WordPress Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Web and Mobile App Development

How Much Does A WordPress Website Cost?

Posted on November 17, 2021 by Jay

WordPress being an open source software is affordable and really value for money.

Are you planning to develop a website for your business?

If yes, this blog will help you to decide on the best option available.

Here I’m sharing the details regarding the WordPress website development cost.

Also you can get an idea of how to develop a WordPress Website with a minimal cost and avoid overspending.

Since it is free being an Open-Source Software, it gives you the freedom to install it for any kind of website.

Then the question arises, from where does the cost arise?

Here you go, the cost for a WordPress site includes,

Buying a Domain
Spend for WordPress Hosting
Buy Plugins and Extension (Apps), if any
Buy ready-made theme/customize designs

The WordPress website can start with as low as $75.

What is required to develop a Website?

For developing a website you need a domain name, a hosting plan, themes and other basic criteria that will help you to develop a better website.

The first thing you need is a domain name. It will be your website address on the internet. This is what your users will enter in the browser to visit your website.

The standard cost of a domain is pretty much affordable. The cost starts as low as $12 for each year for a typical .net, .com, .org and many more.

Next, if you’re planning to develop a self-hosted WordPress website, you need to buy a web hosting plan, which helps you to store your files.

There are various hosting plans available for every kind of website. You need to choose the one that suits best of your requirements and fits to your budget.

In WordPress, you get a wide range of ready-made templates that you can choose for your website.

However, if you want to customize you can purchase a template and deploy a developer to do the customization or go for a Custom WordPress development Company.

There are more than 58k+ free plugins available for WordPress, which provides features like contact form, gallery, etc.

So, it depends on you, whether you want to build a website by just hosting, the domain cost will add up accordingly. But you might need to pay for extra tools and services. It confuses people to find the real cost to develop a WordPress site.

(Source – Sag IPL)

Design and Themes:

WordPress provides various themes available for every user. For some themes you have to pay. These themes are best for beginners, but these themes don’t provide all the necessary features for serious business owners.

WordPress provides a massive library for themes. You need to browse to find what you are looking for. You can make the changes later using the WordPress Plugin. It helps you to find a theme that fits your website.

You need to decide whether you want your website to be a simple one or a professional one.

Also you can filter the search results using these features, layout, and subject related to the vision.

But it is not compulsory to use WordPress’s premade templates. If you want to use another template you can get it from different websites like Template monster.

Also, while choosing a WordPress theme for your website, make sure it’s a mobile-friendly theme.

Most users go for premium themes to get maximum features. Some premium themes come with membership packages that are purchased either annually or for a lifetime that come with a minimum of $57. Some themes have pro upgrade features that start from $54.

However, you can buy themes from a third-party SaaS company like ThemeForest, elegant, etc. It doesn’t integrate automatically with the native plug-in that you want for your website.

The WordPress professionals usually charge depending on the specific task and the work your website needs. For example, a 5 page website (that consists of home, about, contact, blog, pricing) will charge you at a minimum cost of $100 as a one-time price you pay for a basic set-up and design.

Also, if you are adding any custom work to your websites the cost increases. For customization in your website you need to hire WordPress developer.

Sometimes the user doesn’t get satisfied with any of these themes. In such cases, you can take the service of a WordPress Web Developer like Andolasoft to develop your customized theme.

Plugins and Extension:

The WordPress Plugin is the smallest bit of coding that you apply to develop your business website. Some extensions or plugins are free. The premium extensions can run from anywhere and it starts from $100.

By using a plugin to your WordPress your website becomes successful. But you need to install the plugin that is important for your business. The less number of plugins you install the faster your website will run.

How much does a WordPress Website maintenance cost?

A WordPress website maintenance cost depends on the service you chose for your maintenance.

If you are choosing in-house website maintenance, it starts from $25. But if you are choosing freelance website maintenance then it will start from $45.

(Source: FixRunner)

Final Calculation:

In the end, the total cost you spend ranges at a minimum cost of $ 25. The price depends on the things you want to add for your business website. Your website cost depends on the traffic and the speed you want for your website.

WordPress is capable of handling traffic, opt-ins, leads, conversations, and customers. You need to use the right theme and the right plug-ins.

If you want to know how your WordPress website is built, then follow our latest blog: How to develop your WordPress website in 2021?

FAQ:

How much does a WordPress website cost?

The cost of WordPress website depends on the types of features you are adding to your website. However a website will start at a minimum range of $11.

How much time will it take to create a WordPress website?

If you are planning to build a typical brochure website without any advanced function. Then it takes six various page templates. For an advanced custom web design.

Most probably it takes around 25 hours to develop a website with basic features from a dedicated WordPress Developer. You can also develop your WordPress web Application from a professional WordPress Web Application Developer.

Is WordPress premium worth getting?

A lot of advantages are available when you upgrade to WordPress premium. The price tag comes with many additional features.

These features are helpful and with WordPress website development, your website becomes more easy and convenient to use. With Premium you get more support, a lot of themes and more security is available.

What is the difference between WordPress personal and premium?

The WordPress Premium plan also includes hosting. The only difference between the Premium and Personal plan when it comes to hosting, is the Premium plan provides 13 GB space and the personal plan offers only 512mb of storage.

