You’ve got WordPress and the itch to create a website. What should you do with the tools you have on hand?
Let’s explore 21 types of website designs you can create using our site builder, accompanied by real-life examples made in WordPress. You’ll discover the goal of each website type and get tips on how to build them effectively.
In this article:
- Blog website
- Ecommerce website
- News website
- Single-Page website
- Business website
- Nonprofit website
- Forum website
- Community website
- Education website
- Course/online learning website
- Event website
- Membership website
- Newsletter website
- Podcast website
- Author website
- Restaurant website
- Portfolio website
- Personal website
- Crowdfunding website
- Social media website
- Link in Bio website
- Build your vision in WordPress
1. Blog website
A blog is an online publication where you can share content like the following in a post format:
- News
- Opinions
- Product updates
- Personal thoughts and stories
- Recipes
WordPress’s foundation is blogging — each one of its websites comes with built-in blog functionality from the get-go.
One example of a dedicated blog website is Jenny Lawson’s The Bloggess. While most blogs on the internet today are part of a larger website, hers still operates mainly as a blog.
Even if you plan on starting a blog with a casual premise, make sure you go in with a goal. Decide on the types of topics you want to cover and establish a consistent posting schedule to keep readers coming. As we explained in our guide to starting a successful blog, a content strategy keeps everything focused.
2. Ecommerce website
Ecommerce websites have online stores for selling products, services, or subscriptions. You can use an ecommerce interface to sell physical or digital goods.
One ecommerce site found on our showcase is the Certified Comic Shop. If you look around, you’ll notice that the owner, Jason, uses a blog and podcast to promote the store. You can create an ecommerce website with content marketing elements that build a community and spread the word about your products.
Use WooCommerce, WordPress’s ecommerce platform, to start an ecommerce store on your website. As open-source software, it gives you room to scale your store costs as you see fit.
3. News website
News websites report on events in a specific niche, including large ones like major world events and smaller ones like the newest LEGO releases.
Some of the biggest names in news reporting use WordPress, such as Time Magazine. The WordPress content management system (CMS) works well for writing, publishing, and managing articles.
Since WordPress’s blogging platform works well with news, creating a news site has similar steps to making any other website. Research your niche and audience, then write news content tailored to them.
If you want to integrate subscriptions into your website, use the Payments block to manage them. It lets you establish payment plans and collect money safely.
4. Single-Page website
Some websites consist of a single page. This approach allows for more manageable website creation on the owner’s end and more digestible content on the reader’s end.
You can fit quite a bit of information on a one-page website, especially if you prioritize the most important details about your subject. High Five Strategies demonstrates this principle by explaining its mission and process in just a few sections.
Since a single-page website has you take your readers on a journey in just one page, you’ll need to keep them reading with a dynamic design. Switch up your visuals with columns, images, and color. The themes mentioned in our guide to one-page website design can do a lot of the heavy lifting here.
Even when you use a theme, though, you can still play around with blocks to add visual appeal. Try using the Cover block, which imposes text over an image, to add emphasis to a section.
5. Business website
A business’s website serves as the headquarters for its online presence. Here, you can explain your business’s goals, share contact information, and advertise your products and services.
Businesses of all sizes use WordPress for their websites, including big names like method. Whatever scale you operate at, you can mix and match the blocks and plugins you need to promote your business effectively.
As you create your business website, write with copywriting best practices in mind. Clear and convincing words make any website better, but they especially matter when you’re trying to get more customers. Buffer’s guide to website copywriting will help you understand how to approach the process.
6. Nonprofit website
Just like businesses, nonprofit organizations can have websites too. In their case, however, they focus more on building support than selling products or services.
The Jane Goodall Institute, for example, uses its WordPress website to share its mission and request donations.
While your nonprofit website doesn’t need to sell something, it should still have a goal to achieve. Think about your nonprofit’s main goals, such as raising awareness, getting volunteers, or fundraising, then make corresponding pages for your website. Our guide to creating nonprofit websites offers tips for bringing in donations and mailing list subscribers.
