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Website Development with WordPress: Pluses and Minuses

WordPress is an extremely popular content management system - and there are lots of reasons for that

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Website Development with WordPress: Pluses and Minuses

WordPress is an extremely popular content management system - and there are lots of reasons for that. There can be said a lot about what's good about it, namely it`s easy and affordable to use. At the same time, it doesn't offer a universal solution and still has its undercurrents. Experienced provider of custom WordPress development services, we know about WordPress` advantages that would encourage to use it and its flaws which might make it less advantageous to use.

Free= affordable

Plus: You don’t need to spend a fortune for a site, it can be even hosted absolutely for free at wordpress.com.

Minus: Free is free, that's a good thing!

A rich selection of templates for unique design

Plus: You don't have to recruit a designer to give special touches to your site as there are plenty of templates to pimp it up and give it an unique look. Next to the attractive visuals, WordPress` templates give an opportunity to resolve complex programming issues thanks to their built-in functions. The recent templates are also quite responsive and mobile friendly.

Minus: Templates are still quite general and while they might seem a great choice to site`s design, they won't match completely. That's why the choice of a simple template might require additional elaboration by a competent web developer to fine-tune it according to specific branding. Such a customization is time consuming and might also slow down the site`s speed.

Numerous plugins to boost the functionality

Plus: Even without technical command, you would often find a suitable plugin to endorse and boost the site`s functionality. Plugins imply a whole bunch of things like creating a slideshow or launching a complex online store. WordPress offers 50k+ various plugins to choose from.

Minus: WordPress isn`t geared towards high-performance, so supplementary plugins can inhibit its functioning even more. And while they boost the site`s functionality, they also reduce or aggravate its performance. Besides, some plugins would stop working after upgrading the theme or the whole WordPress setting as they are not fixed regularly and created by individuals. This involves quite some time for adapting a site after each such upgrade to ensure proper working of a website.

SEO-friendly with built-in search

Plus: With its built-in search function, WordPress makes search engine optimization (SEO) quite easy. This function can be installed to all site's pages. Next to that, one can also tag the content, make custom keyword-based URLs, and utilize trackbacks and pingbacks thanks to which the site would be efficiently featured in online searches.

Minus: This search is rather limited and doesn`t have advanced search settings. Its results are sorted by date, not by relevance. To boost the search capacities, one can use Google Site Search on a website. Besides, for advanced SEO tasks one might still consider using search optimization plugins.

Effortless site updates

Plus: WordPress is not only uncomplicated to use, it is also easy to update. You can effortlessly include new pages, posts, and images to the existing site once it is designed. This doesn't involve technical experience and a brief training would be sufficient even for the tech dummies.

Minus: The added content can be interpreted in a lot of ways, and not necessarily how you would prefer it to be. If pasted from Word, it would involve garbage code. If edited in text/source mode, it might be continuously cleaned up by WordPress. If things get messed up, you`d need to correct the HTML by hand.

PHP- and MySQL-based structure

Plus: If you are a confident developer, you can fully customize a site and adapt the code whenever it's needed. In essence, it's open-source.

Minus: However, if you aren't a developer or master only HTML, customization would be much more challenging. WordPress utilizes its own PHP syntax and functions which are quite tricky even for the competent PHP coders. Additionally, it's impossible to preview a post in a browser without a set-up WordPress testing server.

Frequent software upgrades

Plus: As an open-source system involving lots of developers, WordPress undergoes frequent upgrades. They improve security issues, add cutting-edge features, and update themes and plugins.

Minus: While updates fix some issues, they unchain others. It's highly recommended to make a backup, update in a staging setting, and test all the details there before rolling out a live site update. This would spare you needless worries and surprises related to updates which can turn into downgrades if things go sour.

Vast user community

Plus: 60% of content management systems or approximately 75 million websites are built on WordPress nowadays. On the top of that, it has 40 international translations, and this number is constantly growing. The extensive user community can stand by if some challenges occur. There are high chances that the issues you face are not individual but rather common, so there is a vast community to ask for support.

Minus: No disadvantages here!

Great for blogging and updates

Plus: WordPress is the system to use for dazzling content creation, timely updates, and continuous visitors` engagement. It`s beneficial for keeping content fresh at ease and adding new pages and posts, displaying recent content up top, and fast pages` update.

Minus: All the parameters that enable easy content changes might be detrimental for sites that don't need frequent updates. Theme functionality, plugins, and database queries can cause slower load and response times. Therefore, if a site doesn`t demand frequent changes, a simple HTML site might be a better fit.

Content Management System (CMS) at work

Plus: It can be utilized as a simple CMS, and it is relatively standards-compliant. Besides, no special training is needed to add fresh pages and posts. Supplementary CMS functionality can be added to the site thanks to manifold plugins. The site can be managed by users with diverse roles and different access capacities. By the way, only one user can edit the same content at the same time.

Minus: WordPress isn`t a full-fledged CMS, though with extra effort, solid CMS functions might be added to it. For instance, it lacks workflow management or user roles tracking.

twentyfifteen: what`s about it?

Plus: “Twentyfifteen” is the recently issued official WordPress theme. It's quite streamlined, responsive, free, and great in operation with the latest WordPress version.

Minus: “Twentyfifteen'' looks as if it was made some time ago. Some of its responsive features don’t correspond with the widely used mobile devices. To create modern designs in “Twentyfifteen'', some workarounds would be required.

Bottom Line

To sum up, building a site with WordPress is clear-cut, particularly if an existing template is used as a departure point for buildout. Yet web development proficiency is needed to customize the template`s look and functionality.

It’s a great idea to know the advantages of the WordPress platform as well as the points at which it lags behind. In such a way, you would have realistic expectations when you start working with WordPress. If the WordPress’s strengths which we mentioned correspond to your priorities and you need an easily manageable and frequently updated website, then it might be the optimal choice. However, if you search for a clear-cut CMS, highly customized page layouts, and minimal content creation options, you might consider opting for a straight HTML website.

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