Is WordPress Easy to Use For Beginners?

wordpress icon

Are you thinking about using WordPress for your next website, but aren’t sure if WordPress is easy to use? Well, if you are asking yourself that question, then you’re in the right place because I am going to try and answer that to the best of my ability. However, before you start to consume all of the wonderful content that lies ahead, please be aware that this topic is rather subjective and what’s easy for one person to understand might not hold true for you.

Ok, now that my little friendly disclaimer is out of the way, please feel free to enjoy the article and remember to share with your friends if you think I did a good job at answering this question!

Getting Started With WordPress

If you’re new to the world of web design and development, or if you’ve only had experience with platforms such as Squarespace or WiX, then WordPress might feel a little bit overwhelming to use at first. However, it is important to know that you will need to actually make an attempt to use the WordPress CMS before rushing any unnecessary judgements.

Before getting started and trying to learn how to do a ton of fancy tricks (which I know all of us want to do at some point) it is best to start off slow by first learning what happens after you install your very first WordPress Theme. I’ll talk more about themes in a separate article, but choosing an appropriate theme for your website is where you’ll want to start first. Using a prepackaged option such as a premade theme is an excellent choice for beginners and will make your life a lot easier down the road (trust me).

Building Custom Websites With WordPress

If you are wondering if it’s relatively easy to build a custom website with WordPress, well that all depends on how you interpret the term custom website. If you’re only trying to customize the look and feel of your new WordPress website, then there are plenty of tools to help you get the job done relatively quickly and easily. For example, many experienced WordPress users use something called front end builders and these modern web design tools allow you to customize the look and feel of your website while viewing it in real time.

If you choose not to use a front end builder, then you will be stuck with limited design options based on your choice of theme and you will be forced to try and manipulate your page layouts with the WordPress Block Editor (aka Gutenburg), or the WordPress Classic Editor and both of these options can limit creativity and workflow for those without development experience.

If you’re interested in trying a front end builder for yourself check out my following picks…

  1. Elementor
  2. Divi
  3. Fusion Builder
  4. WP Bakery Builder

I highly suggest you at least give a few of these a shot because they will make your initial WordPress experience a lot better than most. 

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I am not affiliated with any of the following companies and they did not pay me to endorse their front end builders. Those are just the tools I am most familiar with using and I listed them in chronological order from my most favorite to my least favorite.

Is It Hard to Build An Online Store With WordPress?

If you’re also wondering if WordPress is easy to use option for building e-commerce websites, well, in my opinion, yes. However, there are some things inside this robust CMS that I think users should be aware of, so let’s talk about those and perhaps it will put you a step ahead of your competitors in case you want to build your own e-commerce store.

If you want to start selling your products right away on WordPress, then you’ll first want to install WooCommerce. This handy dandy little plugin will help you create product pages, let you upload product images, edit pricing, and much more. Basically, WooCommerce is an out of the box solution that will help you get your new E-Commerce site up and running in no time, and yes it is very easy to use.

Does WordPress Make It Easy to Accept Payments?

Accepting payments on your WordPress website is a relatively simple and straightforward process and only usually requires a few minutes of your time to setup. If you’re just trying to sell products that you have uploaded into your online store and require no subscription payment plans or split payment options, then you will probably only have to download a plugin that supports your payment processor.

If you haven’t chosen a payment processor yet and are wondering what options might be best for your WordPress website, then I suggest doing some research on the following companies. Each company listed has a ton of payment solutions that can be easily integrated into WooCommerce and shouldn’t be much of a headache.

Is Blogging Easy On WordPress?

WordPress was originally developed as a platform specifically for bloggers, so WordPress itself definitely caters to users who are avid bloggers and creating a blog is extremely easy to do with this platform.

Is Adding Users Easy?

Yes. In fact, adding a new user to your WordPress site is very straightforward and simple and it can be done in two simple steps.

  • Step One: Hover over Users on the left side of your WordPress Dashboard and select Add New.
  • Step Two: When you’re redirected to the Add New User page, just fill out the required information and set their user role.

step one of adding a new user to wordpresshow to add a new user to wordpress

After you have completed this process, WordPress should send your new user an automated e-mail with their new login information and password. That’s all there is to it. Easy as pie, right? This is one of the simplest things to do on WordPress and you can add as many users as you would like.