Conclusion

Most top brands use WordPress. By spending some amount will help you build a perfect business website. You can get more traffic and customers.

Choosing a dedicated WordPress development agency is important. A good WordPress development company will definitely guide you in developing the best WordPress website for your business at an affordable price.

With Andolasoft you can develop your own website. Being a WordPress outsourcing service we provide professional developers that help you build your website the way you want it. Contact us to hire dedicated WordPress Developer.

How To Develop Your WordPress Website In 2021?

Posted on October 27, 2021 by Netrananda M

The Covid-19 Pandemic has led many businesses to switch to digitalization, including websites. With a business website, you can reach more people and keep your business running in the event of any future pandemics.

Few years back it was nice to have stuff but it has become a must have feature for every business.

So, here is the suggestion for every business to build a website to pitch your business on the World Wide Web and just won’t fall behind in the competition.

Why Choose WordPress?

Everyone knows it is open source, easy to customize and simple to maintain. We have published the top reasons for using the WordPress framework previously.

It provides you complete control over your website. WordPress web application provides great advantages like plugins, free tools, and themes with full media support.

However, to make a website live, you need to go through a process.

Developing a website can be daunting, especially when you’re not a programmer. But, this is not a concerning point anymore.

As you can build a website using the WordPress CMS framework by following a few simple steps.

Let’s start;

(Source: WpBeginner)

What are the necessary things to do to develop your website in WordPress?

Here is a list that needs to be included.

Purchase a domain: The price starts from $15 per year
Hosting acquisition: The price begins at a low price of $8 per year
WordPress Theme: It depends on the level of customization and the features you want to include in your website. You can choose a theme that comes free forever. On another note, some enterprises choose some highly engaging themes to build their website. It costs based on the theme and its features.
WordPress Plugin: Most of the plug-ins are free, but if you want to have advanced options. You need to upgrade to a particular plan.

It signifies that a simple website starts on the basic annual plan. If you want any advanced features the price increases accordingly.

(Source: Organic themes)

Choose the Domain Name:

The domain name may be the name of your business or product. Names are a powerful element of your business.

You need to choose the name of your website wisely. If you are finding it difficult to choose the name, you can use tools it helps you out.

Tricks and Tips to choose a website name: As you want to give a name to your new website. The name should hold meaning and importance.

The name needs to be unique and easy to remember. It shouldn’t give any weird meaning in English or other popular languages, if you want your business to go international.

List of Relevant Keywords:

You need to list relevant keywords for the product or business. You need to think about the users, how they will feel after they use the services or product.

You can use a tool like Namelix or Novanym, this helps to generate domain name ideas.

Understand the meaning:

As you found your domain name, check out the meaning. Google it and then go for the Google images and understand how it matched.

You might find a singer or some artist related to that name. This will provide you with a brief understanding of the domain name you choose.

You can also search for the domain name on Facebook or LinkedIn. Check if there are any business names with it.
Check if any website domain name is available for sale. Many websites prefer “.com”. It is a top-level domain, followed by “.org”, “.net”, or “.in”.
Purchase your domain name. You can purchase it through a domain registrar like GoDaddy or a hosting provider.

Choose a Web Hosting

Every website is hosted from a server. It states that you need to acquire web hosting from a hosting provider.

As you start creating a WordPress website, you need to choose a hosting plan using WordPress.com. You can also choose from a third-party hosting provider.

But before you proceed, you need to know that there is WordPress.com, which helps you to host and build a website.

The other one is WordPress.org, which helps to acquire plug-ins and themes for your website. You can choose you’re hosting from a third –party.

There are three major hosting services: VPS, managed to host, and shared hosting. In the first situation, the server resources were split with more sites. When the sites grow, you might come across performance issues.

Also, you might realize the need for a VPS service or a managed hosting plan.

You need to understand the business goals while choosing the hosting provider. As you go with VPS hosting, the resources need to be shared, but you will gain some control over it.

Also, you can observe improvement in security and performance.

With a website, things can become more complicated, but proper planning will help you with a successful website for your business.

While you analyse your plan take a look at them:

Storage
Pricing
Performance
Support

Also, many hosting providers have extra features provided like domain offering (ex: Namecheap), website builder (ex: Go Daddy), e-commerce options, etc.

Also, you have observed many websites using “HTTP” or “HTTPS”. So what are those?

HTTP is a modern web. This connects the browser and servers. It functions on a request-response basis

However, the extra “s” on the “HTTPS” means the connection with the website is encrypted and the data that is shared in the website remains secure.

In technical terms, we called it SSL certification.

Suppose a user makes any kind of transaction on your website or gets logged in to your account. The information provided by the user will remain private; it is safe from getting hacked.

It takes place through SSL technology. The SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer”. Consumers see “HTTPS” as a signal of trust. It helps to protect privacy and data. This means you need to acquire an SSL certificate.

Also, make sure the connection plan has this as well:

This time you get a hosting plan and set up the login details. The only thing missing is WordPress itself.

Many hosting providers allow you to install WordPress through the wizard/dashboard. It’s pretty intuitive.

Logging into the website is also easy. You need to type the website address and add it on the “/WP-admin”.

