So, you want to start a blog, huh? First of all, that’s a pretty dope idea. In my opinion, it’s one of the most fun and rewarding things you can do.

Blogging allows you to dive deeply into topics that really interest you, improve as a writer, and learn a ton along the way. In addition, starting your own blog has never been easier. The required pieces are readily available. You just have to know how to use them, which is what this post will show you.

We’ll cover the step-by-step process on how you can start a blog basically today. From if and why you should do it, over preparation, getting a website address, setting up and designing your blog, to writing your first blog post and making it ready for publishing.

But wait, isn’t blogging dead?

If blogging had really died as often as people said it did, it would have signed a DNR by now.

But, the truth is, blogging has never really gone away. It has changed over time, for sure, but is still a valid way to attract an audience, drive traffic to your website, and even build a business around.

Need proof?

In Orbit Media Studio’s annual blogger survey, out of 1,000 professional bloggers:

• 77% of participants say they see results from blogging, 20% even say strong results
• 65% use it as a tool to drive SEO traffic to their websites

Yes, they also say it takes more effort to craft blog posts. Participants see the best results when they spend 4-6+ hours per in-depth blog post. But blogging is alive and well.

Okay, so why should you start a blog?

Starting a blog lets you write about and explore anything you want. Whatever your interest or passion, it’s an outlet to curate your knowledge and ideas.

In addition, it’s great writing practice and great thinking practice too. It forces you to properly structure your ideas. Plus, it really helps with learning because, in order to explain something to others, you first need to understand it yourself.

In addition, being creative is simply fun and meaningful. Sharing what you know with others in the hopes of helping, inspiring, and educating them is rewarding.

What’s more, it can actually be a vehicle to build an audience, establish authority in your industry, and position yourself as an expert. And who knows, over time, your  blog might turn into a side or even main business. You wouldn’t be the first blogger to start earning money from sharing your knowledge.

Most importantly, a blog is your own presence on the web where you can decide what happens and how. And, especially if you create it with a system like WordPress, you fully own it.

That’s different from, say, a presence on social media, where you can:

• Get banned for violating the terms and conditions, even accidentally
• Lose your reach due to an algorithm change
• Be forced to migrate because you don’t support the new ownership

When you don’t own your outlet, you are at the mercy of those who do.

Ready to sign up with WordPress.com? Start your blogging journey here.

How to start a blog with WordPress.com in 12 steps

Feel motivated yet? Good, then let’s put that energy to good use.

1. Choose a niche and determine what you’ll write about

When considering your blog topic and niche, there are three fundamental factors to think about:

• Your interest – It’s hard to start a successful blog and stay motivated to write about something day in and day out that you aren’t really into, even if it’s a popular topic. So, choose something you actually care about, it will also show in your writing.
• The audience – Is there enough general interest in your topic that you are able to attract an audience? You can use tools like Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, Similarweb, or the Ubersuggest Chrome extension to research this.
• Monetization – Some niches are more suitable for building a business around than others. If that’s your goal, it helps to do some research beforehand. For example, you may check if there are affiliate programs you could sign up for. A simple Google search like “[your topic] affiliate program” is often enough. Other ways to monetize a blog are Patreon and Ko-fi. On WordPress.com you can also accept donations and run ads on your blog.

It’s also important to niche down. Start with broader topics like personal finance, cooking, or travel. From there, dig further, for example:

• Investing for millennials
• High-protein meal prep ideas
• Solo travel for women

You can always broaden your topic later but for the beginning, going small helps you focus.

2. Brainstorm a name for your blog and secure your domain

In naming your blog, you can go different routes. For example, you could use your own name like author James Clear.

This emphasizes who is behind the writing even if it doesn’t give away the blog’s topic yet. You can also use a business name instead of your personal name.

Another choice is to give the blog a title that conveys its topic, similar to Nerd Fitness.

A third option is to do a mix. For example, Chris Guillebeau uses his own name for the domain but his blog is called “The Art of Non-Conformity”

Generally, your blog name should be clear, easy to remember, and unique. This also matters for your choice of domain name. You want to use one that’s the same as the blog name or at least intimately tied to it.

To find out if your desired domain is available, use WordPress.com’s domain search tool.

Input your desired name and the tool will tell you if it’s available, what it costs, and alternatives.

You can also purchase it right then and there. More tips for choosing a domain name.

3. Pick a hosting plan

Hosting allows you to make your blog available for people surfing the Internet. With WordPress, you are free to choose where to host your blog.

Using a managed hosting provider like WordPress.com allows you to outsource many of the more technical tasks of starting a blog, like:

• Installation – You can skip uploading the files to a server, creating a database, or running the installation yourself.
• Speed optimization – WordPress.com’s servers are optimized for WordPress and offer other speed features.
• Security – You get daily security scans, automatic backups, brute-force protection, downtime monitoring, encryption, firewalls, DDoS protection, automatic software updates, and more with every plan. Don’t worry if you don’t know what half of this means. The bottom line is simply that your blog is super secure from being hacked.

All of the above allows you to fully concentrate on content creation and growing your blog. Simply choose a WordPress.com plan to get started.

Each plan comes with unlimited visitors, posts, and pages. You can even start with the Free plan and upgrade later, such as when you want to extend your blog’s functionality with plugins on the Business plan. Plus, if you go for the yearly option, every plan also includes a free domain for one year.

4. Select a WordPress blog theme

Themes control the design of a WordPress blog. Switching from one theme to another can make a huge difference in the look and feel of your blog. There are plenty of blog themes with design and layout elements specifically for blogging, making it easy to start. They even exist for different subjects like food, travel, etc.

To install one, log in to your WordPress blog, go to Appearance > Themes, and click the Blog category at the top.

Click on any theme you like for additional information and also to try out any style variations it comes with.

You can apply it to your blog right then and there by clicking Activate this design. Alternatively, click Preview & Customize to view your current website in the new skin and make adjustments before activating it.

5. Add pages

At this point, you might want to jump straight into customizing your theme design and we’ll get to that. But, in order to do so, it helps to first get familiar with the basic workflow of how to edit content in WordPress.

A good way to ease yourself into it is to create pages. It uses a lot of the same principles but is less complex and, therefore, a good starting point.

You create a new page by going to Pages > Add New Page in your WordPress admin interface. The first thing you’ll see is a prompt with block patterns for different types of pages. They can work as a starting point and you can insert them with a click.

Alternatively, you can also start with a blank page.

Insert page elements

In WordPress, basic design elements are called “blocks”. For example, the editor automatically creates a paragraph block when you write something and press the enter key.

You find a list of all available blocks when you click the big “+” button in the top left corner.

They range from text elements and buttons to layout elements like columns and beyond. A click on any of them inserts it into the editor.

You also have access to more pre-designed collections of blocks in the Patterns tab. Inserting them works the same way.

You can also add blocks by clicking the small “+” button that appears when you place your cursor within the editor. Alternatively, type a forward slash (“/”) in any empty line followed by the block name.

Every element in the editor is customizable. Click it and you’ll find an options bar at the top and additional customization options in the Settings sidebar.

Use the editor to create must-have pages for your blog, such as:

• About page
• Contact page
• Legal pages like a privacy policy

6. Add a menu

Including your new pages in a navigation menu allows your visitors to reach them easily. Sitewide changes like this happen in the Site Editor. Enter it via Appearance > Editor.

