WordPress is the most popular CMS system in the world, used for building reliable and robust websites. Over 40% of websites are built using WordPress. Originally designed a blogging platform, WordPress rapidly evolved in to an ‘all-purpose’ system for developing websites, due to its flexibility and reliability.
WordPress is Reliable, Flexible and Robust
The best way to develop a website. WordPress is free to use, is backed my thousands of professional developers around the world and offers unrivalled flexibility or function and design. There are good reasons that WordPress is the world’s leading Content Management System.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a ‘CMS’. The internet just loves its acronyms, that stands for ‘Content Management System’. ‘Content’ refers to the text, images, video, etc., on any web page or site. You are currently reading ‘content’.
A CMS is a piece of software design to allow users, creators and developers to easily make and change web pages. There are a number of CMS systems available, mostly free of charge, including (but not limited to) WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Grav and SilverStripe. They all offer different ways of building and editing web pages, but for the most part, all perform the same task: they spit out web pages in a language called ‘HTML’ (Hyper Text Markup Language).
HTML is the bedrock of the internet. Almost every website you have visited is ultimately displayed using HTML. If you’re reading this page now, on a laptop or desktop computer, you can easily see the HTML code behind by pressing CTRL+U. Try it now. Press ‘Control’ and U and a new window will open, full of lines of code. That, for the most part, is HTML (there are also other languages used on the page). You can click this link to see the code, too.
Why Use WordPress?
It’s possible to hand-write the HTML code you saw (mentioned above), from scratch. I can certainly do that, if you prefer. However, CMS systems cut the development time down dramatically and offer tried and tested methods for certain features (contact form, for example, but lots of others).
Once installed on your web server (your hosting company), WordPress immediately gives me the bases tools I need to create your website. I like to use analogies and in this case, I’ll use cars. Let’s say you’ve asked an engineer to build you a new car. That engineer can start to redesign the carburettor from scratch, or he/she can use already-existing carburettors from reliable and trusted manufacturers.
WordPress offers the developer a wide range of ‘carburettors’, with varying applications, but all with a long history of reliability and performance.
Popular: I build websites using WordPress because it’s just so popular. If your web developer is hit by a bus, you’re almost guaranteed to find another WordPress developer quickly, who will be able to understand you website and how it works.
Reliable: It’s been around for a long time and it’s been tried and tested billions of times. WordPress is built on the programming language, ‘PHP, one of the most commonly used languages. The community of WordPress developers and users is huge, absolutely huge. There are also thousands of independent developers creating add-ons and plugins for the system.
Flexible: WordPress (like many other CMS systems) uses a technology usually call “plugins’ to add features to its core system. For example, one very popular e-commerce ‘plugin’ is called ‘WooCommerce‘. WooCommerce ‘plugs in to’ the WordPress system and adds the ability to create online shops. It adds pricing, shopping cart, checkout, payment methods, etc.
Example of Bigger Brand Names Using WordPress
- Disney, books.disney.com
- The Rolling Stones: rollingstones.com
- MicroSoft News: news.microsoft.com
- The White House: www.whitehouse.gov
Web Development from FreeAssortment
Whether you’re looking for a new site, or thinking of updating your existing one, I can help. I have over 30 years experience with web development and online marketing and advertising. I have a list of clients and project under my belt and, through a combination of learning and personal experience, am confident I know the best way to develop your online strategy.
It’s not just about websites. Developing a good online presence is certainly not restricted to simply a website. I can can help with your whole online presence with carefully planned and executed strategies to make sure you get the very best out of your website.