WordPress has come a very long way from its humble origins as an easy to use blogging platform. It is now the most popular Content Management System (CMS) in the world, powering nearly 75 million websites worldwide, and is the platform of choice for organisations such as the BBC, Forbes, The Washington Post, News International, and Microsoft.
That is certainly impressive growth, but the real question is why? There are many answers to this, too many to list out here but let’s look at the top reasons.
Why has WordPress become so dominant?
Firstly the platform is almost infinitely customisable which means that regardless of why you need a website a good developer will be able to adapt the platform for your need. This customisation can occur in the “theme”, via a “plugin”, or a “widget” giving developers multiple options when picking the best solution for your needs.
The second reason is the level of support this platform gets. It doesn’t matter how good a platform is, if it isn’t updated, or if there is no one to maintain it the platform will quickly degrade and become a burden. Costing you money, time, and even clients. This isn’t a concern with WordPress.
There are thousands of developers constantly working on improving the platform, making sure it is secure, and adhering to the latest standards set by search engines such as Google. This constant upgrading can create an issue if you do not keep on top of them, from serious issues like security holes to less serious such as plugins not working correctly, however if your website is managed by a professional team your website will be updated when new releases occur ensuring that your website and it’s data is secure and working correctly.
Moreover due to the high number of users and dependence of high profile companies such as the BBC and Washington Post, experts in publishing, any new security features or data requirements from the UK Government and EU bodies will be available on WordPress before other platforms.
This leads on to the third top reason, with so many big organisations and so many developers working on the platform it has also become “too big to fail”. The open-source nature of WordPress means that it will be supported for years to come, removing the concern that if your web developer goes out of business your website will go with them. Costing your business thousands to replace it as well as the lost income that will occur without a web presence.
This means that you are not reliant on a single company, should the worst happen and your developer does close their doors then you can simply transfer your website to a new developer familiar with WordPress. Something that is not possible with bespoke custom CMS’.
Strategies and WordPress
Strategies have a long history of working with WordPress. It started with smaller websites that just needed their website to look good and be easy to use about 8 years ago. Since then we have moved more and more of our clients over to the platform, some clients with very large and very complex needs.
In 2016 the recruitment technology available for WordPress reached a level that meant we could make the decision to use WordPress for our new recruitment agency websites. The ease of use and the ability to create stunning designs combined with market leading technology made it a very easy decision!
Over the last 18 months we have found that the new WordPress recruitment websites not only look much better but are a great fit for recruitment businesses. The fact that WordPress is so widely used means that the platform is very easy to integrate with other key recruitment tools such as Broadbean and Indeed.
Added to that clients do not need to ask us to update new content as regularly, something that created a barrier when clients wanted to create regular news and blog posts. This has meant that our clients are now producing more content for their audience, helping improve the reputation of their business.
Finally WordPress is simply fantastic for SEO. Google understands it, it is very easy to update key areas such as meta data and URLs, and it even holds your hand as you make SEO updates, giving advice where needed to make sure your site is optimised for your keywords.
Overall we cannot sing the praises of WordPress enough, it has helped us become better at what we do, has given our clients more flexibility and freedom (after all, once we have built the website no client is tried to us and our system), and has helped our clients achieve their website aims.
WordPress in the Press
With all of that said don’t just take our word for it. Here is a list of external news articles talking about WordPress, feel free to click through a few and come to your own conclusion… we will be waiting if you would like to explore how WordPress works and help your business grow.
