Are you thinking which CMS to use to build your website. In this article, we will explore why you should use WordPress as the CMS to create your website. Let’s dive in.
What is CMS?
Before talking about WordPress, let’s have a quick discussion on what exactly a CMS is and what it does. A CMS (Content Management System) is a software application that makes it easier to manage your website on a daily basis. Since CMS provides a graphical user interface, a user with little to no programming knowledge can use it to easily manage the web content. With the help of CMS, we can create and manage a website without even writing one line of code.
Managing a website means adding, deleting or editing pages or posts in the website. You can also upload images in the CMS and display them on the website. We can also write posts and save them as drafts for later use. If you use CMS, you do not need to create a separate admin panel to manage your website. A CMS allows you to easily manage multiple users on your website with different access levels. All the content displayed on the website is stored in database. Since CMS helps in content management, user can spend more time in generating good quality content.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a CMS. It is open source software. If you are viewing a website on Internet, there are high chances that it is powered by WordPress. Everything from small websites to huge ecommerce stores can be built with WordPress.
Is WordPress the only CMS?
No, WordPress is not the only CMS available but it is the most used CMS. Over 40% of the websites use WordPress as a CMS. Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Joomla and Drupal are some other popular CMS platforms.
Why WordPress is the most used CMS and why you should choose it?
There are a number of reasons because of which WordPress is the most used CMS.
WordPress is free
If you have the domain (the URL of the website) and the hosting (the online storage where the website is saved), then you can create a website using this CMS. You don’t need to pay any monthly fees for the platform. Just install it on your hosting and you are good to go.
WordPress is customizable
WordPress is highly customizable. If you want to change the appearance of your website, you can do it by selecting the themes in the WordPress theme directory. If you have the coding knowledge and you understand WordPress template hierarchy and the way themes work, then you can develop your own theme for the website.
Variety of Plugins
You can get a specific functionality by adding plugins to WordPress. Because WordPress is the most used CMS, variety of plugins are available for any functionality. If you have the coding knowledge, you can develop a plugin yourself and add it to your own website or upload it to WordPress repository so that others can download and use the plugin. The best practice is to keep the extra functionality in plugins and keep the design related code inside a theme.
SEO optimized
WordPress is SEO optimized. HTML markup, permalinks and images can be further optimized. Also there are plugins available that help you appear at the top of google search results.
Scalability
You can scale up your website according to your requirements. You can add new pages or new functionalities(via plugin or code) and enhance the capability of website. From a one page website to a blog, from a small business website to a huge ecommerce store, you can create websites according to your purpose in WordPress.
Easy to use
WordPress is very easy to use. Even if you are a beginner and are using WordPress for the first time, you can easily understand it.
Online documentation
If you are developing a theme or plugin, lot of information is available on internet about WordPress and the official documentation is also very well-written.
Help is available
If you are facing an issue in WordPress, you can go to WordPress forums. There is a huge WordPress community that will help you troubleshoot the website issues.
Safe and Secure
WordPress is safe and secure. Regular updates are released and previous issues are fixed in the new releases of WordPress. Also themes and plugin are regularly updated. You can keep your data secure by regularly taking backups.
Conclusion
In short WordPress powers over 40% of the websites. Its cost effectiveness, customization options, variety of plugins, SEO optimization, scalability, safety and security, documentation and forums make it the most used CMS.
