WordPress is one of the most popular website building platforms available. WordPress powers a staggering 37% of all websites on the internet which is up from 13% in 2011. That is a growth of 3% every year and what is more astonishing is that it doesn’t look like slowing down. The closest rival to WordPress is Joomla, which currently has a market share of 2.6%.
WordPress is an extremely powerful Content Management System (CMS) and is perfect for all size businesses. From start up businesses, all the way through to huge organisations like Sony Music and The New York Times.
With so many businesses using WordPress you would be inclined to think it is perfect and it wouldn’t have a single fault. Well we love WordPress, which is why it’s our platform of choice and what we recommend to build business websites on, however, there are a few potential disadvantages to building a website on WordPress. But don’t worry the positives massively outweigh those minor negatives.
For a full list of all WordPress pros and cons have a read of list below.
Advantages of WordPress
Ease of Use
This is probably why it is one of the most popular website platforms. Without much technical knowledge, website owners can edit and maintain their websites themselves. Switching between designs, adding new blogs and updating product pages is as simple as clicking a few buttons. There are also plugins that allow drag and drop layout and alter your site with ease.
Customisable & Adaptable
Some website platforms are hard to customise but with WordPress you have over 50,000 plugins and thousands of themes to build a website that matches your needs. Whether you sell online courses, sell through an e-shop, are an affiliate marketer or have an online magazine, WordPress can be customised to your exact requirements.
Many of these themes and plugins have free versions which are almost as powerful as their paid counterparts.
SEO Friendly
When 30% of ecommerce traffic comes from organic links on search engines and the top three results get 60% of search traffic , Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is hugely important if you want people to find your website.
While base programming of WordPress is good for SEO, you can enhance this with some excellent SEO plugins which will help you with your SEO. It also helps that WordPress sites are both responsive and tend to be fast, two key ranking factors in search engines.
Open Source
One advantage that WordPress has is that it is an open source CMS, meaning developers are able to alter the code behind the website and because of this it is hugely popular with developers. So, if you are struggling with your website and need a bit of advice, there’s a myriad of online forums and good quality resources to easily find support and advice.
Disadvantages of WordPress
Learning Curve
Whilst WordPress is easy to use and manage, there is a slight learning curve to begin with. It’s not one that you will struggle with but it may take you a bit of time to get used to everything. Prior knowledge of marketing and websites will help, or if you have someone you can lean on and learn from, this will accelerate your learning.
Potential Security Holes
One major issue affecting WordPress websites is security. While WordPress and its developer community are good at keeping the system updated, a site is only as secure as the weakest plugin/installation. Too many website owners fail to regularly update their WordPress website and plugins, which can create security holes in the site that hackers can exploit.
Third-Party Content
While most plugins are designed by professional developers, not all are of good quality. Most of the time this is harmless, but in some cases, it can be damaging to your site. The code in the plugins or themes might conflict with others, break your site or become unnecessarily bloated. Resulting in a slow website which will not only annoy your customers, it can lower your page rank on Google and other search engines.
The advantages of using this powerful website platform are compelling and whilst there are negatives to using WordPress, these can be easily rectified or avoided. With its ease-of-use, a range of plugins that are second-to-none and a thriving developer community, it could be the platform to propel your business to success. There’s a reason for WordPress’ popularity.