You’ll quickly notice that it works the same way as the Page Editor, only that there are more site elements you can work on. For example, your theme likely already has a navigation menu. In this example, it appears as part of the header.

There are different ways to customize it. One is via the Navigation menu. Another is through Patterns and Header. Thirdly, you can also click the header element in the main editing window and then choose Edit.

In all cases, the element you want to edit is the Navigation block. Opening the Document Overview menu helps you find it more easily. Once active, it lets you add and subtract menu items and other elements, rename them, and more.

Note: In some themes you control menus in the Site Customizer instead. Find information about that here.

7. Customize theme design

While already in the Site Editor, you can also start to change the appearance of other parts of your blog.

Change global styles

Changing global design options like fonts, colors, etc. happens in the Styles menu on the right side of the screen.

Among other things, it lets you change:

• Style presets – Switch between style variations your theme ships with.
• Typography – Make changes to the font family, size, appearance and more for all text on your blog, from body copy to links and headings.
• Colors – Define custom colors, try out existing palettes, and change the color of text, backgrounds, links, and beyond.
• Layout – Define content width, global padding, and spacing.

For example, if you go to Colors > Background, you can change the background color of your blog with a few clicks.

Customize page templates

Page templates work like blueprints for certain content types. If you modify a template, the changes apply to all pieces of content of that kind.

You can access them via the Templates menu when you click on the WordPress logo in the Site Editor.

One of the most decisive customizations you can make here is to determine how your posts appear on your blog page. Your theme most likely has a template called Blog Home for that.

Click to start editing it. Find the Query Loop block (again, use the Document Overview) and choose Replace.

This will show you available patterns for displaying the main blog.

Click whichever you like to see it on the page.

Customize it as needed. If you save now, your blog will adopt the new design.

8. Add blog categories

You should now have enough knowledge to customize the look of your blog. From here, it’s time to talk about how to create content, starting with categories.

Categories bring order to your blog posts and also clarify the topics of your blog to search engines. You manage them in Posts > Categories. Click the blue button to add a new category.

Provide a name and, optionally, a description that can show up in category archive pages. You’re also able to create sub-categories this way.

Think of categories as broad topics that your blog is about. For example, a food blog would have categories like Recipes, Cooking Tips, and Product Reviews and from there subcategories like Breakfast, Meal Prep, and Cookbooks.

Start with 3-5 categories. If you have more than that, your blog topic might lack focus.

Later, you assign categories in the Post Editor sidebar.

9. Develop a basic content strategy

In writing blog content, it helps to be strategic and develop a plan that will keep you on track.

The first step is to decide how often you want to publish a new post. This depends a lot on how much time you have available to invest. In the beginning, it’s more important to be consistent than to post often. Once a week or every other week is an okay goal to start with.

As for what to write about, you probably already have a few ideas for blog topics. Spend 10 minutes jotting down as many as you can.

After that, take another 10 minutes to score those ideas with numbers 1-3, the highest number being the best. Take your 3s and input them into tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ubersuggest. This will help you validate demand and also refine your exact key phrases.

Then add all those left over to your calendar.

10. Write your first blog post

If you’ve made it this far, it’s finally time–you are going to start creating your first blog post. This can be a bit overwhelming at first, so let’s break it down into manageable steps.

Create an outline

A blog post outline gives you an overview of the general content and structure of your blog post. Here’s an example:

It helps you determine the topic, angle, and main points. You can actually create it right in your WordPress blog. Go to the WordPress Post Editor (Posts > Add New Post) and open the Outline feature in the document overview.

This shows the heading structure of your future post. Use h2 headings to determine main sections, then h3 headings to further divide them, and so forth. You can also create a list of points you want to make in each section if you already know them.

Start researching

The research phase is where you collect all the raw information you will mention in your blog post and bring it into the right order.

This usually involves a lot of googling and reading the material that’s already out there. But you can also use books, your own expertise, or other sources.

You don’t need to write complete sentences here. Incomplete sentences and key phrases are enough.

Write a first draft

The main objective of your first draft is to turn your research notes into a cohesive text. This won’t be the final version and nobody else is going to see it, so shoot for volume rather than conciseness and speed over precision.

Seriously, you just want to vomit enough text onto the page that you have something to work with, so avoid sweating over specific sentences or editing while writing.

Edit and format

The editing phase is the most important part of the process. This is where you polish your draft, clarify your points, make sure the post progresses logically, and refine your writing. Besides research, this is where most of your effort should go and it often helps to do several rounds of editing.

Part of editing is formatting to ensure readability. Here are a few suggestions and best practices for that:

• Include no more than 25 words per sentence
• Use around three sentences per paragraph
• Try to express one idea per paragraph
• Keep sections short (under 300 words)
• Use numbered and unnumbered lists

A great help is to input your content into the Hemingway App. On the Business plan and above, you can also install plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math that have a readability analysis.

Add visuals

Visual content breaks up text, makes it more interesting, and clarifies and emphasizes your points. It can take many different forms, such as:

• Images
• Infographics
• Embedded videos and social media posts

Note that you can directly embed images from Openverse and Pexels via the Block Inserter’s Media tab.

Just search for a keyword and click when you find an image that you like to insert it.

Refine your headline

More people read your headline than will read the rest of your post, it can really make or break your article. To make sure it is the best it can be and get some practice, challenge yourself to write 25 of them.

If you are drawing a blank, feel free to plug it into your favorite AI tool for some input.

For example, Jetpack AI can also help you create a headline for your post.

In addition, you can use a free headline tool like Easy Peasy AI to further refine your ideas.

11. Optimize your post for SEO

The aforementioned SEO plugins also help you optimize your blog post for search engines. For one, they allow you to set custom page titles and meta descriptions.

These show up prominently in search results.

Customizing them makes sure they are engaging, inspire clicks, and don’t get cut off. You can also use Jetpack for this purpose.

SEO plugins additionally often come with content analysis models. When you input your main keyword, they tell you how well-optimized your post is.

An Important part that they will alert you to is using your keyword in your post slug, meaning the end of its URL.

It’s best if you make it concise, no more than 3-5 words. Ideally, it should just be the main key phrase.

You can also further customize the entire URL structure of your blog under Settings > Permalinks.

Including categories can help further clarify your blog topics to search engines but it’s not a must. Just be sure not to change the permalink structure of an established blog because it will neutralize established links in search engines and lead to 404 errors.

Finally, make sure to include internal links in your blog post to related blog articles and other relevant pages. It will help visitors discover more information and also helps spread SEO value throughout your entire site.

Good starting points to learn more about SEO are Positionly’s blog SEO best practices and Moz’s Beginner’s Guide. You’ll also want to learn about image SEO.

12. Promote your blog posts

Besides SEO, additional promotion channels like social media and building an email list help you get your blog writing in front of more people.

All WordPress.com plans come with Jetpack, which you can find under Tools > Marketing > Connections. It allows you to automatically publish new blog content to selected social accounts.

You can also easily add social sharing buttons to your content using the Sharing Buttons block to make it easy for your readers to further spread the word. 

