Top 5 reasons to use WordPress
As a web developer you tend to use a lot of different platforms to build websites on. Everybody has their favorite, mine is WordPress. Just to get it out in the open I have used a lot of the major CMS’s (yes, I refer to WordPress as a CMS) including Drupal, Joomla, Magento, OSCommerce, Prestashop and about a half dozen others that I have forgotten. They all have really good features, but if I am going to be suggesting a CMS to engine a client’s site I always start with Wordpres, here is why:
Ease of Use
This is not for me, or any other developer, I am talking about the end user, or my clients. There is nothing more frustrating than spending weeks building out a site for a client, who in the end has absolutely no idea how to use a simple WYSIWYG editor. Most people are not technically savvy, and if the administration panel is at all intimidating, you are going to lose them. Remember, it does not matter how brilliant your site is if the client can not use it.
Plugins galore
Most CMS’s have plugins available for them, but if you have ever developed a WordPress site you will know that there is literally a plugin for everything. I recently built out a site using Prestashop, an up an comer in the ecommerce world, and while I was very pleased with the system, I was a bit disappointed in the plugins available, this is not to point blame at Prestashop, they have an excellent platform. They are just not as mature as WordPress, Drupal comes close but they still fall well short of WP.
Template haven
Here is an idea go to a template site like TemplateMonster or ThemeForest. Look at the number of themes that are available for WordPress and compare them to anything else. Enough said!
SEO
Ok, this is not secret but a lot of people seem to ignore this. Google loves WordPress sites. If you want traffic to your site, use WordPress and I will guarantee, that out of the box, you will get more favorable SERPs than any other CMS, except maybe Drupal. And I am still not sure the big D can touch WP.
Community
WordPress has a very active community, if you are looking for an answer you can usually find it by doing a simple Google search. Trust me that is a huge advantage over competing CMS’s.
Ok, so now I have you convinced that you should be developing using WordPress. How do you get started? This couldn’t be easier, head on over to WordPress.org and look through the forums and the codex. Or if you are more of a visual learner ThemeForest.net has an excellent video series on getting started on WordPress. Or do you like books, Digging into WordPress has just published a title.
Like I said, a great community.
Summary
So, these are the reasons, I love WP. Do you have a favourite CMS, tell us why. Or add your own reasons in the comments below.
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