6 Reasons Why You Should Use WordPress

If you’re asking yourself, “why should I use WordPress to build my website?” you’ve come to the right place. You’re probably aware that there are plenty of other platforms you could use to build your website. We’re breaking down the reasons why you should use WordPress to build your website.

 

In a Nutshell

Use WordPress. It’s free. It’s used by over 30% of the entire internet (with second place at around 7%). You can build anything with it. Yes, you the reader and person that doesn’t know code. See Base Camp for getting started with the right WordPress setup.

 

The Long Version – Reasons Why You Should Use WordPress

We’re going to start with a little bit of a disclaimer – every website platform has its place. From Wix to Weebly to WordPress (that’s a lot of W’s), all website platforms can serve a purpose. However, WordPress, more often than not, is the platform recommended for any and all needs.

1. It’s free and open source.
2. You can launch a business over the weekend with it.
3. It is (or can be) very user-friendly.
4. You have full control of your website (unlike other platforms).
5. Search Engine Optimization comes first.
6. Most people use it and why it’s okay to jump on the bandwagon.

 

1. It’s free and open source.

Yup. Free. The best kind of platform. Now, before we go into what open source means, you should know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org – both are completely free to use. You can learn about the difference between the two here, in detail, but to sum it up – WordPress.org is a self-hosted version where you control more of your site and take advantage of advanced plugins, while WordPress.com works great for complete beginners, but it’s not exactly the best for a business that plans on making money. WordPress.com does have paid plans, but we recommend it for personal and hobby blogs because, like other platforms, it doesn’t allow full control over your site.

An open source project means anyone can contribute to it. Since WordPress begin in 2003, people from all over the world have contributed and built upon the platform.

Disclaimer: Although the WordPress.org software is free to download and use to build your website, you’ll need a host in order to have your website up on yourdomainname.com This can be as cheap as a few bucks a month to hundreds of dollars per month. It all depends on what you need. The size of your site and the traffic you expect to your site are two big factors in how much you should be paying. But, hosting typically pays for itself. Want hosting advice? Contact us.

Plugins and Themes

You can typically find free plugins (think of these as add ons to add features to your site like a form builder) and themes (the design elements, layout, look and feel of your site) that will help you build the site of your dreams. The premium plugins and themes are often more well-supported and offer better features. If you need a great theme to start with, we offer our theme and plugin stack, Base Camp Basic for free.

Lastly, if you are new to WordPress, you’ll typically need help getting something designed or developed just right. Or you might struggle to figure out how to get traffic and leads to and from your site. That’s where an agency or freelancer can step in and help out, which, you’ll have to pay for.

2. You can launch a business over the weekend with it.

No joke. We’ve done it before. If you like to move fast, WordPress will move fast with you. We’re big believers in launching fast in order to get your product/service/idea/content out there for your target audience to engage. With the right theme and stack of WordPress plugins for the features you need, you can pick a domain name and have a beautiful site up in no time. With a can-do attitude and all the support you can find online (and in groups like our Facebook Group – Base Camp Website Growth), you’ll be up in no time.

3. It is (or can be) very user-friendly.

Once your site and blog are set up, it’s pretty easy to create new blog posts and share them with the world. You’ll just need to regularly do a handful of things to keep your website in good shape and performing well:

1. Make sure your server is trustworthy (get on a website uptime notification – which sends you an email if your site ever goes down)
2. Keeping checks on security. Because WordPress powers a third of the internet, there are some hackers out there that like to find vulnerabilities to get into your site and hold it ransom.
3. Run backups regularly. It’s a no-brainer. If your site were to ever go down you don’t want to lose everything you’ve built.
4. Update plugins, themes, and WordPress software. Sometimes this is easy. Other times, you may break things. It all depends on the plugins and theme you are using.
5. Manage spam attacks and spam comments.
6. Testing for functionality and broken links.
7. Making improvements in speed and SEO.

4. You have full control of your website (unlike other platforms).

Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, etc. All of these platforms are closed-source. This means you are restricted to whatever features they offer in their premium packages.

While these platforms allow you to build websites quickly, have a lot of great features, offer competitive pricing, etc. It’s a little bit like doing a deal with the devil. They can be a necessary evil. If you build your site on any closed-source platform and ever want to transfer you can’t.

Now let’s say you built an awesome website on one of these closed-source platforms. You are getting all kinds of traffic and you have a brilliant idea for a website feature that will take you to the next level. It could be some way to monetize your site or it could be a custom web application that creates a ton of value for your target audience. Whatever it is the chances are good that you won’t be able to do it on a closed-source platform.

Don’t lock your businesses future into a closed-source platform. Make sure you are ready for whatever the world brings with WordPress.

5. Search Engine Optimization comes first.

WordPress was built with a focus on blogging (creating and sharing content). WordPress handles search engine optimization best practices really well. They use the proper forms of title tags and meta descriptions. There are also many fantastic plugins for helping you optimize your content for search engines even better.

We recommend using Yoast SEO (screenshot below of us using it for this page).

 

6. Most people use it and why it’s okay to jump on the bandwagon.

“Everyone is doing it” – typically not your most convincing reason, but in the case of choosing a website platform, it should be. If everyone is doing it, WordPress must be doing something right. Because so many use WordPress, it makes it easier to find the help and talent you need to truly level up your website game. Thousands of businesses (including ours) have been launched off the quality of this product.

Like anything that “everyone is doing”, you need to be careful. You need a guide because it’s easy to make the wrong decision. We’ve been there. We’re a group of self-taught WordPress experts. We’ve broken a site or two to learn a lesson.

If you need someone pointing you in the right direction. Feel free to reach out to us. We’re always willing to help when it comes to WordPress.

Just getting started with WordPress?

Try Base Camp. It’s our all-in-one solution.

• A one-of-kind, truly flexible theme.
• A stack of premium plugins
• A knowledge base and community to help you

Get started for free.