7. Forum website
A forum website consists of discussion threads where someone starts with a topic, and people reply. The forum then organizes these threads into different boards or categories.
Like standalone blogs, standalone forums are a little rare on today’s internet, but Ute Hub still runs an active one. On this WordPress-powered forum, Utah sports fans talk about their thoughts and predictions.
WordPress has plenty of forum plugins for you to add to your website, including the classic bbPress. Our guide to building a forum website in WordPress includes instructions for setting up technical aspects like these.
8. Community website
A community website serves the needs of a group with more resources than a social media site or forum could provide on its own. It acts as a hub for a community with a common goal or interest.
Communities come in all sorts of forms, such as neighborhood associations, membership-based organizations, or fan clubs. The GNOME community consists of people who use GNOME software or contribute to it, showing how diverse our ideas of community can be.
As you create a community website, always remember that you have virtually unlimited ways to provide resources to your members. Thanks to plugins and themes, you can format your content in ways that go beyond your typical social media group.
If you’d like to make certain parts members-only, use a plugin like MemberPress or Restrict Content Pro. The latter option has free plans for you and your members if you don’t plan on monetizing memberships.
9. Education website
Websites for educational institutions like colleges and elementary schools follow different rules from businesses or nonprofits. They aim to connect and inform students and families. In some cases, they also want to attract new prospects.
For example, as an American college, Georgia State University needs to communicate with current students while promoting itself to new ones.
Meanwhile, a small-town elementary school might not have competition for enrollment, so it can focus more on communication.
Whatever objectives your school has, remember that every school has at least two audiences to talk to — students and their families. Think of what each group needs to know about your school and share that information.
10. Course/online learning website
Online learning websites bring education to the internet through online courses and resources. These sites can include virtual schools and platforms that teaches new skills.
With learning happening in every area of knowledge, you can find these websites covering all sorts of subject matter. Success Valley, for example, combines community, courses, and coaching for entrepreneurs.
If you want to create courses and curricula for your website, let plugins do the work for you. Search “LMS” or “learning management system” in the WordPress plugins gallery to find e-learning software. An LMS plugin, such as Sensei LMS, for example, handles content structuring and membership for you so you can focus on developing your courses. Learn more in our Effortless Course Creation webinar.
11. Event website
You can organize and promote both paid and free events using your WordPress website.
Organizations that make events their business, such as SXSW, use WordPress to share details and collect tickets.
When creating an event website, organize your pages by putting the most important details first. Information like location and schedule can come first in your menu, while you can nestle nitty-gritty details like nearby lodging in submenus.
WordPress blocks and plugins especially come in handy for event pages. The Map and Event Countdown blocks excel at giving your readers the event details you need to know. Plugins like Eventin and Event Espresso handle event registration and tickets.
12. Membership website
On membership websites, people can sign up to become members and get access to exclusive content, services, or products. Some owners monetize these memberships, while others offer free memberships that foster a community.
As shouted out by MemberPress, the MarCom Society uses WordPress to offer paid memberships to a learning community. These memberships give users access to educational resources and discussions with other marketers.
As you build your membership site in WordPress, consider how you can use plugins and blocks to create a fully integrated experience. Newsletters, coupons, and online tools connect your members to you outside of your website. With the Paid Content block, you can choose which parts of your website have gated content for members only. Learn more in our free Membership Sites 101 course.
13. Newsletter website
Every newsletter needs a headquarters for people to sign up and read its archive. WordPress can provide this home with more flexibility than services like Substack.
For example, the Now I Know newsletter website has room for archives, book promotion, an author bio, and links to related channels.
You can keep your newsletter management and publishing in WordPress using one of its newsletter plugins. Or, you can host your newsletter through a different service and use your WordPress website to host your sign-up form and extra information. You can dig into more newsletter website options with our free course, Newsletters 101.
14. Podcast website
Like newsletters, podcasts need dedicated web spaces, even when you can host the podcasts themselves on a streaming platform. Podcast websites give their podcasts context and a place for supplemental content.
This rule also applies to podcast networks like Maximum Fun. The distributor of popular series like My Brother, My Brother, and Me uses WordPress to keep all their episodes in one place and connect with fans.
