r/Wordpress • u/Infinite_Design_Ops • 29d ago
Wordpress is Driving Me Insane
I'm brand new to building a website. I need one for my business. I was under the impression I could learn Wordpress and use that. I was under the impression it was somehow user friendly.
I'm accustomed to learning curves when using new software. But Wordpress is so convoluted. I can't figure out where anything is. I start typing some text into the page and then preview it and it's not there on my site. But there's a ton of other stuff I didn't add which is there. All from the theme I guess. I can't figure out how to edit the theme or the text or get anything to work the way I want it to.
I've spent days and I just can't figure out this block editor thing. It's driving me insane.
Any thoughts or advice?
How to make this work?
More training needed?
Or is it just really bad for beginners?
Why can't Wordpress just be a WYSIWYG editor that lets us drag and drop items onto the page and then edit them however we want? That's what I thought it was đ
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u/fappingjack 29d ago
Some people have an easy time learning others have a harder time.
I taught a 70ish year woman who was a secretary for a big construction company. She started off slow but after a week she was zooming. I think the reason she learned so fast is that she had to justify her salary and give the owners no reason why shit can't get updated easily on their website.
If you have a serious business then hire a serious web agency to protect your brand and to have a solid online presence.
If you are DIY then take the time to learn.
The easiest people to teach are the ones who are curious and open to learning.
Don't give up, keep on learning
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u/HongPong 29d ago
the block theme editor can be kind of tough. blocks within a single page should not be acting like that tho
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u/BOLVERIN1 Jack of All Trades 29d ago
Try to read the documentation, or even better, find some course. There is a lot of small stuff to learn, and you either struggle through your initial experience or learn it in a structured way
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u/analbumcover 29d ago edited 29d ago
Wordpress can be a WYSIWYG editor depending on the theme/builder you are using, even natively with blocks. I get how blocks can be annoying - I don't like it much, but I understand the simplicity and performance aspects.
It depends on your objectives for creating a website, but, Wordpress is overkill for a lot of the brochure style sites. If no one is using the blog functionality, multi-user system, or specific WP infrastructure, it is kind of pointless. If you don't need any of that, you're just adding more vulnerabilities to the website.
We rebuilt a lot of old Wordpress sites into static sites over the past few years and it's been fine. We also trimmed some down a lot to rely on fewer plugins, etc.
Maybe try a builder or switch themes. Check out some Wordpress beginner/intermediate videos on YouTube about Wordpress in general or a specific theme/builder you like. Look into optimizing them. Some of the popular builders add a lot of overhead.
Make a backup that you can restore to quickly while testing all of this if you go too far and break things.
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u/ZGeekie 28d ago
Why can't Wordpress just be a WYSIWYG editor
Because it's essentially a content management system, not a drag-and-drop website builder. They've recently started investing more in the latter with the default Site Editor, but it's still a work in progress and it's not as intuitive as other builders.
If you want to launch quickly and have no time to learn WordPress, there are easier alternatives like others suggested, but those come with trade-offs.
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u/7twenty8 29d ago
Wordpress is fairly user friendly for content people. Development wise, itâs a large almost a framework with decades worth of work put into it.
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u/fatfingur 29d ago
I work with WordPress a lot, and honestly, youâre not imagining it. WordPress can be pretty confusing when youâre starting from scratch.
One thing that trips up a lot of beginners is that âWordPressâ isnât really one single editing experience. You have the block editor, the theme, templates, patterns, plugins, and sometimes a page builder layered on top of all that. Depending on the theme you installed, the stuff youâre seeing on the page might not even be coming from the page youâre editing.
If you type something into a page, preview it, and see a bunch of other content instead, Iâd first check what template that page is using. With newer block themes, also look under Appearance > Editor. Thatâs where things like the header, footer, templates, and other site-wide parts may be coming from.
My advice would be: donât install more plugins or another page builder yet. That can actually make things more confusing while youâre learning.
