When the time comes to build a website for your business, your web designer will probably mention building the website on WordPress. Here’s a bit of background on why that makes sense.
Most businesses can benefit from an online presence, if only for contact information and a description of your services. Sometimes buying a domain name and directing it to a Facebook page is all you need when you’re just starting. Once your business starts to grow, an actual website will give your business a more professional appearance.
When that time comes, your web designer will probably mention building the website on WordPress. What is WordPress? Simply it is a content management system (CMS) that’s built on top of two of the most popular and widely supported web technologies (the PHP language and MySQL database software) and has been in development since the early 2000s. As well as a rich feature set, WordPress web development gives you several other advantages:
WordPress Advantages
The main advantages of a website built on WordPress for businesses are:
- It’s easy to find developers familiar with the WordPress platform
- There are plenty of web hosting companies with experience hosting WordPress websites
- There are thousands of themes available for sale or for free to customize the look
- Thousands of plug-ins that add new features and enhance existing features, many can be added by someone with minimal experience with WordPress.
Originally designed as just a blogging platform, WordPress has evolved since 2004 into a complete CMS system while growing the robust blogging features that make adding articles and rich media to it so easy.
Two of the features that stand out are the customizability of the look and feel. Over the years, designers have to build thousands of “themes” (these are software that changes the look and functionality of the base WordPress look). Because WordPress is designed to work with these, your website doesn’t have to look like anybody else’s. Websites as different as The New York Times, Canadian Business, and Techcrunch are all running WordPress.
Alternatives to WordPress
Several other CMS on the market also build on the PHP/MySQL foundation, including Joomla, Drupal, and Magento. These all include the ability to do essential blogging but have different strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Magento is designed primarily for eCommerce, so it might make sense to look into this platform if you’re looking to set up an online store. Finding a Toronto Website Design and Development Agency familiar with the strengths and features of all four of these platforms is essential.