Choose your WordPress Theme:

Next, you have to decide the theme for your WordPress website. There are many themes available. These themes are available for free and some are paid.

As you select your theme, try to ensure that the theme creates sense with the topic of your website. Also, it engages with the layout and the content you publish.

(Source: WP Engine)

The WordPress premium choices provide a set of ready-made options for several topics. It includes services, business, fashion, beauty, photography, education, food, and others.

Each of them will provide an excellent base to your site that you have always dreamed of.

Configure the Plugins:

A WordPress Plug-in is defined as a program written in the PHP script language. It adds a specific set of features or services to the WordPress website.

(Source: Dreamhost)

A WordPress plug-in offers a great deal of flexibility and customization to your WordPress site. It adds value and features to your visitors.

At first, you don’t begin with a ton of plug-ins. But as you grow with WordPress applications, you get to use more Plug-in that benefits the site.

Some of the popular Plug-in are Yoast SEO and JetPack.

Complete the Administrative Page:

The important page in your website is the about page, contact page, privacy, and the disclaimer page. You need to focus on it, before adding content to your site.

It is easy to add now and then later. Once you have done the publishing, you can add other exciting stuff. These pages also serve to protect your site visitors and you.

Post Your Content, Rinse and Repeat:

Once you get the important administrative pages published, it’s time to start adding interesting content. Whatever the niche is, you need to make sure it has plenty of quality content for the readers.

It increases the page’s visibility. This gives a rich look to your page. Keep it a priority to add new content daily, monthly, or weekly. Keep a content calendar that helps you to remain on the right track.

Never forget marketing:

Marketing your website is an important step. It helps to get more traffic. There is an availability of SEO optimization but make sure the page has relevant keywords in the description, title, and body.

Promote your sites in every possible way. Also, there are many free options available to use the Social Media sites, emailing a regular newsletter and forums.

You also need to consider guest posting, comment on the blogs, communities, and forums to develop social connection and link popularity.

(Source: PC Mag)

Backup your site:

As content is an important asset, it is important to have a backup of your site. You need to have a backup of your content in case of a crash. So, you don’t have to begin from scratch.

If you don’t back up all the posts, affiliate links, and plug-ins, it will take a while to get back on your feet. So you need to have a regular backup, the web host should offer an alternative.

FAQ:

Is WordPress Free For Websites?

WordPress.org is completely free. You can download and use it in any way you like. It can also be customized, redistributed or extended. You can even sell it until you have the GPL License.

How to create a website on WordPress?

You can create your Website on WordPress by following these steps:

Signup to WordPress.com
Confirm your Email and activate your Blog
Setup the blog
Select and customize your WordPress theme
Connect with Twitter and Facebook
End the process
Visit your new website

Does WordPress require Coding?

No, you don’t need to have HTML knowledge or other programming languages for a website.

Many WordPress users don’t have any programming or coding skills and they have been using WordPress for many years.

Can I develop a WordPress Website without hosting?

Yes, you can develop a website with WordPress without hosting. The basic version of WordPress is free and it allows you to create a website without any hosting.

You can also develop a WordPress Website without a domain name.

Conclusion:

So, here is a small view of the ways to prepare your website using WordPress.

A website is a key to your business growth. It follows several steps such as choosing the domain name, Plug-in, WordPress theme, and several other features.

Also, after developing the website, you need to update and maintain it with regular updates.

In case of any difficulty in developing your site, Andolasoft WordPress developers are happy to help you. Contact to Andolasoft.com and develop your successful business website.

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Why Use WordPress? 11 Good Reasons For Your Website

Posted on October 14, 2021 by Netrananda M

WordPress is a free and powerful software to develop websites. It’s a CMS (Content Management System) for managing content without getting involved in the complexities of the web architecture. It is very simple and easy to use, even for beginners.

41.4% of the top 10 million websites & 60% of all CMS are powered by WordPress. These impressive stats continue to dominate the web-development industry.

In 2003, it started as a blogging tool, now it has become the platform to build any kind of website.

Everyone is talking about WordPress these days. Its many effective features have made it the favorite among many big brands.

This platform is leading the market. The popular brands like Bloomberg, TechCrunch, BBC America, are using this CMS as their core web platform

Agencies are also recommending this for business websites, because they are well aware of the wordpress cms development services.

But why is there so much demand around this platform?

Here you go.

What is WordPress?

“WordPress.com is the only service of its kind that not only lets you export your data, but gives you an open source package you can run on pretty much any web host out there to run your own instance of the software. So the freedom is really in your hands.”

– Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic Inc.

WordPress is a CMS or a Content Management System that developers use as a framework o create web applications/portals.

This simple CMS can be used by anyone, you can modify and make the necessary changes. To use it you don’t need any technical knowledge.

This framework is not only used to develop websites but it is the best blogging platform.

It is also a Marketing tool. So this helps to easily get noticed among your customers and rank in search engines.

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Why use WordPress Website?

Everyone wants to have a place in this ever-growing digital world. Gone are the days when one must know how to code to put their website online by building everything from scratch. WordPress theme services makes it too easy to start building a site with just a few clicks.

WordPress is not only used to build web pages faster but also to manage the content effectively. Whether it’s a one-page blog or an eCommerce marketplace, WordPress is the one-stop solution for everything.

