You’ve probably heard a lot about WordPress, but did you know that it is the most popular content management system in the world?
Here are a few facts to confirm that statement:
- Over 43% of all websites in the world use WordPress.
- WordPress has over 65% market share worldwide among content management systems, far outstretching Wix, Weebly, and Shopify.
- Many top brand-name websites use WordPress, including the White House, Coca Cola, and The Wall Street Journal.
Like many businesses, non-profit organizations, medical practices, and even media outlets, at Beacon Media + Marketing, we choose to use WordPress for our websites.
While there are several competitive options out there, WordPress offers several unique advantages that set it apart.
Are you interested in upgrading your website to a WordPress site? Chat with us to see how we can help.
1. WordPress is Free and Open to Everyone
WordPress software has been and always will be free.
By visiting wordpress.org and clicking the “Get WordPress” button, you could download your very own copy of WordPress right here, right now!
If you are web-savvy and know how to set up and host your own website, you might want to do just that.
However, most people need a little extra help.
Although the content management software is free, setup and hosting services are not.
That said, one of the many reasons why WordPress is the preferred option is the extremely low ($0) price point.
Please note: There is a difference between wordpress.org, which offers a free download of the WordPress software but requires separate hosting, and wordpress.com, which offers paid packages that include hosting. While wordpress.com packages are great for beginners, they do not allow for much expansion and growth with your business. Other CMS (such as Wix, Weebly, and Shopify) only offer such packages which is why they are not preferred.
2. You Can Build Any Kind of Website You Want on WordPress
Looking to launch a blog, create your first company website, or set up and online store?
WordPress can do it all through themes and plugins.
Theme – In the context of websites, a design structure that can be customized to your needs.
Plugin – A software that can be added to the primary software for additional features and benefits.
You can find thousands of themes and over 50,000 plugins through WordPress and third-party developers.
All you must do is choose the theme that supports the type of website you would like (e-commerce, portfolio, forum, etc.), then, install the plugins that add any custom features you desire that are not included with the theme.
Many themes and plugins are free, however, some more robust features cost money.
Other CMS only offer certain kinds of themes with their packages and have limited app stores (again, limiting your options and expansion opportunities).
3. WordPress Is Easy to Use
WordPress is a WYSIWYG editor, which means “what you see is what you get.”
WYSIWYG – “What you see is what you get.”
The changes you make through the WordPress dashboard look the same as they do on the live website, so you don’t have to make guesses about how things will turn out while you are editing.
Additionally, the WordPress editor is as easy as Microsoft Word.
You can bold text, italicize it–whatever you want to do–all without ever touching the HTML.
That said, if you want to touch the HTML, you can always switch from the visual editor to the text editor using the tabs on the right.
4. You Don’t Have to Learn to Code to Use WordPress
As mentioned, you don’t have to touch the HTML to edit text with WordPress.
You also don’t have to touch the CSS, PHP, or JavaScript (the other three languages WordPress runs on).
Any basic styling that you want to do–whether it’s changing a theme color or font or updating your logo–can be handled through the “Appearance” tab on the dashboard.
This is also where you can change your theme, add widgets, and update your navigation menu.
The entire WordPress system is a gorgeous interface that is made to be intuitive for anyone.
5. You Can Get WordPress Support Just About Anywhere
WordPress has an extensive support database, and WPBeginner is a great resource for newbies.
In addition, because WordPress is so popular, you can find the answers to your most burning questions all over the internet.
Everyone wants to be a WordPress expert, so a simple Google search on your dilemma should do the trick for delivering a myriad of helpful results.
6. WordPress Is Scalable and Can Handle Business Growth
Say you have a company website and you would like to add an online store.
That’s easy–simply install the most popular e-commerce plugin (that’s WooCommerce) and make sure you have a theme that supports it!
Changing themes and adding plugins are not difficult tasks, just be aware that changing your theme means you may need to go through the customization process again.
The best practice is to plan ahead and choose a theme that supports future growth–if you know you want to add an online store in the future, pick the right theme!
