WordPress is the largest used platform for Content Management Systems. It’s expected to continue being the most widely used platform in 2021 and the near future in the market. Now that the Covid pandemic made it necessary for all businesses to have an online presence to survive and potentially grow their businesses, having a website is essential. In this blog, we will be going through the pros and cons of using WordPress as your platform to help you make an informed decision.
Now it’s no secret that here at Growth Media Strategy we use WordPress and are satisfied enough to recommend it to all our clients. So far everyone is happy!
With that said, nothing that matters in this world is without faults, but you need to decide which you’re willing to learn how to navigate.
Why you should choose WordPress
Less Expensive Compared To Other Platforms
It’s way cheaper to own a website than it was in the old days. Thanks to cost-effective CMSs like WordPress that are free to install and have a variety of premium themes and plugins to choose from, you can really develop high-quality websites at a reasonable price. You can build, develop and maintain your blog or website on your own rather than hiring a designer to build one for you from scratch.
Mobile responsive
The majority of people surf the internet using their mobile devices. Making your website responsive to different devices is one of the most important elements for the success of your site. Google algorithm now detects responsive websites and is favorable to those that don’t.
WordPress CMS is market-leading when it comes to responsive web technologies that will be automatically available to the users of the platform.
Search Engine Optimization Ready
WordPress is SEO-ready, built with codes that are favorable to Google indexing, and are viewed as ethical and rewardable. It gives you plugins dedicated to SEO and customizable components for each page. You have access to many plugins available to help you optimize content, tags, keyword focus, and a lot more. These are ways the platform stays competitive in search engine ranking.
Updates Are Easily Available
To keep your website healthy, it needs constant updates. WordPress premium themes are frequently updated and improved. These updates maintain proper security for your website, help run plugins smoothly, and give you choices to improve your customer experience on the site. With just a little web development knowledge or experience, you can make normal changes to your site when necessary.
Using WordPress is a convenient way of getting the best value from backlinking. The RSS feed feature offered by this platform enables other bloggers to syndicate your content across other websites and directories. You’ll never get stuck trying to make your site better.
Software is Open Source
One of the main reasons for the popularity of WordPress is that it is a blog tool, publishing platform, and a CMS that is completely free to download, study, modify, and redistribute. You can make changes to it, add your code or tweak it anyway you like it.
Now, this is important for businesses that don’t either have the time or the skills to develop their website and use a third-party partner to build it for them. The open-source software allows different developers to work on it easily. WordPress makes it extremely easy for transitioning between different partners. The sharing of code can result in the ability to save a lot of developing time and costs by using an existing code.
Those are just some of the reasons why we use and love WordPress.
Now like we mentioned above nothing is perfect. Here the cons to using WordPress
You Will Need Professional Help
Even though a beginner can use WordPress, developing, navigating the web design, choosing themes, vetting updates, and maintenance can be extremely confusing if you don’t have the skills and prior experience.
Cyber Security
Security is a big challenge for many users. The mere fact that WordPress is the most widely used CMS makes it a prime target for cybercriminals. Its heavy reliance on plugins developed by different people also increases the chances of malicious code slipping through to your site’s functionalities.
This is why at Growth Media Strategy, we vet updates prior to installing them to client websites and keep an eye on them to see the improvements as well as if there are any unwanted changes.
If you don’t have an IT team or an agency doing these kinds of maintenance for your website, the next best thing is to have a professional host and support your WordPress site.
It’s Not Actually Free
WordPress itself is free software but to use, maintain, develop and secure the software will incur you cost. Using it efficiently relies on customization themes and plugins. Most of these efficiency-enhancing features and tools have a price. The more of them you use, the higher the cost of using WordPress goes.
Customization
Being a free software per se, WordPress offers minimal maintenance support. Users have to depend on online forums for workable solutions. You need an intermediate level of web knowledge to decide which advice best suits your problem. Again having an expert on board is a way to safeguard and maintain your site.
SEO
SEO friendliness of WordPress can mean problems for people with no SEO experience. Some SEO-based features of WordPress, such as its category and tagging system can work against the user. For instance, if the content is marked into many categories or is over-tagged, Google flags it as duplicate content. This can significantly affect your site’s rankings on SERPs.
We provide full-circle service from building your website to maintaining it.