Why choose WordPress

This review of the pros and cons of WordPress will help you make an informed decision - whether it's right for you or not.

That is exactly the question that came to me a few years ago. The short answer is simple - WordPress is the most democratic content management system (CMS)*) in the sense that its functionality can be extended virtually unlimitedly and by anyone - even people who don't understand anything from PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML - and, it's completely free!

Today WordPress is the easiest way to create your own website or blog - with WordPress are built over 43.0% of all Internet sites.

By comparison, the next most popular web development platform has a market share of just 2.6%, Drupal 1.7%, Squarespace 1.5% and Wix 1.3%.

One of the key differences between WordPress and other website-building platforms is that WordPress's design, content, and functionality are separate. It provides data portability. Respectively, you can add content without changing the design, modify the design without changing the content, and add new features without affecting existing ones.

* A content management system, often abbreviated as a CMS (Content Management System), is software that helps users create, manage, and modify site content without special technical knowledge.

 

What sites can I create with WordPress?

Originally, WordPress was primarily a tool for creating personal blogs, and many people have remained so. But nowadays, thanks to changes in the basic code, as well as WordPress's vast ecosystem of plugins and themes (themes), WordPress can create virtually any type of site:

To start building your WordPress site you need:

  • Domain name - the address of your website (the address of this website is: web-studio.lv);
  • Location on the server - where to store your site files and allow visitors to access your site;
  • Preferred site development plugin (page builder plugin) - software that allows you to create a site without coding and knowledge of PHP, CSS, HTML… But you can also use WordPress's built-in block editor.

With the free version of WordPress.org, 100%, you can install plugins (extend / add WordPress functionality), customize your site design and, most importantly, make money from your site without any restrictions.

 

What is the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

The short version is as follows:

  • org is free open source software that anyone can download for free and use as they wish. You have to buy your own domain name and space on the web server, but you have full control over all the parameters of your site, functionality - everything.
  • com is a "site as a service" built on WordPress.org software. You do not have to pay for the domain and server (hosting), but you lose some freedom and flexibility - you have to use the WordPress.com subdomain (for example - your domain.wordpress.com), your site displays WordPress.com ads, your site is restricted size (server space) and you cannot accept online payments. You can remove some restrictions by choosing paid plans (you will be able to use your own domain name and remove ads), but you will still not be able to use your site freely (you will not be able to use the themes you want and install the plug-ins you want). You can view WordPress.com prices HERE.

WordPress.org is open source software operated by the nonprofit WordPress Foundation. WordPress.com is a company owned Automattic and using WordPress.org open source software.

WordPress.org and WordPress.com are officially unrelated entities, although this is not clear, as Matt Mullenvegs (Matt Mullenweg) is both the founder of the WordPress Foundation and the founder of Automattic. As a result, the two units are still closely linked.

The word "WordPress" is usually used to mean WordPress.org open source software.

If you want to create your own website - WordPress.org is almost always the best solution. Yes, you will need to pay attention to things like updates and security, but it's not very complicated.

If you just want a casual site for your hobby, WordPress.com is a good choice, but if you want more - choose WordPress.org, because the costs will be similar and you will be able to develop your site as much as you want.

 

WordPress growth

The original name of the project was b2 / cafelog. It is estimated that in May 2003, b2 / cafelog used around 2,000 blogs.

On April 1, 2003, Matt Mullenvegs created a new b2 branch at SourceForge using the original b2 / cafelog system with Mike Little (Mike Little) created their own version.

Metta's girlfriend Kristine Tremuleta suggested naming this version WordPress, and the name is still in use.

The first version of WordPress 0.7 was officially released on May 27, 2003.

WordPress 1.0 was released in January 2004, also known as Davis. This platform was already similar to WordPress as we know it today. With search engine friendly links, multiple categories, easy installations, upgrades and comments. However, at that time, these features were only available to those with programming experience.

In August 2006, the first took place in San Francisco WordCamp - Annual events organized by volunteers for WordPress users and developers to get together and discuss everything related to WordPress.

A WordPress theme / theme directory was launched in 2008, where anyone can upload their own themes (they must first pass a quality check) and now has over 2,500 free themes available for download!

WordPress plugin repository Today, there are more than 59,900 free plug - ins available that allow anyone to extend WordPress functionality almost indefinitely.

