Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Website Types

WordPress is, without a doubt, one of the most–if not the most–popular Content Management Systems out there. The most significant factors contributing to its popularity are that it is open-source, flexible, and user-friendly. Those three combine to create a platform that is not only straightforward to work with but is also incredibly adaptive to many different purposes. For that reason, there are many WordPress website types that you can create. Many misconceptions exist online about what kind of sites users can create with WordPress. Many even assume that it is solely for blogging.

However, that assumption cannot be further from the truth. In this blog post, we will explore the most prevalent ones. We will tell you all you need to know about them, some good plugins and theme ideas, and much more. With all this said, let us dive straight in with the first example!

Blogging Sites

Is anyone surprised this is our first suggestion? WordPress was created as a blogging platform, after all. To that end, it remains one of the best options for creating a blogging site even today, many years after its inception.

Blogging is still an excellent way to connect with like-minded people, express opinions, showcase your creative site, and much more. It lets you put yourself out there, build an audience, and monetize your content.

A blog can be on any topic you want. It is your personal space! You decide what to do with it. It can be a great way to share what is on your mind or even use it to reinforce your brand with news, updates, advertisements, and so on. Or anything in between. There are endless topics a blog can be about. Here are a few popular ones.

• Personal stories, thoughts, or opinions;
• Written, photo or video essays;
• News;
• Hobby or skill showcase;
• Recipes;
• Product updates;
• Podcasts.

For example, we use our blog to educate, inform, and inject light-heartedness into the world of web hosting. It is a great companion to our website, providing insight and news in one place.

Finally, here is a quick list of awesome themes and plugins for blogs, whether new or ongoing.

• Themes – These themes are all lightweight, fast, and perfect for creating great-looking blog sites:
  • Astra;
  • GeneratePress;
  • Kadence;
  • Hestia;
• Plugins – The plugins below will add vital functionality to your blogging site to help it grow and streamline managing it:
  • YoastSEO – Optimize your blog for better search engine rankings. Even its free version is sufficient for new bloggers;
  • WPForms – Sign-up and contact forms are a staple of blogs. WPForms is an excellent, lightweight choice, capable of creating all sorts of forms;
  • Pre-Publish Checklist – Create dedicated checklists for your pages and posts. This plugin will help you streamline your creation process;
  • MonsterInsights – Analytics are vital to the success of any website. MonsterInsights will help you track them and focus on what your readers want to see.

The themes and plugins above are perfect for a blogging website. They will elevate your blog from a simple page with text to something users will be excited to read.

Personal and Showcase Sites

Similar to a blog, a personal or showcase website is a place to display your personality, work, skills, or hobbies to the world.

However, unlike a blog, these websites are typically more akin to a portfolio. A blog focuses on a consistent stream of content, while a personal showcase site is more akin to a portfolio.

Its purpose is to show off who you are or what you can do without offering constant updates to your visitors. A site like this consists of mostly static pages with content from the author, whether art, music, photographs or even events from personal life.

Nowadays, though, sites like these typically include blog sections (or the other way around). This combination of both types makes for an interesting and engaging website that can be dynamic with frequent updates while also containing a polished, well-designed showcase section.

The themes and plugins we mentioned in the previous part are all perfectly fine for a site like this. However, consider a more specialized theme if you want to create a solely personal or showcase website like this. Perfect Portfolio is one such, explicitly designed for this purpose. As for plugins, you can have a look at some of the more portfolio-oriented ones.

Whether you have a blog to complement your personal website or not, a site like this is an amazing way to show the world what you are capable of. We do recommend a blog, though—it is great fun!

Business and eCommerce Sites

You might not consider it–seeing how it is supposedly a blogging platform–but WordPress can easily create and sustain business or eCommerce websites.

Whether you want a website to showcase your business’ services, team, or portfolio or want to sell online, WordPress is an excellent and reliable solution, especially with online shopping being a significant part of our everyday lives.

A business website is a vital tool for any business nowadays. It helps establish an online presence, which in turn does so much for the company itself. Such an online presence can build credibility and trust with your customers, two of the most important things you can have as a business owner.

Such a site usually includes essential information for the brand and business themselves.

• Contact information and business hours;
• Services and pricing;
• An FAQ or knowledge base section;
• A blog for news or other helpful content;
• Even an online storefront for those who prefer to shop online.

