There are quite a few website design platforms and software to choose from when you finally decide to take the plunge and design a website for your business. While many of them are reputable, you don’t just want to pick any platform, you’ll want to make sure your website looks professional and performs optimally. According to recent a survey, nearly half of all web users say that they determine a website’s credibility purely based on its design.
With so many options available, it can be quite the challenge to choose a platform. There are some things to keep in mind like which one will be more cost-effective, which one will have all the functionality you need and would you be able to update it yourself. No doubt, WordPress will be able to tick all your boxes so let’s look at why it’s the best platform for your business or personal website.
1. They’ve been around for a long time
WordPress has been around since 2003. It’s the biggest and most popular CMS (content management software) and blogging software on the market. According to recent studies, 75 million websites – 28% of all websites worldwide – are designed on the WordPress platform. WordPress is also multilingual and available in 169 different languages.
2. Open Source software
Not only is WordPress completely FREE, you also have the right to modify it any way you want. WordPress is maintained and supported by a comprehensive team of developers worldwide instead of a single team. This allows for more flexibility and freedom when it comes to customization as well as greater security measures to discourage hackers. Overall you can expect higher quality development at no cost to you. Another benefit of open source software is that there are numerous dedicated WordPress forums, run by developers, ready to help you with any query or question you might have. WordPress is regularly updated to ensure maximum security and functionality for websites and blogs.
3. Easy to use
The WordPress Dashboard is extremely user-friendly. Since it’s browser-based, you can log in from any computer to update your website. You have control of almost every aspect of your website and adding additional pages or blog posts on a regular basis is super easy. Importing and managing photos and videos are not complicated at all. There are thousands of free and paid pre-designed themes you can use for your website’s design that are fully customizable.
4. Search engines love WordPress
WordPress coding is written in such a way to make it simple and easy for search engines to understand and index your website’s content. This enables your site to rank easier and quicker. Additionally, every page, image and post can have a title, description and meta tag. To further enhance your SEO efforts, you can install plugins like Yoast.
5. No additional software required
WordPress is a comprehensive platform and doesn’t need additional HTML editing software like Dreamweaver. You can easily create new blog posts and pages, upload files, images and videos without having to use FTP software such as Filezilla.
6. Easily increase your functionality with plugins
There is no functionality you can’t add to your website since you have access to over 55 000 plugins on the WordPress platform. Most plugins are free or inexpensive. Video gallery, Social media feed, online shop, calendar – you name it, it can be done. What’s even better, it can easily be downloaded and installed right from your dashboard.
7. Your website will be responsive/mobile friendly
It is crucial that your business website is completely functional and accessible on every platform, device and screen. If your customers find it challenging to navigate your website on a smart device or it’s not responsive, they won’t waste time on your site. If you use one of the many responsive themes available in WordPress, your website will look great no matter the size of your screen. Even if new screen sizes are introduced in the future, your WordPress website will be able to handle them without any additional effort on your part.
8. Multiple user capabilities
You might have to rely on various people to update your website on a regular basis. That’s why WordPress has made it easy for you to assign different roles to different people. Roles can be anything from administrator, editor, author, contributor to subscriber.
WordPress is a great choice for a business or personal website. It’s highly recommended by professional web design companies such as Netgen, whether you choose to design and update it yourself or hire a web design agency. Don’t lose out on all the benefits and features WordPress has to offer. You deserve the best CMS available for your business.
Author Bio:
Grant Scheffel is one of the original management trio at Netgen.co.za, together with Hardy Esterhuizen and Matthew Vreenegoor boast a combined experience of over 50 years in the IT industry! Netgen specialize in Custom WordPress Design and Application development with offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.