In addition, WordPress.com has native functionality to build a newsletter. It allows you to collect subscribers, automatically send out new posts via email, schedule them ahead of time, and even monetize your newsletter.

You find options for that under Settings > Newsletter. It lets you offer different subscription options throughout your site and content. You can also set them up manually with the Subscribe block.

In addition, you customize the content and features of your emails as well as set up a welcome message to new subscribers. Detailed instructions in the documentation.

Make This the Year When You Start Your Blog!

Creating a blog, whether as a hobby, to build a personal brand, or to grow a business, is a rewarding experience. It allows you to share your passions with the world and claim your own spot on the web.

The process may seem overwhelming at first, but if you take it step by step, it’s both accessible and achievable for anyone willing to put in the effort. So, why wait? Bring your ideas to life, and start building something meaningful today. Launch your blog in just a few clicks on WordPress.com.

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We believe in the open web and interoperability between online publishing platforms. That’s why we’re excited about the Fediverse and are committed to shipping features that improve the way your site connects to the open web. Today, we’re introducing Likes, Reposts, and the Fediverse Reactions block, building on our commitment to decentralized publishing.

Introducing the Reactions Block

With the Reactions Block, likes and reposts from Mastodon and other Fediverse platforms are automatically added to the end of your posts (if you’re using the Site Editor). It’s even smart enough to hide itself on posts without Reactions. Here’s a look at Fediverse reactions in action:

To disable or customize its placement, click “Edit Site” in the admin bar, select the Content block, and adjust the settings:

For older themes, you can manually add the block to any post or page.

But wait, that’s not all

We’ve been working over the past several months to improve your experience with WordPress.com. Here are two other recent enhancements we’re excited to share with you:

• Push and email notifications. Get notified instantly when your posts are Liked or Reposted via the Jetpack app, dashboard, or email.
• Reply to comments, federated. When someone comments from the Fediverse, your replies federate back, keeping the conversation visible on both sides. Likes and Reposts are treated like comments, allowing you to manage them directly in the WordPress admin interface. This feature has been live since early 2024, but it’s worth sharing now.

Have you connected your WordPress.com site to the Fediverse?

Fediverse integration is available to all WordPress.com users—including free plans—and for WordPress.org users via the ActivityPub plugin. We want to ensure that our tools are accessible to creators of all sizes, so that your work is accessible to all of your followers, everywhere.

Start receiving Likes, Reposts, and showcasing engagement today. Get started with our Enter the Fediverse guide.

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As the last days of 2024 wind down, we’re inviting WordPress.com bloggers to kick off the new year by doing what we love most: sharing our stories.

Reflecting on the past 12 months and looking forward to the New Year is a natural part of the season, but blogging about those thoughts? That’s a modern twist that turns personal contemplation into community inspiration.

This January, we’re challenging you to write about the turning of the year – from your experiences during 2024, to your hopes, dreams, and goals for 2025, to everything that’s in between. We can’t wait to read what you come up with!

How to participate in the #2025-new-year-challenge

Participating is easy:

1. Write your post: Craft a heartfelt, honest, or even humorous post about what comes up for you as we enter the new year. Dream big, get specific, or keep it wonderfully vague – it’s your story.
2. Schedule for January 1st: Use our handy scheduling feature to have your post go live on January 1st, right as the new year begins. Nothing says “fresh start” like a post dropping on day one!
3. Tag it right: Add the #2025-new-year-challenge tag to your post. This is your ticket to others seeing and interacting with your post.
4. Get the word out: Blog about the challenge or share this post with others. Let’s get as many stories as we can!

Discover and connect

Want to see what others created? Starting January 1st, visit wordpress.com/tag/2025-new-year-challenge to explore a world of reflections, aspirations, dreams, and more.

You might find a haiku encapsulating the past year, a fitness enthusiast planning their marathon, or someone simply resolving to be kinder to themselves. Every story matters, and every reflection is a step towards a new beginning.

Make it yours with the Personal plan

Ready to make your online presence more personalized? Our Personal plan is the perfect companion for your blogging journey this new year. Get a custom domain (first year included) and transform your blog from a generic URL to your very own corner of the internet.

Imagine telling people, “Check out my resolution progress at [yourname].com” – pretty cool, right?

Let’s make 2025 remarkable

Whether you’re nostalgic for 2024 or excited to learn a language, read more books, or simply smile more this upcoming year – we want to hear about it. Your post might just inspire someone else on their own journey.

So grab your laptop, warm up those typing fingers, and let’s welcome 2025 with stories of growth, hope, and possibility.

Happy writing, and here’s to new beginnings!

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One of the areas where WordPress shines is content management. This is also corroborated by the fact that it is the world’s leading Content Management System, or CMS, by numbers.

The most popular way of displaying the content hosted by WordPress is through a frontend, like through blog posts and pages. That is wonderful for human visitors but there are other ways of consuming that content –– for example, web APIs. 

In this article, we’ll explore how we can leverage WordPress in order to power a central API for projects like phone apps, browser extensions, or the frontends of other WordPress sites!

Following along

All the steps described in this article were made in WordPress Playground. If you want to see the end result and maybe sometimes skip ahead as we go, download this ZIP file, and perform these steps:

• Visit https://playground.wordpress.net/
• Restore the site from the ZIP file
• Log in into the admin area

What is a web API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface and it’s a way for software applications to communicate with each other in a standardized fashion. A web API is simply one that is accessed through “the internet” –– for example, by entering a certain URL in your web browser.

There are multiple types of web APIs, and one common way to group them is the protocol they use. In this article, we’ll be implementing two APIs, one based on the REST protocol, and another based on the GraphQL protocol. Other protocols you might have heard of include SOAP, RPC, or gRPC. 

WordPress actually includes a built-in REST API which powers the Gutenberg Block Editor. As of October 2024, the popular WPGraphQL plugin has become a canonical plugin paving the road for an official GraphQL API as well.

What data we’ll be modeling

By the end of this article, we’ll have built a WordPress site that allows users to login in order to add/update/delete data entries which will be queryable both via REST routes and a GraphQL endpoint. 

The data entries will collectively represent a company’s organizational chart –– things like employees, teams, and offices. While a little bland, the concepts can be applied to absolutely anything else.

Optional: Trimming down the frontend

While an optional step, it makes a lot of sense to do this if your site won’t be serving any content via pages but exclusively through APIs.

Once you have a hosted WordPress website, you can start by installing a minimalist WordPress theme like Blank Canvas and deleting every single demo post and page on your site. Continue by using the site editor to include information on the homepage for visitors who find it unintentionally. 

For example, add your business’ name and logo, and tell them that they probably landed there in error. You can also include a button linking to the admin area for maintainers of the content. Something along the lines of:

One way to prevent your site from being found in search engine results is by checking the Discourage search engines from indexing this site in your site’s settings.

If you would rather fully lock down the frontend and not even have the homepage described above, you can add the following code snippet either to a plugin like Code Snippets or to your child theme’s functions.php file:

/**
 * Disables the frontend for non-logged-in users.
 */
add_action(
	'template_redirect',
	static function (): void {
		$authorization_required_code = WP_Http::UNAUTHORIZED; // 401

		if ( ! is_user_logged_in() ) {
			status_header( $authorization_required_code );
			die( get_status_header_desc( $authorization_required_code ) ); // phpcs:ignore WordPress.Security.EscapeOutput.OutputNotEscaped
		}
	}

Custom post types and taxonomies

Now it’s time to focus on the website’s admin area and the data modeling part of this tutorial. The most straightforward way of compartmentalizing your data is by using WordPress’ built-in functionality of custom post types and custom taxonomies.

