WordPress

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an open-sourced Content Management System (CMS) that was launched in 2003. It is written in PHP, or hypertext preprocessor, and uses the MySQL database management system. WordPress powers over 38% of top one-milion websites, making it the most common and widely-used website platform.

WordPress is a starting platform for many people creating a website for the first time because it is free to start and boasts many beginner-friendly features. It offers a wide selection of free and affordable pre-made themes and plugins, making it easy for users to customize their unique site without requiring a deeper understanding of web development. For more advanced users, WordPress also allows for limitless customized freedom through personalized themes and integrating 3rd-party applications.

Getting Started with WordPress

WordPress offers two different services based on the desired intention users have for their product. The main difference between these two platforms, WordPress.com and WordPress.org, is website ownership, which is described below in more detail.

WordPress.com

With WordPress.com, the user owns a WordPress' subdomain (like [mywebsite].wordpress.com). This means the user has limited control, storage space, and customizable options. WordPress.com subdomains also allow WordPress to run ads on their sites, unless the user is willing to pay for a higher subscription tier.

So, who should use WordPress.com? If you're a new organization with a basic understanding of web development, you’re an ideal candidate. This platform does not require any coding expertise and offers many affordable templates and plug-ins. We recommend WordPress.com for any beginner looking to start creating their online presence, such as personal bloggers, influencers, or artists.

WordPress.org

If you’re looking for full control over your website or if you intend to use your site for professional use, such as a business site or for online shopping, WordPress.org is the better option. Like WordPress.com, this software is free to start, but once you've set up a hosting provider and bought a personal domain, you own 100% of your website. This means you have full control of the front-end and back-end of your site, allowing you the freedom to integrate unique plugins and themes as you please. We recommend Wordpress.org for all professionals who desire to have more control, personalization, and ownership over their site.

The Benefits of WordPress

Versatile and Affordable

WordPress is a versatile platform, offering a wide range of features to suit different needs. From blogging to online sales, it provides the capabilities and functionality for each user to create a customized website for their unique business. There are many unique plug-ins, templates, and features, all available for a range of prices to fit every budget.

WordPress is widely recognized as the most affordable CMS software, both for personal and professional use. For personal users, it’s free to get started with WordPress and test the waters. Likewise, professional users have the ability to tailor their website customizations, with solutions for the most simple to the most extravagant budgets. Additionally, if you require professional help setting up your WordPress site, web development services for WordPress are known to be more affordable than other CMS softwares,

User-Friendly

While its competitors, such as Joomla and Drupal, require technical knowledge to install and maintain, WordPress features very easy-to-use functions. For example, for complete beginners, WordPress offers more than 50,000 plugins and thousands of pre-made themes, starting at only two dollars.

For creating website content, WordPress has a very straightforward process, especially for blog writing. It offers a built-in blog feature, which allows the user to write and publish their blogs on-site, from any device. WordPress also offers robust and easy-to-use editing and formatting tools, which most users find incredibly helpful.

SEO-Friendly

Although WordPress is not optimized for SEO by default, it features many plugins that can help users with SEO optimization. These plugins provide content insights to show SEO performance, keywords, and internal link suggestions. Users can add titles, descriptions, and keywords to all of their pages, leaving their SEO plug-in to analyze how each page will rank for different search results in advance. Additionally, users can customize their WordPress URL to make their website more search engine friendly.

Simple Third-Party Integrations

As highlighted above, if users want to add more advanced features to their WordPress website, they can install third-party tools. For example, a user might want to install a newsletter, membership access area, or a shopping tool, providing limitless possibilities to expand and customize each domain.

Community Support

WordPress is the most widely-used CMS software in the world, accounting for 49% of the Content Management System market share. This massive following represents a large and dedicated community of users with different backgrounds and experiences, all favoring this unique CMS. The online community is known to help other users with their WordPress questions, no matter what the problem, with real-time answers delivered through multiple resources and online forums.

The Limitations of WordPress

Theme and Plug-In Reliance

WordPress features a wide range of affordable themes and plugins, which is great for users on a budget. However, the quality of most of these pre-made templates is dependent on their price point, with less expensive plug-ins having a lower quality than more expensive ones. Not all plug-ins are created equal and when using a third-party application, you always run the risk of installing an outdated or poorly coded application, potentially resulting in compromised security or website performance.

It’s also important to understand how each plug-in affects each other, as using too many premade plugins can clutter the site and interfere with user experience. That being said, users can mitigate these risks by avoiding pre-made applications all together. WordPress is known for it’s customization capabilities, so creating a custom application for your site instead of relying on a premade plug-in is certainly a safer, albeit more costly, route.

Coding Limitation

WordPress is known for its immense capabilities, however, like at platforms, it still has coding limits that even the most experienced web developers cannot overcome. However, most of these limits pertain to interactive functions, so if your website is static and relatively standard, you shouldn’t encounter any issues.

Website Maintenance

Like almost every digital platform, WordPress websites require updates to ensure security and user experience. These activities require extensive knowledge and experience in web development and coding language and cannot be completed by someone who is not fluent in web development. Because of this, most users need to hire a web development team to update and maintain their WordPress site.

Our WordPress Development Services

While WordPress is user friendly and a great platform for most businesses, it can present some challenges in the long run if you’re not familiar with coding and web development. To help mitigate these challenges, we’re happy to offer a variety of WordPress services to fit your unique needs.

Our WordPress service include:

• Website audits
• WordPress website development
• Web hosting
• Custom UX/UI design
• Website maintenance
• Continued support and upgrades

Connect with us to start your web development project!