“At present there are more than 74 million websites that are developed using WordPress. This website uses WordPress to post new content every hour.” – The ThemeForest

Also, the use of WordPress highly depends on it’s easy to use features. Including this WordPress provides many effective features which make this framework more and more popular.

“Using WordPress is a no-brainer. There’s a reason 34% of the web uses it.” by Kinsta

Everything from big platforms like Squarespace to Wix are some of the wonderful tools. But here we will describe why use WordPress over these tools to develop your website.

Do you want a WordPress website but don’t know how to create one? We will install and setup WordPress for you, absolutely free of cost!

Let Us Know

Use it for free
Easy to use
It rules the CMS market
Google friendly
Adaptability
Safe and secure
Multi- user Ability
Big Brands use WordPress
Supports Multimedia

(Source: Webster Digital Marketing)

1. Free to use

Yes, WordPress doesn’t cost a penny to try. Whether you are creating a commercial site or a personal blog, with this it doesn’t cost you a penny.

Download and install it locally on your system and start using it straight away. Understanding the dashboard and various ways to edit & publish content is what WordPress is all about.

There is a huge collection of per-build themes and plugins to test out.

It is one of the reasons why people use it more.

Once you get to know the workflow, it’s time to go online by just buying a domain name and a hosting service depending on the scale of the website.

(Source: Wpbeginner)

As WordPress framework is an open-source, you can alter or develop the source code the way you like, customize the website functionality and the overall look.

Although it is free, you need to spend some amount for other features. However, the premium paid ones provide numerous features to your websites.

2. Easy to use

Most businesses suggest the use of WordPress because it’s easy to use. It comes with easy to install templates that are available with complete customizable code.

It has an editing interface that requires no HTML experience for any changes, to alter the layout and more features to create any changes into your WordPress website.

You can update your company information, product information, or modify content on your website using this, by following some easy steps.

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3. It rules the CMS market

It is not just a popular CMS, it creates more competition.

(Source: quicksprout.com)

According to the usage statistics from W3Techs more than 59.5% of all websites that choose Content Management Systems use WordPress.

It has a huge percentage of market share. Along with the market share the large number of supportive tools help this framework to become more efficient and effective.

4. Google Friendly

As this is a CMS based framework, Google and other search engines crawl into these websites that help to rank. Most businesses developed their website using this framework, to take this advantage of WordPress.

To get ranked in Google is the main motto of every website. With this website you can easily enjoy this advantage of WordPress.

Some of the experts say, using the WordPress framework can boost your ranking.

There are plugins that optimize the pages to drive more traffic. If you don’t know anything about SEO, just install the recommended powerful SEO plugins with few basic settings and WordPress will take care of its own.

5. Adaptability

It is also flexible to customize. You can accommodate your website using the extensions and Plug-in.

Whether you are using WordPress for your personal use or for creating a small business website or for a large business website doesn’t matter.

By using this framework you can customize and add extensions to your website according to your choice.

You get total control on the coding. So it can be easily customized to any per-made themes and design.

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6. Safe and Secure

Security is given first priority when it comes to WordPress development and rightly so. No matter how easy it is to build anything, it is unacceptable for any platform to compromise with security. WordPress implements every security measure to prevent any possible breach of information and stay protected.

The popularity of WordPress website design has gained the interest of hackers.

So, to control this issue the core team of WordPress software has strengthened the security measures.

According to a Q3 2017 study by Sucuri, a multi-platform security company,

“WordPress continues to lead the infected websites they worked on at 83%. This is up from 74% in 2016.”

This CMS has taken strong security measures to preserve its user’s trust. For high-level security, it is recommended to install security plugins and keep updating it with the latest updates. Security plugins automatically generate cryptic passwords and implement Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) which are too hard for hackers to crack.

This CMS has taken strong security measures to preserve its user’s trust.

However, the users need to be more careful while downloading the WordPress plug-ins from any trusted source.

7. Multi-User Ability

It works best for multi-users. If your team size is large or has multiple teams, freelancers, agencies who are working on your websites and you need to give access to them.

With this you get total control over those who get access to your Business website. You can develop new accounts, by giving specific permissions to the accessibility of user’s and keep them out of the area that is required.

The permissions include:

Admin
Super Admin
Author
Editor
Subscriber
Contributor

8. Big Brands Use WordPress

It has power to more than 35% of all websites. There are around 1.7 billion sites using WordPress.

Every hour there are thousands and more content that are delivered to the site visitors by using this.

It has not remained limited to only small to medium-sized businesses. Many popular brands suggest the use of WordPress for their websites.

Some of the big brands are- Etsy Journal, TechCrunch, Microsoft News, TED Blog, PlayStation, BBC America, Walt Disney Company, Skype, Star Wars Blog, yelp and more.

Andolasoft has also developed its Blog site through WordPress.

9. Supports Multimedia

Adding media files to your websites has become a necessity now-a-days. With media files attached, it creates more traffic.

With the uses of blogs and various content, you can add various types of multimedia. Any type of media files can be added such as Audio, Images, Documents, and Video.

You need to add high quality images and videos to your websites for better engagement and google ranking.

10. Bloggers paradise

Initially built as a blogging platform, WordPress still holds firm to its roots. It leads the race to be the most preferred blogging platform.

