Built-in SEO boosts
Many website traffic comes from people using search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing! The rankings on search engine result pages can bring thousands of users to a website daily. That’s where website owners play a game of tug-of-war between each other for traffic and are concerned with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO plays a very crucial role in attracting new users. Google and other search engines have a few predefined parameters which help them rank sites. And WordPress handles those parameters effectively.
WordPress, from the get-go, gives you an advantage with SEO, especially in regards to on-page optimizations. It takes care of many crucial cornerstone elements of a website, such as:
- Special HTML markup. HTML markup helps search engines understand the website’s layout and content formats more easily. And some of the latest HTML5 WordPress themes make it even more compelling for users and the crawlers from these search engines.
- Content creation efficiency. Content has become the ideal solution to present your website to search engines. WordPress’s history with blogging made the platform more user-friendly for content creators, ranging from blogging, media, news, and loads more.
- SEO-beneficial permalinks. Permalinks, which stands for Permanent Links, are best utilized when containing keywords related to your content. WordPress makes it easy to customize them. For example, “https://getflywheel.com/layout/best-cms-wordpress-2021” is a lot more beneficial to users and search engines than “https://getflywheel.com/layout/?p3-1”.
- Image optimization. Images are crucial for your website, and WordPress made sure to do its best with images as well. The built-in editor allows you to optimize images with alt tags, descriptions, captions, and further trimming.
These are just a few of the features that make WordPress unique from its core.
It’s easy to customize (even if you’re not a developer)
WordPress powers millions of sites around the world. But does that mean everyone building them is a trained developer? Not really. That’s due to the platform’s simple user interface, easy-to-understand options, and the functionalities present in its dashboard. Anyone can efficiently use WordPress, even people with zero coding knowledge, thanks to its power-packed WordPress themes, plugins, and tools. These help anyone create beautiful, dynamic websites.
Managing the site is even more manageable once it’s done and live. WordPress constantly rolls out updates for themes, better tools, and new plugins that you can install with a single click of a mouse.
WordPress makes up 59.9% of all websites whose content management system we know – is 31.4% of all websites.
There are plenty of WordPress themes and plugins.
WordPress comes packed with pre-built themes, plus designers and developers come up with new themes every day. The increased functionality and SEO optimization make each site dynamic and user-friendly through desktops, smartphones, and other devices. With all these choices, you can make your site look however you want. You can even find themes based on your needs or categories, like eCommerce, portfolio, blog, business, you name it.
We love Flatsome by UX Themes.
Just like the heaps of themes WordPress offers, the platform also provides plugins for all your needs, which is another reason so many people find WordPress appealing.
Plugins are an easy way to add additional functionality to a WordPress site. Some of the most popular ones include Yoast SEO, Jetpack, W3 Total Cache, WooCommerce, Google XML sitemap, Google Analytics, and more.
The developers behind these plugins are usually pretty active, as well, and release updates regularly. These updates can give your site even more functionality, keep it up-to-date, and increase performance.
Most of the plugins would indeed come in handy and would increase the functionality of the website. But sometimes, it gets snappy and wears down the site. WordPress also gives options to disable or deactivate unused plugins keeping your website safe at all times.
Free vs premium WordPress themes & plugins
The amount of themes and plugins available for WordPress is immense. There are thousands of options to use on your site. For plugins, you can download some from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory. But, here’s the catch: there are a fair number of premium plugins for you to use, as well, and these aren’t found in that directory.
What’s the big difference between the two?
For starters, premium plugins are not free. They also usually offer full-time customer support, better security, and increased compatibility with the latest versions of WordPress. You might not need customer support very often, but it’s sure nice to have when you have questions about the plugin and your particular site setup.
Premium plugins also offer more features than free plugins. You won’t always need the additional functionality to achieve your goals, but it’s nice to know there are even more robust options out there if the free versions aren’t getting the job done.
WordPress themes also operate in this same style. There are a plethora of free options built into WordPress, but you can also find premium themes from a wide variety of developers and these companies. The premium options tend to have more customizable options built-in, some “trendier” designs, and again, customer support.
This wide variety is precisely why so many people love using WordPress. For technical developers, you can use advanced themes or plugins (or even create your own). For beginners, there are plenty of easy-to-use options to help you get started. And no matter your skill level, there are other users using the same tools for their sites, so you’re joining a community that can help you troubleshoot.
Mobile optimization
With every passing year, there are more and more users actively visiting websites through their hand-held devices, but many sites still aren’t optimized for different screen ratios and fast-paced loading. Luckily, between some built-in WordPress functionality and most WordPress themes, your site will be packed with mobile features right off the bat.
From site design to image scaling, as long as you have a responsive WordPress theme, most of these essential features will naturally happen – no extra coding required. This will help both users and search engines access your site on all devices, leading to a great user experience no matter the screen size.
Google also prioritizes mobile experience for their ranking criteria, so if you want your site to show up in mobile search results, this is incredibly important.
Between WordPress themes and plugins, it’s straightforward to create a mobile-friendly website. It’s no wonder more than 40% of websites use it!
WordPress security
Despite how many websites around the world are created with WordPress, they maintain a high level of security. Of course, there are always loopholes hackers could exploit (this is true of any CMS), but WordPress regularly releases security updates to protect your site from any vulnerabilities.
By regularly updating your site to the latest WordPress version and using themes and plugins that you trust, you can significantly minimize security risks.
Integrate with other software tools
If you’re building a website, you probably have a goal – maybe it’s simply to showcase your work online, generate leads for your business, or streamline information for your users. No matter the goal, you’re probably using a few other apps to achieve them, like social media platforms, email marketing tools, or analytics applications.
WordPress is such a popular platform that many of the other online tools you use will have an integration for it. Whether it connects via an API or a plugin, the process to combine these tools in your workflow is simple.
The WordPress community keeps growing.
As the numbers suggested earlier, of sites with a known CMS, nearly 60% are using WordPress. The WordPress community can’t be rivalled anytime soon, and it’s only continuing to grow. With new SEO features, improved dashboard functionality, and UI updates coming in the future, the platform is only getting better and better.
“It’s a no-brainer that you should use WordPress as your CMS in 2021 (and beyond!). ”
What do you say, are you convinced? Why are you sceptical of WordPress? Or if you’re already using it, why do you love it? Let me know in the comments below; let’s build a better community.