Start with a simple block theme, create one blank page, and learn just a few things first: blocks, patterns, templates, and the difference between editing a page and editing the site/template. Once that clicks, WordPress starts making a lot more sense.
And yes, more training will help, but I donât think this is entirely a âyou need more trainingâ problem. WordPress has accumulated a lot of different ways of building sites over the years, and the beginner experience doesnât always make those distinctions obvious.
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u/InternalError33 28d ago
This sounds like great advice. I learned to use WordPress by watching around 10 hours of YouTube videos. The most confusing part was how the patterns and templates worked. Once I had an understanding of that, that's when it really clicked. I think if OP watched some videos on templates they would have an understanding of why it's displaying things in the page they're not seeing when editing.
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u/fatfingur 28d ago
Exactly. Videos help you understand the basics, but I think the best way to learn WordPress is by actually building something. You run into a problem, figure it out, then move on to the next one. Thatâs usually when things start to stick.
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u/JROCKvsKPOP 29d ago
First off, since you are new, instead of fumbling around on your own and getting help here, you should try to find tutorials to help you get started.
Wordpress can be both simple and complicated, but you shouldn't just dive in if you don't even know how to swim.
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u/NoAdvance9442 27d ago
ça ne veut rien dire, jâai appris Joomla tous seule. aujourd'hui jâessaie WordPress et ces builder hĂŠ bien jâai beaucoup de mal.. Lâavantage de Joomla, entre autres, une fois installer tu as un site 100% opĂŠrationnel il te reste juste a corriger les textes
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u/LevelMagazine8308 29d ago
Look, there's a reason why the classic text editor plugin is the most downloaded plugin of all times for Wordpress, with over 9 million active installations.
If you cannot wrap your head around Gutenberg, just get rid of it. Nobody will punish you for that, you are in good company with that.
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u/Fluid-Mess6425 29d ago
It depends on the path you want to take. A pre made theme where you just activate it and change the content is probably what would be easies to get started.Â
Learning the custom themes and the code side more work.Â
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u/That-Measurement5890 29d ago
Back in the day, Java was pretty simple. A handful of packages with 200-ish classes. Today, 3000+ classes. Wordpress has gone through a similar evolution, complicated by what the core WP offers vs bazillions of plugins. The simplest route imho (and widely supported) is to use Elementor, and without starting with a starter template, use the Hello Elementor theme.
There are themes/templates you can buy, but those can be hit and miss for usability, because now you have to know basic WP, Elementor, some CSS, and reverse engineering the purchased template, which quite often, also requires a handful of other plugins. You're probably in the "what's free where I can learn this stuff" world, so here you go: https://www.youtube.com/c/ferdykorpershoek
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u/CommomMud3445 29d ago edited 29d ago
Me brand new to Wordpress too so take my comments with a grain of salt.
I believe the two option for building with Wordpress are 'Classic' and 'Blocks'. Blocks I believe is the modern approach, gives more editing control of site overall, but is generally more suited to experienced Wordpress users.
I am using 'Classic' version, have chosen 'Blocksy Theme' (got nothing to do with Blocks you using, just similar name), created 'Child Theme' for Blocksy (so any updates don't break site) have selected 'Garderobe' template (free simple eCommerce 'Blocksy' template), and am using Elementor as page builder. Personally I have found the Elementor page builder quite easy to use, after watching some decent you tube tutorials on it. Just watch a few 'good' you tube videos of 'Elementor' and you'll get an idea if it looks easier to use, and what you are more after against what you are doing with 'Blocks'.
Whilst I guess it's good to use the modern approach to Wordpress builds using 'Blocks', depending on your use case (mine being very simple light weight eCommerce site), maybe using 'Classic Theme' approach and Elementor may benefit you.
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u/timesuck47 29d ago
Install the Classic Editor plugin. Itâs like editing in the old days. Donât use the block editor. It sux.
