When you publish a page or post, WordPress creates a unique URL address for that article. The default format of the URL can be modified to improve human readability and possibly improve search engine ranking.
Go to Settings -> Permalinks and under common settings select either “Post name” or “Custom Structure”. If you select Custom Structure then enter “/%category%/%postname%/” (without quotes) in the fillable field.
Save the changes and you are on your way.
WordPress itself is software that is freely available to use in any way you want but there are two sites: wordpress.com and wordpress.org.
WordPress.org is the home of the free software and the centre of the community of users and support.
WordPress.com is a site that runs wordpress software as a service. Starting with a free wordpress.com sub-domain, various monthly plans from AUD5 to AUD34 provide additional services such as the ability to use your own domain name for your site, add plug-ins, increase storage space, and monetise your site. All paid plans include email and live chat support.
If you want to try out WordPress then you can start out with a free wordpress.com site. You won’t be able to use your own domain name but you can become familiar with WordPress for zero cost and no commitment. Treat it as a learning exercise but set yourself a time limit, say three or four weeks. Add your content and get your friends and family to provide feedback. Migrating from wordpress.com to your own self-hosted or managed WordPress site will mostly be cut and paste from your free site so there is no need to hold back on producing good quality content and pushing your creative abilities.
If you decide that WordPress is for you then you can decide how to proceed.
WordPress isn’t the only game in town. There are many ways to create a web site and one of those may be more suitable for you than WordPress. Sometimes it’s just the way that the software works that makes one easier to learn and use than another. Some major alternatives to WordPress include Joomla, Drupal, Blogger, and Magento.
There isn’t space here to dive into each of these and they are well covered by a number of review and comparison sites. A quick search for “alternatives to wordpress reviews and comparison” will find reviews to these and more.
WordPress is publishing software that allows you to create and manage a web site. WordPress doesn’t require any knowledge of writing computer programs. If you are moderately capable with a word processor like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, WordPerfect, or LibreOffice, you are already well along the path to understanding how to use WordPress. If you are “moderately capable” then you will be comfortable with formatting your documents using different fonts and colours, structuring your documents by using paragraphs, multiple level headings and different types of lists, and adding images with captions.
Where WordPress differs from the word processor you are used to is mainly in areas that are effected by the fact that your document is on a web site. For example, you can’t just add an image to a document in one step. It usually takes a couple of steps but it isn’t hard, just slightly different and also easy to get used to.
WordPress manages the look of your web site so that all of your web pages look similar in important areas of styling and layout. If you’ve used document templates that set margins, fonts, hanging indents, heading styles, etc in your word processor then you’ll quickly understand WordPress themes.