In 2003 Matt Mullenweg and English developer Mike Little started the open-source project known as WordPress. Rising above the pack as a blogging tool, WordPress has, in 17 years, become somewhat of a phenomenon. WP is capturing over 1/3 of the top 1 million websites with a total of over 60 million installations worldwide. A $300M investment to the company Automattic that and will support improving the modern Content Management System (CMS) proves the longevity of its rise and the ubiquity of its use today. One thing is for sure; WP is here to stay.
The web’s most significant publishing platform can be daunting to the novice, and can still confound even the most experienced administrator. So why choose WordPress over the dozens of other CMS(s) out there, including ones that package hosting and require no technical skill to manage? That’s a question I hope to help you answer in this article. For sure, if a simple DIY website is what you want, choose a DIY system. Professionals, especially in the small and medium-sized private business sector, choose WordPress often enough to make it #1. The compelling fact is that it’s the most robust system, it’s free, and you just need to pay for hosting and maintenance.
WordPress at the Center of Your Digital Business
The content on a Website needs a home—a framework of HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, MySQL, Apache, and Linux. Or LAMP for short. All of these technical aspects make up the server and presentation architecture that brings text, pictures, and video across the interwebs. A website and CMS is a complex piece of technology that is encapsulated and packaged into one open-source project—Wordpress. The software’s open-source architecture means there is no cost to operating it, no license fees to pay, and huge incentives for aligning with the platform as a developer of Plugins and Themes.
WordPress’s massive catalog of extensions and templates, known as Plugins and Themes in the WP vernacular, means extending the website’s functionality can be done with much less effort and expense than developing it from the ground up. So if you need a starting point for a layout, it’s there; if you need a donation or shopping cart feature; it’s there; and if you need a document library or a social feed, it’s there. The library of tools that you can add to a website is quite frankly phenomenal, however, to assemble the pieces and put the professional touches on a site still may require an expert. But, in the long term, the cost of maintaining, upgrading, and updating a WordPress website is far less than any other platform of similar scope.
Beyond the Website: Traffic Generation, and Marketing Automation
Let’s assume you’ve decided on WP as the CMS for your website, what’s next? We used a hub metaphor before, so let’s keep that image in the foreground. All of the activities surrounding the hub are the spokes, and your visitors are the wheel. Your beautiful new website sits at the center, and you’ve integrated tools to help drive traffic, convert visitors, and produce sales. All of the modern tools, including CRM, Online Advertising, Email, all connect directly through Plugins to WordPress. It’s not exactly easy, but it is. Setup can happen in weeks instead of months, and your business can be acquiring new leads and producing more sales than ever before.
We realize this may be a lot to take in. Here at SUMMIT Web, we understand the digital landscape and how WP can help elevate your brand and your business goals across the digital medium. Schedule a Consultation Today