Why you SHOULD choose WordPress for your website

Anyone who tells you that you shouldn’t use WordPress (WP) for your website ought to have a very good reason to do so, and not just generalise with stories about website hacks.

I’ve started on this topic because I recently read an article on a blog of a company that DOESN’T use WP and they’d written it in a very scaremongering fashion.

Any website is vulnerable to hacking, no matter how it was built, but there are very good reasons that an estimated 40% of the internet (around 75 million websites) runs on WP, and here’s a list.

It’s free

For the most part, anyway. You will still have to pay for hosting and web development if you don’t want to do that part yourself — but the core software is free for anyone to install, edit and build upon.

Flexibility

WP can become whatever you want it to be through the installation on plugins — software addons that after just a few clicks can make your website become a shop, a chat room, a photo gallery, and a whole lot more besides.

In many cases these are free although sometimes with limitations. For example, WooCommerce is a really clever eCommerce (web store) platform which you can install and setup without spending a single penny, but if you want extended functions like the ability for customers to add their own inscriptions to a trophy they want to buy, you may have to pay for an additional piece of software to allow them to do that.

Support

There’s a huge, HUGE network of WP developers around the world. In fact, in every city across the UK you will almost certainly find that the top Google search results of ‘web design’ will be for companies almost exclusively using WP for their clients’ websites.

This means you’re never far from somebody who can build and look after your WP website.

If you choose to adopt WP for your web project, what this means is you’re not trapped in some weird and wonderful ecosystem dreamt up by the likes of Godaddy or Squarespace (and there are many more) that you can’t pack up and move to another developer if that’s what you decide you need to do.

It’s fast

Don’t let anyone tell you any differently. Any site can be fast if it’s built and hosted the right way and here at Leeming Design I only work with efficient WP themes and high-quality hosting.

WP has a blog built in

A blog is really important for every type of business as part of its SEO strategy. Regularly writing good-quality content can help to get your business noticed in searches and WP has all the tools built in to help you get started whether you want to call it your blog, journal or news section.

WP is as secure as you make it

With strong passwords and regular updates (which can be done automatically) it’s extremely unlikely your WP site will get hacked.

In ten years of trading and more than 150 WP sites, Leeming Design has never had a single one hacked.

There’s a number of factors for this, not least the high-quality hosting I use which has built-in security which regularly scans for vulnerabilities and send email alerts if anything is suspicious.

Compatibility

Anyone who tries to tell you WP isn’t compatible with a particular browser or device doesn’t know what they’re talking about

With a good-quality theme on your site (the software that allows you quickly edit the look and functionality of your site) WP will sing and dance on any device that loads your site.

In summary…

Beware of anyone who’s trying to persuade you to use a web design platform you’ve never heard of because you may find yourself trapped in an expensive and inflexible architecture that you can’t expand, adjust or get away from without starting from scratch.