How does WordPress work? WATCH NEWER VIDEO BELOW

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If you're using WordPress as your platform for a website, you might be curious.

Here's a highlevel look at what is happening behind the scenes with the directory or folder structure, database, PHP files & template hierarchy.

1) It's PHP software + a database which provides a content management system for your website. Creating, building & managing a website is incredibly easy.

2) It's free & open source. The learning curve may be high, but you have complete flexibility when it comes to designing the exact website you want. Because it's opensource, people extend the functionality of the WordPress core by programming plugins to make your life easier.

3) You download a ZIP file for manual installation. I prefer an easier method: 1click WordPress install using QuickInstall. This is available with HostGator.

4) WordPress consists of files, directories and a database on your web server. Even though it's straightforward, this can sometimes confuse those wanting to find out "how does WordPress work?" from a software standpoint if they aren't tech savvy.

The file structure consists of three main directories at the toplevel of your WordPress installation wpadmin, wpcontent and wpincludes and these are where files are stored as you continue to use WordPress.

The "wpadmin" directory is what builds your WordPress admin pages that allows you to easily update your website.

The "wpcontent" directory stores your themes, plugins and uploads (such as images, PDF files).

The "wpincludes" directory contains the core WordPress software, which means you don't want to touch this folder!

When you first install WordPress, you need to setup one database on your website host. That database will have a name and password, and must have an approved user to edit.

Once the database is setup, those details are stored in the "wpconfig.php" file.

From there, every time you add new content to your website it will be stored correctly in your database.

FYI, to create a complete backup, you must backup both the files on your web server and also the MySQL database.

5) You can preview the aforementioned file structure using an FTP program (FileZilla is my choice for PC and Mac), or directly from the file manager within your web host.

https://filezillaproject.org/

6) You can always adjust or test a new design by activating different themes. Then once you find a theme you like, you can customize it completely if you know enough code.

7) Each WordPress theme is one directory with PHP, CSS, and JS files (sometimes other filetypes, but mainly these)

8) There are both free and paid themes. There are advantages to both if you are a complete beginner, you may not feel comfortable investing in a premium theme that is updated and has advanced features. In this case, learning WordPress and developing a website with a free theme is a great way to build your skills and confidence.

But if you truly want to develop professional websites, particularly if you want to make money by managing small business or client websites, then you absolutely should use a paid, premium theme.

My theme company of choice is iThemes, and I subscribe to their developer pack which includes the Builder framework and 90+ child themes to choose from. So I have access to 90 beautiful designs that allow me to create a website in a fraction of the time it would take to customize manually.

9) The PHP files within each theme directory are known as "template files", and WordPress determines which PHP file is used to generate the page with the "template processor" engine. A great visual and flowchart of this process can be seen here: http://codex.wordpress.org/images/1/1...

10) You can add extended functionality to your website with WordPress plugins. Think contact forms, tables, SEO, 301 redirects, social media, list building, etc.

So that's how WordPress works from a high level.
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