Welcome to your weekly dose of #TechTuesdays! Since so much of our focus here is on creating the best quality websites for our customers, we wanted to talk a little bit about our favorite tool, WordPress!
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) that came out in 2003. In more basic terms, it’s a platform that lets users build and manage their websites without knowing HTML or CSS. In the beginning it was meant for bloggers but, because of its advantages, it quickly became the favorite tool for all kinds of websites, including small businesses. Today, almost a quarter of all websites are powered by WordPress. This easily beats all of its competitors, and there are some very good reasons as to why it remains so popular.
Why is WordPress the Best CMS?
- It’s Open Source: Open Source means that anyone can see the base code that WordPress was built on. This is important, because if you want to hire someone to build a website for you on WordPress, or improve a website you already have, it’s more affordable since very little has to be done from scratch. Moreover, access to the source code has led to the existence of a community that is constantly making plugins, which can easily be added to any WordPress site to add new features.
- SEO Friendly: WordPress makes it very easy to implement an SEO campaign. It’s not a magic bullet, you still need to add content and the right keywords in order to show up on Google. But, it does make it very easy for Google to read all your content (text, pictures, and diagrams) and correctly analyze it. Sites that don’t do this are often overlooked by search engines even if they have exactly what the search is looking for.
- Easily Scalable: This goes back to the fact that WordPress is Open Source. As your site grows, you will want to implement more features (Social Media Integration, Email Lists, Analytics Implementation) which can be done through the plug-ins that the community offers. Because the community is so large, you have access to a great deal of support, and will be able to find the best rated applications for your needs.
- Theme System: In some cases, you may not have an “eye” for designing a great website. If you don’t want to hire a designer, WordPress offers a huge number of “themes”, which are different ways for your site to look. There are thousands of themes out there, so you’ll definitely be able to find something that suits the feel that you’re going for.
- Different Permission Levels: This is a fancy way to say that you can allow different people to have different levels of access to your site. For example, you can give one employee the power to do nothing but upload blog posts. Another employee might be able to add or remove pages from a website. It’s a great feature that allows you to maintain control without having to micromanage.
- Mobile Friendly: 60% of all website visitors view websites on their smartphones. WordPress automatically detects if a user is visiting your site on his or her phone, and adjusts the settings accordingly. This makes sure that you don’t lose a customer because your website was too hard to navigate on the phone.
- Easy Blogging Implementation: Since it was originally made for bloggers, WordPress makes it simple to begin posting, and setting up features like RSS feeds, commenting capabilities, and posting your most recent blog to your homepage. All of this will help draw an audience to your site, and engage in a conversation with them.
Because of all of these advantages, S-FX builds all of the sites we work on in WordPress. We work to make sure that are clients can be self-sufficient, teaching them all the features of WordPress so they can manage their websites themselves. For a free consultation on your site, contact us today.
