WordPress is now running 25% of the web according to a survey by W3Techs. This included WordPress.com and self hosted sites. There are several reasons for this, I think. The first is it’s not hard to set up a WordPress site. Even self hosted it only takes you a few minutes. Most web hosting companies now will do an automatic install on your hosting account. Back in the day it would take setting up the SQL Databases and it was a chore! Now it takes a few minutes to set up!
Why do I Love WordPress? There are several reasons:
- It’s Simple to use for a user – Even fi you have no blogging experience you will find it easy to use. The menu is very much like Word or any other word processing app you would use. There are a few advanced features that will take a while to master but for the most part it’s pretty intuitive.
- Installing is easy – As I mentioned above, now it’s very easy to install. Simply click a button in your hosting account and it’s all set up. This allows you to set it up in minutes.
- Customizable with Themes – Themes can set your blog/site apart. Some Themes I swear you need a computer programming degree to install. There are too many steps. Most Themes are pretty easy to install and get up and running. If you buy one from a developer on Theme Forrest, they will help you with any issues you may have. All the ones I have bought and had issue the developer was responsive to my inquiries. Now there is a live preview in your settings to see the theme before you implement it. Which is an amazing feature to cut down on issues you may have before going live with a new theme
- Plug In’s Add Functionality – Plug Ins are my favorite thing. If you’re on WordPress.com you will not have these. They are for only self hosted sites. Plug In’s help you do many things from SEO to spam control. One of my favorite was one that set your feature image. When I changed a site over to one that profiled a “Featured Image.” I was going to have to go through a few thousand posts to update. After a quick search I found a plug in that automatically made the first image of the post the featured image. I was glad because when the blog was created there weren’t any featured image settings. Another favorite plug in is Edit Flow that creates an editorial calendar. The list goes on on the Plug Ins that can help!
- Set up of Custom Menus – If memory serves me correctly when WordPress introduced menus they were a big complicated to do. I tried it and just gave up. Fast forward a few years and now it’s simple drag and drop technology to create detailed menus. You can use a page, category or a custom URL as a menu option.
- Updated with New Features Regularly – When I think back on the WordPress when I started in version 2.1. The power that be at WordPress have innovated so much never the years. This includes new features and security updates. Is it where I want it? Not yet but with ever major update they bring features that I want. They are constantly innovating. This is probably the main reason I love the platform as much as i do.
If you are searching for a new blog or website. Give WordPress a look. A self hosted site has way more advantages over a wordpress.com site. For more information go to the wordpress.org site!
