As WordPress adoption continues to rise, you may be wondering if you should switch over to this popular content management system (CMS). See the reasons below on why we use WordPress and potentially why you should too.
Table of Contents
1. It’s Free and Open Source
Most, if not all hosts support it. It’s customizable and extensible. See points 4 and 5 for more information.
2. Install and Setup Time is Really Fast
Many hosts offer a one-click install service for a blazing fast setup. Even the manual install is 5 minutes or less. See the Famous 5 Minute Install page on the WordPress Codex for more information.
3. It’s Extremely Easy to Use
The biggest reason why we kept coming back to WordPress over and over again is the ease of use.
It’s simply one of the best blog engines around. That’s no accident though as WordPress was originally designed to only be a blog platform. After installation, you can immediately start posting. Once you learn the structure, content management is a breeze.
4. There are Many Themes and Plugins to Choose From
Themes change the look of your website and plugins offer extensibility beyond the basic WordPress package. You can extend WordPress to be pretty much any type of website you need.
Even if you choose not to go beyond the default theme, it’s mobile friendly. Even the admin panel on the back end is mobile friendly.
4.1 It’s Very Easy to Integrate with Other Platforms and Services
You can make just about any website you need. The post and page structure is simple yet powerful. Community-driven plugins allow you to transform your website into an eCommerce store, membership website, photo gallery, and many other awesome website types.
5. It’s Easy to Maintain
WordPress is easy to manage and even easier to automate. Updates appear right on your dashboard and you can easily install updates. WordPress core updates can be set to automatically install since version 3.7.
Keeping up to date is very important to not only get security patches but also to get new features or fixes as they’re released.
WP is one of the most consistently updated CMS out there. Security updates are very timely and new features are constantly being added.
You can also schedule posts when the website is busy for example.
As you may have guessed, there are many good plugins that allow automatic maintenance as well.
6. There’s a Lot of Help out There
If you get stuck or want to do something cool that’s not included by default, you can find online resources to help. Not only is WordPress open source but it’s been around for a while so there are many answers out there.
You can check the WordPress Support Forums to see what kind of activity is out there.
Open source may scare you if you rely heavily on support. But know there are an extensive community and a ton of freelancers who can help. And if you balk at the thought of hiring freelancers, know that these people do not have to be experts.
Anyone with basic PHP and MySQL knowledge can assist you, even if they’ve never looked at WordPress setup before. And that’s the back end. With the front end, nearly anyone with HTML and CSS experience can help you.
6.1 Professional help
We can’t emphasize this enough. There are a ton of professionals out there. If you’d rather hand off website tasks there are a ton of people to choose from ranging from freelancers to agencies.
Hiring people is relatively straightforward.
7. It’s Easy to Optimize for SEO
Out of the box, your WordPress website is easy to crawl. Other optimizations are just a setting change or plugin download away.
8. It’s Easy to Upload and Insert Multimedia
Easy to embed streaming websites. See the Media Library Screen page on the WordPress Codex for more information.
Whether you’re looking to start a business or personal site, using WordPress can truly empower your efforts. We can’t recommend WordPress enough for your next website project.