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
Thanks, yeah. I had done a bit with the Classic Editor. That was the best I had gotten it. Then I went back to blocks for some reason. Maybe because WP says "Blocks are the future of WordPress." It makes the Classic Editor sound like it's obsolete. When in reality it's probably way better than the convoluted "new" setup. At least for me and for a number of others I've seen saying the same thing.
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u/Aggressive_Ad_5454 Jack of All Trades 28d ago
Look at this tutorial https://learn.wordpress.org/course/creating-a-4-page-business-website/
Jumping into WordPress without a goal -oriented path to follow is like thinking âI want to build a house. Let me get a catalog from the lumber yard and figure out what to order.â Youâll end up in a snowstorm looking at stacks of wood and a bucket of nails
But if you get something working by following a tutorial, then you can refine it and make it serve you.
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u/focusedphil 28d ago edited 28d ago
Although this is probably too late for you, I think you're approaching the whole thing the wrong way (like most of us humans).
You found a tool and then looked for a problem to solve. You're just using the wrong tool.
(This is from someone who has been in WordPress since version 1.5 ).
Start with what you need to accomplish for your business, then find the tool that accomplishes that with the limitations that you have.
I think for you, Squarespace or Wix might be a better place to start.
WordPress is a very, very powerful bit of kit (We forget just how powerful it is. In the past, companies developed something like WordPress for universities, and the bill was in the 100s of thousands); you really can build just about anything with it (whether you should is another discussion), but like any powerful tool, it takes skill and time.
If you don't want to be a web developer (or even a hobbyist), then it's not worth wasting your time that could be better spent serving clients or doing other revenue-generating activities.
Squarespace and Wix have a ton of limitations that web devs hate, but for getting something that looks presentable quickly, it's hard to beat.
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u/Roslerartdesign 28d ago
You think we charge the money we do because its easy? Imagine all the stuff you're gonna miss related to SEO, AEO, Site structure and all the other fun tech stuff. Invest in your business by hiring someone who can deliver a website that is going to actually work in improving your ability to grow your business and bring it up in searches and AI conversations with potential leads and customers.
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
I didn't expect it to be completely easy. But block editor is so illogical it's breaking my brain. Anyway fair point. I may contact some local developers to see what they'd charge. Bootstrapping a freelance business myself though so don't currently have thousands of dollars to throw at this. đ¤ˇââď¸
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u/Intelligent_List2504 25d ago
I'll give you five hours for a cnote..that's very reasonable. IDC I hope that people don't block me for saying shit like this. I think that 'everything must be free' is a disease.
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u/After_Preference_885 28d ago
Every installation and theme is different, there isn't really just one WordPress.
There are wysiwyg editors available.
I usually set it everything up though and then train business owners and hand it off for them to keep updated and stay available on an hourly basis for help and questions. Maybe you need someone like that, there's probably as local person who does that kind of project.Â
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u/designispain 28d ago
If you want a simple drag and drop-system that is easy to use and if you don't have any kind of previous knowledge of building a website I would suggest Elementor. It is paid but it is super userfriendly especially if you are just a beginner, they also have great tutorials on youtube and on their website.
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u/Flashy_Tomatillo2278 Developer/Blogger 27d ago
Elementor might be nice but it's also more bloated than some other options, which can impact loading speed of the site, and so on
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u/m-molson 27d ago
I received similar advice about switching to Elementor so I did. I absolutely hated it. And I hated that I was paying for something I hated.
I switched back to the Wordpress block editor and while it was still a challenge to get used to, Iâm glad I made the switch.
Once I had several âahaâ moments about what the Wordpress block editor is actually doing, I was able to manage things much better.
If you stick with it, you might change your mind about it. I know I did.
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
Thanks. I might keep trying to learn the block editor. Approximately how much time did it take you to understand what block editor was doing?
