Log onto a website, and chances are it’s hosted by WordPress. More than 73 million websites use it, according to Yoast. The sheer flexibility of WordPress served it well in its rise to dominance, as it isn’t typecast into being “just” a blogging script. It can also power a magazine website, e-commerce stores and enterprise intranets. Many web hosts support it through one-click and integrated installation processes, WebHostingBlueBook.com reports. Here are five reasons you should install WordPress the next time you build a website:
User-Friendly Installation
Many web hosts, especially those that use cPanel as a control panel option, offer one-click WordPress installations. You input your desired administrator username and password, choose the domain or sub-domain you’re installing it on, and click the installation button. The control panel does the rest of the installation configuration for you. WordPress prides itself on its short installation times, and even Web novices won’t have much trouble.
Active Community
With a user base in the tens of millions, it’s no surprise WordPress has a large and active community. If you have a question or concern about your WordPress installation, you likely will be able to find help through the community forums or one of the many WordPress resource sites. There are general communities, such as those at WordPress’ own forums, as well as niche communities that focus on specific WordPress elements, like theme design or search engine optimization.
Flexible Framework
The open source nature of WordPress allows it to be used in increasingly flexible ways. It started off as a simple blogging script, but over the years it has expanded to become a full-fledged content management system suitable for almost every content-driven website on the market. Personal and business users alike rely on WordPress, and the scalability allows it to keep up with high-traffic websites. According to StudioPress, 61 percent of developers use WordPress as a content management system.
Easy Administration
The WordPress back-end is easy to learn. Everything is laid out in a logical navigational structure that divides functions into specific categories. If you don’t want to do anything with your blog other than create posts and pages, that option is at the very top, and you can ignore the rest of the features. The WordPress administration panel also makes it easy to sort through your signed-up users, adjusting their permissions or banning them from your site entirely. The back-end also makes it easy to add new plug-ins, themes and updates to your site.
Free and Paid Plug-ins
The WordPress plug-in repository has hundreds of plug-ins created by users and developers. There are also plenty of programmers who don’t bother putting their plug-ins on the repository, and instead sell them directly. These plug-ins enhance WordPress features in various ways. For example, Woo Themes offers an extensive e-commerce plug-in that is competitive with full fledged e-commerce scripts. Other plug-ins include instant messengers for your blog site, search engine optimization tweaks and enhanced photo galleries.
Have you ever used WordPress for one of your blog sites before?