While there are many ways to do this, for the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll organize our data like this:

• An employee custom post type
• A team custom taxonomy
• An office custom post type

In order to create these custom data types, you can either add custom code to your site, or use a plugin (like in this video). A very popular plugin for creating custom post types and taxonomies using the admin interface is Custom Post Type UI – and that is what we’ll be using in this tutorial.

Here is the JSON configuration for importing the data into your installation:

• For custom post types 

{"employee":{"name":"employee","label":"Employees","singular_label":"Employee","description":"","public":"false","publicly_queryable":"false","show_ui":"true","show_in_nav_menus":"false","delete_with_user":"false","show_in_rest":"false","rest_base":"","rest_controller_class":"","rest_namespace":"","has_archive":"false","has_archive_string":"","exclude_from_search":"true","capability_type":"post","hierarchical":"false","can_export":"true","rewrite":"false","rewrite_slug":"","rewrite_withfront":"true","query_var":"false","query_var_slug":"","menu_position":"","show_in_menu":"true","show_in_menu_string":"","menu_icon":"dashicons-id","register_meta_box_cb":null,"supports":["title","thumbnail","excerpt","revisions"],"taxonomies":[],"labels":{"menu_name":"Employees","all_items":"All Employees","add_new":"Add new","add_new_item":"Add new Employee","edit_item":"Edit Employee","new_item":"New Employee","view_item":"View Employee","view_items":"View Employees","search_items":"Search Employees","not_found":"No Employees found","not_found_in_trash":"No Employees found in trash","parent":"Parent Employee:","featured_image":"Profile image for this Employee","set_featured_image":"Set profile image for this Employee","remove_featured_image":"Remove profile image for this Employee","use_featured_image":"Use as profile image for this Employee","archives":"Employee archives","insert_into_item":"Insert into Employee","uploaded_to_this_item":"Upload to this Employee","filter_items_list":"Filter Employees list","items_list_navigation":"Employees list navigation","items_list":"Employees list","attributes":"Employees attributes","name_admin_bar":"Employee","item_published":"Employee published","item_published_privately":"Employee published privately.","item_reverted_to_draft":"Employee reverted to draft.","item_trashed":"Employee trashed.","item_scheduled":"Employee scheduled","item_updated":"Employee updated.","parent_item_colon":"Parent Employee:"},"custom_supports":"","enter_title_here":"First and Last Names","show_in_graphql":"1","graphql_single_name":"Employee","graphql_plural_name":"Employees"},"office":{"name":"office","label":"Offices","singular_label":"Office","description":"","public":"false","publicly_queryable":"false","show_ui":"true","show_in_nav_menus":"false","delete_with_user":"false","show_in_rest":"false","rest_base":"","rest_controller_class":"","rest_namespace":"","has_archive":"false","has_archive_string":"","exclude_from_search":"true","capability_type":"post","hierarchical":"false","can_export":"false","rewrite":"false","rewrite_slug":"","rewrite_withfront":"true","query_var":"true","query_var_slug":"","menu_position":"","show_in_menu":"true","show_in_menu_string":"","menu_icon":"dashicons-admin-home","register_meta_box_cb":null,"supports":["title","thumbnail","revisions"],"taxonomies":[],"labels":{"menu_name":"Offices","all_items":"All Offices","add_new":"Add new","add_new_item":"Add new Office","edit_item":"Edit Office","new_item":"New Office","view_item":"View Office","view_items":"View Offices","search_items":"Search Offices","not_found":"No Offices found","not_found_in_trash":"No Offices found in trash","parent":"Parent Office:","featured_image":"Featured image for this Office","set_featured_image":"Set featured image for this Office","remove_featured_image":"Remove featured image for this Office","use_featured_image":"Use as featured image for this Office","archives":"Office archives","insert_into_item":"Insert into Office","uploaded_to_this_item":"Upload to this Office","filter_items_list":"Filter Offices list","items_list_navigation":"Offices list navigation","items_list":"Offices list","attributes":"Offices attributes","name_admin_bar":"Office","item_published":"Office published","item_published_privately":"Office published privately.","item_reverted_to_draft":"Office reverted to draft.","item_trashed":"Office trashed.","item_scheduled":"Office scheduled","item_updated":"Office updated.","parent_item_colon":"Parent Office:"},"custom_supports":"","enter_title_here":"Add Office","show_in_graphql":"1","graphql_single_name":"Office","graphql_plural_name":"Offices"}}

• For custom taxonomies

{"team":{"name":"team","label":"Teams","singular_label":"Team","description":"","public":"false","publicly_queryable":"false","hierarchical":"false","show_ui":"true","show_in_menu":"true","show_in_nav_menus":"false","query_var":"false","query_var_slug":"","rewrite":"false","rewrite_slug":"","rewrite_withfront":"0","rewrite_hierarchical":"0","show_admin_column":"true","show_in_rest":"false","show_tagcloud":"false","sort":"false","show_in_quick_edit":"","rest_base":"","rest_controller_class":"","rest_namespace":"","labels":{"menu_name":"Teams","all_items":"All Teams","edit_item":"Edit Team","view_item":"View Team","update_item":"Update Team name","add_new_item":"Add new Team","new_item_name":"New Team name","parent_item":"Parent Team","parent_item_colon":"Parent Team:","search_items":"Search Teams","popular_items":"Popular Teams","separate_items_with_commas":"Separate Teams with commas","add_or_remove_items":"Add or remove Teams","choose_from_most_used":"Choose from the most used Teams","not_found":"No Teams found","no_terms":"No Teams","items_list_navigation":"Teams list navigation","items_list":"Teams list","back_to_items":"Back to Teams","name_field_description":"The name is how it appears on your site.","parent_field_description":"Assign a parent term to create a hierarchy. The term Jazz, for example, would be the parent of Bebop and Big Band.","slug_field_description":"The slug is the URL-friendly version of the name. It is usually all lowercase and contains only letters, numbers, and hyphens.","desc_field_description":"The description is not prominent by default; however, some themes may show it."},"meta_box_cb":"","default_term":"","object_types":["employee"],"show_in_graphql":"1","graphql_single_name":"Team","graphql_plural_name":"Teams"}}

At this point, your WordPress admin interface might look something like this:

To Gutenberg or not to Gutenberg

The Gutenberg block editor is functional, adaptable, and easy to use, and you should be using it to edit your traditional WordPress posts and pages. However, when it comes to CPTs without a frontend, there might not be any content to warrant the use of a performant editor like Gutenberg.

If you are positive that all of the information you need is not HTML-based, then it might make sense to disable Gutenberg for these CPTs and default back to the classic post editor that was the standard before WordPress 5.0.

The simplest way to disable Gutenberg support for a CPT is to set the show_in_rest argument to false when registering it (as we’ve done above). 

