This is a common question I get when I mention that I design websites in wordpress. Yes, I can code in HTML and CSS – but when I set-up someone’s website for the first time – I always recommend WordPress. To answer the question of why – and why WordPress is no longer “just a blogging platform” …
WordPress might have originally been created/promoted as a “blogging” platform – but it has come far beyond just that. It is better described as a Web Content Management System (WCMS).
Using WordPress (or another WCMS tool) as the base of your website is the best way to have a website that truly works for your business and utilizes the best of what is available of newest technology. There are many – my WCMS of choice is WordPress – so I will discuss the benefits specifically of WordPress.
- Ease of Maintenance – Not everyone WANTS to be able to add content to their site themselves, but the advantage of WordPress is that you CAN easily add content to your site or edit content without needing to know HTML or PHP or CSS or any other coding language. You won’t be tied to or forced to having to pay your web designer for changes.
- Thousands of Plug-ins available – A plug-in is a tool you can install on your wordpress system that will add all sorts of functionality to it. You can add a calendar of events to your site, easy links to your social networking sites, easy ways for your visitors to share your content. That is just the tip of the iceberg and the majority of them are free. Yes, you can add all of these things to an HTML or traditional website – but it will require programming to implement. WordPress plug-ins are a much faster and less expensive way of adding functionality to your website that would normally require expensive programming.
- Your website can be easily kept up to date – You don’t have to worry about your site containing out of date information anymore. It is so simple to update your site that there is no longer an excuse to have out of date information on your website.
- Search Engine Ranking and Indexing – The more you update your website, the more you provide valuable content for web searchers. The more value you provide to web searchers – the more the search engines like your website. The goal of the search engines is to provide the information that web searchers are looking for – if your site provides that for your niche, then the search engines will like your website and want it high in their results. The way to keep it high in their results is to continue to add valuable content.
That list just touches the surface of why WordPress is much more than just a blogging platform. It is an invaluable tool to help you take full advantage of the internet and have a website that WORKS to help grow your business rather than one that just sits on the web and costs you money.
Until next time …