all websites in the world – which run CMS and are not self-developed – are based on WordPress, including the websites of such large companies as Mercedes-Benz, Forbes, Sony Music, The Walt Disney Company, and Time Magazine.

This list is pretty convincing, isn’t it? If we’ve convinced you, after reading the article head to our previous blog posts, where you will be able to learn more about how to create your WordPress website! But now, let’s take a quick look at the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress websites. 

The advantages of WordPress

• WordPress is not only the most popular content management system but also the fastest expanding and developing one.
• A huge team of dedicated experts is behind this system, thanks to which the stability, reliability, continuous development, and updating of WordPress are guaranteed.
• It is in multiple languages and user-friendly, so after creating the website, you can easily create blog posts, upload portfolio elements, sell products, or manage an online course without any programming knowledge.
• A wide range of WordPress templates is available to users, that you can use to build a modern and responsive design (be it a web shop, a company website, or a sailing education landing page).
• WordPress websites can be easily expanded, so if a new function is needed in the future, it can be easily integrated into the already functioning website.
• It can handle a wide variety of media elements, so images, audio and video elements, documents, and files can be easily included when editing a website.
• It covers all criteria of technical SEO elements.
• Security is prioritized, so risks can be minimized with the right settings and updates.
• Creating a WordPress site is a cost-effective solution, using it you can save on the planning and programming of an entire content management system, i.e. CMS development.
• When it comes to WordPress, speed is not an obstacle either. Thus, huge sites such as, which generate huge traffic every day, are boldly using it.

Disadvantages of WordPress

Vulnerability, security issues

WordPress, like large software such as Windows, is vulnerable to attacks by bots and hackers.

However, this risk can be minimized easily by:

• choosing a reliable hosting provider
• getting your WP theme and plugins from a trusted source
• regularly installing updates
• using a strong password
• setting up a security plugin against attacks

Website speed

Page loading is affected by several things, and many people include WordPress here, even though this is a huge misconception. There is nothing wrong with the speed of WordPress. The problem is caused by something completely different and usually has a solution, I’ll show you:

• Weak storage space, which in most cases you choose to save money. Why do I need an expensive storage if it can be done for much less? However, slow hosting means that your site will also load slowly. The visitor, on the other hand, will not wait 5-8 seconds for your page to appear. He will simply back off and find someone else for you. So what you save on hosting, you lose many times more with customers who don’t choose you. That’s why we recommend reliable and fast hosting providers. It is worth paying attention to this already in the planning phase of creating your WordPress website. 
• Images are too large, which should be losslessly compressed and kept around 100kb. In most cases, it is not necessary to upload images of several MB on the page, because they do not add to the experience, but they greatly slow down the loading.
• Lots of plugins are installed unnecessarily. 
• Bad template choice can also be at the expense of speed. 

Final Thoughts: Who do we recommend WordPress to?

• For bloggers. Once the website is done, there is nothing else to do, only content production.
• For non-profit foundations due to the low maintenance cost and ease of use.
• For service providers who want their own website to display their portfolio or references.
• For companies, because it is a customizable, cost-effective solution that can be freely expanded as the company grows and broadens its scope of activities.
• To create a landing page that can be used to support the company’s marketing campaign.