Alternatively, if you want to keep the built-in REST routes that WordPress provides for every CPT, you can add this code to your child theme:

/**
 * Disables the block editor for certain CPTs.
 */
add_filter(
    'use_block_editor_for_post_type',
    static function( bool $use_block_editor, string $post_type ): bool {
	if ( in_array( $post_type, array( 'employee', 'office' ), true ) ) {
		$use_block_editor = false;
       }
  
	return $use_block_editor;
    },
    10,
    2
);

Custom Fields

Now that we have our basic data types in place, we need to start populating them with entries. Before we do that, we need to ensure that we can record all the necessary data on each entry, and for that we will need to build custom fields.

The easiest way to add custom fields to your custom post types is to register them with custom-fields support. When you then edit a post, it will include a metabox like this:

While this type of “key-value” interface can be enough, you might want to build a more user-friendly interface with fields like checkboxes, dropdowns, media selectors, and so on.

A popular way to add those types of custom fields is the Meta Box plugin, which, as mentioned above, is what we’ll be using in this tutorial. Using their online custom fields generator, we got the PHP code needed to register the fields we wanted and then added them to Code Snippets.

Using a fake data generator, we populated the custom post types with a bit of seed data:

Other UI customizations

While we won’t explore any further UI customization options in this tutorial, we wanted to note that it’s possible to use various WordPress filters to tweak things like:

• The default Add title placeholder on new posts (e.g., to First and Last Names)
• The columns hidden or visible by default on the CPT list table view
• Various other labels and messages throughout the admin interface

Access control

Before we start looking into making the data available via API, it’s time to think about who should have access to it. 

The custom post types and taxonomies mentioned above were registered in such a way that any logged-in user with the ability to edit regular WordPress blog posts will also have the ability to edit these. However, it’s possible to make that much more granular.

You can create custom user roles with custom capabilities in order to ensure that the UI is as clean-as-possible in order to promote focused-work for the users doing the data maintenance. This is particularly important if you anticipate a very high number of entries, especially on an ongoing basis. 

While it is possible to control this entirely with custom code, a way to maintain a simpler overview of access management is provided by Access Policies implemented by the Advanced Access Manager plugin. 

For example, you can create a separate access policy for each CPT you create. Then you may assign the policy either to a role or to individual users in order to maintain full control over who may add new Employee entries or even just edit existing ones. Deleting entries can be a capability reserved only for administrators.

Here is an example of how a policy named Employees CPT – Full Control and assigned only to Administrator users can look like:

{
    "Version": "1.0.0",
    "Dependency": {
        "wordpress": ">=6.6.2",
        "advanced-access-manager": ">=6.9.42"
    },
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "allow",
            "Resource": [
                "Capability:edit_employees",
                "Capability:edit_others_employees",
                "Capability:edit_private_employees",
                "Capability:edit_published_employees",
                "Capability:read_private_employees",
                "Capability:publish_employees",
                "Capability:delete_employees",
                "Capability:delete_private_employees",
                "Capability:delete_published_employees",
                "Capability:delete_others_employees"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Here is an example of what the admin interface can look like for a dummy operator user that has the Data Entry Operator user roles (cloned from the Subscriber role) with two AAM Access Policies attached – one for each custom CPT:

Notice how the lack of most menu items makes it easier to focus solely on the data-entry aspect. The policies can be made more granular, for example, to also restrict who may delete an entry or create new ones.

Custom REST routes

While WordPress will automatically create REST routes for every CPT as long as it is registered with the show_in_rest argument set to true, you can also create your own custom rest routes that are better suited for serving the CPT content in a way that makes more sense to your use-case.

The easiest and most standard way to achieve this is by extending one of the REST API controller classes. For maximum control over the output, you may want to extend the base WP_REST_Controller class itself.

You can choose to have your routes publicly accessible if the permission_callback argument is set to the __return_true function or you can choose to lock down calls using any permission scheme you want. 

The recommended way of locking down access is behind a capability check, i.e. a call to current_user_can. You can use the AAM Access Policies mentioned above to grant or withdraw permission from individual roles or users, and you can use WordPress’ application passwords to authenticate API requests.

Hint: even if you decide that GET (read) requests should/can be publicly available, we still recommend that any POST // PUT // DELETE (create, update, delete) requests always be guarded by a current_user_can check.

Here is a REST controller that we added to Code Snippets in order to be able to list the employees on the site and fetch them by ID:

add_action(
	'rest_api_init',
	function() {
		if ( ! class_exists( 'WP_REST_Controller' ) ) { 
			return;
		}
	
		class Employees_Controller extends WP_REST_Controller {
			protected $namespace = 'custom/v1';
			protected $rest_base = 'employees';

			public function register_routes(): void {
				register_rest_route(
					$this->namespace,
					"/$this->rest_base",
					array(
						array(
							'methods'             => WP_REST_Server::READABLE,
							'permission_callback' => array( $this, 'get_items_permissions_check' ),
							'callback'            => array( $this, 'get_items' ),
							'args'                => $this->get_collection_params(),
						),
						'schema' => array( $this, 'get_public_item_schema' ),
					)
				);
				
				register_rest_route(
					$this->namespace,
					"/$this->rest_base/(?P<employee_id>[d]+)",
					array(
						'args'        => array(
							'employee_id' => array(
								'description' => __( 'Unique identifier for the employee.', 'psapi-features' ),
								'type'        => 'integer',
							),
						),
						array(
							'methods'             => WP_REST_Server::READABLE,
							'permission_callback' => array( $this, 'get_item_permissions_check' ),
							'callback'            => array( $this, 'get_item' ),
						),
						'schema'      => array( $this, 'get_public_item_schema' ),
					)
				);
			}

			public function get_items_permissions_check( $request ): WP_Error|bool {
				return true; // This information is public. You probably want to do a `current_user_can` check.
			}
			
			public function get_item_permissions_check( $request ): WP_Error|bool {
				return $this->get_items_permissions_check( $request ); // Same as for listing all. Can be different.
			}

			public function get_items( $request ): WP_Error|WP_REST_Response {
				$response = array();

				$employees = new WP_Query( $this->prepare_posts_query_args( $request ) );
				foreach ( $employees->posts as $employee ) {
					$data       = $this->prepare_item_for_response( $employee, $request );
					$response[] = $this->prepare_response_for_collection( $data );
				}

				$response = rest_ensure_response( $response );

				$response->header( 'X-WP-Total', $employees->found_posts );
				$response->header( 'X-WP-TotalPages', $employees->max_num_pages );
				foreach ( $this->prepare_link_headers( $request, $employees->max_num_pages ) as $key => $value ) {
					$response->link_header( $key, $value );
				}

				return $response;
			}
			
			public function get_item( $request ): WP_Error|WP_REST_Response {
				$employee = get_post( $request['employee_id'] );
				if ( ! $employee ) {
					return new WP_Error( 'rest_not_found', __( 'No employee found for the given identifier.', 'wpcom-demo' ), array( 'status' => 404 ) );
				}
				
