CALL 0438 139 719FREE QUOTE

Why WordPress? 5 Reasons to Use the WP Content Management System

By | First Published: | Last Updated: 18 November, 2023

Personally, I only work with the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) – but why WordPress?

If you have found your way to this article, you have probably started to ask yourself the same question. Overall, why do I recommend WordPress? Because I believe it is hands down, the best platform for small businesses like yours!

Note – I’m talking about self-hosted WordPress websites, not wordpress.com

Here are 5 rock-solid reasons why WordPress is the best CMS for your small business, whether you use us to design your website or not. It is:

Free

Flexible

Secure

Popular & trusted

SEO friendly

1. It’s free

Complex content management systems can cost a lot of money and are out of reach for most small businesses. Yet, WordPress is different. It is an open-source project, with many developers freely and continually contributing to its functionality? That means that it is free for people to download to their servers and power their websites.

The fact that is a free is an important reason why WordPress is the best choice for small business.

But, this doesn’t mean you won’t have to pay anything to build and run a WP website.

You need to pay someone to design your site (why not me). Designing your site involves getting WordPress to look and behave the way you want it to.

You also need to pay to register a domain name and hosting (I can make recommendations with no affliation to any of the providers). A domain name is your web address. For example, websmall.net or facebook.com, while hosting is renting space on someone’s computer servers to store your website on.

whiy wordpress it is free 200x200

2. Why WordPress? It’s flexible

No two websites need to the same. This is why WordPress allows for flexibility in both:

Design

Functionality

WordPress allows designers to creatively combine images, text, colour and other elements to create a unique look and feel to a website. Collectively, these combinations are known as themes. Using programming language (mainly CSS), a good designer can transform the WordPress platform into a website theme that reflects the personality of your brand.

58 thousand plugins in wordpress 200x77

Another reason why WordPress is the best choice for your small business is that it offers a wide array of functionality. Website developers (using mainly PHP) have created over 58,000+ WordPress plugins to enhance functionality. A plugin is simply an addition to WordPress coding that achieve a specific function. They are akin to appliances in your house that plugin and achieve a specific job. Functions can vary from shopping carts, to FAQs and to reCAPTCHA on contact forms.

3. It’s secure

Another reason why WordPress is our CMS of choice is that it offers a very secure platform, with a 5-star privacy rating. Yet, no website is ever 100% impenetrable. But, you can reduce your risk of being hacked if you follow some basic guidelines at the:

Server level

Website level

Personal level

why wordpress good security 1 200x112.png

At the server level, it is really about choosing a reputable host who takes server-side security seriously. Things like server-level firewalls, DDoS protection, malware scanning and cleanup. Furthermore, you want a host on securely encapsulates each user in shared environments. For Australian small businesses, my pick is VentalIP (no affiliation) and it is also reasonably priced.

Your web developer (hopefully me) can also do things to harden security at the website level. For example, setting software to update automatically (defeats vulnerabilities in the previous version), locking down folders others don’t need to access and requiring HTTPS authentication. You can also use a paid service, although, in my opinion, they don’t add much value.

At the personal level, you need to ensure that your own computers are protected from malware. You also need to choose an administrative username that isn’t ‘admin’ and that doesn’t relate to either your own name or the name of your business. Finally, you need to choose a password that is:

Strong (letters + numbers + symbols)

Unique (not the same password that you use for anything else)

Longer than 10 characters.

5. Search Engine Optimised

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO involves doing things that make it more likely that you will rank well in Google’s search results. There are many aspects to this, but one of them is clean code that tells Google what it needs to know.

The coding behind WordPress does this well. So well, Matt Cutts from Google, stated that WordPress is a great choice as solves a tonne of SEO issues.

seo

Of course, your own website developer also needs to use clean code when customising your website and there is far more to SEO than good coding. But choosing WordPress as your CMS is a great start.

yourbusiness.jpg

Do you want a website that looks great and that attracts potential clients?

While WordPress is the best CMS, it may not be right for your circumstances. Wix and Shopify are two alternatives. See: Is WordPress right for you?

shaun killian profile picture.jpg

SHAUN KILLIAN

Shaun Killian (me) is a small business owner, who is passionate about helping other small businesses succeed. He has been working with website design since 2008. He is also an expert in digital marketing, including SEO, content marketing and email marketing. In a former life, Shaun was a school teacher and principal before a heart transplant and bilateral leg amputation led him in other directions.