The growth of WordPress.

There is no doubt that the number of websites that use WordPress continues to grow at break-neck speed. There are many reasons for this, one being that the software allows totally untechnical users to build a website for pleasure or business. But another (possibly more important) is that a growing number of digital design agencies now also create websites using the WordPress CMS, as it allows them to deliver fully responsive websites at very reasonable prices.

From data I have seen on the web, it appears that WordPress is the most popular Content Management System on the web today, whilst WordPress itself powers some 30% of all sites on the web.

WordPress has many rivals of course:

• Joomla
• Drupal
• Magneto
• Shopify
• Squarespace

Being the top opposition, but all trail by huge margins (for example, Joomla is said to power just 3% of all sites on the Web). There are many reasons for this, but ease of use AND the supply of the Plug-ins that are available for WordPress are undoubtedly the top two.

That is not to say that WordPress is the very best at everything. For example, it is no secret that Drupal is more secure and is not as greedy for server resources (this makes Drupal a better bet than WordPress for Ecommerce sites that are expecting a lot of traffic). However, Drupal is not as easy to configure and the number of technicians skilled in the use of Drupal is far lower, this making it more expensive to hire them (and thus making any website that uses Drupal dearer buy).

So what makes WordPress the one to choose for your next site?

As you can imagine the list is quite a long one, but as mentioned above ‘Ease of Use’ must be Number One, the underlying CMS being logically laid out and very easy to use. However, the others on the list are also very important, so let’s go through them now:-

• Functionality Through Plugins. A Plugins is basically some code that allows the pages on your site to do other things, like to become a Contact Page, or to run an Ecommerce store. As the name suggests, you just Plug in the Plugin, make any configuration changes needed (e.g. adding your Analytics code UA number) and away you go. Plus, with so many of these Plugins being free, it can be a very inexpensive way of creating a fully functioning website. However, using the wrong Plugin (or not keeping it up to date – see the updates section below) can cause issues.
• Security Updates Always Being Provided. The Internet is a very fast-moving place, flaws and holes being found in website code both by hackers and those dedicated to stop them. The only way to keep a site safe is to keep any code updated, this being very important when it comes to Plugins.
• Search Engine Optimisation. Anything that makes it easier to optimise a website’s pages (so that Google can better understand them) is to be welcomed. Here again, the Plug In’s available for WordPress come to the rescue. These Plugin also teach the user all about SEO and that can be a big help too.
• Theme-based TemplatesThe huge range of professional templates that are available ensure that anyone can have a really good looking, functional, fully responsive / mobile friendly site at a lower cost.

There are surprisingly few considering how complex WordPress is. One of them being that some find even the ‘easy to use interface’ hard to use. To be fair, it does take a little time to become fluent in the use of WordPress, especially with some of the more complex Themes (which is why in the end lots of clients come to Rouge to deliver their site).

Perhaps the biggest issue is that of security, as the very fact that so many websites use WordPress makes them a bigger target for the hacker, just as the Windows PC operating system is a bigger target than the Macintosh IOS.

The need to keep a Theme and all the Plug In’s used on a site up to date means that you have to continuously monitor a site and manually update it (some updates are automatic, but not all).

If you then consider that even these negatives are removed when you use a WordPress web development company like Rouge Media (they are removed as Rouge totally understands the interface and the security implications involved with using WordPress) then selecting WordPress as the CMS behind your next website makes a whole lot of sense.