WordPress has a long history from a blogging platform in 2003 to the present day… In the meantime, WordPress has evolved and, thanks to its collaborators and huge community, has become the most popular solution for creating any type of website.

 

12 Reasons to Choose WordPress

For both an individual who is starting to think about creating their own blog and a business owner who wants to subscribe to a business website, names like WordPress, Joomla, Shopify, Magento, Wix īties could sound like aliens and have nothing to say. When you start working on your site, these words will come into your everyday life, as they are the names of different site-building platforms. Each of them has its advantages, for example - Shopify makes sense if you want to create an online store, but you can't create a blog with it. Magento has similar limitations. The most popular platforms are those with more flexibility, all from Squarespace to Wix, great tools for a certain skill level, but we recommend choosing WordPress.

Why?

WordPress 1 is completely free

WordPress is an open source program and can be downloaded and used by anyone for free.

But although WordPress software is free, you will probably need to invest some money to buy a domain and rent a server. Prices for server rental could start from about 2-3 Eur per month for cheap shared servers up to a few hundred per month, if you need powerful and fast servers.

Themes and plug-ins are usually available for free, but premium (paid) plug-ins often provide better, and most importantly, faster support when needed. Many WordPress users also pay for additional services for both agencies and freelancers and programmers (for design, writing text, customizing CSS, maintaining the site, etc.). and / or technical issues.

But if you want - you can keep the cost of your WordPress site to a minimum. Many site owners only pay for domain and server rentals.

 

WordPress 2 is flexible - you can create any website

One of the most common misconceptions about WordPress is that it is primarily for blogging. This has long been the case - WordPress has changed dramatically and today you can create a beautiful landing page for your business, e-learning and e-commerce site - and keep your blog an integral part of the development process with great convenience. years of honed text and media insertion interface.

In addition, forums, e-commerce and other functionality are simply provided with plug-ins and themes. For example, if I wanted to create a portfolio site for a design business, I would just have to choose a suitable theme and install some free plugins. The installation of the plug-ins is also maximally basic - you have to click on the "Install" button and then on the "Activate" button.

 

3 WordPress sites are suitable for mobile devices

At present, websites are mostly visited via mobile phones and tablets - so it is important that your website looks as good on mobile devices as it does on a desktop computer and that their users can use all the features of the site.

WordPress themes adapt to the screen size of mobile devices and you will automatically be able to benefit from new adaptive Internet technologies, such as creating different designs and / or content for mobile phones, tablets and computers.

 

4 WordPress supports many types of media files

A list of all WordPress supported files is HERE. All major categories are supported:

  • Pictures;
  • Documents;
  • Audio;
  • Video.

From experience I can say that I do not remember the case when there were problems with uploading such common files as - jpg, .png, .gif .pdf, .doc, .pptx, .mp3, .m4a, .mp4, .mov,. wmv, .avi nor with less commonly used files such as - .odt, .key, .ogg, .3gp…

And while some file formats, such as SVG, aren't allowed, there are good ways to upload them securely, such as the WEB Studio logo in SWG everywhere on this site.

 

5 WordPress is easy to learn

WordPress as an open source software can be used by anyone. You are not limited by the price or the presence or absence of customer support - not even your skill level, as anyone will start learning the interface / interface in ten minutes by working with the dashboard.

Of course, there is a lot to learn to create fast websites with a modern design, but the Internet is full of tutorials and training courses, seminars, forums that are suitable for all skill levels. And most of them are available completely for free.

Also available free of charge WordPress support and Training. WordPress is a giant community that provides support through blogs and forums for quick troubleshooting. Personally, I prefer to search for solutions with Google, because the most up-to-date information can be found faster. However, blogs, forums and Facebook groups are good sources of information to identify potential security risks and potential problems in a timely manner.

 

6 With WordPress, you can quickly and easily expand the functionality of your site

A standard blog is enough themes installation - you need to customize the design and you can start creating your blog content. If you are creating a company website or an online store, you will need to install additional plug-ins that will provide the necessary additional functionality, such as selecting and adding products to the cart, paying with payment cards, etc. - Everything is easy and fast.

Usually, the topics are the basis of the site. Customizing the design is easy (defining colors and fonts, selecting and inserting media files, possibly creating a logo). The biggest job is to create interesting and useful content for your site visitors - this job will be just as difficult, no matter what platform you choose to build your site.

