You might know WordPress as a blogging platform. But it is so much more than than. It has grown to become one of the leading Content Manage System (CMS) platforms, powering around 28% of all websites on the internet, including giants like TechCrunch and the New York Times. It’s also the CMS we use here at Prowess.
WordPress is just as accessible for start ups and small business. Finding a good WordPress host isn’t difficult due to its growing usage. Most web hosting providers support WordPress readily and there is no need for customisations or fancy installations to do so.
If you are looking to develop a website or change your CMS, there are very good reasons to consider WordPress. Here are the top advantages:
WordPress is SEO friendly
WP is very SEO friendly out of the box, which means it already contains features that make SEO inputs in your website content. WP is designed using standard compliance codes and semantic markup. Simply put, WordPress makes your website perform well when searched through Google or any other search engine. It’s no surprise that WordPress sites tend to rank higher than others when it comes to search engine results. If your business is in anyway dependent on attracting visitors through search marketing, this advantage alone should seal the deal.
WordPress is free
You read it right. WP is a free software. It means you can freely download, install, use and modify it in accordance to your preferences and needs. You can use it to create any kind of website. You can also access free domain and hosting if you use WordPress.com – but you need to put up with ads on your site, a WordPress branded URL and limited customisation. Much better and more professional to use WordPress.org – the software is free, but you need to purchase your own domain name and web hosting. Many hosts these day offer one-click WP install. For example, Hosting Foundry built a list for WordPress hosting services that readily support WP out of the box.
The domain name refers to the address of your website on the internet. Simply put, this is what your users key into any browser’s address bar to access your site (e.g. wordpresstime.com). Web hosting can be considered as a house where your website files are stored.
Themes and plugins make easy customisation
This is the good thing about using WordPress. It is a website builder that is user-friendly. This makes it the preferred choice among first-time web page creators, non-tech savvy folks and web designers and programmers. Surprisingly, most of the WordPress users started out using it without any prior knowledge of website designing.
WP themes are easy to customise as a lot of these themes are built-in or come with their own options panel which allows you to change colours, add logos, change the backgrounds and customise the themes freely without the need for codes. Custom functionality can be added to your WP website through the use of plugins. You can add features like a membership area, contact forms, analytics and more.
WordPress can handle multimedia inputs
WordPress is a versatile website builder. It is not just limited to text inputs. It also comes with a built-in media Uploader which also handles image, audio and video files. WP also supports oEmbed enabled websites which allow you to embed videos from YouTube, Instagram photos, Twitter tweets, and Soundcloud audio by pasting the URL in the WordPress post editor.
WordPress has safety and security features
Your safety and security is ensured by WordPress as it is designed for the security of its users. The internet is an uncertain place to run a website. There can be threats and intruders that can invade your website. With WP, you can at least be sure that your website is secure from common threats such as malware, brute force attacks and hacking.
WordPress has gone a long way since its inception more than 15 years ago. It began as a simple platform for making blogs and simple hosted content. Over time, it has grown into a powerful, flexible and user-friendly website creation tool that we know today.
To be fair other simple CMS platforms like Wix and Weebly are equal if not better on ease of use and customisation. They both have free versions too. The standout advantage of WordPress is SEO friendliness. If that’s critical to your business, you probably should be on WP.