1. Open Source Software
Open Source software, in simple terms, is computer software with its source code made available by the copyright holder to the public, to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. What this means in regards to a web development tool is that it’s highly editable. In the case of WordPress, this has led to the creation of modifications to the base software that can meet almost any user’s demands. The ability to edit the source code allows web developers to create unique solutions the fit their clients like a glove.
Another advantage of Open Source software is that anyone can work on it. Since you don’t need a license to use the software, any web developer you work with will be able to make changes to your website. So if you decide to change developers after your site had been created, or during the process, you will be able to take your finished or half-finished website to another company. WordPress is one of the most successful open source softwares, and it derives many of its benefits because of its open source nature.
2. Highly Customisable
Thanks to WordPress’ software’s open source nature, it can be highly customised. These customisations can meet almost any needs. WordPress creates things called widgets that are designed to add extra features to your website. This is the simplest way to customise your website, and the official widgets available are highly affective and well-designed. Because WordPress is open source they aren’t the only ones designing widgets, the WordPress community are constantly designing new widgets that do great things. With the imagination of hundreds of talented developers working for you, you’ll always be able to find the feature your business needs.
WordPress websites are designed around things called themes. Themes control the appearance and basic settings of your website. WordPress has thousands of available themes that you can use to design your website, and the community has produced a thousand more. It’s also possible to design your own theme to fit your business perfectly.
3. Easy to Use
4. Google likes it
5. Digital marketing ready
There are four types of basic digital marketing that all businesses should consider using for their websites, and WordPress was designed with all of them in mind.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is a fairly simple concept but much harder to implement properly. SEO is the act of optimising your website so it is more visible to search engines, and therefore increase your page rank. If you use SEO correctly, when someone searches for the keywords that you are targeting your website will show up on the left hand side of Google (the natural / organic results) as highly positioned as possible. WordPress has been designed with SEO in mind. It is very easy to edit the key SEO sections of your website for maximum optimisation. It is simple to insert the correct keywords into the page URL’s, Meta Titles and Tags, photo descriptions and throughout the content.
PPC
Pay Per Click is quite simply, online advertising. Your ad targets certain keywords relevant to your business (e.g. for a florist, keywords could be: online florist, buy flowers online or flower delivery). When someone searches one of those keywords, Google either places your ad in the top 3 results (usually in a light yellow box) or in the results on the right-hand side. This is one of the most directed forms of marketing available online and will quickly bring attention to your website (if it’s done right). With in-built analytics, it’s quite easy to see just how effective your PPC marketing campaigns are, as WordPress shows where your visitors are coming from.
Copywriting
Copywriting is great when done right. Good copy makes your website stand out, and it can lead to greater conversions from visitors. The professional feeling from well written copy cannot be underestimated. If you create SEO content as well, then the extra keyword targeting can drive your business by creating improved search rankings on Google. WordPress makes adding new content easy, through blog posts and new pages.
Social Media
Social media marketing is another form of online advertising, one that has amazing reach. Social Media can (for marketing purposes) be used in four distinct ways. These include driving online sales, driving local sales, collecting demographic information and raising brand awareness. All of these elements rely on the billions of people who are glued onto their social media, whether at home or on the mobile, on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. WordPress is designed to allow interaction with all the different social media platforms through easy to use widgets and basic theme settings. This makes engaging with the wider community easy.
6. Huge Community
7. Cheap
The base level of WordPress is free, how great is that? WordPress offers extra features, storage space, and basic hosting at steadily higher costs. Even the highest level of these packages is not a huge expense though. There are options to purchase both WordPress and community designed themes and widgets for increased usability and functionality. In most case these add ons are very cheap, and in some cases completely free.
WordPress is the web development tool you need.