What If I Need to Remove a User?

Removing a user from WordPress is quite easy, too! If you have to remove one or more of your users from your website, then the steps are very similar to the ones for adding users except instead of pressing the Add New option, you will just select All Users instead.

Here are the quick steps…

  • Step One: Hover over Users on the left side of your WordPress Dashboard and select All Users.
  • Step Two: When you’re redirected to the All Users page, just select the user you want to remove and press delete. You can also delete multiple users by selecting delete from the bulk actions dropdown menu (See the screenshot below if you are having trouble locating the dropdown).

bulk user remove dropdown in wordpress

Will I Need a Developer to Edit My WordPress Website?

This is a good question and one that has about two definitive answers. If you’ve opted to just install a template and replace images and text, then you will not require the assistance of an experienced developer to manage your WordPress website. This is usually almost always the case even if you’ve opted to hire a professional web designer to create something a little more custom fit for your needs.

In most situations, the only time you should have to hire a WordPress developer is if you decide that you wanted to add any special functionality to your WordPress website. Since special functionality can be a fairly subjective term in itself, let me provide you with a few real world examples.

How Difficult Is WordPress Maintenance?

Let’s move on and talk about website maintenance with WordPress! For many of you, updating and performing maintenance on the WordPress CMS will be as simple as clicking a button or two. In fact, the majority of users will only ever have to worry about updating their current version of WordPress, their active WordPress theme and whatever plugins that are currently active on their website.

Please be aware that in some cases your website might go down if you install a theme or plugin update that may not be compatible with your current version of WordPress, so always be sure to backup your website before performing maintenance on your website.

Also stay tuned because I will be releasing an article here in a week or two on How to Fix Your WordPress Website if this happens to you.

Using Plugins With WordPress

Hopefully by this point and time in the article you I will have explained enough about WordPress that will help you decide if WordPress is easy to use or not, but just in case you haven’t, let’s talk a little bit about WordPress Plugins. Plugins are tools that you can download for your WordPress website that allow you to add extra features without any prior development experience.

Are Plugins Relatively Easy to Use?

Most plugins are very straightforward and simple to use and usually only require minimal configuration. On a separate note, there are a few plugins out there that I have used in the past which require a great deal of patience and work to configure properly, but those kinds of plugins are usually very few and far between.

What Plugins Should I Consider Using?

The types of plugins you’ll want to use with your brand new WordPress site will definitely vary and will ultimately depend on how you want your website to function; however, I have prepared a small list of reliable WordPress Plugins that almost all website owners will want to start off with.

  1. YoastSEO – This plugin is a must have so you can submit your XML sitemap, write meta descriptions, and more.
  2. AutoOptimize – This plugin enables things like CSS and HTML minification to help improve website performance. Click here to learn more about website performance.
  3. WPSmush – This plugin helps make your website even faster by compressing your images.

Those three plugins (or some type of variation of them) are used by most WordPress site owners and will help you become familiar with the process of installing and using new plugins.

Moreover, let’s circle back to talking about finding specific plugins for your website’s purpose. If you’re not a developer and you’re looking to add something such as a photo gallery or slider on your website, then there is most certainly plugins available for those types of things. There are even plugins to help you build nice looking forms and triggered popups.

So, what plugins you decide to use will definitely depend on your specific tastes and how you want users to interact with your website, but fortunately plugins are one of the great things about WordPress and what makes it easy to use for beginners. I encourage you to go experiment with a few on your new WordPress website and learn what suits your website the best!

Conclusion

My overall conclusion is that WordPress can be easy to use and is a great option for users who aren’t well versed in the world of web design and development. WordPress has thousands of out of the box solutions that can make your WordPress experience extremely rewarding and headache free. Users mostly start to experience difficulty with this platform when they try to create custom solutions themselves or they try their hand at more complex development techniques involving CSS, HTML, JAVASCRIPT, or PHP.

That being said, WordPress is one of the best platforms around if you’re looking for an easy solution for building your next website. If you’re having trouble with WordPress and need help with more complex solutions, remember to contact me and I will be glad to help you fix any of your problems on your WordPress website.

As always, if you have something to add or want to ask me a question, then feel free to leave me a comment. I look forward to hearing from you.