25 Reasons Your Business Should Switch to WordPress Why do 74 million websites use WordPress but you don't?
By John Rampton Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Originally launched in 2003, WordPress has become perhaps the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. Today, WordPress is used by more than 74 million sites that publish new posts every second. No matter the size of the blog that is using WordPress. This widely used CMS has become a favorite among businesses because of how powerful of a tool it is. Just how powerful is WordPress exactly? Check out the following 25 reasons why your business should switch to WordPress and you'll see why.
1. It's free.
Whether you're a blogger or just launching a new online business, the fact that WordPress is 100 percent free is extremely beneficial. Best of all, you never have to worry about hidden charges if your site becomes more popular than expected. WordPress will always be free for you to use.
On top of that, WordPress is also open source. This means that you can improve or alter the source code to create the right site for your needs.
2. Powerful right out of the box.
Unlike other content management systems, WordPress is ready to use immediately after installation. This means that you don't have to "hunt down, install, and configure a long-list of add-ons just to get many of the features WordPress considers core (comments, RSS feeds, revisions, etc.)."
3. Flexible.
The flexibility of WordPress is another feature that can't be topped. No matter what you're using WordPress for - whether as a personal blog or to a popular ecommerce site, WordPress is versatile enough to meet any and all of your needs through its extensive features and extensions.
4. Search engine friendly.
The most popular search engines actually prefer sites that are powered by WordPress because its framework is easy to crawl. In fact, Google's Matt Cutts actually endorsed WordPress during WordCamp San Francisco 2009. His personal blog is on WordPress.
5. Safe and secure.
Since WordPress is such a popular CMS, it shouldn't be surprising that it's a target for hackers. However, WordPress takes the security of its users very seriously. While you can practice some basic security measures, such as not downloading a theme or plugin from an untrusted site, WordPress constantly updates its software to prevent attacks. In fact, WordPress has an automatic update feature ever since the release of version 3.7.
Related: The 7 WordPress Plugins Your Site Needs to Succeed
6. Customizable.
Because of the thousands of plugins and themes that WordPress has offer, with just one click of a button you can customize your site to appear and function as you would like. Furthermore, because of the seemingly endless number of features that WordPress has to offer, you can create the website or blog that you've always wanted.
7. Easy to use.
Another great perk of using WordPress is how easy it is to use. The platform is user-friendly, intuitive and easy to learn. In fact, you can learn how to use WordPress in a matter of minutes. No wonder WordPress is known for its famous "5-Minute Install."
8. Lots of support.
WordPress also comes with unprecedented support. This is in part to the extensive WordPress community where you can troubleshoot any question or concern through the WordPress Forums.
9. Hosts multimedia.
The addition of images, video or audio files is a great way to enhance the experience of your users. Thankfully, WordPress makes it easy for you to insert multimedia files into a page or post. Not only is it easy for you to upload multimedia files, you can also edit files, like images, while in the Media Library Screen.
10. Mobile friendly.
It's more important than ever for a website to be mobile friendly to accommodate smartphones and tablets. With WordPress, however, you don't have to be concerned over that. It's already mobile friendly, thanks to many of the themes being responsive.
11. Integration.
WordPress integrates with some of the most powerful platforms available to give your business that additional boost. Need to launch an email campaign? You can use a service like Aweber or MailChimp. Want to get paid for a product or service? WordPress can work with some of the most popular payment gateways in the world.
12. Easy to manage.
As mentioned earlier, WordPress is equipped with a built-in updater for security purposes. However, WordPress also notifies you whenever there are updates for your themes and plugins. This makes managing your WordPress site a breeze, since you'll always be current on the latest updates. That will keep your site safe and fresh.
13. More than just a blog.
While WordPress earned its reputation as a great blogging platform that can be inserted into an existing website, WordPress itself can be used as a website. Because WordPress contains a post and page structure, you can have daily blog posts, as well as static pages - such as your Contact or About pages.
14. Establishes a community.
Whether it's by sharing your blog posts on social media networks or by communicating with visitors in the comments section, WordPress has the features and plugins to make the establishment of a community convenient and easy.
15. Saves you money.
Remember, WordPress is a free software. However, that's not the only area where you'll save money. Because WordPress is open source and user-friendly, you won't have to hire web designers or technicians to launch or maintain your WordPress site.
16. Numerous ecommerce solutions.
Since you're using WordPress for your business, then you will be happy to know that there are a number of ecommerce solutions that will convert your site into an all-out digital store. By using plugins like WooCommerce, WP eCommerce or Shopp you can easily begin to make money online.
Related: More Than 100,000 WordPress Websites Reportedly Infected by Russian Malware
17. You're not committed to one hosting provider.
If you need to switch a provider or host, either because they can't handle traffic or you're just frustrated with them, you can do it without experiencing much downtown. This is because WordPress works with pretty much every server. If you need to make the switch, I recommend that you review the following article from WPBeginner. There are several free WordPress hosting options as well.
18. Keeps your site looking fresh.
Whether you need to update your theme because you've had it for too long or you're looking to take advantage of something like the holiday season, there are thousands of free themes to choose from. By doing this you're keeping the appearance of your WordPress site fresh for your customers.
19. Can be used as a membership service.
If you want to continue to grow a loyal fan base, and maybe even make some additional income, then you can convert WordPress into a full-fledged membership site. When you create an exclusive membership site you're providing members exclusive content they will find useful. If you want to create a membership site, you should look over this article by Nina Cross on DIYthemes.
20. Schedule posts.
Running a business is an extremely time-consuming task. However, WordPress can free up some additional time by giving you the ability to schedule posts in advance. This means that whenever you complete a post, you can schedule it during whatever time best suits you and your customers. For example, if you have discovered that the most traffic comes to your site between 12pm to 1pm on weekdays, then you could schedule posts around that time.
21. Multi-user capability.
There's a very good possibility that you'll have to rely on multiple people to keep your site up and running. WordPress is aware of this and has made it easy for you to assign different roles for different individuals. Here is a summary of these roles from WordPress Codex:
- Super Admin – somebody with access to the site network administration features and all other features. See the Create a Network article.
- Administrator – somebody who has access to all the administration features within a single site.
- Editor – somebody who can publish and manage posts including the posts of other users.
- Author – somebody who can publish and manage their own posts.
- Contributor – somebody who can write and manage their own posts but cannot publish them.
- Subscriber – somebody who can only manage their profile.
22. Add testimonials.
Assure potential customers that your products or services are worth the investment by including testimonials on your site. You can add this effective technique by installing a plugin like Easy Testimonials or the Testimonials Widget.
23. Publish content with one-click.
Have you just written an article or blog post that you need to publish immediately? No problem. After creating your amazing content, you can publish it with just the click of one-button. Furthermore, there are even a number of mobile apps that allow you to publish your WordPress content no matter where you are.
24. Universal platform.
WordPress features a universal platform. The WordPress dashboard always looks the same - no matter what you're using WordPress for. You don't need to hire experts or spend an excessive amount of time trying to figure out how to use WordPress. In fact, anyone with some sort of general PHP and MySQL experience can use WordPress immediately.
25. WordPress keeps getting better.
Because WordPress hires top-notch developers, you can be certain that WordPress is only going to get better as time goes on. Also, because WordPress is open source, any developer can enhance the user experience so that it can become the best CMS available.
WordPress can be one of the best platforms for your business. Ever since I switch my personal and business sites to WordPress a couple years ago I have found out how powerful it can be. You can do literally everything with WordPress. I highly recommend that you switch today!