You can plan for adding anything down the road with the right theme.
7. WordPress Integrates with Most Business Software
Want to allow visitors to subscribe to your company newsletter directly from your website?
- Install the MailChimp for WordPress plugin!
- Or maybe you would use the Constant Contact Forms plugin instead.
- Or perhaps you would use the Brilliant Web-to-Lead for Salesforce plugin.
Whatever software you are using to run the sales and marketing side of your business, you can bet there is a WordPress plugin out there to facilitate integration.
8. With WordPress, You Own Your Business Website – Not so with the “Other Guys!”
What happens when you forget to pay or can’t pay your monthly bill for your Wix, Weebly, or Shopify website?
Well, you don’t own your website or its content–you are merely renting the internet space–so your information is at best held or at worst lost when your website inevitably goes down.
When you host your own website because its WordPress, you are in charge of the backups so if you have been faithful, you will have a copy of your website if it goes down.
If you work with an agency who hosts your WordPress website for you, make sure they:
- Perform regular backups to multiple locations
- Say that you own your website and its contents in their contract
We have had many, many clients who have been burned by other website providers and agencies because they got themselves roped into contracts that were not written in their favor.
Please be careful and get a WordPress website with an ethical agency!
9. WordPress Is the Best Blogging Platform in the World
WordPress was originally built to be a blogging platform exclusively!
Over the years, they have adapted to offer all kinds of websites, but they are still the best blogging platform on the planet.
Every WordPress website you create comes with a blog that you can either turn on or off.
If you choose to turn it on, you can count on the fact that your WordPress blog will be top-of-the-line–a classy writing experience for your writers and editors and a clean reading experience for your visitors.
WordPress allows for scheduling blog posts in advance, setting roles for everyone from administrators to contributors, and much more.
So whether you want a small blog for company updates or a full publication, you can do it through WordPress.
10. WordPress Is SEO-Friendly
The WordPress framework was designed with SEO in mind.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – The process of making your website as friendly for a search engine (such as Google) as possible so that it ranks higher on the results page.
Whenever you create a new blog post or web page on your WordPress website, WordPress automatically generates a title and description.
This information is very important for SEO–it’s the information that shows up in the search results for that page:
With an SEO plugin, you can also customize the title and description–we use SEOPress.
Some SEO plugins like SEOPress will also rank your content by other important factors for SEO so you know how to improve your page or post:
11. You Can Upload Photos, Videos, & Documents
WordPress supports all of the most common file types including .jpeg, .png, .pdf, and more.
Unfortunately, some of the other guys do not support as many file types as WordPress.
So if you are planning a media-rich site, WordPress is the way to go!
12. WordPress Is Mobile-Friendly
In 2015, Google released an update that rewards mobile-friendly websites, placing them higher on the results page (marketers lovingly called it “mobilegeddon”).
Consequently, non-mobile-friendly websites are penalized.
Mobile-Friendly a.k.a. Responsive – A mobile-friendly website is a website that is easy to view, read, and navigate on a smaller screen; it adapts to the screen size it is being viewed on.
Many WordPress themes are built to be responsive to all screen sizes including smartphones and tablets.
With WordPress, you know that your website is being rewarded rather than penalized in the search results!
13. WordPress Is Safe & Secure
The WordPress team is constantly releasing new updates to make WordPress software safer and better at keeping threats at bay.
As the most popular CMS out there, you can count on this being a priority.
WordPress provides security for over 30% of the internet!
14. It’s Just Popular!
Finally, the popularity of WordPress itself means that you can count on it sticking around and getting a lot of tender loving care.
~
We have used WordPress for all our new client websites and we thoroughly enjoy it.
Are you ready to join the 30% of the internet that uses the best CMS out there?
If you are interested in learning more about launching a WordPress website with us, we would love to geek-out with you in a free consultation!
Wherever you go, we hope that you can find the perfect website tool to meet your needs.
Happy marketing!
