There are many ways to create a website, but the WordPress content management system (CMS) is probably the most popular option available. WordPress-built sites offer many advantages and, although other CMS are available, alternative platforms fail to offer enough features and options to compete with WordPress.
Some WordPress Benefits
Quick and Easy to Install
Sites created using a CMS have always been quicker and easier to build than sites created using a HTML editor, but WordPress installation can now be faster and easier than ever before because many webhosts provide “one click” WordPress script installation. It must be noted that the same option is also offered for many other CMS though, so this should not be a primary deciding factor when choosing to say “yay” or “nay” to WordPress.
Easy to Add Fresh Content
As with any system, a learning curve is involved, but it is easy to add fresh content to a WordPress site. It’s just a case of logging into the site’s admin area and adding a new post or page. Uploading fresh media is likewise as simple. Once again though, this is true of many competing CMS.
Easy to Update
WordPress is constantly improving and the latest versions notify the webmaster whenever updates are required by placing alerts in the control panel. Updating is easy because all the webmaster needs to do is choose to update and let the system do all the work.
Plugins and Themes
The availability of numerous plugins and themes is one the biggest WordPress benefits of all. Thousands of themes and plugins are available to download (for free) from WordPress.org and many more can be purchased from any number of other sources. This abundance of plugins and themes is probably the main reason why WordPress is often considered to be the king of CMS.
Other WordPress Benefits
- Open Source: WordPress is freely available under a GPLv2 license and can be modified and distributed without issue (as long as the restrictions of the license are adhered to). The same can be said for many WordPress plugins and themes
- The WordPress Community: The WordPress community is huge, so it is easy to find help and advice from community sites and forums.
There are, or course, many other WordPress benefits, but WordPress sites are not perfect. We’ll look at some WordPress negatives in the next article.