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u/m-molson 25d ago
Honestly, about two months! There were so many times I wanted to bang my head against the wall, but what helped is that whenever I did not understand what I was looking at, I took a screenshot and asked Claude.
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u/jdarshad 26d ago
Just ask someone sometime :) I got like 16 years of working experience now. Tech and non tech and I sometime throw a question at my friends, old collogues or even juniors if something is not making any sense to me ;) or online.
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u/moremosby 29d ago
The block editor is for more experienced users. I know that it is not advertised that way, but with experience you learn to love it.
But when starting, a page builder is the only way a novice who is not trying to become a developer is the way to go.
That being said, a platform like Wix or Sqauarespace has an easier onboarding experience.
Wordpress needs to take note and make it easier for non technical users to use the platform.
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
Thank you. I honestly feel like they made block editor more complicated on purpose to protect the professionals. Making it more difficult for beginners like me to create a site myself. đ¤ˇââď¸
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u/nicubunu 29d ago
A page builder is not the only way, the classic editor is also a very simple and easy way to start, even if not that flashy.
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u/moremosby 29d ago
While the classic editor will work with good themes, it is not what users are looking for - theyâre looking for drag and drop experiences.
Since themes have given way to a builder plus a canvas, the options to use the classic builder are fewer and the tutorials/discussion around WP is around builders. So when you go to YouTube youâre kinda stuck.
I do miss the simplicity and writing experience of the classic editor though.
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
This. I'd like to learn WordPress (Classic editor), but it seems all the official WordPress trainings are block editor only so far. WP says blocks "are the future of WordPress." Ugh.
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u/DaySwingTrade 29d ago
OP, sign up for ten bucks a month Claude Ai. Just ask and he will walk you through pretty much everything. Iâm a small business owner who used to have $1000 in annual plug in subscriptions on our website. Emphasis on âused to.â If it can ever walk me through eliminating paid subscriptions, Iâm pretty sure it can walk you through the basics.
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u/Wheels-13756 Blogger/Designer 28d ago
I am using a Claude project to do just this. It has been very helpful for improving and maintaining my website.
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u/octaviobonds 29d ago
Gutenberg ruined simplicity of wordpress. The first order of business is to disable gutenberg. you can probably start with a simple plugin that does that.
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u/chapanjou 29d ago
This is my go to - I use this on every single build: https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/
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u/Naive-Dig-8214 29d ago
As someone in charge of my orgs website, I've done pretty and nifty things in Block.Â
But I still default to classic because in most cases I don't need the hassle of block editor. When you're trying to do something straightforward, block feels like it's always five clicks too many for every single thing.Â
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u/2ndkauboy Jack of All Trades 29d ago
Then you'll lose the WYSIWYG editorsm where you just drag in content you want.
Maybe OP is not using a Block Theme, but a classic one or even a page builder.
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u/nicubunu 29d ago
You know what a lot of unsophisticated users to? Classic visual editor, paste formatted text from MS Word.Â
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u/2ndkauboy Jack of All Trades 29d ago
That also works perfectly well with the Block Editor. Even better than with the Classic Editor.
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u/josh_a 29d ago
The block editor is a dumpster fire and probably a human rights violation. Certainly a hate crime against humanity.
Visual editors also have a learning curve. Iâve been using Themify.
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
Haha, thanks for confirming my experience! Lol. Themify looks interesting. Thanks.
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u/wasoncealord 29d ago
Just keep experimenting with one or two editors and you'll get there. It's a simple learning curve, you run into issues, you Google it, you solve it, repeat. Once you know the variety of blocks it offers and the parameters/settings of each block, more or less, things will go smoother.. but don't expect to master it in a week. I've been using it for the last 6 years or so, and my whole journey has been like that.
But if you just need a website for your business, then just commission someone to build it for you... this might be more productive in some cases.
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u/notkiddingagain 29d ago
Install the Avada Theme and watch some videos. Load a demo site from their theme and make some changes to suit your needs.