				$response = $this->prepare_item_for_response( $employee, $request );
				return rest_ensure_response( $response );
			}

			public function prepare_item_for_response( $item, $request ): WP_Error|WP_REST_Response {
				$fields = $this->get_fields_for_response( $request );
				$data   = array();

				if ( rest_is_field_included( 'id', $fields ) ) {
					$data['id'] = $item->ID;
				}
				if ( rest_is_field_included( 'name', $fields ) ) {
					$data['name'] = $item->post_title;
				}
				if ( rest_is_field_included( 'picture', $fields ) ) {
					$picture = get_the_post_thumbnail_url( $item, 'full' );
					$data['picture'] = empty( $picture ) ? null : $picture;
				}

				$data     = rest_sanitize_value_from_schema( $data, $this->get_item_schema() );
				$response = rest_ensure_response( $data );
				if ( rest_is_field_included( '_links', $fields ) ) {
					$response->add_links( $this->prepare_links( $item, $request ) );
				}

				return $response;
			}

			public function get_item_schema(): array {
				if ( $this->schema ) {
					return $this->add_additional_fields_schema( $this->schema );
				}

				$this->schema = array(
					'$schema'    => 'http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema#',
					'title'      => 'employee',
					'type'       => 'object',
					'properties' => array(
						'id'           => array(
							'description' => __( 'Unique identifier for the employee.', 'wpcom-demo' ),
							'type'        => 'integer',
							'readonly'    => true,
						),
						'name'         => array(
							'description' => __( 'The name of the employee.', 'wpcom-demo' ),
							'type'        => 'string',
							'required'    => true,
						),
						'picture'      => array(
							'description' => __( 'URL to the employee profile picture.', 'wpcom-demo' ),
							'type'        => array( 'string', 'null' ),
							'format'      => 'uri',
							'required'    => true,
						),
					)
				);

				return $this->add_additional_fields_schema( $this->schema );
			}
			
			protected function prepare_posts_query_args( WP_REST_Request $request ): array {
				return array(
					'post_type'      => 'employee',
					'post_status'    => 'publish',
					'order'          => $request['order'],
					'orderby'        => $request['orderby'],
					'posts_per_page' => $request['per_page'],
					'paged'          => $request['page'],
					's'              => $request['search'] ?? '',
					'tax_query'      => $this->prepare_posts_taxonomy_query_args( $request ), // phpcs:ignore WordPress.DB.SlowDBQuery
				);
			}
			protected function prepare_posts_taxonomy_query_args( WP_REST_Request $request ): array {
				$tax_query = array();

				if ( $request['team'] ?? false ) {
					$tax_query[] = array(
						'taxonomy' => 'team',
						'field'    => 'slug',
						'terms'    => array( $request['team'] ),
					);
				}

				return $tax_query;
			}
			
			protected function prepare_link_headers( WP_REST_Request $request, int $max_pages ): array {
				$link_headers = array();

				$base = add_query_arg(
					urlencode_deep( $request->get_query_params() ),
					rest_url( $request->get_route() )
				);

				$next_page = $request['page'] < $max_pages ? ( $request['page'] + 1 ) : null;
				if ( $next_page ) {
					$link_headers['next'] = add_query_arg( 'page', $next_page, $base );
				}

				$prev_page = $request['page'] > 1 ? ( $request['page'] - 1 ) : null;
				if ( $prev_page ) {
					$link_headers['prev'] = add_query_arg( 'page', $prev_page, $base );
				}

				return $link_headers;
			}
			
			protected function prepare_links( WP_Post $employee, WP_REST_Request $request ): array {
				$links = array();
				
				if ( ! isset( $request['employee_id'] ) ) {
					$links['self'] = array(
						array(
							'href' => rest_url( "$this->namespace/$this->rest_base/{$employee->ID}" ),
						),
					);
				} else {
					$links['collection'] = array(
						array(
							'href' => rest_url( "$this->namespace/$this->rest_base" ),
						),
					);
				}
				
				return $links;
			}
		}
		
		( new Employees_Controller() )->register_routes();
	}
);

Testing your REST routes

Your custom REST routes will be available under <your-domain>/wp-json/<route_namespace>/<route>. For example, the path for retrieving the list of employees could look like this:

<your-domain>/wp-json/custom/v1/employees?team=marketing

Hint: the team query added there will be parsed by WordPress and made available in the controller; you can then choose to either ignore it or filter the results by it – anything you want!

The easiest way to test your endpoints, especially if they will require an application password to access, is to use a tool like Postman which lets you test APIs in a very user-friendly manner. Publicly available GET requests can also be tested by simply visiting the URL endpoint in your browser!

Querying via GraphQL

Now that we are able to fetch the data via REST routes, let’s explore how we might be able to fetch it using GraphQL as well.

If you’re unfamiliar with GraphQL, what you need to know is that it’s actually a querying language just like SQL but for APIs. You can read more about it on the official website over at https://graphql.org/. 

The simplest way to add GraphQL support to our site is by installing the newly-canonical plugin WPGraphQL. It also has a documentation page where you can learn more about what it provides out-of-the-box, and also examples of how to handle much more complex scenarios.  

If you’ve been paying attention to the JSON configuration of the custom post types shared above, you might’ve already noticed a key named show_in_graphql set to 1 (true/active). That is all we need in order to allow the custom post types we added to be queries using GraphQL.

Here is an example of a GraphQL query that can be used to list Employees which you can test in the built-in GraphQL IDE bundled with the plugin:

query GetEmployeesEdges {
  employees {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name: title
        image: featuredImage {
          node {
            sourceUrl
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Building your own

If this sounds like something you want to build for your own business, you can work on it on your own computer using Studio by WordPress.com. You can even share your work with colleagues (for free!) using a demo site, and when you’re ready, any WordPress.com Business plan or higher will be able to host and manage your site.

 [#item_full_content]

State of the Word 2024 is just around the corner! Join us for this live stream event on Monday, Dec. 16th at 18:00 JST / 09:00 UTC. 

State of the Word is the annual keynote address delivered by the WordPress project’s co-founder and Automattic CEO, Matt Mullenweg. Every year, the event celebrates the open source project’s progress and offers a glimpse into its future. 

State of the Word 2024 will be held in Tokyo, Japan, at Tokyo Node Hall. This will mark the first year the event has ever been held in Japan, where WordPress powers 58.5% of all websites. This year’s edition promises to deliver insight from Matt, Lead Architect Matías Ventura, and General Manager Mary Hubbard, as well as a lineup of guest panelists, from acclaimed authors to leaders in the Japanese WordPress community. 

It will be live-streamed worldwide via the WordPress YouTube channel.

Watch State of the Word 2024 live!

What: State of the Word 2024

When: Monday, Dec. 16th at 18:00 JST / 09:00 UTC / 04:00am EST

How: The live stream is embedded above in this post and will start at the time of the event. It will also be available through the WordPress YouTube channel. Prefer to watch with other WordPressers? There will also be locally-organized watch parties happening around the world. Search to find one near you or learn how to host your own watch party.

 [#item_full_content]

Every great journey starts with a single step—and yours starts today.

You’ve had the idea. You’ve imagined the possibilities. Whether it’s a blog, a business, or a creative project, the dream has always been there, waiting. But here’s the truth: dreams can’t grow until you take action. And right now is the perfect time to start.

At WordPress.com, we’re here to help you bring your vision to life. With our year-end promotion, you’ll get 25% off any new annual plan—plus a free domain for your first year—to make starting even easier.

Use coupon code DREAM25 at checkout and start building today.

