It’s likely somewhere along the way you have heard of WordPress, and chances are, you have visited a site or two that are built with the WordPress platform. Maybe you even built a blog somewhere along the way, and used WordPress.com to do it.
But WordPress may be be a more robust system than you know. Here at Write this Down Freelancing, I prefer to build websites on the WordPress Platform. It is my top choice in almost all circumstances, and I have spent a good deal of time and energy mastering the platform to become a WordPress Expert.
Here’s why.
Reasons to Use WordPress to Build Your Website:
Because it will look great!
Do you remember WordPress sites to be “bloggy” looking and bland? This doesn’t have to be the case. One of my favourite things about WordPress is that it is highly customizable.
If you want your site to look like a blog, it can – but if you want your site to be a classy, dynamic, modern, well-crafted top-quality website, WordPress is your guy. (Or gal.) Additionally, WordPress does a great job of separating the “look” from the functionality. A well-built WordPress Website can be updated and modernized with ease.
Because it has backwards compatibility.
I’ve built websites on other Content Management Systems, and have been disappointed when they have orphaned “old” versions of their platform – sometimes as recently as two years old. I understand that technology changes quickly, but I prefer a platform that allows updates and upgrades to happen gracefully.
Yes, even with WordPress, some upgrades can result in minor issues, leading to a bit of debugging. But in my years of working with the system, never has the software changed so radically that a site had to be rebuilt.
Because of the functionality.
There isn’t much a good developer can’t make WordPress do. There is a multitude of pre-made plugins that can be used to turn your WordPress installation into an e-commerce superstore; a membership-driven forum site; an online teaching tool, and so on.
And if there isn’t already a plugin available? One can be developed.
For Search Engine Optimization reasons.
There isn’t much point having a website if no one can find you, is there? Right off the bat, WordPress offers solid search engine optimization.
But more can be done. There are excellent plugins that can help you make sure your site is super-well-optimized with just a few small improvements to your pages.
Because of the cost.
Sure, websites can be designed from scratch from the ground up, and be built to incorporate all of the functionality that WordPress already offers. But why? It’s definitely less expensive to use a pre-built and well-proven system.
Because the big guys do.
Certainly you wouldn’t just do something because the “big guys” do it. But if companies like The New York Times, CNN, Forbes and General Motors use WordPress, it must be good. Right? These days more than 20% of all websites globally are built with WordPress.
Because of the philosophy.
Back in August, I went to Vancouver for a WordCamp. (Or as my son calls it, NerdCamp.) This is a community-organized WordPress convention, where I attended workshop after workshop. The total cost to me? $20. And it included lunch. That’s just one example of this amazing system that is WordPress! WordPress is Open Source, and is held up by a huge community of people who have built it, improve it, volunteer to help people with it, and more.
There is a huge WordPress economy that has come out of the “blogging platform” that speaks volumes to the nature of the beast. Need help figuring something out? The WordPress documentation is available, and so is a user forum. The support is awesome. And it’s free.
Because it’s user friendly.
This is truly a content management system in every sense of the word. You can learn to use it, and customize and update your own website.
If it’s not obvious from this post, I am a big WordPress fan. Please check out my portfolio for some WordPress samples, and contact me for a quote.
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