WordPress is free, open-source software for building and managing websites. It is a content management system (CMS): it lets you add and edit pages, blog posts, images and menus through a web dashboard without writing code. The self-hosted version, downloaded from WordPress.org and installed on hosting you choose, is what most people mean by WordPress.
How WordPress works
WordPress is written in PHP and stores its content in a MySQL or MariaDB database. When someone requests a page, WordPress pulls the content from the database, wraps it in the design supplied by the active theme and sends the finished HTML to the browser. Caching can store those finished pages so the work does not repeat on every visit.
Two kinds of add-on shape almost every site. A theme controls the look and layout. A plugin adds features: contact forms, an online shop through WooCommerce, SEO settings, bookings, membership areas. Content is written in the block editor, which builds pages from blocks such as paragraphs, images and columns. Some sites use a separate page builder instead, which gives more visual control but often adds weight to every page.
WordPress.com is a different thing: a hosted service run by Automattic that uses the same software but manages the hosting for you, with what you can install depending on your plan. WordPress.org gives you full control and full responsibility.
Why it matters for a UK business
WordPress is popular with small and medium businesses because it is free to use, easy to hand between developers and not tied to any one supplier. If your web designer stops trading, another can pick the site up, and you can move it to a different host whenever you like.
That freedom has a cost. Because the software is so widely used, it is a constant target for automated attacks, nearly always through outdated plugins and themes or weak logins. A WordPress site needs someone to keep it updated. And the defaults are not always right for search: tag archives, author pages, thin category pages and, on sites installed before WordPress 6.4, image attachment pages can all end up indexed unless they are configured deliberately.
For a UK-facing site, set the site language to English (UK) under Settings, then General, so the dashboard, dates and some theme text use en_GB. Pick a date format such as 5 October 2026 and set the time zone to London so posts and scheduled content follow UK time, including the clock changes.
Common mistakes
- Plugin overload. Every plugin adds code, update risk and sometimes extra scripts on every page. Remove the ones you do not use.
- Abandoned themes and plugins. If an add-on has not been updated in a long time, it may not be maintained against new vulnerabilities.
- Editing the theme directly. Customisations belong in a child theme, otherwise the next update overwrites them.
- Leaving “Discourage search engines” ticked. This setting under Settings, then Reading, is often switched on during a build and forgotten at launch, which tells search engines not to index the site.
- US defaults left in place. American English, a US date format and the UTC time zone on a site serving British customers.
How to act on it
Open Tools, then Site Health in your dashboard and work through what it flags. Check the language, date format and time zone under Settings, then General, and confirm that the search engine visibility box under Reading is unticked on your live site. List your plugins and remove anything inactive or unmaintained. Then make sure updates and backups run on a schedule someone is accountable for.
Configuring WordPress so it gives search engines a clean, fast and well-structured site is the focus of my WordPress SEO service.