I found myself telling new clients several times this past week the reasons I recommend WordPress for most of the websites I design and develop. I thought some of the newsletter readers might like this information too! I hope so – here it is!

1. WordPress is the foundation of millions of the websites around the world. It is a pretty stable platform. I don’t think it’s very likely that the platform will be shut down anytime soon –something I can’t say about some proprietary platforms that I’ve heard of.
2. WordPress is Open Source, meaning that there are hundreds of people around the world invested in keeping it functional, up-to-date, and secure.
3. Thousands or millions of developers create ever-improving themes and plugins, so the possibilities of what you can do you with your site are constantly expanding. This offers all the functionality most of us would need, without having to resort to custom coding.
4. WordPress was originally designed for bloggers, and over the years its capabilities have continued to expand into a sophisticated content management system. It’s easy for people to update their own content or write their own blogs, if they want to.
5. WordPress is “mobile responsive,” meaning the sites are designed to work well on mobile devices without any special coding, and will be updated for new devices coming in the future.
6. It is optimized and continuously updated for security.
7. It integrates well with social media.
8. It offers simple native SEO functions, to help your site get found on search engines.
9. WordPress separates your content from the styling, so it is relatively simple to change the overall look and layout of your site without compromising the content.
10. WordPress is economical. The program itself is free, and there are many free themes and plugins. Typically, those that aren’t free usually cost less than $100 for the themes, and around $30 for plugins.

WordPress might not be for you if…

1. You have very complex data needs
2. You want a very unusual, unique site design
3. You want full control over every aspect of your site, without having to compromise to accommodate the themes and plugins available on the marketplace.

Our team can meet these needs, but it may not use the WordPress platform.

Overall, WordPress is a fantastic solution for most small and mid-sized businesses, as well as individual bloggers. But as with anything that sounds too good to be true, there are some trade-offs to using WordPress. Although we can mitigate some of that by selecting the best themes and plugins for the job, there are limitations built into all of these tools. These limitations may mean that you cannot have your website exactly how you want it, unless you are willing to undertake a substantial amount of custom coding. (Of course, we can take care of these more complex needs, as well). And as with everything in the world of design, the more clearly we define the goals of the project up-front, the better we can meet them.

Examples of Recent Websites built on WordPress

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Kim Schlossberg Designs created evolutionofSHE.com for long-time client Darlene Ellison. Darlene knows she is the brand, and this new blog is an extension of how she presents herself and her wisdom to the world. Click on the image to visit the site.

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Kim Schlossberg Designs created this branding and website for Weber’s Computer Services, the Lifeguard on Duty in the Technology Pool. Click the image to visit the site.

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