Should You Use WordPress To Build Your Next Website? Beginning WordPress Basics
photo credit: Sicos
Wordpress is web software for online publishing. Notice that I didn’t use the word blog, even though wordpress is blogging software. It has been expanded to be A LOT more then that and shouldn’t considered in the same class as most blogging software. It’s a robust CMS (content management system) that empowers every type of website with users that include CNN, Playstation and the New York Times.
With website technology changing daily, choosing the right content management system or simply the actual software that organizes and runs a website is absolutely crucial to your success online. For most websites I’d highly recommend building with WordPress and here is why:
WordPress is open source publishing platform, meaning it’s free and anyone can develop on top of it which makes available countless plugins, bells and widgets for use by any web designer or web developer. If you choose the wrong CMS to use with your website or configure it the wrong way you could easily end up with an outdated site, a large IT bill and no traffic.
Instead of listing every reason why wordpress is so great, I’d rather list the four things that are wrong with most content management systems (CMS) and how WordPress addresses these issues and why it’s such a great choice.
What’s wrong with other blogging software and content management systems:
- They’re not open source, meaning you have to pay for the scripts themselves and they have less developers working on them, so fewer updates, few possibilities to expand.
- They’re not user friendly. WordPress is the number 1 blogging software in the world and has gone thorugh so many versions that it’s become extremely easy to use and user friendly. Other content management systems have huge learning curves (look up drupal) and may need some coding skills just to administer.
- Their future is uncertain – Many CMS’ come and go. With technology changing so fast lots of once robust supported platforms are abandoned or see their development stunted. WordPress is growing fast as ever and just raised 29.5 million dollars to take it to the next level. This is one platform that’ll still be around in 5 years!
- They have major search engine optimization flaws - Surprisingly even in 2008 I run into lots of content management systems with major flaws that prevent them from achieving proper search engine rankings. Even wordpress out of the box has lots of SEO flaws, but with all the open source development there are tons of plugins raning from sitemaps creation to eliminating duplicate content that make wordpress one of the best SEO machines out there.
WordPress is a great choice with a future and is readily available. If you have a static or old website, consider using wordpress entirely as you CMS (content management systems) and moving ALL of your old content into it
Websites running WordPress range from out of the box sites that design. WordPress has enabled people to build bigger, better, badder websites in less time and keep them up to date. . I’ve personally used WordPress to build everything from magazine sites (rismedia.com real estate magazine), to ecommerce websites to small personal sites and large social communities (this one takes MU and lots of modifications). Stay tuned, I’ll be writing a series of posts that address some beginning concepts involved in blogging, community building, and choosing the right software and services to build your internet presence.
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