5 Reasons to Build Your Site on WordPress

WordPress is an online, open source content management system that was first introduced back in 2003. Today, it’s by far the most popular CMS platform on the web, powering over 26% of all websites. We always recommend that clients use WordPress when building a new site. It’s what we use for our own sites and every site we build. Here are 5 reasons why:

1. It’s Open Source, aka Free

While there are several great platforms that allow users to create free websites (i.e. Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, etc.), there’s usually a catch. A lot of “free” platforms require you to pay for the use of a custom domain name. So, unless you want your domain to be mybusiness.wix.com, you’ll have to cough up some additional dough every year. With WordPress, you can buy your own domain, set up a cheap hosting account, and then install WordPress on the server. WordPress is entirely open source, meaning the code is free for anyone to use. Though it might take extra work on the front-end to set everything up, WordPress is usually the least expensive option long-run.

WordPress is open source, which means it’s totally free to use.

2. It’s User-Friendly So You Don’t Have to Be Tech Guru

If words like “code”, “hosting”, and “open source” scare you, don’t run away yet! Once WordPress is installed, it’s quite intuitive and basic use doesn’t require any additional coding. From your WP admin dashboard, you can easily play with theme options, add blog posts, build new pages, and install a myriad of plug-ins that do fun things (more on this below).

3. It Has Lots of Cool Themes

If you are lured by the sleek templates offered by other platforms that promise your site will be the next cool thing, then you won’t be disappointed by the themes offered by WordPress. Whether you own a dental practice, a photography business or you’re a blogger, there’s likely a free theme that will work for your purposes. There are also several themes available for purchase or subscription support.

4. It Offers an Abundance of Plugins

A plugin is an added bit of code that adds additional functionality to a site. For example, if you want to add social media icons to your site, there are multiple free plugins available for that purpose. You can browse the WordPress library of plugins and install anything that’s compatible with your theme and version of WP. You can also use plugins to add contact forms, block spam, install a photo gallery, track statistics, create a calendar, process payments, and more.

WordPress offers lots of plugins to give your site additional functionality.

5. It’s SEO-Friendly

WordPress enables users to easily build sites that are search engine optimized. As discussed in previous posts, on-page SEO factors like content, URL structure, title tags, meta descriptions, optimized images, and clean code are all important for a site’s rankings. WordPress makes it incredibly to manage site content and nail all these other on-page factors. Plus, there are great plugins available like Yoast SEO that will assess the SEO-compatibility of blog content.