Catégorie : Site vitrine

11 good reasons to choose WordPress

1. A popular platform

WordPress is the most popular CMS, with a market share of 60.8% in 2021 and more than 30% of sites created on this interface. This CMS is in fact a real reference in terms of website design. 

It is an experienced CMS validated by millions of users! There is also a large community of developers around this solution. 

In addition, many large companies have chosen WordPress for their websites. These include the Walt Disney Company, the Renault Group, and many higher education institutions such as the University of Washington.

2. A CMS allowing total customisation

WordPress offers many ways to customise your site, from the look and feel to the number of pages, features, and hosting options. 

The famous CMS offers over 4,000 themes, most of which are fully customisable. However, to maximise the performance of your site and gain in creativity, the use of a "Page Builder" utility will allow you to create a custom design! This is the option we recommend. Indeed, the proposed themes generally include a lot of plugins, some of which are not necessary for your project, and increase the page loading time unnecessarily...

There are also many free and paid plugins that will allow you to add different functionalities to your website (forms, Google maps, appointment booking, chatbot, members' area, ...) according to your wishes and needs.

Some of the best known plugins include : 

• Elementor which allows you to build custom pages 
• WP rocket which allows to reduce and optimize the loading time of the pages
• WooCommerce: which allows you to upgrade your site to e-commerce
• Yoast SEO which allows to optimize the referencing of the pages

Beyond these possibilities, the open source format of the CMS allows access to the source code, offering total customisation of the interface (provided you have some knowledge of web development!).

3. A responsive design  

Responsive design means that your interface automatically adapts to the user's screen size. With WordPress, it's easy to adapt your site to all types of screens, thanks to the many themes optimised for responsive web design.

In a context where Internet users have and use different screens (computer, tablet, mobile...), the adaptation of the design is an essential element to offer a good browsing experience on your site. 

The development of mobile-first sites is also possible, and even highly recommended! In addition to being an important UX element, Google now favours the mobile version of websites for referencing. Therefore, complying with this requirement will allow you to optimise both your UX and your SEO! 

4. WordPress is an SEO friendly solution  

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a set of techniques to optimise your pages for indexing by search engines, in order to improve their ranking in users' search results. 

WordPress is a CMS that makes it easy to optimise your pages for SEO. It is recognized as one of the most practical!

The Yoast plugin, as mentioned above, helps to optimise the content of your web pages. This plugin, which is among the most downloaded on the platform, consists of several parts: the SEO part and the readability part.

In the SEO part, there is a first section including the target query, the meta title as well as the meta description, the slug and the Google preview. Then there is an SEO analysis: length of the text, presence of the keyword in the titles, presence of links, images, etc. 

As for the readability part, it gives indications on the quality of the writing: hierarchy of titles, length of sentences, transition words, passive voice...

There is also a wide range of paid SEO plugins such as All in One SEO pack, SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant, or Rank Math. 

5. A complete blog module 

Initially WordPress was only a blog manager. Although it has evolved into a web design tool, it still has the powerful features needed to manage a blog. The content editor, which is in the form of blocks, has been designed for intuitive use. This allows you to easily add the different components of your article: paragraphs, titles, images, buttons, links, etc.

In the blog editor, you have the possibility to schedule your publications: you just have to prepare your articles in advance and select the date of publication, so that the article is automatically published at the desired moment.

It is also possible to define several categories to separate your different types or subjects of articles.

Although the editor already offers features to make managing your blog as easy as possible, there are plugins you can add to go further. For example, Envira Gallery to create a photo gallery, KK Star Rating to allow readers to rate the article or YARPP to display the articles associated with your publications.

6. Optimized media management

WordPress also offers the ability to manage your various media within its custom library. Indeed, the CMS will allow you to host many types of media such as: images, audio files, videos, PDF files or even Microsoft Office documents. 

That's not all, this same library will also allow you to edit your image files. Although these functions are limited to rotation, cropping or resizing, this little extra will allow you to adjust your images from your personal media library in order to publish them directly on your website.

7. A low-cost platform  

WordPress is known as a low-cost solution. Downloading and using the CMS is free. In addition, there are many themes and plugins available to users free of charge, or at relatively low cost. 

Although WordPress offers these features free of charge, you will be charged for putting your website online. Indeed, the hosting as well as the domain name of your site are paying elements. In addition, you will have to pay for some of the plugins that are essential for creating a successful site. 

However, it seems necessary to call upon a specialised agency to design your site, in order to guarantee the development of an optimised and efficient site. Despite its simplified handling, knowledge of development will be essential to the success of your project!

8. A secure platform  

WordPress accounts for about a third of all websites on the web and has a team of skilled engineers who work daily to ensure a pleasant and secure experience for its users. 

Indeed, updates are regularly available in order to respond to the various problems present on the web. These updates will allow for the correction of bugs and other security flaws in order to guarantee a constant evolution of the platform. It is therefore important to install the updates developed by WordPress in order to avoid as much as possible the threats present on the web. Beyond security issues, they will also allow you to improve your visibility and thus improve the experience of your customers and prospects. 

However, being connected to the Internet, no software or site can be entirely secure. It is up to you to be careful and to respect certain rules, including : 

• choose a complex password
• reduce the number of identification tests,
• make regular backups
• secure your files
• switch your site to https
• choose a reliable host

There are also many plugins that will allow you to strengthen the security of your website such as WordFence. The use of these plugins will protect you against possible hacks or spam which can be common for open source sites.

9. WordPress is suitable for any type of business

WordPress is a CMS that is compatible with all types of businesses, and with a wide range of different projects. From small businesses to large corporations, there is a wide variety of companies working with WordPress. Indeed, the solution is very complete, and can meet many needs, whatever they may be. In addition, the CMS has a wide range of themes and plugins that allow each site to be adapted to its own project. 

On WordPress, you can create a simple blog, a corporate website, a news site, a forum, or even an e-commerce site.

The advantage of this solution lies in its diversity and its ability to evolve: you have the possibility of adding features over time to improve your interface and adapt to your new needs.

10. A large community around the WordPress CMS  

WordPress has one of the largest and most active communities on the web. This community is present on blogs, forums, and even social networks. This social media presence will help users with site design, tutorials, and answers to their questions.

Some members of the community also seek to improve the solution. Indeed, independent developers imagine, create and develop plugins themselves in order to overcome the limits of the CMS and thus add specific functionalities. 

Although WordPress does not have its own customer support (email, chat or phone), the responsiveness of the community on the forums and social networks (notably thanks to Twitter hashtags or Facebook groups) completely fulfils this support role. 

11. A powerful API

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of codes that allows different systems or applications to communicate with each other. Thus, external websites or mobile applications can interact with your WordPress database to retrieve or add information. In short, an API acts as a translator. It allows different operating systems to communicate with each other and, above all, to understand each other.

The WordPress CMS uses the structure and data of the so-called REST API or RESTful. This is a programming interface that consists of a set of architectural style constraints that will define the means of communication of different data between your website and the web in general. 

Thus, the use of the REST API allows WordPress to expand the set of applications for which the CMS can be used. This API will, for example, allow the creation of themes entirely coded via JavaScript. 

Thanks to this API, it is possible to interface WordPress with other web solutions. For example, you can develop a WordPress front office, and couple it with the BigCommerce back office.