Why use WordPress? Here are 10 good reasons

If you’re wondering why to use WordPress, you’re in the right place. Reflecting on this question means that you have at least researched WordPress or heard about it from a friend or colleague. But that does not mean that you have weighed the pros and cons or that you have thoroughly checked the features.

Therefore, we would like to analyze the benefits of using WordPress for you, giving you a clear overview of why this is the most popular content management system and website creation software in the world. WordPress can do everything!

The dilemma of the website – Why use WordPress?

Each has its advantages, while many are used more often for specialized websites for specific purposes. For example, Shopify only makes sense if you manage an online store. This is not a platform with which you would start a blog and then turn it into an e-commerce shop. Magento is in the same boat. Other builders of websites and platforms have more flexibility, and these are usually the most popular ones.Are you tired of the slowness of WordPress hosting & lower support?

All, from Squarespace to Wix, have excellent tools for some skill levels, but we’ll explain why you should use WordPress on all your projects.

The software is free and open-source
It fits so you can do any website
It supports many types of media
It’s easy to learn, and there is a vast community
You can enlarge and develop your website with themes and plugins.
You do not have to be a genius to get there.
SEO goes first
You have total control of your website
The blogging system is, by far the best in the industry.
Everyone does it

Using WordPress is a breeze. There is a reason why 34% of the web uses it.

1. The software is free and open-source

WordPress.com and WordPress.org are entirely free. You can learn the difference between the two here, but in short, WordPress.org is a self-hosted version where you control your entire site and enjoy advanced plugins. WordPress.com works excellent for complete beginners, but it’s not exactly the best for a company that plans to make money, getting away from WordPress.com makes sense. It has higher paying plans, but we recommend it for personal and leisure blogs.

However, now, WordPress is free to download for everyone. This is an open-source project that has existed since 2003. This means that a collection of contributors develops WordPress. Open-source projects are usually free, with large communities. Users often participate in this community as beta testers or brand advocates, but there is no requirement to participate if it’s not your style.

Warning: Although the WordPress software is free, you will most likely end up spending a little money. A host hosts WordPress, so hosting is necessary. This can start at around $ 3 per month, for really cheap shared servers, and go up to a few hundred a month for those who need ultimate speed and performance.

You can usually find themes and plugins for free, but the more expensive ones (for a fee) often offer better features and better support. Finally, many WordPress users end up paying for additional services, be they freelancers or agencies. For example, you could pay a freelancer to design a logo for you or adjust some of the CSS code of your site. Other WordPress users want to keep graphic designers or on-call maintenance experts. It all depends on your experience and the size of your website.

However, overall, you can keep your WordPress costs to a minimum. Many webmasters end up paying only for hosting.

See it in action:

When you browse the WordPress.org site, it explains the basics of the platform, but the only button (in addition to the usual menu) is a link to download WordPress.

This brings you to a free download page, which is updated frequently according to the latest version (currently WordPress 5.2 +). This gives an instant overview of how WordPress software is presented to users. You are not bombarded with banner ads or invited to answer a survey before downloading the free software. You see a basic page with descriptions, beta versions, requirements, source code, archives, and a download counter. It offers multiple download options (such as .zip and .tar.gz files) and the proper instructions for installing the WordPress software all by itself.

The easy installation method

If you are looking for an even more straightforward installation method, we recommend you turn to your host. The most famous hosts have one-click installation buttons to run WordPress in minutes.

Thus, it is not necessary to manage the files and download them by FTP. Managed WordPress hosts go one step further by supporting installation, maintenance, security, and backups in their entirety.

As for updates, you do not need to return to the download page every time a new version of WordPress is published. Instead, WordPress informs you of the update in the dashboard, where you can usually finish the process in less than a minute.

2. It fits so you can do any website

One of the common misconceptions about WordPress is that it is primarily aimed at creating blogs. At one point, it was the case. WordPress has been developed as a blogging platform, but it has changed dramatically with the different new versions over the years.

Its blogging roots favor WordPress. This is by far one of the cleanest and fastest ways to write and publish blog posts, and it’s all included right from the start. Some web design tools first think about design and applications, and then the blogging interface comes afterward as a reflection.

This is not the case with WordPress, so you can create a beautiful e-commerce site and know that the blog is an integral part of the development process.

See it in action:

The list is endless, but here is an overview of the types of websites that you can do with WordPress:

blogs
Business Websites
Portfolios
Forums
Ecommerce Sites
Evaluation websites
Membership sites
eLearning modules
chatrooms
Galleries
Personal websites for self-promotion
Job posting sites
Directories of companies
Q & A sites like Quora
Non-profit websites for fundraising
Wikis and knowledge bases
Media-centric sites like YouTube
Auction sites and coupons

The list is far from exhaustive. The excellent news with WordPress is that the functionality for things like forums and e-commerce websites is achieved with simple plugins and themes. So, for example, if I wanted to make an online portfolio for my web design company, I could go with the theme below. All it requires is paying the one-time fee, downloading some demo data, making the changes I wanted to make myself.

