Whether you’re just beginning your research or ready to write a website design RFP, you will find many varying opinions regarding the right way to build a website. There are some website development and design companies that do not use WordPress and it’s important to understand why before hiring a company to build your website.
In this post, you’ll find the main reason our company uses WordPress for website design, as well as our thoughts on the reasons why some companies use a different platform.
Before we begin, if you’re here and just want the TL;DR on why WordPress is the best, here’s the bottom line:
WordPress is secure, flexible, easy to update, and integrates well with third-party applications.
We know that it can be overwhelming to switch platforms—especially if you’ve been using a different CMS for your website. But after reading through this list of WordPress benefits we hope that you will have everything you need to make the switch.
(Note: when we talk about WordPress in this article, we are referring to the web development platform from WordPress.org—the self-hosted, open-source website CMS that many website designers and developers use to build websites. This is different from WordPress.com, which is a website hosting service offered by the same company. What we discuss here does NOT apply to the .com version of WordPress. Please let us know if you have questions about this.)
What makes WordPress secure is the global community that supports it. Since its inception in 2003, WordPress has been free for developers to use, customize, and redistribute. The worldwide community that leverages this software is deeply invested in the security of the product as it directly impacts their own work. As a result, the subsequent updates and releases of the software have ever-increasing protection against malware and attacks.
We build using WordPress because we trust the depth of expertise and input from the top developers in the world who invest their own time in contributing to the security of the product. While no one can guarantee 100% security, WordPress continues to prove itself secure and ready to respond in the unlikely event of a breach. There are also really good security plugin options that can ‘harden’ your site against suspicious activity.
When planning for a new website for your business, security should be your number one priority but this is rarely the case. Usually, people prioritize design and flashy features to make their website look “cool” but security always needs to come first.
In fact, some of the code that powers the flashy things can actually be the source of security flaws on your website. This is why it is extremely important to hire website developers and designers with extensive experience who know how to make a website that is secure, functional, and beautiful.
From look and feel to functionality and hosting, WordPress is the best CMS for customization. Many people choose WordPress because it is easy to make it look and do exactly what you want. Web design companies that build on proprietary CMSs typically power sites on templates which results in a cookie-cutter look and feel that doesn’t help differentiate your brand. This also limits what your website can do, as platforms that are not open-source generally don’t play nicely with third-party applications (more on that below).
Another feature people love about WordPress is the endless variety of design themes to choose from. Themes come with built-in customization features giving you control over headers, footers, layouts, color palettes, fonts, and more.
Furthermore, WordPress’s flexibility makes the platform suitable for a variety of different websites. Whether you’re looking to open an online store, engage in an aggressive content marketing campaign, or build an online community forum, you’ll find the ability to customize WordPress to suit your specific needs.
Read More: 10 Benefits of Choosing a Web Development Agency (And Not a Freelancer)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical for every website’s success. However, some website builders are designed in such a way that hides the important information search algorithms are looking for to categorize and rank websites.
Search engines like WordPress and often rank sites built on WordPress higher than those that are not because the WordPress CMS is designed in such a way that makes it easy for search engines to crawl and index your site.
Additionally, there are great plugins by SEO experts like Yoast that make it very easy for you to add keywords in all the right places. These features have a big impact on the amount of traffic you get to your website.
Whether you need to scale in terms of content or in terms of bandwidth, WordPress is designed to grow with your business. This is a self-hosted platform, which means that you have the freedom to expand your website’s hosting plan as your business grows. For example, if you have a surge of new traffic, we can set things up correctly so your site won’t crash.
When it comes to adding more content to the website, the process is not complicated at all. You can add pages on the fly without the need for HTML or code. On the other hand, if you want to grow your business using webinars or online classes, WordPress makes it easy to build added functionality into your website.
If you have a YouTube channel or host a podcast it is important to have a website that can display your multimedia content the way you want it to look. You may want to embed videos or podcasts with written transcripts to improve SEO, or offer a library of content that is easily searchable. WordPress can handle the specifics and help you set up the site according to your vision and purposes.
Read More: 5 Ways YouTube Can Help You Grow Your Business
We talk about mobile-first, responsive website design. Any website that does not display correctly on mobile devices will cost your business prospects and leads. As more and more people use mobile devices for internet research, it is imperative that your site performs well on every screen. WordPress doesn’t require a heavy lift to accomplish this and most themes come with responsive design built into the product.
Have you ever been on a recipe website and noticed how the recipe is off-set in a box at the end of the text? Or have you noticed the “jump to recipe” button that allows you to skip the content and get straight to the recipe?
This functionality is powered by third-party plugins that make your website even more user-friendly to end-users. Proprietary sites often struggle with clunky integration in terms of third-party plugins which can limit your ability to accomplish your goals.
Other third-party integrations include contact forms, leadpages, and other tools to benefit your lead generation marketing activities.
Maybe you’re wondering if WordPress is easy to use. The big benefit of the WordPress backend is that it is really intuitive and easy for even the technically challenged among us to navigate.
This is important if you plan to hand-off content updates to an admin or virtual assistant. There are different levels of permissions you can assign to user accounts to ensure they only have access to the pages you want them to update.
Some people are confused about what WordPress is used for and mistakenly believe that WordPress is “just a blog.” By now you know that it offers so much more than that. WordPress is a great choice for all types of websites and web apps including:
You can pretty much build anything you want on this platform. The ease of use truly is what makes this product shine.
If you are planning on a robust digital marketing campaign, WordPress is the platform to choose. We already mentioned the ease of on-page optimization. If you’re a startup and need something fast, you can set up a website on WordPress in less than an hour if you really needed to.
In addition to that, WordPress has seamless social media integration to help you reach more people online. With all the themes to choose from, the clean design, and mobile friendly presentation, you can get more from your digital marketing campaigns using WordPress for your website.
Honestly there aren’t many. Sometimes WordPress is criticized for being difficult to use. This feedback is likely coming from novice website designers who are learning the tool for the first time. People who want to do it themselves, heard WordPress was the best, but hit a snag and realized they needed help with something technical.
If you don’t want to hire a WordPress web development company and prefer to do it yourself, there will be a learning curve if you don’t have experience with basic CSS or HTML. As you use third-party plugins or other integrations you will likely need some level of familiarity navigating code to make sure everything is working properly. For some this is a con, but if you are working with a WordPress website development company (like ours!) this will not be a problem.
Another perceived con of WordPress is that there isn’t really a traditional “help desk” or place you can call if you need help. The robust user community offers plenty of content through forums, and there are countless YouTube videos and podcasts dedicated to using WordPress, but if you have a simple question it can be challenging to quickly find the answer. This is why we recommended hiring out your WordPress web design to an experienced team of creatives and developers who can do the heavy lifting for you.
Additionally, if something does go wrong you can rely on the support provided by the company that built your site rather than be forced to sift through the sea of online content to find the answers you need.
If you’re in need of WordPress website development services, we hope that you will get in touch with us today. We would be delighted to discuss all the WordPress features and benefits and answer any questions you may have.