As some of you know, at MGR Consulting Group we’re great fans of WordPress and we currently use it for the majority of the websites and applications that we build for our clients. Since WordPress launched in 2003, it has very rapidly become one of the most –if not the most- popular content management system (CMS) in the world. Web studies show that almost 75 million websites depend on WordPress today. Whether it is a Blog or a fully functional website, this popular CMS option is frequently the program of choice for individuals and businesses alike. Not convinced yet? Well, here are the top ten reasons why I think your business would benefit from switching to a WordPress website.
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1. WordPress is Easy to Use
You don’t need to be a programmer to be able to use WordPress. Yes, an expert programmer will set up your website and customize it for you. But after your website is completed, WordPress is one of the easiest platforms to work with. It will save you a lot of money in maintenance and update fees down the road.
2. It’s Open Source (and free)
The actual WordPress software is free. More likely, your hosting provider already offers an option to install WordPress on your website server. If not, you can also have it installed manually. However, as opposed to the vast majority of CMS platforms, WordPress is absolutely free. In addition to that, WordPress is also open source allowing you to modify the source code as needed so that it fits your individual needs.
3. WordPress is Flexible
Perhaps one of the favorite advantages that WordPress offers compared to other CMS platforms is its great flexibility. Whether you’re using WordPress for your personal Blog (like my own MGR Blog) or for a client website or to create sales landing pages, WordPress is so flexible that you can cater all needs without any major modifications to the basic platform.
4. Search Engine Friendly
If SEO is important for you, WordPress is your ally. It is already well known and documented (even by our own MGR SEO Team) that search engines favor WordPress websites because of their friendly hyperlinks (permalinks) and the easy to crawl framework. Google spokespersons have also acknowledged and endorsed several times WordPress websites as a search engine friendly platform.
5. Easy to Customize
Another great advantage of WordPress is its ability to adapt to multiple design layouts and functionality. There are literally thousands of themes and plugins that have already been developed to satisfy pretty much any need that you may have. And if something doesn’t already exist, again due to its open source architecture, our Team of qualified WordPress Specialists can create a new theme or plugin just for your needs.
6. Mobile friendly
If you follow this Blog or if you’re already and MGR client, you know that over the past two years we only develop responsive websites, meaning designs that automatically adapt to multiple screen sizes and platforms. Today, it’s critical for any website to be mobile friendly to accommodate smartphones and tablets. I won’t expand too much since it is a topic already explained in a different article. With WordPress, you can have a responsive theme developed for you just as fast as a regular desktop design.
7. Compatible with eCommerce Programs
Making money online is also easier with WordPress. Whether you have a full blown eCommerce store or just sell a few products or services online, WordPress has you covered. Due to the huge popularity of WordPress, there are already a good number of eCommerce plugins that will integrate seamlessly with your website or blog. At MGR we don’t endorse anyone in particular and rather recommend the best option based on our clients’ individual needs, but the most popular ones on WordPress.org are WooCommerce, WP eCommerce or Shopp.
8. Great Option for Membership Websites
If your website or blog utilizes any type of Membership service as an additional source of revenue, WordPress is one of the most flexible platforms to accommodate this type of feature. At MGR we have built a number of Membership-driven websites, most recently www.DehpSpa.com. There are great advantages in providing members with exclusive offers, access to restricted content, unique promotions, etc. It is also a great way to increase your numbers of leads and build customer loyalty.
9. Safe and Secure Platform
I think we all know at this point that no website is completely safe from a potential attack by hackers, not even those of major government institutions or private corporations. However, WordPress has taken great steps in ensuring that the platform is as secure as possible for all of its users. Of course, it is also the users’ responsibility to avoid potential vulnerability issues (secure passwords, avoid downloading plugins or themes from untrusted sources, just to name a few). But you can rest assured that WordPress is constantly updating its software to prevent any security situations. It is for this reason that it is highly recommended that your website always runs the latest version of WordPress.
1o. A Long Term Investment
Switching your website or blog to WordPress is really a sound investment that you will enjoy for years to come. I switched our own MGR Blog to WordPress a couple of years ago and shortly after, we re-designed our main MGR Consulting Group website using WordPress too. I have to tell you that we’re extremely happy with the switch for a number of reasons, but above all else, it’s just made our own edits, additions, and updates much easier to handle and to complete.
MGR Summary:
In conclusion, we don’t recommend anything to our clients that we haven’t used and tested ourselves first. For all the above reasons, I firmly believe that if your personal or business website is not using WordPress yet, you should consider converting it to WordPress. If you need assistance with your conversion, our MGR Design Team is always here to help. Just take a look at the new website that we developed a few weeks ago for the Westin Lake Las Vegas. Their original website –also designed and hosted by MGR- was NOT a WordPress website. After two years, the resort decided to convert it to WordPress while keeping the same designed that they really liked. The result is a new responsive design that has since increased their SEO results, customer traffic and mobile visitors. And that could be your experience too.
Until next time, this is Manuel Gil del Real (MGR)
Additional WordPress Security Information: http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress
