We love WordPress. WordPress is user-friendly, versatile, and allows users to create a website or publish content in a few steps without paying a dime. How’s that for love at first sight?
WordPress is a Content Management System used to create and manage websites. The platform was created back in 2003 and as of 2017, almost 60% of websites on the internet are built using WordPress. It is the most popular website management and blogging system on the web, supporting more than 60 million websites worldwide.
Some notable brands that also love WordPress include TechCrunch, The New Yorker, BBC America, Sony Music, Beyoncé and the official Star Wars blog!
While there are many different paths you can take towards building a website, including hand-coding and Weebly drag-and-drop builder, WordPress is still one of our favourites.
In honour of Valentine’s Day, here are 14 reasons why we’re crushing on WordPress.
1. It’s free.
Free food, free workshops, free hugs, free-dom. Who doesn’t love free things? WordPress is completely free to download, install and use. You can find it right here. Not be confused with its more limited counterpart WordPress.com, WordPress.org is an open-source software, meaning it can be freely accessed, used, modified and shared. While the WordPress trademark and domain are owned by the non-profit WordPress organization, its actual contents are made up of the thousands of contributions from people around the world.
Unlike some website builders or content management systems, you’ll never have to pay to use WordPress. The only element you have to pay for is your domain name and hosting plan.
2. You get access to unlimited themes and plugins.
As an open-source and free-to-use platform, community members from around the world are constantly adding new themes and plugins to WordPress’ repertoire. As a WordPress user, you have access to all of them and many of them are free. Some developers charge for the themes and plugins they create, however, there is often a “lite” or trial version to try out first. WordPress designers and developers will often create WordPress themes from scratch or modify templates, to create completely original websites for clients.
WordPress themes can be found in the Appearance section of the left-hand WordPress menu or downloaded from separate websites like Envato Market, Just Free Themes, Template Monster, and Theme Isle.
The number of plugins that exist are also in the hundreds of thousands and if you’re encountering any issue or looking to increase your website’s efficiency, there is likely a plugin for it. Plugins can in the left-hand side WordPress menu or downloaded externally from a website.
3. It’s easy to use.
Simplicity is at the heart of every cherished product. Everyone desires a product that will make their life easier, not complicate it. WordPress can be installed and accessed within minutes and its dashboard features a straight-forward interface where you can create and manage pages and posts, as well as design your website.
4. It’s versatile.
As an open-source platform with countless themes, you can create any kind of website you desire, from a corporate blog to an e-commerce platform. There are no limitations to what you can create, which makes WordPress ideal for everyone from bloggers to businesses to freelancers.
The Walt Disney Company blog: made with WordPress
The official Angry Birds website: also made with WordPress
5. There’s an abundance of information to help you.
WordPress is almost two decades old (which in computer years is a lot) so there are tons of resources to check out in your WordPress quest for knowledge. Form forums to blog posts to tutorials to videos, you are just one search away from the answers you need. WordPress has a very self-serve feel to it and with all of the available help online, you’ll never have to email support or be put on hold.
6. WordPress is search-engine friendly.
WordPress is created and managed using standard compliance high-quality code, including semantic HTML, which reinforces the meaning of information on web pages, rather than merely define the look of them. Semantic HTML, or semantic markup, is favourable to search engines.
HTML semantics. Image Source: Microsoft Developer blog
7. It’s easy to boost Your SEO.
Every business’ goal is to increase traffic to their website so that more customers can discover their amazing product or service. One way to do this is by improving your SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO includes different methods to make your website more “searchable,” or easier to find by search engines. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo use algorithms to discover websites and rank them in terms of popularity and relevancy. By design, WordPress is very SEO friendly. You can make it even more so by downloading SEO plugins like All in One SEO, Jetpack, and Yoast, which will guide you through the steps to optimize your content.
8. The integration with your domain and hosting is seamless.
There are many domain purchasing and WordPress hosting services on the market. WordPress seamlessly integrates with any of these so you can choose the domain and web hosting company that best fits your budget and style.
9. There are no strings attached.
Because WordPress and its add-ons are free to use, you need not worry if “should I stay or should I go now?” starts playing in your head. There’s no commitment to sticking to one theme or plugin, or even to WordPress itself. Want to try out another theme or another ten? You’re free to experiment with WordPress and revert back to old themes or plugins if you change your mind. As your business and vision grow, WordPress grows with you.
10. It offers security.
Security is kept top-of-mind by WordPress developers so the software is safe to download and run. There are many ways to protect your website from hacks, attacks, and vulnerabilities, including downloading security plugins like Sucuri Security or Wordfence to monitor security threats and limit brute force attacks.
11. Quick edit options and shortcut keys save you time.
Writing content and blog posts can be the most time-consuming part of running a website. WordPress can save writers and editors time with its quick edit option that allows you to tweak things like the title, date, and author of posts. When you’re in the “All Posts” page you can quickly edit posts without having to view them individually. You can also bulk edit several posts this way.
Within WordPress itself, there are over 20+ keyboard shortcuts you can use. For example, pressing CTRL + ALT+ W will give you a distraction-free writing workspace. It removes the sidebars from the blog post when you’re writing to minimize distractions. Hit escape to return to normal view.
The distraction-free keyboard shortcut will have you saying “ahhhh.”
12. It can handle different media types.
WordPress supports all kinds of media, from images to video to audio All you need to do is upload the media file or insert the URL link to have the media be a part of your blog post or page.
Hitting “Add Media” in the top right of a blog post will give you several options to add media.
13. It supports e-commerce.
WordPress integrates easily with e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce to give your business online retail capabilities.
14. It’s easy to manage.
Managing and updating themes and plugins is done all in one place with the click of a button. WordPress also automatically updates itself when there is a new version. You can keep your WordPress content safe by performing manual backups or setting up automated ones using a plugin like Backup Buddy, all from WordPress’ control panel.
Do you use WordPress for your website? Tell us in the comments below why you love it!
Such a very informative article i have read and it is describing all the things very nicely. Really appreciate writer of this article.
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