Why wait when everything you need is right here?

• Design your dream. Choose from stunning, customizable themes that make your site uniquely yours.
• Be seen effortlessly. Built-in SEO tools help grow your audience and expand your reach.
• Turn passion into profit. Accept payments, offer subscriptions, and much more.
• Get expert help, 24/7. Our team is always available to support your success.

And that’s just the beginning. From intuitive tools to seamless performance, we’ve built the platform to help you succeed—whether you’re starting your first blog, scaling your business, or taking your passion to the next level.

But here’s the thing: your dream won’t wait forever, and neither will this offer. This exclusive 25% discount ends on December 31st, 2024. Use coupon code DREAM25 at checkout and start building today.

The future you’ve been imagining? It’s closer than you think. Dream it. Build it. Grow it—with WordPress.com.

 [#item_full_content]

Bringing back a frosty feature (plus more improvements for WordPress.com users)

About 17 years ago we added an option called “Show falling snow on my blog” to WordPress.com. The name said it all: it added falling snow to your blog. Then, one day, it disappeared. It wasn’t because spring came and melted the snow away. We were cleaning up code, juggling lots of different priorities, and the snow was shoveled away.  

When we first announced this bit of fun in 2007, we were inspired because WordPress co-founder and our CEO Matt Mullenweg was missing out on a White Christmas in his hometown of Houston. Ever since it went away, some of you have let us know you’ve also been missing out on snow — on WordPress.com. Thanks to everyone who reminded us, we’re bringing back this frosty feature today, available now for every WordPress.com user.

Want to join the fun? Log into your WordPress.com account and visit Settings in the left-hand sidebar. There, you’ll find an option to add some fresh powder to your site:

Voilà! With one click, your visitors can enjoy a wintry surprise, no matter where they are in the world: 

We like to think of it as a fun gift for a time of year when so many people around the world will be sharing gifts — whether or not it’s snowing where you’re writing on your blog.

Now, we know not everyone appreciates snow as much as we do. So, we’ve been working hard on a flurry of other gifts over the past few months too, adding tons of improvements to WordPress.com. Until now, we just haven’t told you about them on our blog! This seems like a great time to recognize all those other small features, improvements, and wishlist items that make the WordPress.com world just a little bit nicer:

• We added over 65 themes to our Free, Personal, and Premium plans in the last half of the year. If you haven’t taken a look at our new themes lately, take a moment and browse around now. If you’re on the Business plan and above, you can use any theme — even custom ones — but we’re always trying to make sure you have a great, curated list of high-quality options on our less expensive plans too.
• We also brought back Bulk Plugin Management, so Business and Commerce plan users can efficiently manage and update plugins across all your WordPress.com sites. If you’re managing multiple sites, this will save you a lot of time, so you can spend more time doing what you love.
• The WordPress core development team created a new component for managing data called Data Views. We’re using this functionality in our Hosting Dashboard, improving the experience of managing your sites and domains.
• Developers know that PHP — a programming language that’s near and dear to our hearts — is the backbone of the web (and WordPress itself). Never heard of it? Not to worry. Just think of PHP as the magic that makes your WordPress website possible. WordPress.com upgraded to PHP 8.1 this year, ensuring your sites maintain top-tier performance and compatibility with your favorite themes and plugins.

With all these new features and improvements, there’s snow time like the present to build your websites with WordPress.com. Feeling the giving spirit too? It’s easy to share WordPress.com with a gift subscription. No pressure, of course. Enjoy the snow, and look for even more enhancements and features to come in 2025!

 [#item_full_content]

Another month means another fresh batch of excellent themes for WordPress.com. Let’s look at some of the latest additions to the WordPress.com themes gallery, with great options for content creators, small businesses, event organizers, and personal sites. Preview each one below (and maybe try taking one for a spin).

CoachAva

• Designed for: Professional coaches
• Also great for: Consultants, thought leaders, speakers, and content creators with paid course offerings

With a clean, single-hued design, minimal photography, and approachable fonts, CoachAva is built for professional coaches looking to highlight their core offerings and showcase their expertise. 

Whether you’re a seasoned executive coach, a life coach, or a subject matter expert looking to sell digital or in-person services, CoachAva can help you establish trust with potential clients by putting your thought leadership front and center. Blocks make it easy to share blog posts, podcasts, and/or customer testimonials on your homepage. The flexible design makes it easy to define, package, and showcase your different offerings, connecting clients to the perfect programs.

Explore CoachAva

CastCore

• Best for: Podcasters
• Also great for: Bloggers, serial content creators, news sites with limited photography

Ideal for podcasters building their first site, Castcore features bold, attention-grabbing titles and a minimalist aesthetic that keeps your listeners focused on what matters most – your content. 

With a simple homepage design, this template makes it easy for listeners to scroll through your recent content to find the right episode. Castcore is a great option for podcasters who want to build their subscriber base. The Podcast Player block makes it super easy to create an embedded mini-player for your episodes: simply copy your podcast’s RSS URL to engage listeners right on your page. Choose a grey and black color combo for a classic design or go young and bold with bright yellow.

Explore CastCore

CoachBen

• Designed for: Professional coaches
• Also great for: Thought leaders, speakers, and content creators with paid course offerings

CoachBen’s dark theme with bright accents offers a bold and professional design that perfectly reflects a coach at the top of their game. Striking and to the point, this theme allows professional coaches to quickly articulate their value proposition and define their services. 

With pre-designed blocks for displaying company logos of past clients, a calendar of speaking events, and a blog subscription, there are plenty of ways to show potential clients your expertise and experience. When they’re ready to dig in, they can learn more about specific offerings on your courses page or reach out to schedule a call.

Explore CoachBen

GreenSeed

• Designed for: Flexible visual sites
• Also Great for: Brick and mortars, Restaurants, Personal care providers, Digital portfolios, visual artists, photographers

Greenseed is a beautifully simple, highly adaptable theme that makes it easy for businesses to take their brick-and-mortar brands online. Designed with full-site editing in mind, Greenseed can be customized to match any brand style, but its open spaces and bold visuals make it a particularly great choice for businesses looking to establish a streamlined online presence that embraces custom photography. 

This minimal, approachable layout gives your photos space to breathe while providing key business information like address, phone number, and store hours. Link to your reservations page or provide visitors with a contact form to make it easy for potential customers to make an appointment or plan a visit.

Explore Greenseed

Aether

• Designed for: Small jewelry or accessory brands
• Also great for: Eco-conscious consumer brands, wedding suppliers 

Like the jewelry and accessory brands it was built for, Aether embodies modern elegance. With delicate fonts and natural-toned color palettes, this product-focused template offers a tasteful design that allows artisan accessories and jewelry to truly sparkle. 

With social media integrations and the ability to highlight products on your homepage, Aether creates a flexible hub for your digital brand. You can allow your customers to purchase products directly through WordPress’s e-commerce plugins or you can link your website to an existing storefront. With Aether, you can be sure your customers will understand your brand’s commitment to quality and design.

Explore Aether

Miko

• Designed for: Personal professional website
• Also great for: Writer portfolios, speakers, brand consultants

With a bold split-page design and minimalist elements, Miko keeps your brand center stage. Best for individuals, creators, or service providers who want to make a lasting visual impact, this template allows visitors to navigate through all of the pages of your site on the left side without ever navigating away from the image and title anchored on the right. 

