How WordPress
Works
The missing manual for page builder users. Yes, especially in the age of AI.
4 hours of clear, focused training that fills the gaps your page builder tutorials never covered.
Your page builder was supposed to make everything easy. So why is it still so hard?
You came to WordPress because page builders like Bricks, Elementor, Etch, and Divi promised to make building websites easy. And they've completely changed what's possible for non-coders. But if they're supposed to make everything easy… why does building a WordPress site still feel so hard?
- Your projects drag on way longer than they should, and you can't figure out where the time goes.
- You're copying and pasting the same design changes across multiple pages because you don't know a better way.
- Your template shows the wrong layout and you've no idea why. Conditions don't behave as expected.
- Updating a site months later feels like dismantling a house of cards.
- You keep hitting walls that your page builder tutorials never prepared you for.
Your page builder sits on top of WordPress. It gives you visual access to WordPress's core features — post types, templates, the loop, taxonomies, conditions, custom fields — but it assumes you already understand how the engine underneath works.
And if you don't? You're flying blind. Especially now, with AI generating WordPress sites and templates — if you don't understand the engine it's building on top of, you've got no way of knowing whether what it produced is solid or a disaster waiting to happen.
It's your missing understanding of how WordPress actually works.
Once you "get" WordPress,
everything clicks.
You'll build way faster, troubleshoot with confidence, and create websites that are a breeze to scale and maintain.
And if you're thinking "AI will handle all that for me" — it won't. Not without you understanding what it's building on top of. This knowledge matters more in an AI world, not less.
Absolutely beautiful! Having all this WordPress knowledge in one place, explained so clearly, makes this a must-watch. If I'd had this 10 years ago I'd have saved hours of YouTube tutorials and articles.
Hugely valuable, and even fun! There's really nothing comparable out there. You've created something genuinely important for a lot of people.
The foundational knowledge that makes everything else click
Instead of memorising more tutorials, you'll develop the understanding that makes every future project easier — whether you're building manually, using AI tools, or a mix of both.
When to create a page vs. a template
And why choosing wrong breaks your whole structure. This single distinction saves you hours of frustration and sets the foundation for scalable sites.
Why WordPress shows the layout it does
And how to make it show the one you actually designed. No more mystery layouts appearing from nowhere.
What the Loop really is
So query loops, archives, and dynamic content stop feeling mysterious and start becoming powerful tools in your builder.
How template conditions work under the hood
And why they sometimes get "ignored". No more wasted time troubleshooting phantom bugs.
How permalinks power everything
Routing visitors, triggering templates, deciding what to show. Once you get this, you'll stop being blindsided by "random" 404s or layouts not appearing.
How to structure content with CPTs, taxonomies, and custom fields
The result? One well-built template can serve dozens of pages. No more frustrating copy-paste edits.
The template hierarchy
Demystify WordPress's built-in decision tree for choosing templates. Instead of being confused when your builder seems to ignore your instructions, you'll know exactly why — and how to control it.
"Confident in a way I've never been in 15 years."
Dave, your "How WordPress Works" is not only enjoyable to watch and beautifully shot and edited, but the content itself (the most important part) is clicking in a way that has been eluding me for my entire (15 year) career in web design.
I have some scary projects coming up that will require me to flex all of these new WordPress muscles, and I'm confident in a way I've never been before that I can crush anything that comes my way — in no small part, thanks to you!
4 modules. 4 hours. Zero fluff.
Each module builds on the last. By Module 4, you'll put everything into practice building a fully dynamic case study site from scratch.
Foundations: The WordPress Engine
Get under the hood and finally understand what WordPress is really doing behind the scenes — so you can stop guessing and start troubleshooting with confidence.
- Follow the journey from URL request to database query to final HTML page in the browser — once you see this, you'll instantly understand why WordPress behaves the way it does
- How WordPress Core, themes, plugins, and page builders actually fit together — and who's responsible for what (especially when something breaks)
Core Concepts: The WordPress Framework
Understand how WordPress organises content, so you can finally structure your sites in a way that scales and practically maintains itself.
- The real difference between pages, posts, and custom post types — and why using the right one is the key to scalable, maintainable websites
- What "single" and "archive" views actually mean — and how they affect your layout, template, and content decisions
- How custom taxonomies group and organise your content for smarter navigation and more dynamic templates
- How WordPress uses URLs to route visitors, trigger templates, and decide what to show — even when you didn't create a page for that URL
- The template hierarchy: WordPress's built-in decision tree for choosing templates, and why your builder conditions sometimes get ignored
Dynamic Case Study: Planning & Setup
Start putting everything into practice. We plan the site's content structure step by step — following a best-practice workflow.
