There are many website platforms such as WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, Webflow, etc. They all sound kind of the same.
Do they even have any differences?
Which one is the best of them for me?
Where can I get the most value for money?
These are the questions that my clients have when they come to me for website projects. Being a web designer and developer, I had an opportunity to closely analyze all of the platforms that offer website solutions, both, from the client side and from the developer’s side.
Choosing WordPress as your CMS and opting for a reliable fast WordPress hosting provider offers numerous benefits, such as optimized performance, enhanced security, expert support, and scalability. By combining a powerful CMS with a hosting service tailored to its needs, you can create and maintain a successful and reliable website.
Working with almost all of these platforms, time and time again, I came to the same conclusion: “WordPress is the best of them all.”
Five big advantages of using WordPress are:
- WordPress is beginner friendly
- Use any functionality with plugins
- Rank easily on search engines
- Your website grows with your business
- WordPress has a huge community
We will discuss these points in great detail. But before that let’s see what even WordPress is.
What is WordPress and how it’s unique?
In simple words, WordPress is a platform to make websites. It’s also used as a content management system (CMS), which makes it really easy to handle and edit content.
WordPress is an open-source platform where we can create, modify & maintain websites. Being free is what makes it a really fierce competitor in this industry.
It’s used by people having no coding experience to big tech companies handle their huge blogs. WordPress powers almost one-third of internet websites and has a blogging market share of more than 60%.
Five benefits and advantages of using WordPress websites
Discussing what WordPress is at its core, now let’s see what factors set it apart from all other platforms and make it the best website platform to use.
1. WordPress is beginner friendly
If you are someone who is starting from scratch and knows nothing about websites, then getting started with WordPress really easy. There are two things needed before installing WordPress.
First is a domain name, which is basically an address for your website. Like www.yourcompany.com. Your users or clients will search for this to find your website.
Secondly, you need to get fast WordPress hosting. Hosting is basically an online place where all your website data is stored, like text, images, code, etc. When someone types your domain name then this information will be shown on their screen. Hence getting decent hosting is also really important.
Once you have connected the domain name and hosting together, then getting WordPress installed is just a few clicks away. Most of the hosting services provide a one-click installation feature for WordPress.
After installing WordPress, you can just choose a theme that would like to prefer from online marketplaces like ThemeForest. Installing a theme of your choice is also a few clicks process.
And voila! Your complete website is ready to be customized and used for your business.
Most of the themes in WordPress are a result of a lot of testing and optimization to make the process much easier for you. There are also an unlimited number of choices for the themes. You can get a theme of your exact color and design choice.
No other platform can compete against WordPress in terms of the flexibility it provides to beginners.
2. Use any functionality with plugins
Plugins are one of the reasons that make WordPress so overpowered. Using a really powerful functionality that took developers months to code and years to update, can be accessed with just a few clicks (for free).
WordPress has a plugin for any problem that you might face regarding your website.
Want a plugin for speeding up the website? You got it.
Want a plugin for tracking your shipments? You got it.
Want a plugin for online signature to your document? You got it.
“If there’s a problem, there’s a WordPress plugin”.
Comparing it with platforms like Wix, Webflow, Squarespace, etc, these platforms don’t have such a wide variety of reach to solve a lot of problems you might face.
3. Rank easily on search engines
WordPress was created to write content that ranks on Google. With WordPress, you get all of the advanced features that might be needed for search engine optimization.
Plugins like Yoast, and Rankmath take the SEO game of WordPress to just another level.
A lot of advanced programming languages like React, don’t support SEO, which makes them a bit no if you want to be seen on Google.
But since WordPress is made in PHP hence it gets an advantage. All websites made in PHP aren’t guaranteed to rank in Google, but WordPress comes with every recipe that might be needed for your content to rank in the best possible way.
Popular platforms like Wix and Squarespace can’t compete with WordPress in terms of the search engine visibility that it offers.
In simple words, “WordPress is an unbeatable platform for SEO”.
4. Your website grows with your business
Most people start with the simple installation of the theme of WordPress. Then slowly and steadily their business grows and so does the need for their website.
There are three stages of a website:
Growth Stage – When we have just started our business and we don’t have many funds to invest in the website, you can get started in WordPress with a simple theme installation. This is the most simple and beginner-friendly way to start a website.
You only need to pay for the domain name, hosting service, and maybe a paid theme. That’s it. There is no other expense.
Scaling Stage – At this stage, your business has started to generate some money and you want to upgrade your website to make it much more branded and professional. Now you can invest $5k – $10k for the website design & development.
So, you can go ahead and hire a WordPress theme developer who can revamp your website and design it in the exact way you would like it to be.
Coding with WordPress is one of the most efficient ways to make a website. It’s much easier to get your website coded in WordPress than in any other environment like MERN stack (one of the most popular environments to code a website).
Platforms like Wix, Webflow, and Squarespace lose their importance at this stage, as it’s not very efficient to scale your website with them.
Domination Stage – At this level, your website handles millions of users on monthly basis and needs a system to work most efficiently. Congrats! WordPress got you covered at this stage too.
Countless huge companies including CNN, Wired, TED, Vogue, Harvard, etc use WordPress as their content management system. You will be managing your blogs and other article pages through WordPress, as it’s ideal to rank them on Google.
So, overall WordPress will be your pal till the point you become a really successful business.
5. WordPress has a huge community
A lot of power WordPress is because of its vast community. If you are facing any issue, then there is a high chance that thousands of WordPress users have faced that same issue. So, there will definitely be a solution to it online.
There are so many plugins for every different task because a lot of people have faced the issue and someone has made a plugin for it. WordPress is also really safe and is highly tested in all aspects of the web just to make sure it can’t be hacked in any way.
Conclusion
All of these advantages combine together to make WordPress one of the most powerful platforms to make your website. Having such a vast community with plugins and themes is a major reason to consider including WordPress as a part of your business. It’s the most flexible and helpful platform for the website.
Mayank is a web designer and CRO expert at The Website Times. He helps businesses increase their online revenue by making highly optimized websites for them.