877-490-8324We get this question a lot lately…
What is WordPress and what is so great about it?
Whether you are building a new web site or redesigning a current web site, chances are that you are going to hear about WordPress or are already familiar with it.
So, what is it….??
WordPress is an open source blogging tool and web content management system (CMS) used by many of the top web sites in the world. It allows you to create beautiful, feature rich web sites affordably and manage the pages/content effectively.
According to Wikipedia, WordPress is used by over 16.7% of Alexa Internet’s “top 1 million” websites and as of August 2011 manages 22% of all new websites. WordPress is currently the most popular blogging system in use on the Web.
Many of you still have the traditional type of web site systems that most developers (us included) have built for years using traditional HTML architecture. These type of sites have their place and always will. Sometimes, a custom solution is required. Things are changing rapidly, however.
WordPress can be used for just about anything you can think of in regards to creating, publishing, and sharing content. It still falls short in some areas such as E-Commerce, but there are several other open source solutions out there in the web design world now such as Magento that solve this problem.
So, with that being said, here is a short list of the benefits of using a WordPress web site over a traditional web site:
1. Save $ on Construction Costs – Instead of paying for a “from scratch” custom web site, a good developer will create a custom look/design or “theme” for you and then implement this design into a WordPress system. The system comes pre-built with your content management system and many tools ready to go “out of the box”. Development time is decreased and this saves money also. From there, you or your developer drops in your content and you go from there.
2. Save $ on Update Fees – No longer do you need to send the most basic text changes to your designer or even have your designer add new pages for you. Make the edits yourself whenever you need to and save money in hourly update fees.
3. Greater Accessibility – Make changes or add content from any computer or mobile device easily.
4. Social Networking Friendly – If your WordPress site will have a blog, you can automatically integrate your blog posts with social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. So, you don’t have to login to each account and make redundant posts. Connect the accounts to your blog and save time.
5. Ultimate in SEO Friendliness – The construction of WordPress blog code is consistent with the code that Google finds very inviting for indexing (hint, hint).
6. Fast Learning Curve – Learning to edit content, post new pages, add photos and images is as easy as using MS-Word (sometimes easier).
7. Increase Your Perceived Industry Authority – Making frequent posts and sharing your opinion on what’s happening in your industry offers so much more potential for establishing rapport with your audience than a traditional Web site could offer.
8. Connect With Your Audience – Keep your hand on the pulse of your customers and visitors by measuring the responses and comments received for your blog posts (if you decide to have a blog). This is a great way to find inspiration for developing new products and services.
9. Increased Functionality with Lower Cost – Thousands of pre-written programs called plugins can increase what you’re able to do with your site. So, if you want to add some sort of neat functionality or feature, chances are that there is a free or low-cost plugin somewhere you can use. Traditional websites require everything to be programmed by hand. Even if you find an available PHP or ASP script to work with a traditional website, there is usually significant integration work and customizing required.
10. Multi-User Capable – WordPress offers multi-user capability so that larger companies with marketing departments, for example, can offer editing power exclusivity or even read-only mode to others.
11. Mobile Readiness – WordPress is flexible in the mobile platform arena and has many options that allow both the regular (PC) and mobile versions to update easily and display content similarly.
Food for thought going forward…
Whether you decide to take this on yourself or hire a website designer or web site developer, we’re here to help you.
Call us today at 1.877.490.8324 for some new ideas and a free, no-hassle consultation. You may also Click here to schedule a confidential consultation.
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To your success!
Ben Vaughn
Sr. Online Business Strategist
AutoWeb Technologies