When I started using WordPress in 2007, I knew nothing about building websites. I had been asked to help with my daughter’s skate club website, and my first reaction was simple: it looked boring.
I couldn’t explain what was wrong with the design. I just knew I wanted to make it look better.
That one website led me to YouTube tutorials, learning how to code, and eventually building websites for small businesses. Looking at WordPress in 2007 versus today, what stands out most is how much easier it has become to create the site you have in mind.
WordPress in 2007: What Building a Website Was Like
WordPress was mainly known as a blogging platform when I started. You could build other kinds of websites with it, but its writing and publishing tools were a big part of the appeal.
For someone maintaining a site built directly with HTML and CSS, changing content could mean editing code or asking someone else to do it. WordPress provided a place to write and update content without editing the underlying page files.
The editor felt more like working in a word processor. You had an area for your text and a toolbar for formatting it. Your theme controlled much of the overall design.
WordPress 2.1, released in 2007, introduced tabs for switching between visual and code editing, along with a built-in option to use a regular page as the front page.
Those were useful improvements, but the experience was very different from arranging sections with blocks today. If you wanted a design beyond the options your theme provided, custom code often became part of the job.
YouTube became my WordPress classroom
I started by Googling the things I wanted to change. Those searches led me to a YouTube series made by a woman who explained WordPress one section at a time.
I watched every video in the series, often multiple times, until I understood what to do. Then I experimented on the club website.
The first change that really stood out was the lettering—the fonts. I don’t remember which font I chose, but I remember thinking it looked much better on the site.
After that, I started changing menu items, the header, and colors. Each improvement made me curious about what else I could do.
I wasn’t following a plan to become a developer. I was trying to improve one website, and I enjoyed the challenge.
Theme options helped, but I wanted more control
The first theme I worked with had a name I still struggle to remember. What I remember clearly is its enormous options panel.
There were settings for the header, logo, colors, fonts, and more. It seemed like everything was controlled from that one page, and it was overwhelming.
I gradually learned what the options did, but I still couldn’t always get the result I wanted. Once I discovered I could change themes, I explored plenty of alternatives. Some came close, but none quite matched my ideas.
That’s when videos about PHP, CSS, and JavaScript started catching my attention.
CSS helped me understand how to change the appearance of a site, including spacing, fonts, and colors. Learning about PHP introduced me to the code behind WordPress functionality.
Once I saw that code could help me go further, I wanted to learn it.
Genesis and ACF introduced me to development
Later, I discovered Genesis by StudioPress. Its flexibility and documentation made a big difference in how I learned to build websites.
Genesis also introduced me to child themes. The parent theme provided the foundation, while a child theme held my custom changes. That separation meant updates to the parent theme wouldn’t simply overwrite my work.
I explored some StudioPress child themes, including premium ones, but eventually began creating my own. I moved the club website to Genesis and went from making small adjustments to customizing its design through code.
During those years, I also found Advanced Custom Fields, or ACF. It let me create fields for specific areas of a site and use them across different pages.
Working with Genesis and ACF developed many of the skills I still use today.
One club website led to small-business clients
Other parents noticed the improvements to the club website. Some owned small businesses and asked whether I could help with theirs.
I don’t remember which business came first. I wasn’t documenting the journey at the time—I was maintaining the club site and helping people as they asked.
Over time, I developed a client base and built numerous small-business websites. I genuinely enjoyed creating them, and as that work grew, the tools I used began to change.
Why I switched to GeneratePress
Somewhere along the way, I started my own blog. Through other bloggers I communicated with, I discovered GeneratePress.
It seemed lighter, faster, and easier to use. By then, I was also paying more attention to how quickly websites loaded.
Around the period when I made the change, WP Engine acquired StudioPress. My previous experience with WP Engine also made the decision to move on easier for me.
GeneratePress became my choice, and I switched the club website before leaving it. I’ve continued using GeneratePress ever since.
I could still customize the sites I built, but I was writing less code and relying less on ACF for the work I wanted to do.
Website performance also influenced my hosting decisions, which I explain in my post about why I changed hosting.
Blocks changed how I built websites
The next major shift was the block editor, which became the default with WordPress 5.0 in 2018.
Instead of working mainly in one content area, I could build sections from individual pieces: headings, paragraphs, images, and groups of blocks.
At first, I used ACF to create custom blocks with PHP. That let me work with a language I already knew instead of learning the JavaScript and React approach used for many native editor blocks.
Later, the GeneratePress team introduced GenerateBlocks. I experimented with its blocks, read the documentation, and found that it made building layouts easier than creating so many custom blocks myself.
GeneratePress is the theme; GenerateBlocks is the plugin that adds those design tools to the editor.
Over time, that combination became the approach I used and recommended for small-business sites.
WordPress then and now: what feels different?
The biggest change is how closely creating content and designing a page now work together.
Earlier in my journey, I might have written code in a child theme and added CSS to build a particular section. Now, I can assemble much of that section visually.
I can adjust spacing, change fonts, add images, duplicate a section, and rearrange the page without rebuilding everything from scratch. Designs can also be saved for reuse.
WordPress has expanded this approach beyond page content. With a compatible block theme, the Site Editor allows visual editing of headers, footers, and templates too. That is a different setup from my GeneratePress workflow, but it shows the direction WordPress has taken.
There is still a learning curve. You still need readable text, a clear message, and a layout that helps visitors find what they need.
But for many websites, you can accomplish much more today with little or no custom code.
My advice: get your hands dirty
If you’re starting with WordPress today, give yourself a practice site where you can experiment without affecting a live website.
Create a section. Change some colors. Try different fonts. Move blocks around and see what happens.
You don’t need to learn the entire system at once. Start with one thing and build from there.
That’s how it happened for me. I started with my daughter’s skate club website and a feeling that I didn’t like how it looked. That led to tutorials, code, and websites for small businesses.
WordPress has changed a lot since 2007, and I’ve learned along with it. I’m still learning, still making mistakes, and still enjoying the process.
When did you start using WordPress, and what do you remember about those early days? If you’re new, what are you trying to build? Join the conversation in the comments on the video.