Why WordPress really is the best CMS around

First introduced in 2003 by founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, WordPress has grown to become a name synonymous with website content management systems (CMS). As a free and open-source CMS, WordPress has proved over the past 13 years exactly why it now exists as the most popular blogging platform in use across the internet.

With the system installed on over 60 million websites, 26.4% of the top 10 million websites as of April 2016, and boasting a market share of 59.5%; it’s not difficult to see that WordPress really is the first (and only) choice of many. “But what makes WordPress so great, Tom?”, you may be wondering if you’re not necessarily well versed in content management systems. Well, hopefully this post will help you to understand exactly why so many people choose WordPress when it comes to blogging and content management.

Simplicity

The key to any successful tool, program or system is simplicity. Now although this might seem like I’m stating the obvious, it’s one of the fundamental principles of any successful blog page. To give a little more context; for webmasters, the admin area of a WordPress site is easily navigable for those that have some experience in website functionality; but for users, the blog and its entries must be structured with the user experience (UX) and journey in mind.

^“Keep things simple and empathise with the inexperienced internet user to ensure that your blog can be easily accessed and navigated through by a layman.^”

Configurability, usability and flexibility

The configurability and usability of the standard WordPress platform is instrumental in demonstrating how truly functional and unique it really is in comparison to other CMS platforms such as Drupal, Joomla or Magento. Whether you’re simply looking to edit posts, build the website structure, access robots.txt or htaccess files, or edit CSS to alter the design; WordPress offers a user-friendly and flexible experience that enables you to make changes to your site with ease. In addition to this, WordPress automatically codes a high majority of the plugins, themes, formatting, imagery and content that you add into the site, which saves a lot of time and resource.

^“Unmatched configurability, coupled with a highly user-friendly back end system and a simplistic approach to website management makes WordPress the most versatile CMS available (especially since it’s FREE!)^”

Plugins and Themes

Plugins and Themes are what makes WordPress so unique and powerful. In my opinion, this is my favourite facet of the entire CMS. Because the platform is open source this means that any member of the WordPress community has the ability to develop a plugin and release it to the digital landscape. However, in many cases, these plugins have been developed by credible and well-respected members of the WordPress community, and can be reviewed by users to improve trust.

It goes without saying that the functions of these plugins serve different purposes. However, from a blogging point of view, there are many notable tools that are essential for increasing online exposure of your content such as Google Analytics dashboard, Social Share buttons and Social Networks Auto Poster. Moreover, from an SEO point of view, nothing truly beats the SEO Yoast plugin, which really is the cream of the crop and an absolute essential for regular blogging.

Themes are another excellent feature of WordPress. Similar to plugins, many of the themes available in the WordPress directory have also been developed within the community and there is a myriad of styles available that are both paid and free, so you can have a fully-responsive and attractive looking site without needing to break the bank.

^“Useful plugins, attractive themes; the WordPress directory offers endless personalisation and appearance options to make your site look amazing and your life that little bit easier.^”

Multi-user & Multi-blogging

The final point that I’d like to make on this (if you’ve managed to make it this far, that is!) is that for larger organisations or businesses that value their content production, the ability to set up multiple users with different roles is ideal for promoting collaboration and learning. For instance, with us being a digital agency, many of our website’s regular users can seamlessly carry out work without any interference. However, one of the major benefits of this lies within content production.

Naturally, all businesses should outline a content strategy with which they plan to create and promote evergreen content pertaining to their products or services. As such, by creating a content calendar and assigning it to different members of your workforce, you can execute a multi-user, multi-blogging content strategy without anyone getting in each others way!

^“Blogging regularly? Then you really need to be using WordPress…^”

So, with all this and more, how could you possibly look beyond WordPress as the ideal choice of CMS for your website?