The screenshot below is a reasonably popular e-commerce theme that pairs with the WooCommerce plugin. WooCommerce is one of the main ways to turn your regular WordPress website into a functional online store, with payment processing, a shopping cart, and product galleries.

There are also many other eCommerce plugins like Easy Digital Downloads (usually used for selling digital products) and WP Ecommerce.

The last example below shows a forum. This website was built from a theme, but you can also consider searching the Internet for plugins for some forums. Many are available if you have already chosen a cool theme, but it does not have a forum feature. Moreover, that’s exactly the way to accomplish different types of websites with WordPress. Write down the functionality you need, then go to Google and see if there are any plugins or themes that are right for you. I bet you will always find good results.

3. It supports many types of media

Feel free to check out the long list of accepted file types for WordPress, but be aware that the following main categories are all accepted:

imagery
Documents
Audios
Videos

From my own experience, I have never seen WordPress tell me that a file is not supported. You can expect to download common files like .jpg, .png, .gif, .pdf, .doc, .pptx, .mp3, .m4a, .mp4, .mov, .wmv and .avi. Also, you will have no problem with less known file types like .odt, .key, .ogg, and .3gp.

Moreover, although some file formats, such as SVGs, are not allowed, there are good ways to work around this problem. In short, if you want to put a photo, a gif, a video, or a document on your website, it’s usually a breeze with WordPress. It is even common to host documents and presentations on a website without publishing them on a specific page.

A word of warning

Yes, WordPress supports virtually all types of media. However, you must follow the rules and use only the media that you own, which you can download for free or use when the credit is granted.

Here are some places to find legal media such as photos and videos:

See it in action:

As an excellent example of WordPress media, the Sony Music website promotes music tracks and videos. As a result, you can often find several forms of video and audio clips on the website. Plus, it’s a very illustrated site, as you can see with Kenny Chesney’s big photo in the header. Although some website builders are improving in media support, it seems like you will almost always find something that is not allowed.

The Variety website also uses WordPress, and its home page is dotted with items such as background images, short video clips, movie trailers, animations, music tracks, and film galleries. Television programs. It’s hard to find a better example than Variety because every article written for the entertainment magazine has something to do with the media.

4. It’s easy to learn, and there is a vast community

As open-source software, WordPress can be used by anyone. The user base is not limited by price, high-end customer support, or even skill level. Of course, there is a lot to learn about WordPress, but anyone can play with the dashboard for ten minutes and begin to understand how the interface works.

Moreover, since there are not many obstacles to accessing the software, users have created blogs, forums, online courses, seminars, webinars, and books, all describing different aspects of the platform. WordPress. Then there is the more official WordPress customer support. You can either pay extra for dedicated support or work on WordPress forums.

It’s amazing how many resources there are to learn more about WordPress or get quick answers to development questions. For example, you can follow a blog like this to receive a steady stream of WordPress tips in your mailbox. On the other hand, you can also search on Google to find immediate solutions (WPBeginner is known for its fast solutions).

See it in action:

We see the WordPress community as help in two parts of the learning process:

Organized training for long-term knowledge.
Quick solutions to your WordPress problems.

WordPress training is free or paid, but one thing is for sure: The best online courses are well organized, affordable and filled with information that you can use yourself, give to your customers or share with your employees. For example, the WP101 website is a well-known training spot with a flawless video course on the following topics:

WordPress 101
WooCommerce 101
The Yoast SEO plugin

Once you get to know WordPress through a training course, you will end up working with your websites. As WordPress does not provide traditional dedicated support, you will need to turn to blogs, forums, Google, and other online communities.

The main WordPress support forum should do the trick for most of your development situations. In the screenshot below, you’ll see topics to repair WordPress, networking with WordPress, localhost installations, regular installations, and more. I am more of the type “search on Google and see what you find”, but forums and blogs are essential to solving problems promptly.

In terms of premium plugins and themes, these developers typically provide their dedicated support via knowledge bases, forums, ticket systems, and emails.

5. You can evolve and expand your website with themes and plugins

We’ve already explained how WordPress themes and plugins make it easy for you to build a website, but these are also essential for scaling. For a standard blog, you’ll grab a theme, adjust the design, and start blogging. The same goes for a website or a business portfolio.

It is common for themes to serve as the basis for the site. After that, the design work is minimal apart from a few color changes, logo additions, and of course, new pages, and blog posts.