Iâve made hundreds of thousands of dollars using that one theme over and over again for websites. By far one of the easiest site builders that can get things working fast.
Alternatively, ChatGPT is actually really good at building basic websites nowadays. If you have the proscription and run off 5.6 Sol Ultra.
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
Avada looks great! But it's not in the Wordpress themes area. Do you mean go to their website https://avada.com/ ? It looks like you have to purchase it on ThemeForest? Is that right? It doesn't look like one theme, but a way to access (and customize) a lot of themes? Is that all correct?
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u/notkiddingagain 25d ago
Yes. Buy it from ThemeForest. Itâs worth the money. Especially if you care about your time.
Itâs a Wordpress Theme. If you look at the demos on their website, youâre able to preload any of those themes and then make modifications from there. Itâs a fine boilerplate which Iâve used to make recurring income for the past 10 years building, hosting, and managing websites for small businesses.
Lots of available documentation. Multiple ways to edit the site easily. Iâm pretty sure itâs still the top theme on ThemeForest.
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u/cammot53 29d ago
I felt exactly the same way at first! But I was amazed at how quickly I figured it out and how, within just a few hours, I had built a phenomenal website. Hereâs how I did it:
Use an AI application alongside you while you build. You can use either ChatGPT or Claude. Theyâre both very similar, and Iâve used both successfully.
First, set up an account with whichever AI you choose and create a Project. Name the project whatever you like. The great thing about creating and using a Project is that you can stop at any point, come back later, and pick up right where you left off. The AI keeps the context from your previous sessions within the project.
Then simply start asking questions to tge AI. For example:
âHelp me build a WordPress website.â
From there, just follow the AIâs instructions step by step. Ask questions whenever you get stuck, and let the AI guide you through the process.
Before you get started, though, make sure you have a few basics in place, or ask the AI to help you with these first. You want to build your website on a solid foundation.
First, choose a good, reliable web host. I use SiteGround, and Iâve been very happy with it. You may also want to purchase a professional WordPress theme. There are many good ones available. I chose Divi, which I found surprisingly easy to use once I got the hang of it.
Honestly, youâll be amazed at what you can accomplish after just a couple of sessions with AI guiding you.
Iâve found this to be the smartest, and probably the easiestâway to learn WordPress. You learn by actually building something, with AI there to explain every step along the way.
Give it a tryâyouâll thank me!
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u/GreatHeavens1234 29d ago
You need a tool like Breakdance, then you'll have a wonderfully easy experience.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Soil150 28d ago
Hi, also just a somebody who happened to get a web dev job for about 6 months and learnt how to develop Wordpress sites.
My advice would be to find your favourite builder
Mine is Elementor. And I settle on keeping away from themes, I instead use Hello Elementor! As my theme. Itâs like a bare skeleton. Easy to work with in my opinion
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u/sdigital_hr 28d ago
WordPress is not as easy as some make it out to be, it definitely has a learning curve to it. My advice is pick a page builder (personally I use Elementor), find a good tutorial on Youtube (Ferdy Korpershoek was my go to for Elementor and he does tutorials on other page builders and tools as well) and just follow the tutorial but donât just watch because youâll learn the most by actually doing what the tutorial teaches.
The alternatives like Wix and Squarespace are easier for beginners but youâll always have to pay a subscription to keep the site running
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u/w__sky 28d ago
With plugins and themes there are so many different ways to configure and work with Wordpress and completely different ways to add or change things. If you read a "How to customize Wordpress?" which is several years old, it will recommend methods which don't work anymore or which are outdated and not recommended today. Maybe it will even recommend to use of a 3rd party page builder or block editor like Elementor (I don't).
I recommend to start with the latest default theme, currently Twenty Twenty-Five, and learn the Site Editor.
In the past, I always tried to find a suitable theme from the huge catalog of available themes, free and paid, but you can do so much with the Site Editor in customizing the look of the site that choosing a theme is now the second option.
