Why Professionals Love WordPress

Image courtesy of triggersandsparks.com

WordPress offers many benefits to bloggers and website builders around the world. In fact, these benefits are the reason why roughly 72 million websites use the open source content management system (CMS). As of 2012, one in four new websites were built using the WordPress platform. When WordPress 3.3 was released, it took less than five months for the new version to exceed 12 million downloads. And the users that utilize WordPress are active; every day, WordPress.com receives around 500,000 new posts from users.

Did you know that big name organizations like NFL, NASA, Ford, and CNN use WordPress? WordPress is more user friendly than the old website building methods, so it is a laymen-friendly form of content management. Here are some of the benefits to using WordPress as your content management system (CMS).

WordPress requires less HTML
Many sources claim that WordPress requires no HTML editing. What they really should say is that WordPress requires less HTML editing. Because of the user interface on the CMS, there are ways for users to circumvent having to edit the majority of HTML on the site. The benefit of WordPress’ CMS is that seasoned and new users can create content much easier than before. However, there are times where HTML and CSS edits are still required for certain tasks.

Does this mean that web designers are a thing of the past? Absolutely not. In fact, web designers are in high demand. WordPress makes the job easier, but a professional looking and operating website will still require a talented web designer. Not only will they be familiar with the available features of WordPress, they will also have detailed knowledge with HTML and CSS, which are still important and necessary tools when working in WordPress.

Ability to manage Websites from any computer
WordPress is browser-based, which means that you can edit WordPress websites from any computer, as long as you have Internet access. This feature is highly beneficial for companies that have multiple people editing their website’s content. For example, a web designer can create the website, and maintain the more detailed and complex aspects, while another user can post blogs from a different computer. Content updates can be made without your web designer, which helps keep the website up-to-date with new content. However, major layout and CSS changes need to be handles with caution because certain changes can alter your layout or disrupt the websites functionality. Make sure to talk to your web developer about what simple changes you can make, and which ones need to be done by them.

Plugins Increase Functionality
Many features that you see on professional websites are created using Plugins. For example, if you want a Facebook “Like” box, or a Twitter feed, you will need to download a Plugin. Fortunately, Plugins are available on the WordPress website. Plugins are “add-ons” that increase the functionality of your website. Many of these Plugins can help with SEO, Social Media linking, video playback, ecommerce, and security. There are many other types of Plugins, and the possibilities are essentially endless. As of now, there are over 19,000 free Plugins available from the WordPress website.

WordPress and SEO
WordPress.com offers many Plugins to help with Search Engine Optimization. However, because of the simplicity of WordPress, search engines can easily read and evaluate the content. Each page in a website can also have its own keywords, description, and title, which allows for more optimization.

WordPress is a relatively user friendly CMS compared to older methods, but still requires a lot of knowledge and practice to master. In fact, there are very lengthy WordPress books published for different skill levels because of how diverse and complex the CMS platform can be if you delve deep. WordPress is perfect blend of complexity and simplicity because it allows for you and your web developer to work in sync.

A poorly built website can be very harmful to your brand and your blood pressure. Poor SEO can mean less traffic on your page. An old, aesthetically displeasing, or outdated design can cause visitors to leave your page and can have negative effects on you brand’s position in the eye of the viewer and your SEO position. Beware inexperienced web builders who may appear inexpensive in the first place, but will take longer to build a website, which will render your website less effective and inefficient. It is important to build a website that has longevity and will have a solid foundation to build from.

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