You Don’t Need to Be a WordPress Expert to Be a Successful Website Owner
Owning a WordPress website can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially if you’re not a web designer or developer.
You may hear people talking about domains, hosting, themes, plugins, backups, security, updates, and WordPress itself—and wonder how much of this you actually need to understand.
The good news is that you don’t need to become a WordPress expert to be a successful website owner.
You don’t need to know how to write code. You don’t need to know how to design every page on your website. And you don’t need to be the person responsible for fixing every technical problem.
But you do need to understand the basics of what you own, how the important pieces of your website fit together, and who is responsible for keeping everything working.
A successful website owner is an informed owner.
Here are the things every WordPress website owner should understand.
Understand What You Actually Own
One of the most important things you can do as a website owner is understand the difference between your domain name and your web hosting.
These are two separate things, although they are sometimes provided by the same company.
Your domain name
Your domain name is your website’s address on the internet—for example, yourbusiness.com.
Your domain is registered through a domain registrar such as Namecheap, GoDaddy, or another domain registration company.
As a website owner, you should know:
- Where your domain name is registered
- How to log into the account
- Which email address is associated with the account
- When your domain is scheduled to renew
Your domain name is an important business asset. Losing access to it can create serious problems, so make sure the registration account is accessible to you or someone you trust.
Your web hosting
Your hosting account is where the files, software, and data that make up your website are stored.
Your hosting company may be the same company that registered your domain name, but it doesn’t have to be.
As a website owner, you should know:
- Who hosts your website
- How to access your hosting account
- Who to contact if there is a hosting problem
- What services are included with your hosting plan
You don’t necessarily need to understand everything inside your hosting account. But you should know where it is and how to access it if necessary.
Understand the Basic Pieces of a WordPress Website
WordPress websites are made up of several different pieces of software working together.
You don’t need to understand the technical details behind every piece, but knowing what each one does will make it easier to understand your website and communicate with the people who help you maintain it.
WordPress core
WordPress itself is the core software that your website runs on.
Think of it as the foundation of your website.
WordPress provides the basic system that allows you to create pages and posts, manage users, upload media, and perform many other website functions.
Your theme
Your WordPress theme controls much of your website’s appearance and layout.
Themes provide a starting point for the design of your website and can often be customized to match your business and brand.
Every WordPress website needs a theme, although the amount of customization can vary significantly.
A page builder or website builder
Some WordPress websites also use additional builder software to make designing and editing pages easier.
Depending on your website, this might allow you to customize layouts, create pages visually, and make changes without writing code.
Not every WordPress website uses a separate page builder. This depends on the theme and the way the website was built.
Plugins
Plugins add additional functionality to your WordPress website.
For example, you might use plugins for:
- Contact forms
- Appointment scheduling
- Search engine optimization
- Online stores
- Security
- Backups
- Email marketing
- Memberships
There are thousands of WordPress plugins available.
Plugins can be incredibly useful, but they should also be managed carefully. Installing too many unnecessary plugins—or using poorly maintained ones—can sometimes create problems with performance, security, or compatibility.
You don’t have to memorize every plugin on your website, but you should have a general understanding of what they do and why they are installed.
Know How to Access Your Website
You should always know how to log into your own website.
WordPress websites have a login URL that takes you to the administration area of your site. You’ll typically log in using a username or email address and a password.
Once you’re logged in, you’ll have access to the WordPress dashboard.
The dashboard is essentially the control center of your website.
Depending on your role and permissions, you may be able to:
- Create and edit pages
- Write blog posts
- Upload images
- Manage comments
- Install or update plugins
- Manage users
- Change website settings
You don’t need to become an expert in every part of the dashboard. But you should be comfortable enough to understand the basics of where things are.
Understand user access
It’s also important to know who has access to your website.
At some point, you may hire someone to help with your website. This could be a web designer, developer, marketing company, virtual assistant, or employee.
You should know how to view your website’s users and understand what level of access they have.
Just as importantly, you should review user access when someone no longer needs it.
Your website should not continue giving administrator access to people who haven’t worked with you for years.
Make Sure Your Website Is Backed Up
If something goes seriously wrong with your website, a good backup can save you a tremendous amount of time, money, and frustration.
Things can go wrong for many reasons.
For example:
- An update causes a problem
- A plugin conflicts with another piece of software
- Someone accidentally deletes something important
- Your website is hacked
- A technical problem damages your site
A backup gives you the ability to restore your website to an earlier version.
You don’t necessarily need to personally manage your backups. Many hosting companies provide backup services, either as part of their hosting plans or as an additional service.
What matters is that you know the answer to these questions:
- Is my website being backed up?
- How often are backups created?
- Where are the backups stored?
- How long are they retained?
- How would my website be restored if something went wrong?
You may never need to use a backup—but you’ll be very glad you have one if you do.
