We love WordPress. That’s not earth shattering news. I was taking my daughter to get her French horn repaired yesterday and was chatting with the owner of the shop who was having some website issues and he told me he used Joomla. I told him my own website was once in Joomla, but we switched to WordPress many years ago.
He then went on to tell me about a professional conference he attended and how one of the sessions was on the importance of your web presence and they had all kinds of resources and templates for pros in his field. And they were all in WordPress. He asked, “Do you have any of these in Joomla?” And the answer was no.
Why is that? WordPress dominates the market with nearly 30% of all websites in the world using it. Joomla comes in second with 3.1%. That’s a pretty dramatic difference, right? So why are so many people using it and what are the benefits? Let me count the ways!
It’s easy!
The main reason we switched from Joomla to WordPress so many years ago was because it’s easy for website owners to update their content. Don’t get me wrong, if you want a specific design and you aren’t a web pro, then it’s not easy. But in terms of opening a content page, making changes and saving? If you can edit a Word doc, you can edit WordPress.
It has a wonderful community.
This is, for me, the most important aspect of working in WordPress. I feel so lucky that I stumbled into WordPress after several other CMS fails, before I even knew about the people in the community. There are a LOT of people using and developing with WordPress. So there is no lack of resources. If you want to know something, the answer is probably out there already. And if not, if you ask, someone is always willing to help you. I call it my “Nerd Network” and have met so many fabulous people that I always have someone to ask for help, chat with, or refer to when I need it.
And it has many specialists. If you need something specific, there’s someone who does that already and would be happy to help you.
It has a ton of plugins.
WordPress out of the box is pretty basic, but once you dig in, there are thousands of plugins that extend what it can do. While it was once a tool for blogging, for sharing and distributing new content, now it can do virtually anything. Need a membership site? Need help with SEO? Want photo galleries or a shopping cart? There are plugins for all of that and tons of other things that I haven’t even though about it.
Google loves WordPress
WordPress is highly attractive to search engines, it’s true. It’s set up to let search engines know about your content, help them find it, and can be expanded with SEO plugins like Yoast.
It’s no secret that I love WordPress and I could probably write for hours on all the ways it’s wonderful. If you have an opportunity, sign up for a WordCamp near you to learn more and meet some great people.
Amy Masson
Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.