- Model content properly with multiple custom post types instead of hard-coding pages one by one
- Group and categorise content with smart taxonomies that make sense for visitors and editors
- Add custom fields that separate content from design, giving you total control over display
- Connect post types with relationships for a structure that's more powerful and easier to maintain
- Populate with real content to test your setup before you start building templates
Dynamic Case Study: The Full Build
Build the complete dynamic site — using templates, loops, and relationships to connect everything into a seamless system.
- Build dynamic templates that automatically adapt to any content — one design can power dozens of pages
- The WordPress loop in action: display and order content dynamically with full control and zero duplication
- Bidirectional relationships: make content connections work both ways for flexible site structures
- Conditional content: intelligent templates that show or hide elements based on field values
- Walk away with a complete, repeatable, builder-agnostic workflow for building dynamic, scalable websites
I cannot praise Dave Foy highly enough. Finding the right tools wasn't the real challenge. It was finding a teacher who could actually make the complex parts of WordPress and Bricks make sense. This course has completely changed my understanding of how WordPress really works. I can now build dynamic sites that I'd never have been able to tackle before.
Your explanations made everything finally click. So clear, especially for page builder users like me who never properly learned how WordPress works under the hood.
This course is truly remarkable! I'd been struggling to piece things together for ages until I realised I needed a solid foundation in how WordPress works. Like building a house — you need the fundamentals first. This course made it all click.
Ready to stop wasting hours on WordPress frustrations?
No more wrong templates, ignored conditions, or endless copy-paste updates. Build WordPress sites that scale effortlessly, practically maintain themselves, and give you the confidence to deliver projects faster and more profitably.
Instant lifetime access. 14-day no-questions-asked refund guarantee.
Is this for you?
This is for you if:
- ✅You build WordPress sites with page builders
- ✅You know your builder, but WordPress itself still feels like a mystery
- ✅You waste hours fixing things that "should just work"
- ✅You want sites that scale and adapt automatically, instead of fragile sites that constantly need patching
This isn't for you if:
- ❌You're already confident with templates, conditional content, custom fields, taxonomies, and permalinks
- ❌You're a total beginner who's never touched WordPress
Hi, I'm
Dave Foy.
I'm a qualified teacher who spent 10 years teaching 5–11 year olds in the UK. I know how to break down complex concepts in ways that literally anyone can understand.
I built my first website in 1998 and have been building professionally for over 23 years. Over the last 9 years I've helped tens of thousands of non-coder web designers build their businesses faster and more profitably with my training.
I've also collaborated with other prominent online educators including WP101 and Agency Mavericks to help produce courses for their audiences.
Frequently asked questions
This is for you if you're building WordPress sites using tools like Bricks, Elementor, Divi, Etch, GenerateBlocks, or block-based themes — and you keep running into issues that feel like WordPress is working against you. You've learned how to use your builder, but you still feel unsure about the foundations.
If you're confident with your builder but still get confused about when to use templates vs. pages, or why your conditions don't work as expected, then this is exactly what you need. It fills the knowledge gap that page builder tutorials skip.
Absolutely. This is designed specifically for non-coders. No technical jargon, no code examples. Just clear explanations of how things work behind the scenes. Just be aware this isn't for complete beginners who've never used WordPress before — I'm assuming you've used WordPress but have found aspects of building full websites with it a struggle.
This covers how WordPress itself works — the foundation that all page builders are built on top of. Whether you use Bricks, Elementor, GenerateBlocks, or anything else, these principles apply. I demonstrate some concepts using Bricks (because that's what I use), but the course is not builder-specific.
Yes — and that's the whole point. This course distils 17 years of WordPress experience and 8+ years of teaching web designers into just the foundational clarity you need. No fluff, no rabbit holes. It's the shortcut I wish I'd had years ago. You don't need 10 hours of tutorials. You need 4 hours that make everything else make sense.
Yes. In Modules 3 and 4 you'll watch me build a fully dynamic site as a case study — multiple custom post types, custom fields, relationships, conditional content, and templates that scale effortlessly. I use Bricks in the videos, but the principles apply no matter which page builder you use.
No problem. Full refund within 14 days, no questions asked. Just email dave@davefoy.com. The only thing you risk is staying stuck.
Stop fighting WordPress.
Start understanding it.
4 hours. Zero fluff. The foundational understanding that makes everything else — your builder, your templates, your workflow, even AI-generated output — finally click.
Instant lifetime access. 14-day no-questions-asked refund guarantee. · Questions? dave@davefoy.com