Know Who Is Responsible for Website Maintenance
A WordPress website isn’t always something you can build once and forget about forever.
The software that makes up your website will occasionally need to be updated.
This can include:
- WordPress core
- Your theme
- Plugins
- Builder software
Updates can provide new features, fix bugs, and address security issues.
However, updates can occasionally cause compatibility problems. That’s why it’s important to have a maintenance process in place.
The important question isn’t necessarily:
“Do I know how to update everything myself?”
The better question is:
“Who is responsible for making sure my website is maintained?”
That person might be:
- You
- Your web hosting company
- A web developer
- A website maintenance company
- Your web designer
You don’t have to do everything yourself. But you should know who is doing it.
Take Responsibility for Website Security
Website security can sound intimidating, but many of the most important security practices are relatively straightforward.
A successful website owner should understand the importance of:
- Using strong passwords
- Using unique passwords for important accounts
- Limiting administrator access
- Removing access when it is no longer needed
- Keeping WordPress software updated
- Using reputable themes and plugins
- Maintaining reliable backups
You should also be cautious when someone unexpectedly asks for access to your website.
If a developer, marketing company, or technical support person needs access, make sure you understand who they are and why they need it.
Your website may contain important business information, customer data, and connections to other services. Treat access to it accordingly.
Know What Your Website Is Supposed to Do
This is where the idea of being a successful website owner becomes especially important.
A website can look beautiful and still fail to accomplish anything useful for your business.
Before you can determine whether your website is successful, you need to understand its purpose.
What do you want visitors to do when they arrive?
Depending on your business, your website might be designed to:
- Generate leads
- Encourage phone calls
- Schedule appointments
- Sell products
- Collect email subscribers
- Provide information
- Build credibility
- Generate advertising revenue
- Support existing customers
Your website doesn’t necessarily need to do everything.
But it should have a purpose.
A useful question to ask is:
What is the most important action I want someone to take after visiting my website?
Your answer can help guide decisions about your website’s design, content, calls to action, and marketing.
Keep Your Website and Content Current
A website is often one of the first places someone goes to learn about your business.
That means outdated information can create a poor impression.
Review your website periodically to make sure important information is still accurate.
This might include:
- Your contact information
- Business hours
- Products and services
- Pricing, when applicable
- Staff information
- Locations
- Upcoming events
- Links to other websites or social media profiles
You should also consider whether your website content still reflects your business.
Businesses change. Services evolve. Products are added and removed.
Your website should change with them.
This doesn’t mean you need to redesign your website every year. Sometimes simply reviewing and updating your existing content can make a significant difference.
Know Whether Your Website Is Actually Working
You don’t need to become a data analyst to understand whether your website is helping your business.
But you should have some way to evaluate its performance.
Depending on your goals, you might want to know:
- How many people are visiting your website
- Where visitors are coming from
- Which pages people visit most often
- Whether visitors are contacting you
- Whether people are scheduling appointments
- Whether your website is generating sales
The numbers that matter most will depend on what your website is supposed to accomplish.
For example, a local service business might care more about phone calls and contact form submissions than the total number of website visitors.
An online store might focus on sales and conversion rates.
A blog might care about traffic, email subscribers, and reader engagement.
Don’t get distracted by numbers simply because they are easy to measure.
Focus on the information that helps you determine whether your website is accomplishing its purpose.
Know When to Ask for Help
Perhaps the most important thing to understand as a WordPress website owner is that you don’t need to know how to do everything yourself.
You don’t need to be a web developer.
You don’t need to understand code.
You don’t need to personally fix every problem.
But you should understand enough about your website to ask good questions and make informed decisions.
You should know:
- What you own
- Where your important accounts are located
- How to access your website
- Who has access
- Who is responsible for maintenance
- Whether your website is backed up
- What your website is supposed to accomplish
When something is outside your area of expertise, get help.
The goal isn’t to become a WordPress expert.
The goal is to become a responsible website owner.
Final Thoughts
A successful WordPress website owner doesn’t need to know how every piece of technology works.
You can hire people to design your website. You can hire people to maintain it. You can hire people to improve its security, performance, and search engine visibility.
But you should never completely disconnect yourself from your own website.
Your domain name, hosting account, website access, backups, and other important services should not be a mystery.
The more you understand the basics, the easier it becomes to work with web professionals, recognize potential problems, and make better decisions about your online presence.
You don’t need to be the expert.
You just need to know enough to be the owner.
Download the WordPress Website Owner Checklist
If you’d like to make sure you have all of these important areas covered, I’ve created a WordPress Website Owner Checklist to help you work through each item discussed in this article.
Use the checklist to review your website, identify any gaps, and make sure you know where to find the important accounts, information, and people responsible for keeping your website running.
[Download the WordPress Website Owner Checklist here.]
It’s a simple way to make sure you’re taking an active role in your website—without needing to become a WordPress expert.
