There are hundreds of CMS platforms out there, among them, we suggest our readers use WordPress to create their website. The obvious question arises, why? If you’re asking this question that means you’ve at least tried to gain a little bit of knowledge about WordPress, although you might not have searched about the in-depth features of it.
WordPress literally can do just about everything. We’re here to break down the benefits of using WordPress for you so that you can have a clear view of why you should choose WordPress over other CMS platforms.
Top Benefits Of Using WordPress:
Here are the top benefits of using WordPress as your website creator, we’ll elaborate on all the points in this article.
1. WordPress is free
2. Hosting is not a thing of concern
3. WordPress has a wide variety of themes
4. A very fast and simple way to add contents
5. Updates are easy
6. Make Any Customization Using Plugins
7. Getting help is super easy
1. WordPress Is Free
WordPress is 100% free, with no hidden fees attached, no strings attached, and no guilt that you’re using something you should be paying for.
Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org are completely free to use. You can learn about the difference between the two here, but in short, WordPress.org is a self-hosted version where you control more of your site and take advantage of advanced plugins. WordPress.com works great for complete beginners, but it’s not exactly the best for a business that plans on making money so moving away from WordPress.com makes sense. It does have higher-paid plans, but we recommend it for personal and hobby blogs.
You can download the software from WordPress.org, and it won’t cost a single buck. You and your close friends can get along and have a WordPress download party (socially-distanced and masked up, of course), and it’s all good.
The only con is that you need to host WordPress somewhere.
You have two options: 1) Self-hosted, where you take care of the hosting costs and maintenance/security responsibilities yourself, and 2) Managed hosting, where you pay someone else to take care of the hosting and all of the maintenance and security on your behalf.
2. Hosting Is Not A Thing Of Concern
This CMS is your best choice if you want your website to adjust to the device it is accessed from and provide your visitors with an unforgettable experience, whether from a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer.
The basic concept of hosting is pretty simple: You have two options: 1) Self Hosting, and 2) Managed Hosting. First, you need to hold your actual website somewhere. You need a place to fit all your files, texts, audio clips, brochures, white papers, and all other things. Since you don’t want to reserve all that stuff on your computer, you need someone else’s computer, also known as a web server.
What is self-hosting?
Self-hosting for WordPress means that you purchase a web hosting plan, download the free WordPress files from WordPress.org, and install them yourself on your hosting account. That might require more technical expertise or time than you have at the moment.
What Is Managed Hosting?
Managed WordPress is a specialized service available through some web hosting providers. It manages all technical aspects of your WordPress website on an ongoing basis. The managed hosting company is responsible for routine website maintenance and upkeep, including speed, security, automated backups, and updates.
3.WordPress Has A Wide Variety Of Themes
The theme is the outer looks of your website — the face, the facade, the style, the part that makes your website look pretty. With WordPress themes, you can change between any type of different styles and layouts without having to go deep into your coding guts.
Choosing a theme may be the hardest part of setting up your blog because there are thousands of themes you can choose from.
Themes where the navigation bar is on the left, and others where it’s on the right. One-column, two-column, three-column layouts. Magazine and newspaper style versus traditional style. A nearly limitless number of color combinations and design choices.
You can even choose between free and premium themes.
Many of the premium themes are professionally designed and are built to have additional capabilities like helping with your SEO or working on mobile devices as well as desktop computers. Some free themes are equally as good as the premium themes, but be careful of free themes that seem to be missing a few components or don’t have a few of the bells and whistles that the premium themes do.
While the premium themes may cost $30 to $80, it’s well worth the cost because they’re made to work with the latest versions of WordPress and are designed by experts who understand the ins and outs of the CMS. The free themes are a bit riskier, but some are pretty good. Just remember, this is a place where you get what you pay for.
For my blog and a few of my clients’ blogs, I use the Genesis framework and choose from their smaller palate of available themes. It’s much easier because they’ve done all the hard work, and I know the code has been streamlined so it always works. I even bought the lifetime license so I can use it for several clients and get the occasional upgrades as they happen.
But there are plenty of other themes available, including themes that are designed specifically for a particular industry or field, like landscapers, attorneys, pizza restaurants, and so help me, skydiving schools.
4. A Very Fast And Simple Way To Add Contents
When people talk about web design and building a website, this is the part that freaks them out. They think there’s a lot of coding and design work that goes into making a single web page, and that adding the actual content is just a minor detail to be handled later.
But in actuality, most of that design work is already done.