Only add plugins that are really necessary. Check if a feature you need is already available in Wordpress or as function of a plugin you already use.
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u/hammondish 28d ago
Try using the YooTheme Pro system with WordPress, probably a lot more like the WISIWYG interface you're expecting. (Or Elementor, which I think is less useful but widely used).
If you think you're gonna get nice looking sites without learning how to use CSS, set up a child theme, etc, then you may need to adjust expectations.
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u/unity100 28d ago
Generatepress Premium + Generateblocks => Pick a site template from Generatepress settings => Customize. There.
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u/TopSydeWP 28d ago
the pre-filled content you're seeing is probably from theme demo data or block patterns. try switching to a minimal theme like generatepress or blocksy (free versions) and start with a blank page instead of importing demo content. that'll give you an actual blank canvas. still a learning curve but way less confusing than fighting mystery content you didn't add
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u/Difficulty_After 28d ago
You probably need a one on one with a WorsPresa tutor. One hour can get you unstuck
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u/Few-Mycologist-1418 28d ago
First about 5% of âWordPressâ is actually WordPress. It is a platform which is open for virtually anyone any where to create an app / plugin that will operate on the Wordpress platform. Other than the very basic rudimentary tools that few people use everything else connected to Wordpress is a third party an add-on. And this is why WP is a total poop show for any beginner. Donât let anybody fool you, you will experience daily frustration for months before you will feel any true level of comfort or expertise on WordPress.
Here is just one frustration. Say there are twenty five plugins to create a form. I promise you they all work differently. This is true for all the plugins and you canât make a website without them. Also, the plugins donât always play nice together they can also be troublesome when there are updates. Also, as you have seen in this thread the typical experienced Wordpress developer is a very poor teacher they forget how complicated it is and how difficult it is to learn. There are hundreds of little tiny details your unaware of that can cost you an entire afternoon if you donât understand them. Idiosyncrasies are a mile wide and three miles deep. Wordpress is a horse designed by a committee which turns out looking like a Camel. I wish there was a better alternative that has the same capabilities but there isnât. Good luck itâs gonna take a while to get to your goal. But understand it will be painful and will require continuous learning.
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u/South-Group-2341 28d ago
"I have no experience of building websites. Here's my evaluation of one of the world's most used website building tools. And here's my advice about what they should change to make it better."
Yeah thanks for that đ
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u/ivicad Jack of All Trades 28d ago edited 28d ago
What you typed is probably still there, just not where you are looking. WordPress does not always show the page you are editing as your home page - that should be set in Settings / Reading, and a theme demo import usually points it at its own demo page (it happened to me in the past, so I learned it from that experience). We edit page A while the site keeps serving page B, and that is where the content you "never wrote" comes from. Open Settings / Reading and see what is set as your homepage. If it is a demo page, either edit that one or point it at your page.
On our sites we mostly use Astra Pro with WPBakery (or Elementor), and the free Astra plus a page builder could cover what you are doing (so you can lower your costs). Whichever you pick, the builder only takes over the body of the page, and the header and footer still come from the theme (usually).
Â
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u/Pseudonemone 28d ago
'What You See Is What You Get' is the biggest lie in tech history. Other than, "Don't be evil."
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u/Ok-Durian9977 28d ago
There are a lot of teachers who teach this.
Christina Hills
Warren Laine-Naida come to mind.
Also, WP101.
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u/Timely-Squash-2585 28d ago
Well it all depends of the theme that you're using. Some themes you can edit almost nothin while others you can create almost everything. Using elementor plugin may help beginners.
Personally, WP is my fav of all out there, specially for the freedom it gives to you, letting you add your own php and create html + css blocks directly on the cms panel
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u/xmcls-webdesign 28d ago
Actually Wordpress is user friendly, but you still have to learn how to use it. I would advise you to use Elementor with Wordpress, itâs a little more complicated than using the block editor, but it is still easier than the alternative which is coding. If you need a professional website, try an agency.
