Simple Answers to Simple WordPress questions – that you are probably afraid to ask

You can download the latest version of WordPress from WordPress.org right here.

To install WordPress locally or on your server, you can refer to this WordPress Installation Guide. However, if you are not a techie, it might be best to reach out to your hosting provider either requesting them to install it for you or to guide you. Most hosting providers have a single click install for popular platforms such as WordPress.

If you are wondering how to login to your own WordPress website, you can do that by usually appending ‘wp-login’ to the end of your website. For more help, here’s how to find your WordPress login URL.

This is a very broad question, so it really depends on what you are trying to do here.
Do you want to know
– How to develop a new WordPress plugin
– How to develop a new WordPress theme
– How to make changes to an existing WordPress theme
– How to make changes to an existing WordPress plugin

You can’t contact the WordPress.org team by phone or email. However, you can expect a reply by requesting help in the Support Forum. It is recommended that you go through the extensive documentation before you do that though, since it is highly likely that your question is answered there already.

If you have a WordPress website that is hosted with WordPress.com, you can reach out to them via these support channels.

Before you update WordPress, you should always take a full backup of your website, restore the backup on a test site and verify your backup works. Here’s how to safely update WordPress to the latest version without losing content.

In super-simple layman terms, WordPress is a free software ‘tool’ that can be used to build websites. While the product itself is free, you still need to pay for hosting.
In technical terms, WordPress is a Content Management System that is Open Source software released under the GPL license.

According to W3 Techs, 43.2% of all websites in the world are powered by WordPress. This is as on March 14, 2023.

If you want to find a theme for your WordPress website, you have several options –
1. Free WordPress themes listed on the official WordPress.org Directory. These themes are code-reviewed by a team of volunteers before they are included in the directory, so I would place a high level of confidence on free themes listed here.
2. Premium or Commercial Themes
There are several WordPress Theme Stores that have professionally-designed themes that you can use. Most of these theme shops charge a recurring fee for ongoing support and updates.

– Demo
Go through the theme’s demo website to see if you like it
– Free Version
Check if the theme that you short-list, has a free version that you could try first before you decide to upgrade to premium.
– Refund Policy
Be sure to confirm the store a Moneyback guarantee / Refund Policy in case you realize the theme isn’t right for you.
– Block-based / FSE themes
Best to avoid classic themes, and opt for block-based / Full Site Editing Themes.

Yes, WordPress is fairly easy to learn. Plus there are plenty of free WordPress tutorials to help you get started – For example, this is an excellent place to start – Learn WordPress

Yes, as an end-user, you don’t have to be an engineer to be able to use WordPress. You do need to be a little technically savvy though.

Absolutely yes. There are plenty of popular ecommerce plugins for WordPress, the most commonly used for WordPress ecommerce stores are WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.