Are you considering WordPress for your new website? In this brief WordPress review, we outline the pros and cons of WordPress to help you make an informed decision. By the end of this blog post, you should be able to decide whether it is the correct CMS platform (content management system) for your business website. 

If you are determine that WordPress is a perfect fit for you, well welcome to the club. WordPress is the most popular content management system for business websites throughout the world. Companies like Sony Music, Time Magazine, Vogue, CNN Press Room, The White House, Observer, The Rolling Stones, Jay-Z, Spotify Newsroom, Microsoft News, New York Post, Ted Blog, to name just a few, use WordPress CMS for their website platform.  Around 37% of websites, currently on the world wide web are built using WordPress which is over one third of all websites in the world. 

So let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using WordPress to build your website.

Advantages of Using WordPress

Cost-Effective – One of the biggest pros of WordPress is that the software is open-source and completely free. Sure, you may have to pay for a domain name, website hosting and a good web design agency, if you want it built correctly. However, you will not paying anything to use the software, which, in the case of ‘proprietary software’ like Joomla, Shopify or Magento, can run in hundreds of euros per year. 

Creating Content is a Breeze – If you can use a Word Processor, you can create, edit and manage content on WordPress. With the user-friendly block editor, you can create complex layouts even if you don’t have any technical expertise. Simply click on and begin typing to add text. If you want to add a button or image, just add blocks. 

Good for Any Kind of Website – You can use WordPress to build any type of website including a blog, an e-commerce website, a booking website, a brochure website, a social network, a forum, a portfolio website, a membership website and more. WordPress is extremely flexible and scalable, which means you can start small if you like and then expand your site as your business grows.

You are in Control – When you build a self-hosted WordPress website, you have complete control over your site including all of the data and code. Your data is stored on a hosting service you choose, not on a third-party server. This means that should you choose to move your website to another host, which is NOT the case with many proprietary website builders. 

SEO-Friendly – WordPress is SEO-friendly right out of the box. It offers several SEO features and an array of options for publishing content. In addition, you can optimise your site using SEO plugins that offer advanced SEO features such as robots.txt, XML sitemaps, permalinks, meta titles, meta descriptions, authorship programme and more.

Finding a Web Designer is Easy – There is no shortage of WordPress web designers in Ireland. No matter what your budget or requirement are, you can easily find a developer to build a website for your business. But of course keep in mind ‘YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR’. So for best results, be sure to hire a reliable and experienced web design agency like Insight Multimedia. 

Disadvantages of Using WordPress

We love building website on WordPress. However, there are a couple of issues that must be kept in mind when choosing the CMS for a project. We sometimes use other CMS systems if the project demands an element or custom functionality that WordPress doesn’t cover. But generally WordPress can cover most functionality requests by clients.

There are a few other minor disadvantages to using WordPress (listed below). Although these minor downsides are not a deal-breaker, knowing them allows you to make a fully informed decision. 

No Official Support – Although there’s a huge community that offers ample support and resources for WordPress, one problem is that WordPress does not offer any support channel of its own. That’s probably because it is an open-source programme, which means it is maintained and supported by the community. On the flip side, the WordPress community is so vast and reliable that you can easily find assistance with any question you may have. Also remember if you have a reliable web design agency like ourselves by your side, then you won’t have to worry about getting support as we are ‘your full support team’. 

Maintenance and Security is Your Responsibility – When you have a self-hosted website, you are pretty much on your own when it comes to securing and maintaining your site. WordPress issues updates and security patches almost every month and these updates can have knock-on effect on your website plugins and functionality. Knowing how to keep your website core files and plugins up to date without causing errors and bug can be tricky… you really need to know what you are doing. There are several tools that you can use to handle security and maintenance, but again they can be a little steep on the learning curve, compared with simple small website builders like Wix or Squarespace. It is worth knowing that a WordPress website means you will be taking on more responsibility. However, there’s a solution to this too. Simply sign up for a yearly maintenance contract with your web design agency (or with ourselves) and they/we will tackle it all for you including backups, software updates, regular maintenance and more. 

Your Local WordPress Web Design Agency in Ireland

To conclude, WordPress is a fantastic content management system no matter the size or scope of your project. When you are looking for a website that is robust, modern and user-friendly, WordPress is a ‘no-brainer’. 

Insight Web Design Agency is a leading WordPress agency with over 25 years of experience. We have been in business for over 25 years and know exactly what it takes to deliver results and brings in new business. Whether you are looking to build an e-commerce website, a booking website or a simple portfolio website, then our web design team will work with you to build an effective, modern, intuitive, functional, user-friendly website. 

Get in touch with us today to schedule a consultation with one of our design and development team. Call Dublin  01 679 7617 or Cork 021 432 8060 to get started.

Credit: Emily Murphy (Insight Team)