What Is WordPress?

WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) based on a user friendly interface that allows easy management of your content, essentially a blog or website.

Why Use WordPress?

Listed below in this article are over 40 compelling reasons you should be using WordPress for your website. And these are not just opinion based; they are factual.

But hang on, there are 2 versions of WordPress – WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Yes! And they are quite different too!

So let’s look at WordPress.org first.

This is the ‘original’ WordPress and is known as the ‘self hosted’ WordPress. This means that you have your own domain name and a web hosting account. There are a number of hosting companies like Siteground and Bluehost.

These are 2 of the best (in my humble opinion!) WordPress is free to use and open source. With this, you own the website and it’s data. This means you have full control.

You can add any WordPress theme you want, free or paid. You can add any WordPress plugins or apps, free or paid. You can create an online store or membership sites. You will need to have a backup plugin to create backup versions of your websites.

Now we’ll look at WordPress.com.

This WordPress provides hosting services. They have 5 hosting plans available. There is:

FREE which allows 3GB of space and has very limited services

PERSONAL is about $36.00 per year with 6GB

PREMIUM is $99.00 per year with 13GB

BUSINESS has unlimited storage and is $299.00 per year

VIP starts at $5000.00 per month.

WordPress.org backs up and updates all sites. For the free and plan, the visitors to your site will see ads promoted by WordPress.org. And there are restrictions around themes and plugins for free and personal plans. Business and VIP plans are able to install some plugins and can select from premium themes.

Overall, making these comparisons, it is clear that your decision on which WordPress to select, depends on your type of business and how you see it developing in the future.

For flexibility and ownership and affordability, I would definitely recommend WordPress.org. This is the option I choose for my websites and the one I recommend to my clients.

For a domain name and hosting solution, I recommend 2 companies. BlueHost and Siteground. Both have excellent customer service, comparable on price and easy to navigate. I need to advise that Bluehost is the recommended hosting provider by WordPress.org.

 But first, we should address some of the terminology associated with websites.

Terminology

• Let’s start with HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) which is code that describes how a webpage is displayed. There are tags within the code that represent ‘headings’, ‘paragraphs’, ‘tables’ and so on.
• What about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)? CSS is used to style the look of the webpage representing ‘fonts’ and ‘colours’ plus much more.
• And Javascript? This is computer programming language that is written into the HTML page and needs another program like a web browser to take an action such as display a website.
• WordPress Plugins are software that can be added to enhance functions on your website. Many are free to install and they are easy to use.
• PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is often the type of language for WordPress Plugins and is used to make dynamic webpages.
• SQL (Structured Query Language) that allows access to and to manipulate website specific databases.
• cPanel is a web based control panel supplied by the hosting company to the website owner and has everything a website owner needs to manage their website, all in one place.
• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is increasing the quality and quantity of organic website visitors.

Websites built on WordPress.org allows flexibility to change the design of the website quite simply by applying theme based templates. However, if you were to use a website developer to hardcode your website in HTML language, CSS and Javascript, then you would also need a website developer to make changes to the HTML codes for any changes you might want to make. This becomes both time consuming and costly.

Learning WordPress yourself or having someone who knows how to build a website in WordPress is a far better prospect than using a website developer and for a fraction of the cost.

It is cost effective and an easy process to purchase a domain name and hosting package from a domain registration and website hosting companies so that your website will be available on the internet.

Most hosting companies make it even easier for their customers to use WordPress for their website by giving them an option to install WordPress from their cPanel with just a click of a button. Once it has been installed and a login has been established, the website can begin to be built.

So Let’s Get To The List

1. its free
2. its easy to use
3. large support community
4. easy to make unique looking website
5. Is a CMS (Content Management System)
6. Don’t need to use html code
7. Its intuitive
8. No configuration is required
9. great functionality using themes and plugins
10. WordPress continues to improve and update
11. Beginner friendly
12. security conscious with plugins like
    • wordfence security
    • ithemes security
    • sucuri security
    • secu press
13. works well with other websites
14. is SEO friendly
15. its mobile and tablet responsive
16. there are heaps of tutorials and guides to help
    • http://www.wpbeginner.com/
    • https://premium.wpmudev.org/
    • https://wpwarfare.com/
    • http://www.wpexplorer.com/
17. you can delegate roles in the user section (multi-user capability)
    • Super Admin
    • Administrator
    • Editor
    • author
    • contributor
    • subscriber
18. simple one page website or landing page
19. build a blog
20. build a professional business website
21. build a sales page
22. build a directory website
23. build an online store with WooCommerce
24. build a course based online learning platform with Woocommerce Sensai
25. Build a membership site with Woocommerce memberships
26. integration with almost anything via plugins such as
    • Paypal
    • Stripe
    • Freshbooks
    • Xero
    • Hubspot
27. Integrates easily with major auto responders
    • Mailchimp
    • Aweber
    • Getresponse
    • Icontact
    • Constant contact
    • Keap (infusionsoft)
    • 1ShoppingCart
28. wordpress is scalable
29. lots of WordPress developers available
30. Quick to build with
31. 30% of all websites are powered by WordPress. Big companies like
    • Tech Crunch
    • Microsoft
    • Facebook news
    • Mtv
    • Vogue
    • Mashable
    • Coca cola
    • Wall Street Journal
32. Fully customisable themes
33. Supports multi media (videos, mp3, mp4 & YT)
34. Social media integration
35. Choice of hosting platform
    • BlueHost
    • SiteGround
    • HostGator
    • JustHost
    • GoDaddy
    • InMotion
36. Choice of free or paid themes
37. Easily schedule posts (blogs)
38. Add testimonials and reviews
39. Easily Publish content from computer, mobile or tablet
40. Translate website into another language with plugins
    • Wpml
    • Multilingual press
41. Ability to back up website and integrate with
    • Google Cloud,
    • Google Drive,
    • Amazon s3 or
    • dropbox

using plugins like

Duplicator

WP Time Capsule

BackupBuddy

UpdraftPlus

BackupWordpress

BackWPup

WP Backitup

This list is by no means finite! There are more reasons you should consider using WordPress to build your website. The ones that are listed in this article are the most compelling and can be used as consideration for making a decision.

I have used other platforms to build websites but WordPress is by far the easiest to use, the most flexible and has the best resource library from anywhere online (see point number 16.).

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