WordPress Patterns let you reuse layouts without rebuilding them every time you publish. That means no more duplicating old posts, fixing headers, or untangling spacing issues every week. They help you move faster and keep your website layout consistent, even when you’re juggling multiple offers or collaborators. In this guide, you’ll learn how synced, unsynced, and locked patterns work and how to use them to build a repeatable publishing system. Plus, you’ll get a free toolkit with four ready-made layouts to plug directly into your site. They’re built to help you: Reuse layouts without rework. Centralize updates across your site. Protect your website’s structure when collaborating. Publish faster with less…

Whether you’re building your very first website, starting a blog, or looking to improve your site’s visibility, WordPress.com offers a growing library of free courses to help you every step of the way. Our goal is simple: to give you the knowledge and confidence to bring your ideas online — with clear and practical guidance.  Explore Our Courses We currently offer three self-paced courses: Create Your Website on WordPress.com (video course) Perfect for anyone launching a new website, whether it’s for a small business, portfolio, or personal project. This course walks you through choosing a theme, setting up your homepage, editing your header and footer, adding essential content, and preparing…

Slow websites frustrate visitors, reduce your site’s visibility in search engines, harm conversion rates, and damage your brand. Whether you built your website for fun and just want more people to enjoy your content, are using your site to promote your services and find clients, or are running a business website, slow load times are limiting its effectiveness. Fortunately, you can fix a slow WordPress website. In this guide, we cover the common causes of slow load times and how you can fix them. You’ll also learn how to test the speed of your site and record objective measurements of your site’s performance. The costs of slow-loading websites Here are…

There it is again: the tug on your heart, the yearning in your soul, the little lump that forms in your throat every time you daydream about quitting your job, starting a business, and finally living the way you want to. It’s never been easier to strike out on your own, and one of the most accessible ways to do it is to start your own web design business. Think about it: As more of our lives move online, the demand for high-quality websites is only increasing, as is the need for people who can build them. Web design is a job you can do from anywhere, with minimal setup,…

WordPress is a top-tier offering for anyone choosing a content management system (CMS) for their website. But one question often holds people back: “Is WordPress easy to learn?” Yes. There’s a learning curve, but anyone can learn to use WordPress. With a bit of practice, you can build any kind of website you want. However, WordPress is different (and slightly trickier to learn) than other site builders. That’s for good reason: WordPress offers far more customizability and long-term value, which is why it powers over 43% of websites on the internet. Let’s take an honest look at how hard it really is to learn WordPress, the challenges you might face…

Your mind is buzzing with ideas, insights, stories, and opinions that your audience wants to hear. But turning these ideas into blog posts feels like pulling teeth. That’s where AI comes in. AI can help you find the pulse of your audience, structure your ideas, and support your writing process, without compromising the originality of your voice.  In this guide, you’ll find: A proven workflow for using AI to write blog posts Reliable AI prompts Tips to stay in control of your content 7 smart ways to use AI for blog posts  Much goes into writing a good blog post: in-depth research, a structured outline, multiple rounds of drafting, and…

You’re sifting through a lot of conflicting advice on how long it takes to build a website. Some say it takes a few days, others say weeks. So, who’s right? The truth is, most website development timelines are just guesstimates.  These generic timeframes don’t factor in variables that could make or break your development process. That’s why we spoke to our partners at WordPress.com to get realistic timelines for building a website. Drawing on their years of experience, our website development experts also share key factors to consider when estimating these timelines. TL;DR: Here’s how long it takes to build common types of websites Small site (five pages or less):…

Take it from someone who’s been burned by hosting companies: you don’t want to skimp on thoroughly evaluating your hosting provider. Overwhelmed by hundreds of web hosting providers online, I shrugged, “This one looks the cheapest,” and purchased a yearly plan without a second thought. Poor customer support, inaccessibility, and a migration later, I regretted not spending more time choosing a better web host. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Put in the time to make the right web host choice in the beginning so you don’t have to deal with a headache later. What should you even evaluate in a web host? There are several features on their…