On the other hand, there are dedicated eCommerce websites that deal solely with online shopping. As you saw in the list above, business sites can have an eCommerce section, which is what many modern companies do. They have a consolidated place where customers can learn about their products and purchase them.

However, while a business site is primarily informational, an eCommerce one is transactional, meaning you must have ways of processing customer orders, payments, disputes, and so on. Whether you are building a business or eCommerce site or combining them, you will find that WordPress has everything you need.

For example, Kadence, OceanWP, and Sydney are great themes that can help create excellent business and eCommerce sites. As for plugins, one of the most popular is WooCommerce. This excellent eCommerce plugin is highly customizable and will fit any business or online shopping website. Not only that, but it has its own themes and extra plugins and is highly compatible with many others.

If you want to create a website for your existing business or want to start selling online, WordPress is an excellent platform.

Online Courses and Educational Sites

The Internet is a well of knowledge, however, sometimes we need a professional touch to comprehend the information we are seeing fully. Educational sites are a fantastic way to help others learn, share your knowledge, or even promote an academic institution.

Whether you are a teacher who wants to educate others, have extensive knowledge and experience in a field, or want to advertise a school, academy, or other place of learning, creating a website with WordPress is something you should definitely consider.

An online course can be in text, audio, or video, but often it combines all three. No matter what format you choose for your educational website, WordPress has all the tools you need in the form of Learning Management Systems (LMS).

These plugins are simple to install but full of features that will help you manage and organize your classes and students. Here are a few notable examples.

• TutorLMS
• LearnPress
• SenseiLMS
• LifterLMS
• MasterStudyLMS

We have a blog post for LMS plugins here, if you would like to learn about a few more options.

As for themes, you can use any of the multipurpose themes we mentioned above, or something more specialized. MasterStudy also has a theme, for example. Divi Edu and WPLMS are also good choices for education-oriented themes. For even more theme suggestions take a look at this blog post.

If you have what it takes to teach others, a website offering online courses is a great way to not only help others but also earn extra money. This is especially true if you have knowledge that is niche, specialized, or not widely available.

News and Magazine Sites

The final WordPress website type we will examine is for news, magazines, or any other informational content.

The best part is that WordPress’s great features are excellent for this type of website by default. The page and post editors are already more than capable of producing eye-catching content with enticing headlines. Combine that with a great newsfeed plugin and a theme, and you have everything you need to start.

On the other hand, WordPress can be also used for magazine websites. While a news site focuses on timely, current updates, a magazine primarily comprises long-form articles, interviews, opinion pieces, etc. Since the two WordPress website types overlap, you can easily combine them. It is not rare for a magazine website to have a news section. You can use it to display news regarding the topic of your magazine.

Finally, we also want to mention that a WordPress site can make an amazing podcast companion. Podcasts are usually hosted on streaming platforms, but a dedicated website is a great addition to the experience. You can place all your relevant links within it, including news, interviews, or anything else relevant!

What Makes WordPress So Flexible?

The WordPress website types we mentioned so far are all very different. They require a different approach, layout, and content. Yet, you can create each one with WordPress, and that is all thanks to the platform’s proven flexibility.

The biggest reasons WordPress is so adaptable are its open-source nature, plugins, and themes. Anyone who downloads WordPress can edit the code and change it to fit their own needs. Because of that, WordPress has nurtured a truly dedicated and gigantic community of creators who have created countless plugins and themes for any kind of website.

Just by reading this blog post, you were introduced to many completely different plugins that add specific functionalities. You also learned about all the various themes, each tailored for a particular type of website. If WordPress were not open-source and did not support its community the way it does, we would not have any plugins or themes. It would just be a blogging platform.

WordPress is also incredibly easy to work with. It is one of the most intuitive CMSs online—no wonder it powers more than 40% of all websites!

WordPress is an excellent choice if you want to start your own website. Check out our tutorial section, where we go over everything you need to know. We will show you how to install the application, configure it, and create pages and posts.

Versatile But Accessible

Any of the WordPress website types we mentioned is wholly possible with the platform. It is easily one of the most–if not the most–popular ways to create a website. Its flexibility, adaptability, and ease of use make it an appealing choice for beginners and professionals alike.

The combination of its open-source code with the varied plugins and themes has allowed the fantastic WordPress community to create features and appearances that fit a wide variety of websites. Top that with an intuitive dashboard and creation methods, and you have a platform that can create any website.