Like Maximum Fun, you can scale your podcast as much as you want and add ecommerce stores, memberships, and other features as you see fit. Start simple and build as your podcast gets bigger.
WordPress’s Podcast Player block also offers a few ways to share podcast episodes on your website so listeners can enjoy your episodes wherever they want.
Our Intro to Podcasting course is a great place to start.
15. Author website
Due to the personal nature of writing, author websites often combine elements of blog, personal, and business websites. They give authors space to promote their writing and communicate with readers.
As a bestselling author, Sherrilyn Kenyon has a large bibliography to organize and lots of fans to keep in touch with. Her extensive website includes promotional information about her books as well as resources for readers and schools.
Your author website is as much of a promotional tool as it is a professional one. Generate excitement around your future books with behind-the-scenes blog posts, sneak peeks, or an updates newsletter. Our guide to creating an author website has more ideas for promotion.
16. Restaurant website
Restaurants use websites to share their menus, locations, and opening hours with interested customers. Some even let visitors order food directly from their site.
In fact, restaurant chains like Boston Market consider the process of ordering to be the main goal of their websites. Think of your priorities for your website and set up your pages accordingly.
Once you decide on your site’s goals, you can get the theme, plugins, and blocks you need to achieve them. We have some ideas for theme pages to look out for. You can also search restaurant plugins or use the OpenTable block to add features like your menu, ordering, and reservations.
Bonus tip: WooCommerce also has an ordering and menu plugin if orders will be a big aspect of your website.
17. Portfolio website
Portfolio websites let the creator share creative work like photography, art, and website design. WordPress is a great tool for creating them because it comes with portfolio features built-in.
Some folks who want to keep their portfolios simple stick to one page, like Bastien Allard. This striking site includes all of Bastien’s online presences and finest work.
As you plan out your portfolio and the samples you share on it, think of the clients you want to attract. Then, build pages and include work that appeals to their interests. For example, when I started out as a B2B SaaS writer, I changed my website’s content writing page to focus on B2B SaaS samples.
Our blog post on creating a portfolio in WordPress has more ideas for what you can share on your portfolio website.
18. Personal website
In jobs that don’t involve tangible work samples, you can still benefit from having a personal website about your work. Here, you can share your professional journey and projects.
For example, marketer Amanda Natividad uses her personal website to introduce herself, share some of her writing, and promote her newsletter.
Use your personal website to show off your professional qualifications, but don’t be afraid to include personal touches. See how Amanda shares the fun tidbit that she had two other careers? Your About page gives you quite a few opportunities to add personal details.
19. Crowdfunding website
Crowdfunding websites can take one of two approaches. They can give people a space to ask for crowdfunding from each other or manage equity crowdfunding for businesses.
MicroVentures uses WordPress to follow the latter strategy by connecting businesses and investors.
If you’re thinking of creating a crowdfunding website in the Kickstarter sense, you can do that with WordPress, too. Its crowdfunding plugins handle the super technical aspects so you can help people raise money.
20. Social media website
While you might associate social media with big industry names only, the term applies to any website that lets you connect and share content with others. Now that you know about all the WordPress tools that let you build communities, you have the means to build your own.
Feel free to get as specific with your social media idea as you want, like with Little Sketchers. This website lets parents share their children’s artistic creations for everyone to see.
Since a lot of social media fans like to access it with their phones, keep your site adaptable for mobile use. Your users will be able to connect on whatever device they want.
21. Link in Bio website
If you’ve been on social media recently, you’re likely familiar with link in bio pages. These are pages or websites where content creators, creative professionals, or anyone with a digital presence can organize and promote all their accounts, sites, and links in one place.
Build your vision in WordPress
Now that you have some website ideas to work with, you’re ready to start building a website from scratch in WordPress.
With all this inspiration on hand, don’t be afraid to combine website types. WordPress’s blocks and plugins give you full control over the content on your site. Go ahead and build a combination blog/zine store or one-page portfolio.Once you have your website concept ready to go, follow our website launch checklist to make your dreams a reality.
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