(Source: wordpress.org)

Because it is literally painless to create, edit, publish and manage blogs using the set of tools inside the popular blog editor. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to handle media contents too.

The blog owner can set different permissions for different user roles.

Finally, WordPress has a feature called taxonomies, that lets the blog creator add categories and tags to a content, which helps the reader to navigate to contents that are similar and inter-linked.

11. Responsive flawless experience

More than 60% of web content is viewed on phones. So, it’s very important to create websites that are device friendly. WordPress automatically detects the types of device and renders the content accordingly.

Google says,

“Mobile-friendly sites show up higher in search results and if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, visitors are 5 times more likely to leave.”

Responsive Web Design (RWD) is one of the most important considerations for developers in web development. WordPress has in-build options to simultaneously design web pages of different screen sizes whether it is a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone.

What Ways do you need to follow to Use WordPress?

WordPress means you can create any type of business website.

Starting from a simple website to an eCommerce marketplace or for the personal blog, for any purposes, this framework helps you with this.

Here are some examples of different websites you can create with this:

Online Store
Blogging
Membership Website
Online Courses
Online Marketplace Websites
Podcast Website
Dropshipping Website
Coupon Website
Affiliate Website
Online Forum Websites
Social Networking Websites

So, these are some of the websites that you can create using this framework.

I’ve worked with the team at AndolaSoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

FAQ:

What is WordPress?

This is a Content Management System that is used to develop websites. It is also available in Open source and .com. So anyone can develop any kind of website.

How to build a WordPress website?

With this you can develop a business website and use it as a blogging platform. You need to follow these steps:

Sign up for a web Hosting
Choose a domain name for your website
Install free WordPress software
Select a WordPress theme
Develop your first page
Install all the essential plugins to your WordPress website
And then start marketing your website

What is WordPress used for?

With this you can develop your own website. WordPress custom theme works by combining various core files. Files are added, installed and database. It provides dashboards that let you manage the entire work.

Is WordPress easy for Beginners?

It is a simple to use tool. Even beginners can use it very easily. It is easy to set up and run. Several web hosts come with what are called as one-click auto-installers. It is simple to use, unlike Microsoft.

Is WordPress Free to use?

This core software is free to use. You can download it for free and use it for any way you want to. You can customize it, extend it, redistribute it or it can also be sold until you use it as GPL License.

Conclusion:

WordPress framework is a powerful content management system. It is strongly followed globally to develop many amazing websites.

It provides you with complete control over your website. This web application provides great advantages like plugins, free tools, and themes with full media support.

With more content, demands more maintenance and scaling it is as simple as a new WordPress website. It is advisable to frequently back-up your entire website in case of any unfortunate accidental loss of data. It also supports 169 languages worldwide.

Automattic, the company behind WordPress has even bigger plans in future. It has come a long way since its inception and has experienced exponential growth. Since then it has created a world of its own. We have concluded that, with WordPress, possibilities are endless.

The best way to experience these features is by using them. Let us help you build your website.

So you can enjoy your business and develop your website using Andolasoft.

Your current host might charge you extra cost and time, get it back with Andolasoft.

Well professional wordpress developers will help you develop your own websites according to your preferences at an affordable range.

Want to develop your own business websites, contact us to hire our developers to design your professional websites.

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How To Create A Custom WordPress Plugin

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Jay

Custom WordPress Plugin act as add-ons with additional functionalities or extending any existing functionality to a website without modifying the core files. It helps the installation of future updates without losing any core functionalities or customization.

Why Would You Want to Create a Plugin?

All WordPress themes contain a functions.php file, which includes code that adds all the functionalities to your site. It operates very similarly to the way a plugin works. you can add the same code to either a plugin or functions.php file, and both will work for you.

Consider this scenario.

You have decided to change the look and feel of the website so you need to change the theme, the custom code that you have added will no longer work since it was there in the previous theme.

On the other hand, plugins are not dependent on a specific theme, which means that you can switch themes without losing the plugin’s functionalities. Using a plugin instead of a theme also makes the functionality you want to create easier to maintain and it will not be impacted during the theme updates.

Types of WordPress Plugin:

Plugins can carry out lots of tasks. It adds extra functionalities to your site which makes the website more user-friendly.
Types of WordPress plugin include:

WordPress Security and Performance Plugins
Marketing and sales plugins for things like SEO, social media, etc
Custom content plugins such as custom post types, widgets, short-codes, contact forms, image galleries, etc.
API plugins that work with the WordPress REST API
Community plugins that add social networking features like the Forum feature.

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How to Run Your Plugin Code: Options

Few methods are there to activate your code in WordPress like,

functions
action and filter hooks
classes

Let’s deep dive on the above points.

Functions

Functions are the building blocks of WordPress code. They’re the easiest way to get started writing your own plugins and the quickest to code. You’ll find plenty of them in your themes’ files too.

Each function will have its own name, followed by braces and the code inside those braces.

The code inside your plugin won’t run unless you call the function somehow. The simplest (but least flexible) way to do that is by directly calling the code in your theme or somewhere else in your plugin.

Here’s an example function:To directly call that function in your theme, you’d simply type andola_myfunction() in the place in your theme template files where you want it to run. Or you might add it somewhere in your plugin… but you’d also need to activate the code that calls it!

