Why WordPress?
A Content Management System (CMS) is a program that allows publishing, editing and modifying of content as well as maintenance from a central interface. CMSs are often used to run websites, and there are hundreds of different types, so the first issue facing a lot of people is choosing which CMS platform to build their website on. This can be quite a challenging decision as you have to consider what requirements you as a user with need from your website.
We believe that different CMS platforms are better suited to different types of projects as each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but in general we feel that WordPress is one of the best overall platforms to build a website on and here are a few reasons to help explain why we think that:
- Lots of other websites are already built on WordPress – As of October 2020, version 5.3 has been downloaded over 39 million times.
- WordPress is used more than any other publishing platform – This Google Trends chart compares it to some of the other leading platforms: http://goo.gl/24J2Gu
- It’s well supported – Because it’s so popular, the vast majority of web servers support WordPress already so the installation and set-up times are normally faster than most other platforms.
- It comes with powerful features – WordPress features integrated link management; a search engine–friendly, clean permalink structure; the ability to assign nested, multiple categories to articles which helps to keep content well organised and structured, and support for tagging of posts and articles which lets visitors easily search and navigate around a site.It’s very expandable – One very popular feature of WordPress is its rich plugin architecture which allows users and developers to extend its abilities beyond the core installation. WordPress currently has a database of almost 27,000 plugins with more being made all of the time, so if a new feature needs to be added to a site, there’s a high chance that there is a plugin for it which saves on development costs.
- It has excellent SEO – A website is only relevant if it can be found by your target audience. The higher your site ranks when someone searches for it, the more likely it will be read. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), involves properly coding your website so that search engines like Google and Bing will find it easier, and rank it higher. The code generated by WordPress has been engineered to give you the best SEO possible. Google, has even mentioned WordPress specifically as being capable of ranking higher in search results.
This is why we think that in most circumstances WordPress is the best platform to build a website on and unless there is some specific reason to avoid using it, we will suggest to our clients that WordPress is the way forward. Obviously we understand that not every website can be built on WordPress and we will build on other CMS platforms when needed but if we can build a website on WordPress we would be more inclined to do so, just because it is the best CMS in the business.
For more examples take a look at our Website Development and Design page to see some of the websites we’ve made using WordPress