Why WordPress Is The Best Choice For You!
Chances are you are already using WordPress if you are accessing this website. If so, the information below will help assure you about the choice you made. If not, this page will be a useful resource in support of the decision you will be making about which website package to use.
Many people who have already obtained a website, either by using a web hosting site's web builder software or hiring a web designer to create it for them, now ask, "How can I update my website?", "Will it cost a lot to have pages added?", and "Why does updating my website take so long?" And that's from the ones who have already figured out how to get their website up and running in the first place.
Additionally I often hear from those who want to own a website, but are still trying to figure it out. They typically ask, "Will it be difficult to manage?", "How will I add pages to my website?", "Why does it all cost so much?", and many other such questions. This kind of frustration abounds among non-tech website owners.
WordPress is the single best answer to all of these questions. It is fast, easy, and free. And it delivers a quality website that is user friendly, extensible, and great for SEO. That's not bad all in one package!
The actual numbers show that WordPress is one of the most popular blogging tools available. But what many people don't seem to know yet is that it is also a powerful content management system (CMS) that can be used for more than just blogging. WordPress lets you build a basic blog, a complex website, or single site that includes both. WordPress is a perfect choice for both personal and small business websites, and it can be configured and expanded for use as a much larger, multi-function, commercial website as well.
Let's look at a few of the pluses and see why WordPress is a good choice for almost any website need:
Open Source Software
One of the biggest, but often overlooked, reasons for using WordPress is it is Open Source software. Open source is a term which technically applies to the production process and underlying source code of a software product but, in general terms, means the software development is managed by a large, mostly volunteer, group of individuals and the resulting product is offered free of charge. WordPress is in good company in this.
Well-known products like Firefox (web browser), Gimp (graphic software) and Open Office (office productivity suite) are also open source. WordPress is free to acquire and use for any kind of personal or commercial website -- that's right, you don't have to pay a cent for it. You may choose to pay to have it installed and/or configured but obtaining the software itself is completely free. You legally and legitimately download it from the project source website: wordpress.org.
It is hard for some to believe, especially those brought up on the concept of something is worth what you pay for it, but WordPress, like so many other open source software products, is a powerful, functional, main-stream solution built on PHP/MySQL (also pen source) and licensed under GNU General Public License. For those interested in understanding this better you can view a copy of the GNU/GPL and learn more HERE.
Content Management System
WordPress is a powerful, multi-featured, extensible, content management system (CMS). A content management system is a tool that helps you manage the creation and updating to web pages, and their content, on your website. In the early days of the Web larger companies from the Royal Bank of Canada to Motorola embraced the concept of content management systems to handle the large, and ever expanding, bulk of information on their websites. Content management systems, however, cost many thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of dollars. The process has been fine tuned and streamlined over the years and is now available, free of charge, in a single package -- WordPress. There are other free and low priced CMS packages around today as well but I believe that, when it comes to features, easy of use, and extendability, WordPress is the unmatched leader of the pack.
User Friendly
The term user friendly is probably the most over-used description on the Internet but sometimes it is accurate. This is one of those times. You don't have to be an experienced web designer or coder to use WordPress on your website. Many of the hosting companies you might choose to use provide the ability to install WordPress on your site in an easy manner. The WordPress administration control panel, called the Dashboard, is easy to navigate and delivers powerful controls for developing and modifying the structure and content of your website.
Theme Support
If you don't like the look of your website changing it is as simple as dropping in and activating another theme. Often called skins on other sites, WordPress themes control the look, the design, of your site. There are thousands of free themes, most of which are really quite good and some exceptional, and many hundreds of premium or commercial (for a fee) themes that offer additional functionality. Themes are relatively straight forward to create, as well, so you, or someone you hire, can create a custom theme just for your site. Existing themes, both free and premium, can also be modified to provide the exact look and/or functions you need.
Plug-in Extensions
Thousands of available WordPress plug-ins, most of which are also free, allow you to extend the features and functionality of WordPress to just about anything you might want or think of. Most plug-ins can be installed easily and quickly. From scheduling calendars to picture galleries, from Google map inserts to specialized category separation, plug-ins are available for just about every job imaginable.
Standards Compliant
WordPress follows web standards keeping your blog or website compliant to all the rules that should be followed when running a website on the Internet. This ensures your website is compatible across all compliant web browsers and will interface readily with other compliant sites.
Extensive Support
Recent statistics show WordPress is used on a large and ever growing segment of all the websites on the Internet. There is a large user community, and an increasing professional segment, backing the development of this software and providing support. Whenever you experience problems, whether it's with initial installation, adding or changing content, or expansion of your website somewhere down the road, if you can't handle the task (and you probably can!) you can check available WordPress discussion forums, support communities, and a growing number of professional support sites that focus on WordPress and find answers for all your questions and help for all your website needs.
SEO Ready
You must definitely keep search engines in mind when building your website. WordPress developers understand this and have created the software to be search engine aware and friendly. Pings, categories, tags, and the correct use of h1/h2 tags, and other factors give you an SEO edge right out of the box. Excellent plug-ins extend your ability to optimize for search engines even farther.
When it comes to SEO WordPress is good and always getting better. Each new release improves on this in many ways, often silently behind the scenes. Google's own Matt Cutts says WordPress is "made to do SEO well!" In the video Matt Cutts, head of Google Web Spam, gives tips to bloggers and website owners who already use WordPress. This is an older video but what it covers is still relevant. Today's WordPress is really top notch when it comes to SEO, and it just keeps getting better and better.