There are a few limitations to this:

If the function does something that isn’t just adding content somewhere in a theme template file, you can’t activate it this way.
If you want to call the function in multiple places, you’ll have to call it again and again.
It can be hard to keep track of all the places you’ve manually called a function.

It’s much better practice to call functions by attaching them to a hook.

Action and Filter Hooks

By attaching your function to a hook, you run its code whenever that hook is fired. There are two types of hooks: action hooks and filter hooks.

Action hooks are empty. When WordPress comes to them, it does nothing unless a function has been hooked to that hook.

Filter hooks contain code that will run unless there is a function hooked to that hook. If there is a function, it’ll run the code in that function instead.

This means you can add default code to your plugin but override it in another plugin, or you can write a function that overrides the default code that’s attached to a filter hook in WordPress itself.

Hooks are fired in three ways:

By WordPress itself. The WordPress core code includes hundreds of hooks that fire at different times. Which one you hook your function to will depend on what your function does and when you want its code to run. You can find a list of WordPress hooks in the developer handbook.
By your theme. Many themes include action and filter hooks that you can use to add extra content in key places in your website’s design. And all themes will include a wp_head and wp_footer hook. Combine these with conditional tags, and you can run specific code on certain types of pages in your site.
By your plugin or other plugins. You might add an action hook to your plugin and then add functions in your include files that attach code to that hook. Or you might write a filter hook and then have a function that overrides its contents under certain circumstances. Alternatively, if you’re creating a plugin to complement another plugin, you can hook your functions to the existing hook in the third-party plugin.

Some of this is more advanced, but with your first plugin, you’ll probably be hooking your functions to an action or filter hook output by WordPress itself, most likely an action hook.

Classes

Classes are a way of coding more complex features, such as widgets and customize elements, that make use of the existing WordPress APIs.

When you write a class in your plugin, you’ll probably be extending an existing class that’s coded into WordPress. This way, you can make use of the code provided by the class and tweak it to make it your own.

An example would be the customizer, where you might write a class including a color picker, making use of the color picker UI that’s provided in the existing class for the customizer.

Using classes is more advanced than functions, and it’s unlikely you’ll do it in your plugin.

If you do write classes, you’ll still have to use actions or filters to get them to run.

Let’s start with the basics first.

WordPress plugins are stored inside the wp-content/plugins folder which can be accessed from WordPress root directory.

Creating a simple “Hello World” plugin in WordPress can be done in 3 easy steps:

Creating the plugin’s main folder and the plugin file
Creating plugin headers in the created plugin file (headers: information about the plugin, version, and the author)
Writing custom functions to display “Hello World” text inside an admin page in WordPress panel

Prerequisite

Some knowledge in basic installation & setup of WordPress, to develop custom Plugins is necessary.
Always use the latest WordPress version available.
Coding knowledge for PHP is required.
The Plugin needs to be tested in a clean WordPress setup.
An Editor of your choice might be required.

Steps:

Enable debug mode for bug tracking. You can do so by adding ‘define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true)’ to the ‘wp-config.php’ file.
Use wp_enqueue_style() and wp_enqueue_script() to add style sheets and scripts to a Plugin; This prevents scripts from being loaded multiple times.
All the Plugins will be there in the wp-content > plugins folder.

Step 1: Create a New Plugin File

To start creating a new plugin, you will need access to your site’s directory. The easiest way to do this is by using SFTP, which is a method for viewing and editing your site’s files when it’s located on an external server.

Create a folder andola-hello-world inside the plugins folder.

Note: Keep the name unique, so that it doesn’t conflict with other Plugins used in the website.

The Main Plugin File

The main plugin file is essential. It will always be a PHP file, and it will always contain commented-out text that tells WordPress about your plugin.

Create a file named andolasoft-hello-world.php where we can write our Plugin functionality code.

[code language=”php”]
<?php
/**
* Plugin Name: Andola Hello World
* Plugin URI: https://wordpress.org/plugins/
* Author: Andolasoft
* Author URI: https://www.andolasoft.com/
* License: GPLv2 or later
* License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
* Description: This is the very first plugin I ever created.
* Version: 1.0
* Text Domain: andola-hello-world
*/
[/code]

You can see that the information provided in the plugin file is used to populate this entry and provide links.

Other information about the plugin is contained in the README.txt file, which is used to populate the plugin’s page in the plugin directory:

Are you looking for a WordPress developer

This tells WordPress what your plugin does, where to find out more about it, and who developed it. It also gives information about the version number and the text domain.

WordPress takes this information and uses it to populate the plugins screen in your site. Here’s how it looks on that screen:

[code language=”php”]
if ( ! defined( ‘ABSPATH’ ) ) die( ‘Error!’ );

add_shortcode(‘hello-world’, ‘andola_hello_world_function’);

function andola_hello_world_function(){
return "Hello World! This is the very first plugin I ever created.";
}
[/code]

That’s it, your plugin is ready!

Step 2: Activate Your New Plugin

Login to your WordPress Dashboard, go to ‘Plugins’, your “Hello World” plugin is there. All you need to do now is activate it.

