September 7, 2011 5 Reasons Why I Love WordPress
I love WordPress. It’s true. If you’re unfamiliar, WordPress is a powerful and highly popular open-source (free) content management system. WordPress powers 14.7% of the top million websites in the world and 22 out of every 100 new active domains in the US are running WordPress.
I use it to power this website and I recommend it to anyone looking for an easy way to manage a website without being an HTML expert.
Here are the 5 reasons why I love WordPress:
1. It’s an awesome content management system (CMS). A CMS allows a website owner to make updates to a website without knowing any HTML. WordPress is one of the best out there. It’s extremely easy-to-use and can be customized to serve just about any website’s CMS needs.
2. It’s non-proprietary. WordPress is open-source, meaning that anyone can use it without having to pay annual/monthly licensing fees. It’s free to use and can be used for unlimited websites. You do still have to pay for a domain (i.e. www.acmecompany.com), website hosting and a programmer (if you want a customized WordPress site).
I despise proprietary CMS systems, mainly because there is typically a web development company attached to it that has locked a unknowing client into some kind of ridiculous long-term/expensive commitment. Most of the time, if you walk away from a proprietary system, you have to start all over with a new website because you can’t take it with you. Not with WordPress. There are countless developers out there that can pick up the site for you without major headache.
3. It’s relatively easy for DIYers to learn. Want to build your own WordPress site? You don’t even have to know how to install it. Hosting companies like GoDaddy have WordPress hosting accounts where everything is set up for you. All you have to do is log in using the username/password they gave you and you’re up and running. There are so many great resources out there (see below). All you really need is a desire to learn, time and your friend Google.
4. There are tons of great free resources available. Anything and everything you could need from free themes to awesome plugins are out there. There are countless developers out there building free tools for WordPress. Even the paid themes and plugins are very reasonable.
Below are some of my all-time favorite plugins (all used on this website). I’m currently using Thesis as my theme and it’s well worth the money.
- All in One SEO Pack
- Contact Form 7
- Google XML Sitemap Generator
- NextGEN Gallery
- WordPress Database Backup
- Thesis OpenHook
5. It’s SEO-friendly. SEO stands for search engine optimization. Google loves WordPress sites. It’s true. I can’t necessarily explain all the technical aspects here but WordPress is built in a way that makes your site easy for the search engines to index. I’m sure it has to do with the fact that WordPress started off as a blogging engine and that search engines absolutely love blogs because of their rich and highly-relevant content.
I’ve been using WordPress for my own personal sites for the past five years and I love it. I typically recommend it to anyone that wants a highly customizable and easy-to-use CMS.
Why do you love WordPress? Feel free to leave your comments below.
