You might be weighing up Drupal, WordPress, proprietary & other systems – let’s look at them.
Every system is going to advertise the benefits of their platform, though many won’t talk about the negatives. Joomla might be great for some, however overall we don’t find it a suitable system for the average website owner – on the other hand, there are some fantastic options available for beginner and advanced users alike.
Key weigh-ups: Reliability, code security, extendability (plugins & themes), performance (& caching) among others.
Websites are exposed to security threats 24/7/365, so it’s more than important that you consider how reputable, established and well-used any systems that you’re considering are. At the top of this list is WordPress, with a well-established track record and an incredible usage rate – there are plugins and themes in abundance, WordPress itself is easy to use and learn (with many free and paid self-learning resources available online), and the community is so large that you’re unlikely to encounter problems unique to just your website.
WordPress powers 40% of the internet’s publicly-available websites – that’s a LOT of websites!
Bloggers to companies to enterprises and Governments trust WordPress with their website needs. Though that’s not the end of your due diligence – while it’s a great CMS (Content Management System) that we recommend to many people and businesses alike, if you install abandoned/hardly-used plugins and/or themes then you’re waving goodbye to security and hello to nasty people on the internet. It pays to be careful, so make sure you check the official pages on WordPress.org for each addon that you plan to install. If you’re not sure, let our team know so we can help you.
Then you need to follow SEO and Web best-practices, both for your ranking and for your website’s performance 24/7.
Once you’ve got your domain name and hosting account, installed WordPress and set your site up, written and published your first content, and added some products in (if it’s an eCommerce site) it’s now time to make sure you’re following best practices. Link structures, content value/health/length, and other work can help to ensure your website is found and remains easy to access for your viewers. Make sure you don’t engage any specialists who can’t evidence their claims, as your site could end up in a nasty situation where you need to undo their efforts then get proper help!
We’re here to help, so please reach out to our crew if there’s anything you’re unsure of!