Step 3: Start Using Your Own Plugin

Create a new post and insert short-code ‘[hello_world]’ into it:

Then this is how it will appear in the front end:

Plugin Best Practices

Before you start coding your plugin, it helps to understand best practices for plugins so your code can be high quality right from the start.

These include:

Write your code according to WordPress coding standards. If you want to submit your plugin to the plugin directory, you’ll have to do this.
Use comments throughout your code so other people can work with it—and so you remember how your code works when you come back to it in the future.
Name your functions, hooks, and classes using prefixes so they are unique to your plugin. You don’t want to give a function the same name as another function in a different plugin or in WordPress core.
Organize your folders logically, and keep your code separated so other people can understand it and so you can add to it over time without it becoming a mess.

You might think that using best practice isn’t necessary because it’s just you working with the plugin. But your plugin might grow over time, you might let other people use it, or you might sell it. Or you might come back to it in two years and not be able to remember how the code is organized!

FAQs

Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about WordPress plugins.

Why can’t I just add the code I need to my theme functions file?

It’s tempting to simply keep on adding code to the functions.php file, and there is some code that should be there.

But if your code is related to functionality in your site, rather than the design or the output of content, then you should code it into a plugin. This means that if you switch themes in the future, you still have that functionality. And you can use the plugin on another site running a different theme.

I’ve added code to my plugin. Why is nothing happening?

This is probably because you haven’t hooked your code to an action or filter hook. Until you do that, nothing will happen.

When I edit my plugin and check my site, I get a white screen. Help!

You’ve probably added some code that’s got an error in it somewhere. PHP is an unforgiving language, and this might be as minor as a semicolon in the wrong place.

Try turning on WP_DEBUG in your wp-config.php file, and you’ll see a message telling you where the error is. Then you can fix it.

When I activate my plugin, I get an error message telling me too many headers have been output. What does this mean?

All this normally means is that there are too many empty lines in your plugin file. Go back and check there are no empty lines at the beginning of the file.

If that doesn’t fix it, try turning on WP_DEBUG.

Conclusion

Developing a custom plugin is a way to add functionality to a WordPress site that currently available plugins don’t offer. It can be a simple plugin that implements minor alterations or a complex one that modifies the entire site.

Why You Should Use WordPress for Your Website

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Jay

Converting business offline to online isn’t a big thing today. The Covid19 pandemic created a huge impact on all types of business. Consumers who never thought about websites, but now they prefer online shopping.

According to the latest PYMNTS’ 2020 Remote Payments Study “72% of consumers are using mobile devices to shop in stores.

Your customers are also included in between 72%, then you need to convert your business to online if you want to get back them.

Create your own business website by choosing a good content management system (CMS) like WordPress.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is one of the best open source content management systems (CMS) available today since 2003. This CMS allows you to easily create, edit, manage and publish content on your website without having to learn any programming at all.

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WordPress has come a long way and has now emerged as a reliable web development solution for professional websites and e-commerce stores.

Today, it’s used by 31.9% of all the websites, which is a content management system market share of 59.4%.

Since the last few years, The CMS has also become the choice for non-blogging websites.

Let’s see the top reasons why wordpress app development is so popular and why you should choose the WordPress platform for your website.

Conclusion

WordPress is the most powerful and free content management system which has a wide range of features to develop impressive and user-friendly websites for your business.

I’ve worked with the team at AndolaSoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

Also, a well-designed website can engage your users and influence them to return to your website. This will definitely help a lot in defending your market share.

So, you need to find an experienced wordpress development firm, who are ready to give their support through the project within your budget.

Before hiring a WordPress developer or agency, you should check their work and their skill and how they can help you within your time and budget.

Why Developers Use WordPress For Website – 6 Important Reasons

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Jay

Undeniably, when it comes to web development nothing can beat the popularity of WordPress. Most of the developers are obsessed with this platform. Even today, more than 43% and around 810 million of websites on the internet are built from WordPress only.

It’s a content management system (CMS) tool that lets you post a blog as well as develop a website. It makes web development as much as easy for beginners as well. It comes with a lot of functionalities which makes the development easy and quick.

It comes with a lot of themes that give your website an appealing look that helps in capturing the attention of people. For any type of website, you can get a theme.

For instance, to develop an online shopping website you can get plenty of the best wordpress ecommerce theme. You need to choose the one which suits the most as per your requirement.

Well, having a website is as important as logo design of a brand, you should never compromise with it. A well-developed website becomes the integral part of business.

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Moreover, the plugins of it add the functionalities in your website such as security, SEO, performance as much more. Most of the free WordPress eCommerce themes let you integrate the plugin in it.

It won’t be a bad choice to use WordPress. So, let’s discuss why developers choose WordPress for your website.

1. Ready For A Responsive Site

One of the key reasons to use WordPress is it’s responsive for all sizes of screen. It can be the foremost requirement while developing a website.

Your website must give the same visual experience across all devices which includes mobiles, desktop, tablet. Even when it comes to online shopping sites, people would be more likely to use mobiles rather than desktops.

So, it becomes the developer’s responsibility to make the website for all the devices.

You may never know which device users will use to visit your website, that’s why you must have a prior plan for it. You should not lose customers just because of this reason, so use WordPress which has this feature inbuilt in every theme.

