WordPress today is the fruit of its evolution from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. While WordPress.com is a blogging platform like Blogger, Tumblr or LiveJournal, WordPress.org is where you can download a software-assisted web construction from scratch. Without doubt, it’s a powerful content management system (CMS).
What does CMS actually do? Can I build a website without it? If you don’t know how to code, the answer is no. CMS platforms help create and manage site content, site structure and site appearance without the coding knowledge. As such, it’s an ideal tool, empowering website owners to control their websites effectively.
Now that you know the fundamentals, here are our detailed responses to frequently asked questions regarding WordPress.
1. IS WORDPRESS A LONG-TERM SOLUTION?
Understandably, you wouldn’t invest in a temporary system that changes too drastically, too often. Considering the importance of users’ learning curves and website security, what you need is a stable, well-established, reliable and secure system backed by strong communities of coders, testers and developers. That is basically the description of WordPress.
- WordPress Is Stable And Reliable
This open-source platform is the collaborative product of dedicated volunteers who develop, test and improve it continuously. Among those are professional companies and agencies that make their livings based on the success of WordPress. Whether paid or unpaid, their contributions (e.g. regular updates, patches and new features) are of significant importance to the development of the platform over the last decade.
Being sourced with freely contributed content doesn’t imply that the end result will be a messy, unqualified system. PHP, MySQL and JavaScript are the engines behind WordPress. Rest assured that the platform will adhere to the coding standards of the World Wide Web consortium and the best practices of major search engines like Google and Bing. - WordPress Is Well Protected
Security is a constant concern. The hard truth is that no CMS is 100% guarded from hostile attack. Nevertheless, WordPress has been specifically devoted to protecting its users from cybercrime. Since 2005, the company has released nearly 50 security and maintenance updates on a regular basis. A WordPress team of 25 experts, together with leading security partners, will continue to anticipate upcoming risks and promptly provide solutions, maintaining a profitable ecosystem for both developers and users. Moreover, powerful third-party security plugins are available to serve your needs.
Unfortunately, all those efforts might be wasted in the hands of ignorant users. There are multiple bad habits that make websites vulnerable to hackers, such as choosing weak passwords and usernames, turning off the auto-update, installing unauthorized themes and plug-ins or choosing an unsecured web host.
Thus, regarding the safety of WordPress, we believe that WordPress security teams have properly fulfilled their part. It’s on you to keep your online entity safe. - WordPress Has A Strong Future
WordPress has never stopped evolving and will continue to do so. Or at least that’s what its founder, Matt Mullenweg, claimed in an interview in 2015 with Kitchen Sink WordPress. An ambitious goal of reaching over 50% of market share was set. Big changes are expected in its onboarding process, social network integration and touch-device compatibilities. So far, their market share has increased by 3%, from 24% (2015) to 27% (2016) to 59%(2018). The release of WP REST API and the shift to JavaScript establish a solid base for further growth in popularity.
To wrap up, WordPress has a perfect score of 3/3 (reliable, secured and evolvable). The platform is a worthy investment for the long-term development of your business.
2. IS WORDPRESS EASY TO USE?
Undoubtedly, WordPress is by far the simplest CMS you can find. Even for beginners, its user interface is pretty obvious. You will find many components in its content-creating window similar to that of your word processor. Basically, no single line of code is required to publish a new entry, featuring texts, images, videos and embedded content from all common web services.
If you want to share the workload with your team, which is usually the case, WordPress makes this easy by incorporating the concept of Roles. Users of different roles have access to different tasks. The six default roles are Super Admin, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor and Subscriber in descending level of managing power.
Super Admin is an automatically created account that has authority over all features of the site’s network. The tasks of Super Admin can be shared with Administrator, who has managerial access to a single site within the network. Both Editor and Author are able to publish content, though only the former can modify others’ posts. If you want to involve some collaborators in your organization, a Contributor account that allows self-managed writings without publication is the answer. The least powerful account of Subscriber is reserved for customers and visitors and is limited to managing their own profile.
In case these default accounts do not totally suit your plan, there are plugins created solely for the purpose of designing additional user roles. If you have multi-tasking among your teams, this is no longer a concern since content workflow plugins are also accessible.
3. CAN SEARCH ENGINES EASILY FIND MY WORDPRESS SITE?
It’s a well-known fact that WordPress is an exceptionally SEO-friendly platform. Choosing WordPress is a wise start to rank climbing. Right after installation, basic functions like generating permalinks, blogrolling, pinging and contextual titles are available. However, what sets WordPress apart is its diverse and premium directory of SEO plugins.
You might have heard of the infamous WordPress SEO by Yoast, which is capable of fixing tons of common on-site SEO problems before content optimization even starts. On the other hand, there’s All in One SEO Pack, which is equal in terms of excellence but more beginner-friendly.
If you are looking for a more focused solution (e.g. social media optimization, SEO image optimization, analytic and reports, keywords and content research), the directory has it all! Those include ShareThis, WP Smush, Google Analytics by Yoast, BuzzSumo, and many more.
If all that still doesn’t convince you, we will let Matt Cutts, former head of Google’s web spam team, do the talking. At the 2009 WordCamp San Francisco, he stated, “WordPress takes care of 80-90 percent of Search Engine Optimization.” He himself uses the platform for his personal blog.
4. CAN MY WORDPRESS SITE WORK ON MULTIPLE COMPUTING DEVICES?
As mentioned above, WordPress is focusing on touch-device compatibilities to raise its market share. This movement is unavoidable given that 80% of internet users own a smartphone, and mobile usage now represents 65 percent of digital media time (according to comScore’s latest report, 2016). In addition, Google will eliminate sites without mobile view from its mobile search results.
With WordPress, you don’t need to worry about being outdated in this mobile age for three reasons.
First, the technology behind WordPress is compatible with all modern smartphones and tablets. The company has always been investing resources to keep it that way.
Second, responsive themes are fully stocked in the WordPress repository. Even if you happen to choose an unresponsive one, it’s fixable.
Third, managing a WordPress site on your mobile device is made possible by installing official iOS/Android apps or simply using any web browser on your smartphone or tablet.
5. IS WORDPRESS COST EFFECTIVE?
Yes. Its established CMS platform with numerous plugins saves developers hours of coding time, even before customizing a WordPress website to your specific needs.
How is this possible if WordPress is such an excellent, well-rounded player (as described)? To start, WordPress is an open-source project. It belongs to the same family as Firefox, Ubuntu, Android and Wikipedia. There are knowledgeable volunteers devoting their time and energy to perfecting the platform. It then becomes the shared product of global communities, not any one individual or organization. As a result, your rights to use WordPress, regardless of purposes and frequency, are protected under GNU General Public License.
We expect that our judgment of WordPress is clearly delivered: the best CMS ever! It is truly efficient (long-term and free) and effective (user-friendly, SEO-friendly and mobile-friendly) for entities of all sizes.
The potential of WordPress is unlimited. The same is true for your business. The platform can be your competent companion from the rough startup phase until you reach the fierce competition in the Fortune 500 realm. For now, you more or less have the choice to share the same support team as Microsoft, Best Buy, Sony, CNN and the Rolling Stone, to name a few!