Experience has shown that sites are never finished - meaning that from time to time you realize that something new needs to be added to your site. You may need to authorize your customers to offer them exclusive content, you may want to attract customers with monthly quizzes, or simply display a banner with up-to-date information about you and / or customers in a section of the site or on a specific page. In all these situations, the solution is simple and quick - you install the appropriate plug-in and solve the problem.

 

7 Maintaining a WordPress site is easy

Agencies and hosting companies usually offer website maintenance services - usually as a fixed monthly fee or include it in server rental. This is more of a solution for people who do not want to spend time maintaining the site, because maintaining WordPress is not rocket science, that is, there is nothing complicated.

Maintaining a site usually involves the following steps:

  • Server tests - whether it works as intended;
  • Website security checks;
  • Site backup;
  • Updating of plugins, themes and WordPress software;
  • Spam management;
  • Functionality testing;
  • Searching for and repairing broken links;
  • Improving site performance and SEO.

Server checks are usually limited to whether the site is reachable or not and how fast it loads. Yes the download speed has obviously slowed down - we are looking for reasons. If you use the services of reputable hosting companies, problems with the technical side of the server are very rare. Plug-ins are commonly used to secure and back up your site. The rest of the work on the list should be done about once a month.

 

8 WordPress automatically generates key SEO records

WordPress automatically generates title tags and meta descriptions for all your pages and posts. This in turn helps search engines (Google, Yandex, Bing…) to better understand your site's content, index it, and possibly link to your site in the search results (SERP). A well-designed site with clean code and a clear organizational structure can also help you get a better position in search results. There are also several plugins and online tools that offer additional SEO features.

 

9 You have complete control over your WordPress site

When you type "website builders" into the Google search engine, you will get n-th results with descriptions of various platforms. WordPress will most likely be mentioned in all reviews, probably compared to WIX, Squarespace, Joomla, Magento, Shopify, Weebly, Jimdo… These are all great tools, but limit your control over your site, such as:

  • They usually have e-commerce functionality built in, so you can't change or extend it in any way with plug-ins;
  • Hosting is usually inseparable from the platform on which your site is built. Therefore, you cannot change hosting providers if you are not satisfied with it in any way.
  • Code customization is limited. Worse, you (your site) use a unique coding language, such as Liquid for Shopify, and if you want to add or change something, you'll have to hire a developer who specializes in the platform. It will take both money and time (usually thousands and months).
  • You do not own this site because you rent it from these companies. When you stop paying, all files and pages on your site are either deleted or, at best, denied access until you resume payments.

With WordPress, all the content on your site belongs to you, and you can do whatever you want with it!

 

10 WordPress is the best content management system

WordPress emerged as a blogging platform. This feature has evolved and today nothing compares to the convenience, elegance and tools offered by WordPress.

This is especially true for business pages where fast content management is required and users need different access rights. Easy content editing, page preview, different user access rights - these are just some of the benefits of WprdPress. Do others offer the same? Yes, but for an additional fee. WortPress has it all available instantly and for free.

Here's an example.

Let's say you manage the site as an administrator. This means you have access to all your files, plug-ins, SEO and security tools. You will hire an editor and some writers to create the site's content. If you do not want to take the content yourself, you need to give them access to the site. But - you don't want them to be able to do what they want on the site and possibly accidentally ruin something. If you use WordPress, you can give the editor rights to one and he will only be able to edit and publish the posts, and the others will be copyrighted and will only be able to create the posts but not publish them.

  

WordPress 11 is an Integration with almost all third-party tools

Remember - more than 43% websites are built with WordPress. It's a huge market and that's why WordPress integration is already available for almost all popular third-party tools, and you can easily automate your email marketing and social networking activities, accept payments, connect SEO tools or send SMS services….

 

12 WordPress is the most popular website creation platform

The most popular is not always the best. However, the ease of use and scalability of WordPress is beyond the competition. It has proven itself time and time again by steadily increasing its market share from year to year.

 

4 Disadvantages of WordPress

However, WordPress is not perfect. It has some drawbacks that you should keep in mind when choosing this platform.

