Todd and I recently took off to Sydney to nerd it up at WordCamp, a roughly bi-annual conference for WordPress users, newbies (aka ‘noobs’), developers and other interested folk. It was an opportunity for Threesides to meet up with developers, stay in touch with the latest and greatest WordPress functionality and get some insight into the future of WordPress (looking very promising). It also served to reinforce the many reasons that WordPress is THE platform that we recommend for clients wanting to build a new website or overhaul their existing site.
This gave me a chance to reflect on why we love WordPress for our clients and our own website…
WordPress Benefit #1 – It’s easy
WordPress makes updating your website a breeze, little different to updating a document in Word. Update any time you like from anywhere you like. You can even do it from your phone. Check out the inbuilt WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor here. Looks pretty familiar huh? No need to learn dreamweaver, html or monkey juggling to update your website.
WordPress Benefit #2 – Cost
The actual software for WordPress is FREE. No licensing or download fees. Ever. This means that your investment is in customising the site to match your business and your marketing needs – not trying to get your business to squeeze into an unflattering, ”one size fits all” proprietary system. Grab a look at the hosted version at WordPress.com or the install version at WordPress.org.
WordPress Benefit #3 – Open Source
WordPress is open source software, meaning it has a community of developers that are continually improving, adding to and upgrading its functionality. Continual improvement for the good of the community. The code is accessible and very flexible…yes please!
WordPress Benefit #4 – As flexible as an Olympic gymnast
WordPress is fully customisable and infinitely extendable. If you think the functionality of your website is going to need to change in the next few years (and it will – believe me) then WordPress is for you. You can install one of over 20 000 plugins to do almost anything you can imagine on your site and you can “plug them in” at any time. Event calendars, custom forms, social media sharing, image galleries, security, SEO, ecommerce, backups, search, live chat, memberships and the list goes on… This means if you need more from your existing website, you don’t necessarily need to throw out your site and start again.
WordPress Benefit #5 – You’re amongst friends
WordPress has a vibrant, active and intelligent community. Last year WordPress was powering over 14.7% of the world’s websites and this year that figure is set to increase. Join millions of other websites currently using WordPress and enjoy some good company.
WordPress Benefit #6 – More responsive than your kids
WordPress supports Responsive Design. Responsive Design is the lastest approach to website design that scales up and down seamlessly to render beautifully on a handheld mobile device, right through to a widescreen TV. This will soon be a basic requirement for any new website. We really enjoyed Jordan Gillman’s WordCamp presentation on Responsive Design – you can check it out here.
WordPress Benefit #7 – Search Engine Sweetness
WordPress and Google are friends – at least we see them hanging out together a lot. Designed with search friendly code, pages full of gloriously accessible content, links and posts at the core of the CMS – why wouldn’t they want to play together? WordPress has a number of plugins designed specifically to make your website easier to find by Google’s search engine – we spend a lot of time hanging out over at Yoast SEO site because Joost de Valk is one seriously smart WP + Google match maker.
WordPress Benefit #8 – WP lets you be a marketer and not a web designer
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with WordPress. Choose from countless predesigned themes, create your own, customise the colours and layout to suit your brand and hey presto! you’ve got a professional looking website without having to have a degree in HTML, PHP, CSS or BS. Spend more time talking with your customers and less time wrangling code.
So that’s the story behind our continuing love affair with WordPress. Sure – we have our moments with each other from time to time but for the most part we are happily in luurve. What about you? Are you in love with your content management system too?