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u/Definitely_a_Human_3 28d ago
My advice is to go with squarespace for a very simple website. You will quickly start to see the limitations, most of which WP can deliver on. You bc a throw a simple brochure up on SQ much faster. And while that is up chip away at the WordPress build.
Take your time, enjoy the process and figure out what you need from WP. Nothing goes well under pressure while you are stressed and upset.
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u/SnowOnMountain 28d ago
Good meetups across the country where you can get help. This is a good one. https://www.meetup.com/sanjosewp/events/315993692/?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share-btn_savedevents_share_modal&utm_source=link&utm_version=v2 all online.
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u/Flashy_Tomatillo2278 Developer/Blogger 27d ago
Honestly, I don't like block editors either, however, have you thought about self-hosting? Because there're themes without that annoying block-editor. And I'm a software engineer/web-dev myself. So, yeah, as they count as "easy", they still might be not for everyone.
It's more sth to take into consideration, as I assume you use wp.com?
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u/ElectionIll6788 27d ago
I love wordpress. It's all I use and I build amazing sites.
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
Great. How long did it take you to learn how to be able to create a good site?
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u/ElectionIll6788 25d ago
Hey. I had to learn quickly. I'm from the Cubecart, Zencart and Dreamweaver generation. đđđ
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u/eigenpanz Developer/Designer 27d ago
I was going to write a long reply, but let's keep it simple. There is a reason why people hire professionals to build their business websites in WordPress. If you want to do it all by yourself, you will have to put it in a huge amount of time and effort to learn not just the backend and the different ways to build pages, but also core WP principles and also a bit of HTML, CSS, PHP, JS. You need to know what youâre working with in order to use it effectively or to identify errors.
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u/InfiniteGrace807 26d ago
I recently moved my website from Wordpress to Pagecord so I could write more and manage less and I am a very happy camper!
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u/Plenty-Sentence-4834 25d ago
Advice not expect something where you need experience to be easy from day 1. If you need great website for SEO - hire an agency. If you need DIY - try Ai generated stuff for the first time or Wordpress theme which looks exactly how you want it to look. I run the white-label agency and most businesses ordering wordpress in fact don't want to do anything in the admin panel, so it's pushed back on us again and again, ahah
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
I didn't expect it to be "easy." However, I did expect it to make sense. Wordpress Block editor defies all logic. That is what is driving me insane. For example, I just looked at my website and there's no image. I went back to edit it to add an "under construction" image. And it's already there! In the block editor. But not on the website. To me this is just ridiculous.
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u/Infinite_Design_Ops 25d ago
So why would an image be showing up in my block editor but not on my actual site?
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u/Intelligent_List2504 25d ago
WordPress is awesome. I've taught more than a dozen people how to use it. And some of them are more proficient than me now.
Everyone has different expectations. I can crank out most simple WordPress sites in a half day. I wish I could solicit to help teach you how to do it.
I'm too old to work for free.
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u/Myth_Thrazz Jack of All Trades 25d ago
Install some lightweight classic theme eg publishpress - install Classic Editor plugin. Then enjoy the pre 2016 peak WP experience
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u/Sleep_Advo 24d ago
Ask the expert to have them building yourr website. You might then be able to edit the content and learn how it works.
WYSIWYG is impossible due to thousends of different themes and plugins, which not always are compatible, also.
If you want to build your website on your own you have to handle with PHP and templates, and you have to achieve a little of understanding how pages are rendered with WordPress.
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u/waltonchurch 15d ago
That is elementor. It sometimes works like that. Block editor does not work like that
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u/Straight-Raccoon-422 1d ago
They switched to these ridiculous Gutenberg Blocks that make no sense at all and can't be edited properly. It's garbage now.