There are a wide range of the best wordpress ecommerce themes free available which is perfectly built for all sizes of devices. Hence, this is why the developer chooses WordPress to create a website.

Top Statistics that Show the Importance of Mobile-Responsiveness

Nearly 90% of the world’s population is on mobile devices.
Mobile devices generate nearly 60% of global website traffic.
Internet users spend half of their time on mobile devices.
Nearly 50% of Americans spend up-to six hours on their phones per day.
There are over one billion tablet users worldwide.
More than 50% of internet users use mobile phones to buy online.
Nearly 50% of smartphone users are more likely to use a mobile site when shopping online because they don’t want to download a mobile app.
Nearly 32% of small businesses already have a mobile app and 42% plan to build an app for their business.
More than 70% of web designers think that non-responsive design is the primary cause of visitors leaving a website.
64% of SEO marketers say mobile optimization is an effective investment
During the Covid-19 pandemic mobile website shopping increased by 48%
Reducing mobile site loading time by 0.1 seconds increased conversions by 8%

2. Better Performance

Choosing WordPress is never a wrong choice, it gives higher and better performance. Every Free WordPress eCommerce theme provides a wide range of features and functionality to make the website user-friendly.

Even the performance is something that keeps your user engaged with your website.

Moreover, it also gives you plenty of plugins which include additional functionality on the website to improve the performance. It can be for SEO, speed, and much more.

Based on the requirement you can opt for any of it. An experienced developer uses the plugin whenever required and the most suitable one for it.

Having a website with better performance is needed to drive more user traffic which will directly grow your business. Therefore, developers choose WordPress for web development.

Top statistics that show the importance of website performance

The first 5 seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on conversion rates.
Website conversion rate drops by 4.4% with each additional second of load time.
The average mobile web page takes 15.3 seconds on load.
Nearly 70% of consumers say that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer.
Off all the shoppers surveyed, nearly half said that they would be willing to give up animation and video for faster load times.
The highest conversion rates occur on pages with load times between 0-2 seconds.

3. SEO Friendly

You may choose any Best eCommerce WordPress theme that will be SEO friendly. In fact, to rank higher and get noticed by the people, your website must be built with better SEO standards.

Even you can have the choice to add a WordPress plugin for SEO. There are multiple such plugins are available will make your site perfect for achieving better ranking.

The proper selection of keywords lets your site be visible ahead of others. The higher the rank you have, the more chances to get user traffic into your website.

That will directly affect your business growth. However, developers should know the myths about SEO, before implementing it for their site. A single misconception can divert you to the other path.

Top SEO optimization statistics

The #1 result in Google gets approximately 32% of all clicks.
Nearly 50% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel.
53% of US consumers say that they research products online before deciding to purchase.
Nearly 60% of page rankings in the top 10 Google results pages are 3 or more years old.
Google’s organic search is responsible for 59.2% of the world’s web traffic.
Nearly 75% of voice search results are from one of the top 3 desktop ranking pages for a given query.
Posts with videos earn more backlinks and see a 157% boost in search traffic.
After searching on smartphones for something nearby, nearly 75% of people end-up visiting the business within 1 day.
Nearly 30% of local searches result in a purchase.

4. Multisite Functionality

Another significant reason why developers choose WordPress for making websites. Multisite means from one central hub you can make multiple websites. In WordPress, by installing once you can make any number of websites for different purposes.

This functionality allows you to create a private network for all of the websites you have. That’s why people include multiple sites from one platform.

When you expand your business by adding some new products and services at that time you need to add webpages. So, then it would be easier if you are using WordPress.

Thus, due to multisite functionality developers prefer to use WordPress.

5. It’s Open-Source

One of the most important reasons why developers use this platform is it’s completely open-source. The source code will be available to the developer without paying anything.

Users do not need to pay anything to develop a website from WordPress. It gives almost every functionality free of cost. Still, you can make the website for enterprise with all the necessary requirements.

That’s why many beginners choose this platform to initiate the development part.

Specifically, for small scale businesses, it’s really important. They might not be able to spend much money on website development. So, if there is any such platform free of cost, they will definitely go for it.

Are you looking for a WordPress developer

However, for some of the WooCommerce WordPress themes and plugins, you need to pay some amount but still, it’s very cheap.

Thus, due to it’s open-source it becomes the ideal platform for beginners and experienced developers as well.

6. Powerful Security

Security is always a point of concern for developers when they create a website. But when you use a ready-made best eCommerce WordPress theme then nothing to worry about.

A lot of information is being entered in multiple ways. It’s the developer’s responsibility to keep all of that in a very secure manner. A little bit of compromise in it will cost them a lot and makes a negative impression in front of the users.

Everyday a lot of cyber-attacks are happening so it becomes very crucial to have a website that is built with higher security standards.

However, it’s a complete misconception about WordPress that it’s not providing security. But the fact is that almost every theme is giving you a higher standard of security. That’s why developers use this platform as it gives powerful security to the website.

Wrapping up

There are multiple CMS available on the internet but developers prefer WordPress over others. It brings a lot of benefits for publishing blogs and making websites.

No matter what website you want to develop, it has a solution for all of that. The above-mentioned points clearly say why developers are using WordPress for web development.