However, from time to time, you realize that you have to add something new to your website. Maybe your customers are clamoring for a membership section for your site, or you may have realized that a monthly quiz is a great way to get customers to interact with your brand. In both situations, a plugin corrects the problem.

For example, many excellent membership plugins convert part of your site into a community. Some are free, and some are paying. The same goes for quiz plugins.

The expansion of the site is not only done with plugins

Yes, plugins usually do the trick when it comes to adding features to your site. Most of the time, you only need one theme to launch the site.

However, as your site grows, you will begin to notice different needs for your site, as well as changes in the industry. An excellent example of this was when Google started rewarding responsive mobile websites. In the space of a year, it seemed that all developers of WordPress themes had started selling designs adapted to mobile phones. As a result, many website owners needed to get new themes.

It is also common for growing websites to get new themes for the following reasons:

A fresh look is necessary.
It is necessary to move from a free theme to a more robust premium theme.
The owner of the website wants better customer support from the developer of the theme.
There has been a change in what the company offers online.
The site owner needs different tools that plugins can not provide.

See it in action:

Finding a WordPress theme is as easy as doing a Google search. You can find an avalanche of lists covering different categories of WordPress themes. Try searching for “Real Estate WordPress Themes” or “Flat WordPress Themes”, and you’ll see many choices. However, your best choice is to choose from a WordPress theme store and/or a trusted developer. This gives you quality support, fast, well-optimized code, and updates for the long term.

Here is a list of some famous and famous places for the themes:

There are also online themes markets. However, be careful with these because sometimes the developers will disappear from the surface of the planet, leaving you with an unsupported theme. However, they also have a great variety, and there are high-quality themes, look a little further:

Plugins are similar to themes in that you can find both free and premium versions. The only difference is that professional websites much more commonly use free plugins. Free themes are great for personal blogs and beginner blogs, but pros usually spend between $ 50 and $ 100 to get a much better premium theme.

This is not always the case with plugins; however, since many of the best plugins have always been free. You can search for new plugins via your WordPress dashboard or go to the WordPress plugin library . This library contains more than 50,000 plugins, most of which are free (or on the freemium model). The library has everything from caching to forum plugins, spam, and social media plugins. Installing a plugin takes no more than a few minutes, and each of the plugin’s pages includes screenshots, feature lists, and even some demos.

Many premium plugins are also sold on the Internet. The main difference between a free plugin and a premium plugin is that you often get better customer support with a paid plugin. Here are some excellent places to look for premium plugins:

6. There is no need to be a genius to handle it

Web site developers often sell expensive packages that require an upfront down payment and a recurring monthly payment for maintenance. The only problem is that WordPress is not so difficult to manage if you learn the ropes, and if you follow proper training. Managing a website usually involves several things:

Make sure the server is excellent.
Check security.
Run backups.
Update plugins, themes and WordPress software.
Manage spam.
Check functionality and broken links.
Improve speed and SEO.

You do not personally check the server, and it’s about getting a good web host and seeing if the site is running at all times. Security and backups are handled either by plugins or by a managed WordPress hosting plan. Everything else on the list needs to be done only occasionally.

For example, you will probably want to install a cache plugin to improve the speed of the website. The same goes for SEO. The Akismet plugin supplements spam management, and there are plugins for broken links.

See it in action:

One of the only manual maintenance tasks is to update the plugins, themes, and WordPress itself. The good news is that WordPress informs you when updates are released. Therefore, you update every time you see the warnings. It usually takes less than a minute for updates, and then you can get back to work.

Everything else (like SEO, backups, speed, security, broken links, and spam) can be managed using plugins. For example, the WP Time Capsule plugin is a beautiful tool for incremental backup of files and databases. The plugin runs in the background. If a file is corrupted, or if your site crashes, the restore function is there to solve the problem.

Also, check out these three organization tips for WordPress users who can help you manage the admin dashboard a little easier.

7. SEO goes first

WordPress is known to have SEO built into the platform. WordPress automatically generates title tags and meta descriptions for all your pages and articles. This allows search engines to know your content, which will allow you to be indexed and eventually climb the rankings. As with everything in WordPress, there are also more advanced features offered by plugins and online tools. Here are some SEO favorites to consider:

See it in action:

The Yoast SEO plugin is also a must for any WordPress site. The default SEO tools in WordPress are excellent, but Yoast takes them to the next level.

Below is a section of Yoast that asks you for the main keyword. It can be a page or a blog post. By targeting this keyword, Yoast analyzes the current article or page and shares your effectiveness in targeting the keyword. You’ll see keyword density, thoughts about keyword placement, SEO title endorsements, page title suggestions, and more. This is basically a giant checklist to help you do the best SEO possible for each page.