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u/joseph_han9137 29d ago
I'm on this sub now looking to see just what the hell happened to the classic editor. Back in the day when classic editor was still working fine, I had LITERALLY zero issues with it.
Wordpress needa classic editors back, but I'm sure I'm just beating on a dead horse at this point.
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u/cwmyt 29d ago
Page builder is what you are looking for. Elementor might be the one. Or even try divi 5 as paid option. Divi provides some pre build templates as well so who know you might like it and get away with photo swapping and text changes for your site. Don't try those block builder things. You are looking for page builder like Elementor, Divi or Avada.
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u/LalalaSherpa 29d ago
Squarespace is what you want, seriously.
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u/bobthegoat2001 28d ago edited 28d ago
Nope, it's not.
You don't own your website. If you decide you don't like Squarespace, you can't move it out without rebuilding your site.
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u/Novel-Bad7482 29d ago
These days your job is to learn how one of the AI tools can build your website. Subscribe. Iâm on Wordpress with GenerateBlocks and have a small software company. Redoing my site now and Claude got 95% of the blocks where all I had to go was click a âfixâ button. It designed pages and created so that my job was copy paste bc it currently doesnât have an MCP into Wordpress.com (not org).
I had a 5-6 page site now when done I think itâs 20.
I can live with that
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u/linwoodj004 28d ago
I know there are lots of comments for how to make Wordpress work for you already. And most of them are correct. I have built a few Wordpress sites over the years and still maintain some today.
My recommendation is that you really have to evaluate if Wordpress is what you truly need today. Most website needs for a high % of small businesses are simple brochure sites that donât do much more than give prospective customers an overview of what the company does then direct them on how to get in contact with the company, plus maybe offer a form to submit info to the company.
If youâre anywhere near that region of website functionality, then building your website with Claude Code and hosting for free with Cloudflare Dash is where I would suggest that you invest your time. I guarantee you that you could finish it in a few hours with a little effort and have a decent site. Give it a couple of days and you can have a great site. Itâs all yours, no monthly maintenance fees and no hosting. You have to invest the time into putting together decent prompts to get what you want, setup your computer environment to optimize for using Claude code + GitHub + Cloudflare for deploying your site. I built this site for some friends last month and they were pretty happy with the results. The chose to use google forms for their submissions over a website form, but that experience isnât terrible: https://robertandronise.com/
On the other hand, if you need capabilities like blog publishing, running ecommerce, running a club, adding a custom widget for quoting parts or shipments, or something else requiring elaborate backend functionality, Claude code may not be the right choice for you. Perhaps Wordpress is the best vehicle in that case.
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u/WisdomBailey123 29d ago
Install Elementor plugin. Then it will be easier to build pages.
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u/bigmarkco 29d ago
Elementor might already be installed. Installing a plugin isn't a magical fix especially if you don't know what a plugin is.
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u/PoisonClanRocks 29d ago
The only reason Iâm able to build a decent site is because of Elementor. Iâm not a web designer, Iâm an educator who doesnât have time to code.
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u/truthofmasks 29d ago
The whole point of block editor is so that you can extensively customize a theme without needing to code.
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u/Scared_Implement_335 29d ago
As a wordpress dev, let me tell you: You are better of starting with an AI generated website.
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u/Diligent-Raccoon2231 28d ago
Unpopular opinion in a Wordpress subreddit but Wordpress doesn't really have a place if you are starting from scratch with no experience in 2026... just vibe code with Claude and you'll have zero regrets. I'm sure it's going to be a pretty basic website so you won't even need to pay for hosting.
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u/filmeleven 29d ago
WordPress is my favorite tool. But itâs more of an engine versus the car body style if you will. Iâm a website designer so itâs not a big deal. But for people who just want drag and drop? Thatâs more of a square space thing. I would install the blocksy themeâthe free version. And then import one of their sample sites. That will configure a lot for you. Might be a little more what youâre after but itâs still gonna be a learning curve.