I love WordPress. For years though, I was adamant that WordPress was only good for blogging, and that building a custom theme was an insane amount of work.
For years though, I was adamant that WordPress was only good for blogging, and that building a custom theme was an insane amount of work. Like most humans, I had to have a very good reason to change. I basically was forced to and I am so glad I was!
Here are some reasons that make WordPress so good:
#1 WordPress is open source
Open source basically means free. You can download all of the files you need to create a WordPress website, install it on your server and you can do what you want with it.
It’s regularly updated so keeps up to date with Google web standards. It has an insane amount of plugins that make super complex things simple, and it can be customised to do whatever you need (if you know how to code that is) These lead me to my next points…
#2 WordPress has plugins. A lot of plugins.
What is a plugin though?
“A plugin is a small set of code that does a specific task” – Jon 🙂
Some are more complicated than others, such as WooCommerce – which adds shopping cart functionality to your website. Some do really small things like add Google Tab Manager code to your website. All this choice is amazing, but it’s very easy to get carried away which will make your website slow and can potentially break your site.
#3 WordPress can be fully customised
Like, fully. WordPress gives you access to all of its code, unlike the popular website builders. I wrote another blog post all about it.
Why is this important? Well, things change at an incredible pace, and its only increasing. Code that worked a few years ago would now have security risks, layout issues and more. It’s not just the code in your website, its code from other websites that need to be added to yours to improve your marketing analytics. Such as Facebook Pixel.
Browsers such as Google Chrome, FireFox, Edge are all updating their rendering code so there are potential issues that can pop up, especially when it comes to keeping your website responsive.
#4 WordPress is quick
Very quick to load. Google loves this and it gives your SEO a massive boost, just by having a quick loading website. If you want to know how quick your website loads, check out this free tool from GT Metrix. If it’s getting bad marks, get in touch and I can get its grades up to scratch for you.
While WordPress is quick, it’s very easy to bulk it up and slow it down. Adding all the plugins you find useful will do this. Not only will it slow it down, there is a slight chance that some plugins you choose will not work well together.
#5 You own your website
This may seem like a very odd point to add in, but it’s a crucial one. People don’t realise that if they sign up to an easy page web builder, they can put all the work in, add in all the content and images, but when it comes to getting access to the code, it’s a no.
I have had multiple clients in the past where a provider has had them locked in by doing this. I have purposefully not added lock-in contracts for this reason. I want my clients to only get value from the services I provide, so if you don’t feel that ‘s happening, then I’m not going to keep you trapped.
#6 WordPress URLs are sexy
What does this mean? Well, would you want ‘yourdomain.com.au/contact’ or ‘yourdomain.com.au/!#contact’? The first one, right?
WordPress does this for you. Some website builders add in random text in the URL for no reason. Older sites that are built from scratch will have pages called contact.html or contact.php or even worse… contact.aspx. I’ve written more stuff about URLs and SEO if you want to know more?
Conclusion
WordPress is the all round winner. Its what I’ve used to build this site, and what I use to build yours and my other client’s websites. I am always happy to answer questions you may have, so if you have any then I’d love to hear from you and help out how I can.