Featuring a variety of hyper-modern font options and cool color combos, Miko can lean sweet and delicate or bold and artistic, effortlessly complimenting a huge range of personal and professional website identities. Regardless of the style you choose, Miko is the perfect theme for anyone who wants to present themselves as a modern, polished professional with an eye for design.

Explore Miko

Conference

The best way to market your upcoming conference is with a sleek custom website. Conference is a flexible template that helps conference planners create a credible online presence. 

The Conference template can support both marketing and event logistics: You can highlight your speakers, sponsors, and conference news to draw in new attendees via the signup form. Once attendees register, the site acts as a home base for key information, providing pages for the conference location, daily schedules, and lists of attendees to help your participants connect in advance. Whether you are hosting a multi-day affair or an intimate workshop, Conference can scale to meet the needs of your event.

Explore Conference

Ready to give your site a makeover? You can explore these themes by clicking the “Demo” button on each theme page. Whether you’re starting a coaching business or looking to improve your professional online presence, you might just find the perfect jumping-off point for your future website.

Most premium themes are available to use at no extra charge for customers on the Personal plan or above. You can explore all of our premium themes by navigating to the “Themes” page, which is under “Appearance” in the left-side menu of your WordPress.com dashboard, or by clicking the button below:

Partner themes are third-party products that can be purchased for $99/year each on the Business or Commerce plans, so if you haven’t found what you’re looking for today, there are plenty of alternatives available.

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Spam bots and denial-of-service attacks are a reality for many website owners. Depending on timing and scale, they can be an annoyance or a detriment to your business’s bottom line. Services like Cloudflare, Fastly, and Vercel are popular choices for mitigating these attacks with sophisticated techniques beyond the firewall rules many hosts (WordPress.com included) employ to examine and potentially block incoming traffic.

WordPress.com’s defensive mode introduces similar, sophisticated DDoS protection that further enhances your site’s security. It works by issuing proof-of-work challenges to browsers visiting the site. Legitimate users will briefly see a challenge page while their browser completes the work before accessing the site. The feature is powered by our global edge network, but it can still be enabled independently of our global edge cache feature.

What is defensive mode?

If you notice an inordinate amount of traffic to your website that is slowing it down, this setting filters spam traffic by requesting that they complete a proof-of-work challenge. When visitors come to your website for the first time, they will see the following screen:

This proof-of-work challenge page has a unique random puzzle embedded in it, along with JavaScript that can solve the puzzle. The puzzles are designed to take a typical CPU a few seconds to solve, and they deter botnets, which are not able to run the scripts to solve the puzzles.

How to enable it

This system protects all sites hosted on WordPress.com. Sites on Free, Personal, and Premium hosting plans are managed for you. For sites on Business or Commerce hosting plans, this setting can also be managed manually from your site’s Hosting Dashboard.

Here’s how to enable it:

1. Visit your Sites page by clicking on the WordPress logo in the upper left corner of your dashboard.
2. Click on your site title.
3. Click on the “Server Settings” tab on the site overview page.
4. Scroll down to the Defensive mode section.
5. Select a duration and click the “Enable defensive mode” button

Note that WordPress.com staff may proactively enable defensive mode on your behalf, regardless of what hosting plan you have, if your site is attacked.

Get it all on WordPress.com

Many hosts charge extra for capabilities like this, or they require integration with a third-party provider. On WordPress.com, defensive mode is included on every plan and can be managed manually on Business and Commerce plans.

This is just one more reason why WordPress.com stands out as the premier managed host for WordPress sites. With staging sites, SSH and WP-CLI access, or GitHub deployments, we’re always working on new tools to make WordPress.com an essential component of your development workflow. 

What other features would you like to see on WordPress.com? How can we make WordPress.com an even more powerful place to build a website? Let us know in the comments below.

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Having a well-designed, functional website helps you reach a broader audience, build credibility, and connect meaningfully with customers or followers. In today’s digital-first world, your website is often the first impression you make, and right now is the time to make it count.

Why now? Black Friday savings, of course!

Until December 2nd, save 25% on the first year of any new annual hosting plan from WordPress.com.

Why having a reliable website matters 

There are many reasons a website is important. Let’s take a look at three that impact the relationship you can build with your audience:

Trust and credibility 

We live in an “informed consumer” society and having a website allows you to share important details about your business or products. Your customers look for a website to help them form opinions, understand your offerings, and ultimately make a purchase decision. If you don’t have one, it can raise questions of legitimacy and cause your customers to look elsewhere for the products or services they require. 

User experience 

Your WordPress.com website gives you full control over how people experience your brand. A well-organized site not only sets the right tone but also makes it easy for visitors to find what they need, continuing to build trust and showing your commitment to a positive experience.

Accessibility and convenience

The internet never closes or sleeps. With a website, your audience has 24/7 access to everything you offer—any time, from anywhere. 

Putting your audience first is essential to your success. 

This is why our Black Friday sale is about so much more than the 25% savings you’ll receive on the first year of any new, annual hosting plan. 

Why WordPress.com?

Choosing WordPress.com as your website host means choosing a team committed to your success. Our self-help resources, AI Assistant, and Happiness Engineers are all focused on helping you be successful with your website. 

Our managed WordPress hosting also offers unmetered visitors, unmatched speed, and unstoppable security for one low price. With WordPress.com, you always have what you need to get online (and stay online) so you can grow your audience.

And if you take advantage of our Black Friday sale before December 2nd, you get even more with your purchase:

• 25% off any new, annual hosting plan
• A free custom domain for one year
• Expert support from our Happiness Engineers

What’s possible on WordPress.com

WordPress is a powerful and flexible website building platform, and WordPress.com gives you that functionality alongside powerful, secure, and scalable managed hosting. Whether you want a simple blog, a complex eCommerce store, or anything in-between, WordPress.com is the right hosting platform for you. 

Check out what’s possible on WordPress.com in our demo site showcase:

How to unlock powerful WordPress hosting

Ready to get started with WordPress.com? We thought you might be.

Click the button below to learn more about each of our plans, choose the right plan for you, and purchase your discounted hosting plan. Your 25% off discount will apply automatically at checkout.

Frequently asked questions

What if I change my mind, can I get a refund?

Absolutely. We offer a risk-free, 14-day money back guarantee on annual plans. 

Can I use a domain I already own?

For sure. You can transfer or connect your domain and we can guide you on the steps as needed. 

Can I migrate an existing site?

Absolutely. Whether your existing site is built with WordPress or another platform, we have guides available to walk you through the process. We also offer free migrations of WordPress sites. And yes, our Black Friday offer applies to site migrations too.

Is this offer available on renewals or upgrades?

No, this discount only applies to new annual plans. Current users can, however, use this offer if they’re adding a new plan or site.

How do renewals work?

Our Black Friday offer gives you a 25% discount off the first year of your hosting plan. Our annual plans automatically renew 30-days prior to your expiry date at the regular full price. 

Sign up today to take advantage of powerful managed WordPress hosting from WordPress.com and save 25% on the annual plan of your choice.

This offer expires on December 2nd, 2024.

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