1 The main disadvantage of WordPress is its popularity

The more popular a piece of software is, the more likely it is that someone will want to break it. However, there are no worries in this regard either - if secure plug-ins and themes are used (wordpress.org is available or created by well-known developers), secure login procedures are followed, and site themes, plug-ins, and WordPress are regularly updated.

In most cases, websites are hacked due to the negligence and, unfortunately, stupidity of their users. How else to name the fact that, for example, The password "123456" is used by more than 2,500,000 Internet site users?

More on that You can read about how WordPress sites are hacked HERE.

 

2 You have complete control over your site

Yes, this is not only a plus, but also a disadvantage, because it means that you are also responsible for the security of your site, backing up and installing updates. You can automate all of these tasks, but you'll still need to pay attention to them from time to time.

 

3 WordPress does not have a built-in drag and drop page builder

Most beginners need some time to get to know and master the WordPress block editor. However, this problem is easily solved by installing one of the page creation plugins.

 

4 You can use WordPress without knowing anything about coding

That's right, but basic knowledge of HTML and CSS makes the job a lot easier, and most beginners learn these skills over time.

 

Is WordPress Right For You?

WordPress adapts to your needs. It can be as simple and convenient as you want, or as complex and sophisticated as you need.

If you agree with any of the following statements, WordPress is the perfect platform to build your site:

  • You want to create a professional business website at a reasonable price;
  • You can easily follow the simple instructions to learn the basics of WordPress;
  • You want to grow your business online without any restrictions;
  • You want to create a blog, portfolio… e-commerce site and use it to make money.

While we believe that WordPress is the best choice for creating any website, we also understand that some other solutions may seem more appropriate. If you agree with any of the following statements, you may need to choose another platform to build your site:

  • You just want to create a blog and don't plan to make money with it or use any third party services;
  • You have no objections to the restrictions and / or you do not want to take responsibility for the security of your site;
  • You just want a small site and don't plan on expanding your business or increasing your online sales.
 

Interesting facts about WordPress

  • WordPress can be installed in 5 minutes or even faster.
  • All versions of WordPress are named after jazz artists. For example, WordPress 1.0 was named after Mailz Davis, and WordPress 3.2 was named after George Gershwin;
  • WordPress is most often downloaded on Wednesdays, and least often on Sundays;
  • Because WordPress is an open source project that does not belong to any company, it does not have an CEO. The project is run by volunteer developers from around the world;
  • It is estimated that the total development work for WordPress has taken 151 people a year, costing more than $ 8 million;
  • Most WordPress themes provide real-time display of changes to the user, which greatly helps in configuring them. This WordPress functionality was created by Shane Melaugh and Paul McCarthy;
  • 38% of the 10,000 most popular sites are built using WordPress;
  • About 17 blog entries are published every second on pages created with WordPress;
  • There are 37 million global searches for the word "WordPress" every month;
  • More than 1,000 new WordPress sites are created every day;
  • The 9 most popular WordPress.org directory plug-ins are installed on over 5 million sites;
  • 61 of the most popular WordPress.org directory plug-ins installed on over 1 million sites;
  • The most popular eCommerce plugin, WooCommerce is installed on over 5+ million sites and is used by 22% of the TOP 1 million most popular eCommerce sites in the world;
  • The Woocommerce plugin has more than 400 extensions, each of which can be used to customize Woocommerce, such as payment processing, delivery scheduling, subscriptions…
  • 39% hacked WordPress sites used outdated software version;
  • Nearly 50% WordPress sites have security issues caused by an outdated or poorly coded WordPress plugin or theme;
  • About 8% WordPress sites were hacked due to weak passwords;
  • The WordPress community has fully translated WordPress into 56 languages, but partial translation is available in dozens of other languages;
  • In 2017, WordPress communities worldwide hosted 128 WordCamp events in 48 countries;
  • In 2017, local WordPress communities hosted 4,379 meetings in 73 countries.
  • The average hourly rate for WordPress developers ranges from $ 20 to $ 100 per hour, depending on their experience and workload;
  • A fully personalized WordPress theme with a unique design costs between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000+, and this amount can increase depending on the complexity of the project.
  • In 2017, Automattic (the owner of WordPress.com) closed its beautiful San Francisco office because almost all employees worked remotely.

Sources:

WordPress.org

WordPress.com

W3Techs.com

qz.com

Sucuri

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