8. You have total control of your website

A Google search for “website builders” or “website platforms” gives all sorts of results. WordPress will most likely be on all website building lists, with competition like WIX, Squarespace, Joomla, Magento, Shopify, Weebly, and Jimdo. All of this is ideally suited for creating websites, but those that are not open source, like Squarespace, Shopify, and WIX, limit your control to all the features offered in the premium packs.

This leaves you with some limitations like the following:

The e-commerce feature is usually integrated, so it is not much you can do to develop with plugins.
You are usually stuck with the accommodation provided. You do not have the freedom to test hosts and opt for the best value for money or the best performance.
The code adjustment is limited to what companies share with you. Worse still, you find yourself stuck with a unique coding language, like with Shopify (it uses a language called Liquid). In short, it almost guarantees that you need to hire a specialized developer for changes that you can not manage yourself through the Publisher.
Technically, you do not have full ownership of your site and its content. You rent the website of these companies. So when you stop paying, all those files and pages are either lost or owned by the company. With WordPress, you own the files, and no one can stop you from moving them to other hosts.

See it in action:

The Appearance tab is the control center for all WordPress customizations. This is where you have carte blanche on themes, fonts, colors, widgets, menus, logos, and code. Just about anything you can think of can be adjusted here. It’s great for beginners, intermediates, and advanced users because it limits the amount of code you touch while speeding up the development process.

Besides, several themes have their customization modules, or you can install a drag-and-drop editor almost to eliminate the need for coding.

Besides, several themes have their customization modules, or you can install a drag-and-drop editor almost to eliminate the need for coding.
Customize the appearance of WordPress.

As with advanced editions, all site files are accessible via the WordPress dashboard, your hosting account, or via a local environment. Whether you’re trying to insert a code snippet for Google Analytics, or trying a complete redesign of the CSS on the home page, WordPress covers you.

9. The blogging system is by far the best in the industry

WordPress was born as a blogging platform. It had its competitors, but nothing compares currently to the power, elegance, and advanced tools found in the WordPress blogging engine. Options like Tumblr, Medium, Ghost, and Blogger, are all perfectly suited to fans, but the pros opt for WordPress. An incredible set of tools can be found in the WordPress blog editor.

You can keep a simple blog from a single author by taking advantage of layout tools and media tools. There is also the possibility of creating a complete online magazine by programming very excellent articles and defining several types of users for contributors and publishers. In addition to previewing options, editing everything in the article, and keeping the code entirely out of the equation, you really can not beat WordPress.

See it in action:

One of the benefits of the WordPress blogging platform is the permissions or roles of users . Suppose you run the site as an administrator. This means that you have access to files, all plugins, SEO, and security tools. You hire a publisher and three editors to create the blog’s content. The only problem is that you do not want them to have fun with anything other than blog posts.

Therefore, you can define one person as the publisher role and the others as contributors. The Publisher can now edit and publish articles, while Contributors can create articles but not publish them.

We can also look at the blogging interface to see how powerful and well organized it is. You can add media and change formatting by clicking a button. It allows you to change the title and the permalink at the top, and there are options for categories, tags, and readability. Revisions are displayed to go back and retrieve previous versions, and the Preview and Publish buttons await you to the very end.

The “Visual” view displays the preview, similar to what end-users will see. You can also switch to the “Text” view, which reveals all the content of your article in HTML format.

10. Everyone does it

So jump off the bridge with them! Just because everyone does something does not mean it’s the best reason to follow them. However, WordPress has proven itself many times, which has made its performance, scalability, and ease of use known. There is a reason that more than 33% of all websites on the Internet use WordPress.

Patrick Coombe, a well-known SEO, asked website owners and marketers about inbound.org : “If you could start your website again, what would you change? This is what Larry Kim , the founder of WordStream, had to say:

WordPress is doing something right. You do not have to sacrifice too much to test it. As mentioned, the WordPress software is free, and most web hosts have some money-back guarantee.

Most experienced WordPress users will congratulate developers for their constant updates and improvements. What’s cool is that every time an update is published, there is an information page that describes how the update will enhance the WordPress experience.

See it in action:

62% of the 100 fastest-growing companies in the United States (Inc. 5000) use WordPress. – Nelio Software

WordPress has a full storefront of brands using WordPress, which includes everything related to the Houston Zoo, the Obama Foundation, and even Toyota. Some other notable ones include The Tribune Media Group, JQuery, Plesk, The Chicago Sun-Times, Dyn, Nginx, TechCrunch, and many more.

Bonus:

You can check this tutorial video:

Originally posted on: Kinsta

Why use WordPress? Here are 10 good reasons