Why Use WordPress? A Deep Dive into 8 Good Reasons
From a blog-managing platform to a powerful content management system (CMS), WordPress has indeed come a long way. Written in PHP and using MySQL as a database, WordPress helps you manage your website’s backend and also develops dynamic web apps with varied looks and features.
This platform combines aesthetic designs and efficient features to provide one of the best user experiences when it comes to web creation. More than 40% of all global websites use WordPress as a CMS, ranging from entertainment blogs to eCommerce platforms.
Some WordPress users include BBC America, Sonic Music, Facebook Newsroom, The New Yorker, etc. Since so many major companies use WordPress for their operations, you must be tempted to wonder about its advantages and how it can revolutionise your online business.
Before reaching a conclusion on whether to use WordPress for your website, you must weigh its pros and cons, understand its features, and figure out if it is the right fit for your web developmental activities.
Hence, we will discuss the benefits of WordPress for you, shedding light on why it is so popular as a content management and website building platform.
8 Reasons Why You Should Use WordPress
There are several reasons to use WordPress, which can be classified under the following broad subheadings.
Free and Open-Source
WordPress is a free and open-source platform that allows you to use, build, distribute, and modify software without paying any money. It is the result of an open-source community project, which makes it free for everyone to download and install.
A core development team leads the project development, but developers from around the world can report bugs, apply patches, suggest features, etc. Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org are absolutely free.
The only area where money is involved is WordPress hosting. WordPress is self-hosted, so you may end up paying a bit of money for hosting. Depending on the scale of operations, you can opt for shared servers or exclusive hosting at variable prices.
However, most themes and plugins are available in free versions. Hence, you can keep the hosting and maintenance costs at a minimal level while using WordPress.
Adaptable and Compatible
WordPress lets you build simple as well as complicated websites and web applications. It started as a blog management platform but has now evolved into a powerful web development tool.
Its themes, plugins, and features can be adapted to make several kinds of websites. Some common types of websites that WordPress CMS lets you build are:
- Personal blogs
- Business and commercial platforms
- Job boards
- Directories and portfolio websites
- Q&A platforms
- Auctions and coupons websites
- Multilingual platforms
- Photography pages and podcasts
- Educational websites
Moreover, WordPress websites are compatible with multiple platforms such as tablets, laptops, smartphones, and desktops. Most of its themes are responsive and can be optimized for mobile devices. Adaptability and compatibility are the least of your worries with WordPress.
Smooth Learning Curve
WordPress is easy to learn and does not require any specific skill level to use it. There is also a “Learn” module on wordpress.org that lets you search for a learning resource, attend workshops, and read lesson plans about its usage.
From the interface to hosting packages, you will get details of all topics here. This includes tips and tricks for users, demo videos, and common task tutorials. WordPress also does not need any prerequisite coding knowledge for you to understand the basics. Hence, it can be used by all.
Abundant Themes and Plugins
There is no dearth of themes and plugins when it comes to WordPress. You can extend your knowledge and experience with about 59,000 plugins in four categories:
- Featured plugins
- Beta plugins
- Popular plugins
- Block-enabled plugins
You can also develop your own plugins.
With over 8,500 themes to choose from, you can customize your website with different files and style sheets. This way, your website can be scaled up and down and customized to a great extent to give it a unique and professional look.
Huge Community
For beginners, exploring the dashboard and fiddling about with controls is enough to give an idea of the WordPress platform. However, for more complicated queries and development objectives, WordPress has several communities around the globe.
The WordPress community provides support and troubleshooting assistance for bugs and issues. You can also get insights into how to use the platform, communicate with other users about similar issues, help others solve their problems, and use your experience to guide the community.
The community covers much more than customer support and query addressal. It has blogs, forums, webinars, seminars, and other mediums that outline different aspects of WordPress. You can also pay for a dedicated support team for your needs.
Premium plugins and themes generally have their own support teams, but the community resources can be used for organized long-term training and quick solutions to issues.
SEO-Friendly
The best thing about WordPress is that it is massively SEO-friendly. Its themes are also optimized for SEO, which makes it easier for search engines to crawl your website and give favorable online rankings.
You can also choose more advanced SEO plugins for your blog or website. One of the most popular SEO plugins is Yoast SEO, which targets a cocus keyword, analyzes the post and gives results and suggestions on SEO performance.
But apart from plugins also, WordPress automatically generates meta descriptions and title tags for all your posts and pages. It helps in search engine indexing and gives an overall performance boost to the website.
Secure and Popular
When it comes to web development, security is an important factor. If you are using the latest version of WordPress, you are highly secure from vulnerability and cyber attacks. You can also use security plugins to enhance internet safety, like Wordfence Security and iThemes Security.
Perhaps due to its features and security, WordPress is one of the most popular CMS and web development platforms. It supports millions of websites, and new websites are launched on it every day. It has a massive user base and developer support. This means you will get access to updates, new features, and bug fixes almost instantly.
Full Control and Media Support
WordPress offers you full control over your website, in terms of theme and design customization. Its plugins and third-party theme add-ons let you play around with site design as much as you want, and retain the security of the platform while doing so.
It also supports almost all kinds of media and file types, like images, documents, videos, audio, etc. common formats like .jpg, .png, .pdf, .doc, .mp4, .avi, .mov, etc. are supported on WordPress. You can also host presentations and documents on your website without publishing them on the web page.
Conclusion
There is simply no reason why you should not use WordPress for your development needs. It is free, extensive, reliable, and secure. It also lets you play around with designs and offers development support of all kinds.
You can simply drag and drop elements to design a web page and create a beautiful and useful website on your own. In case you do not have the time or resources, you can choose custom WordPress website development services to take complete care of your web development project.
