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…
Last week, I was excited to join 1,000+ other attendees in Portland, Oregon, for WordCamp US. This is the largest event in the US for the WordPress community to contribute to, showcase, share knowledge on, and learn everything WordPress. I’ve been lucky enough to attend, volunteer at, and speak at several WordCamps. I usually jump at the chance to attend and spend time with the WordPress community. But if you haven’t been, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. So I’ve put together 5 of my personal highlights from WordCamp US 2025. Were you there? Please share your own experiences in the comments! 1. The diverse program…
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…
Staging sites let you safely experiment, like testing new themes, trying plugins, updating content, or fine-tuning your design, all without making unwanted changes to your live site. But staging site management can sometimes be challenging. A cumbersome interface and limited sync options can slow development, increase the risk of errors, and make it harder to rely on your staging environment, especially when you’re working across local, staging, and production. That’s why we’ve redesigned the WordPress.com staging site experience to streamline the process, giving you the flexibility to move between environments with confidence and decide exactly what gets synced between staging and production. As a reminder, staging sites are included on…
Picture this: You’re on the road when you get a notification that someone new just subscribed to your newsletter. You want to know more about this reader: are they engaging with your content? What other posts resonated with them? Until now, getting those insights meant waiting until you were back at your computer. That all changes with the Subscribers feature in the Jetpack mobile apps. Ever wonder who’s actually reading your content? Content creators face a common challenge: understanding their audience while managing busy, mobile lifestyles. You might publish consistently and see your subscriber count growing, but key questions remain unanswered: Who exactly is reading your content? Which subscribers are…
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):…
