Why We Use WordPress
Why WordPress? What is it? It’s a website platform and development tool that started out just for blogging, but has become the world’s most popular Content Management System. A Content Management System, or CMS, is a tool that allows you, the website owner, to update the site without any need for programming or technical knowledge. Sure, you still need to know your way around a computer a little – but basically if you can update your status and upload a few photos to Facebook, then you should be ok for most of your site’s updates.
But You’re Professional Website Designers – Why Do You Use WordPress?
WordPress is Flexible
We use WordPress because of the flexibility. It’s open-source, which means that the code that runs WordPress is accessible and can be added to or altered as we see fit. We can (and have) made changes to or additions to that code to satisfy a website’s particular need. Additionally, there are millions of “plugins” available, written by the general public (freelancers, companies, etc.) which extend the usability of the tool. And yes – we can, and have, written our own plugins when needed. Plugins are one way to add to or alter the functionality of WordPress.
WordPress Makes Updates Easy
As mentioned, WordPress is a Content Management System (usually shortened to CMS). That means it’s relatively easy for our clients to update their own website content – text, photos, etc. – which saves them money. We offer training videos to help our clients by walking them through the steps to make the updates – and once they get the hang of it updating their own pages and blog posts is a snap.
WordPress is Popular
WordPress has only been around for about half of the lifetime of the web, but as of this writing it is dominating the market-share. Approximately 26% of all of the sites in the entire world are built on WordPress. That’s about 75 Million sites. Considering all the tools out there – and the fact that you don’t NEED such a tool – that’s a heck of a share. For perspective, the next closest platform or technology is sitting at 2.6% – thats two-point-six. (all stats from https://w3techs.com). This popularity means that there are tons of tools, plugins and other
WordPress has only been around for about half of the lifetime of the web, but as of this writing it is dominating the market-share. Approximately 26% of all of the sites in the entire world are built on WordPress.
WordPress & SEO
The way WordPress is built gives it a leg up on search optimization. Add to that the many different plugins available to help configure and optimize the site and you have a very search engine friendly tool. The plugin we use most often is Yoast SEO for WordPress. There’s no magic here. This plugin doesn’t literally make your site shoot up to number one in Google. What it does it help you write your content to use keywords correctly, and configure things like your Page Titles and Descriptions, as well as XML Sitemaps and more technical necessities. Between the native WordPress SEO features and the plugins, a website on WordPress can be more easily optimized for search.
WordPress & Security
Similar to SEO, WordPress is secure out of the box – but can easily be enhanced with plugins. Additionally, as new vulnerabilities are discovered, and new methods of attack are developed, WordPress evolves. The community that contributes to WordPress is constantly making and testing changes to stay ahead of the game and keep things secure. All websites are vulnerable and many are attacked every day – so having a platform that actively fights against it is key.
How do you have a secure site?
You can either follow these steps:
- Built it on WordPress using best practices
- Host it on a secure hosting provider
- Use strong passwords and change them often
- Update WordPress and Plugins when they are modified by the developers
- Scan regularly for malware
- Perform regular backups for when things do go wrong
Or:
Sign up for one of our Care Plans
WordPress Design Possibilities
When we first started working with WordPress there were a few clients who said they had heard that design options were limited with a WordPress website. This never made sense to us. There are no limits to what you can do. YES – sure – if you are purchasing a premade template, AND if you have no programming skills, then yeah, you’re probably going to be limited in what you can do. But if you’re working with a professional (like us!) your possibilities are endless. First – don’t start with a template, and second, know how to program. If you start to see similarities in site design, it’s not because of the tool used, it’s because the designer used proven best practices.
Ready To Get Started?
You can experiment yourself at WordPress.com. The “Dot Com” version of WordPress DOES have some limitations. For instance, you are limited in design and plugins that can be used – but it will give you a feel for how WordPress works – and it’s free. Once you’re ready to build a site for your business or non-profit, we highly recommend that you move to a “self hosted” WordPress.org version of the platform.
What’s that mean? Well basically the software that makes up WordPress is installed on the hosting server of your choice (or our recommendation). This means you are not limited in any way. This is what most businesses are doing because it allows you all of the features we discussed above – specifically the flexibility, optimization and security features.