Why WordPress?

One of the questions I get asked regularly is why I choose to develop websites with WordPress. Here are all the reasons why building your site with WordPress is a smart move.

If you’re a creaky Gen X-er like me, then you probably have the idea that WordPress is “a blogging platform”. You’re not wrong because that’s certainly how it started out, but over the years it’s grown and evolved into a really powerful website builder and content management system.

In fact, 40% of the world’s websites are now powered by WordPress – up from 32% in 2017. And if it’s good enough for websites like Sony, Toyota, the New York Times, Disney, Vogue, the UK National Archives, and the Rolling Stones, then it’s doing something right.

So, why is WordPress so popular? What is it that makes WordPress so appealing to everything from large corporations to small startups?

Reasons Why WordPress is Awesome

Something to note: when I refer to WordPress, I mean WordPress.org (or “self-hosted” WordPress). I’m not talking about WordPress.com, which is a hosted platform where you don’t have your own domain name.

1. WordPress is free and open source

The core WordPress platform is open source software which is completely free to use. It’s free to download, install, use and modify WordPress to create any kind of website.

Not having to pay hefty software licensing fees keeps costs down and allows companies to spend their budgets on development and customisation. There’s no monthly fee just to keep your site live like there is on Wix or Squarespace. You will need to pay a hosting company to host your site but that’s typically much cheaper. (Plus, I set up secure, managed hosting for clients on my website care plans.)

2. WordPress gives you complete control over your website

There are plenty of website builders available for all sorts of needs, and all sorts of skill level. Even complete beginners can get a website up and running without too much hassle. Names like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Shopify etc might all sound familiar to you.

All of these platforms are completely fine for building websites, but most of them do come with drawbacks that you only realise after you’ve set up your site and started paying. In my opinion, none of them have anything like the flexibility, scalability, or advanced features of WordPress.

For a rundown of how WordPress compares to other popular website platforms, check out my blog on Comparing WordPress, Wix and Squarespace.

3. WordPress is endlessly customisable

One of the key components of WordPress is the use of themes and plugins for design and functionality.

WordPress themes control how the website looks: from colours and fonts to layouts and everything in between. Many people choose to use themes as they come out of the box, while others (like me!) customise themes using coding to transform a website into a completely custom project that’s built to specifications and is unique to its owner.

WordPress plugins are pre-written blocks of code that can be added to a WordPress site in order to give it some extra functionality. There are thousands of plugins available that can be integrated and set up to do just about anything you can think of. Plugins are one of the reasons that WordPress has evolved into a content management system for just about any type of website.

4. WordPress has a huge community of developers

Because it’s an open source software without licensing restrictions, WordPress is available for anyone, anywhere to use. Over time, it has grown an enormous community of developers, end-users and fans! This means there’s lots of information and resources available for getting the best out of WordPress sites.

5. WordPress is SEO-friendly

WordPress has SEO features built right into the platform, generating important title tags and meta descriptions for pages by default. It’s also coded well and makes things easy for search engines to index WordPress sites.

User-friendly SEO plugins can also be added on top of the core functionality, ensuring that WordPress sites are discovered by search engines easily.

If you have any questions about WordPress websites and how they can help your business, please don’t hesitate to ask!