That’s 1) why you use WordPress: because you can create a blog post or page with one mouse click.
And 2) why you use themes: because all the design work is already done and pre-installed, and the beautifully-themed page or post was created as soon as you clicked the mouse in the previous sentence.
5. Updates Are Easy
We might get into some trouble by admitting this, but updating and maintaining a blog is a piece of cake if you do it right. As it may seem, WordPress allows you to build your website in as little as a single day, only requiring pictures and content.
Many websites, when you want to update them, require a phone call to your web designer. You have to work out an hourly rate, they’re going to take a few weeks to get things done, and you’re going to go back and forth several times, all the while dreading what this is doing to your budget.
Not so with WordPress. With WordPress, it’s as easy as clicking a few buttons.
You log into your WordPress site and click the Updates button on the left sidebar (under the Dashboard link). There, WordPress will tell you what needs to be updated. (Note: This only applies to self-hosted WordPress; this is done for you on managed WordPress sites.)
You can update your plugins, theme, and even WordPress itself in a matter of seconds. You can install security updates and change your theme without losing a single picture or blog post. And it didn’t cost you 1 hour of your web designer’s time to do it.
6. Make Any Customization Using Plugins
If you don’t know how to make WordPress work how to make it secure, how to make your calendar show up in the sidebar, or how to write forms for people to contact you, no worries! You don’t need to, because you’ve got plugins to handle it for you.
As of this writing, there are 58,570 plugins on WordPress.org, and they can make your WordPress site do anything.
You can sell products and services, create an online community, set aside part of your website for members and subscribers, accept payments, display tweets
from different Twitter feeds, or even display the standings of different sports leagues around the world.
If you want to do it, there are probably plugins to do it.
There are plugins to help with your security, SEO, audio and video, and even checking your word count and usage on all your blog articles.
Some of the more popular plugin types include:
- eCommerce (WooCommerce is the most popular)
- Security (Jetpack or Sucuri to name a few)
- SEO (Yoast or All-In-One SEO; I prefer Yoast)
- Contact forms (Ninja Forms or Contact Form by WP-Forms)
- Page builders (Page Builder by Site Origins)
Of course, you don’t want to have too many plugins on your WordPress site. Too many plugins or themes will slow your site down — even the plugins and themes that aren’t active.
That’s because WordPress will check each one when someone visits your site and asks, “Is this one working? Is this one working? Is this one working?” and spend its processing power trying to determine which actions it should perform and which ones it should ignore.
Another reason is for security. Old plugins sometimes have security flaws, and one of the reasons they’re upgraded is to plug those holes. But if the bad guys can find a plugin with a flaw, they’ll use it to break into your website.
This means that not only should you delete your inactive themes and plugins, but you also need to update them regularly (see #5). Schedule a time once a
week when you update everything on your blog as needed. (Just remember not to update to the .0 versions).
7. Getting Help Is Super Easy
WordPress is an open-source platform with people all over the world contributing to it and making it better. Open source software is software whose source code is available for modification or enhancement by anyone. As open-source software, WordPress is being improved every day by thousands of developers around the world.
The WordPress community includes thousands of technicians and volunteers providing free advice and support on various forums. All you need to do is post your question and you will receive your answer in no time.
They have millions — millions! — knowledgeable users who can help you solve problems and answer questions.
That’s why WordPress is used by roughly one-third of all websites on the internet: It’s so robust and powerful, with a veritable army of people making it better. (And it’s why, if you have to hire a designer to create your website, you should go with WordPress: There are so many designers that, even if you get upset with your designer, you can find another one pretty easily.)
The online community is very active, and we’ve seen some of the most esoteric, most technical questions answered about things we never even knew existed. And there were dozens of people all answering the question.
There are also numerous tutorials and videos about how to use WordPress and the documentation is extensive. Best of all, you can even access the WordPress community forums to post specific questions or search for answers.
So, Why Use WordPress? Because It’s The Best
WordPress is strongly followed all over the world. Some developers might use other platforms, but that often has to do with learning certain coding languages and testing themselves in less user-friendly environments. As for bloggers, business owners, developers with clients, and e-commerce professionals, WordPress is the right place to go.
Not only can you maintain complete control over your site, but you also receive great features like plugins, themes, free tools, and full media support.
Hopefully, we’ve answered your question and cleared your confusion, “Why Use WordPress?” And if someone asks you the same question, just send them over here. If you still have some questions or concerns, let us know in the comments section below.