Here at CuCo, we love using WordPress as a CMS – we use it power our own site and that of most of our clients. The simplicity of the admin side of WordPress means that our clients not only receive an excellently designed and built website from us but they are also able to easily edit the site themselves.

WordPress is currently the most popular CMS in use on the internet – with over 50 million WordPress powered sites Worldwide. It is used by over 14.7% of Alexa internet’s ‘top 1 million’ websites and as of August 2011 powers 22% of all new websites.

Some well known brands that use WordPress are:

  • Pepsi
  • Nokia
  • Nikon
  • Sony
  • Reuters
  • The New York Times
  • Fisher Price
  • And…CuCo!

An example of a website we’ve recently produced can be found here – the client contacted us because they specifically wanted a website using WordPress.

Here are 10 reasons why WordPress is so popular and why we use it for most of our clients:

  1. It’s free and cost-effective
    The most obvious advantage of WordPress is that the source code is completely free and doesn’t come with any hidden costs. This makes it a very cost-effective code base to choose if you require a new or re-designed website and one which you can easily edit yourself.
  2. Very user-friendly
    Once we’ve completed a website for a client using WordPress they can easily update content themselves, using a ‘simple text editor’ which allows you to make quick and easy changes without having to come back to us (although we are always on the other end of the phone if any help is required at any stage!).
  3. Brilliant for search engine optimisation
    The coding and structure of WordPress means that it is great for search engines. Plus, WordPress comes with several built in SEO tools, including the ability to use .htaccess to create apparently static URLs called permalinks, blogrolling and pinging. There are also a number of third party plugins and hacks which can be used for SEO.
  4. Fully customisable
    As well the excellent functionality which comes with the basic package of WordPress you are also able to add plug-ins to fully customise your site; photo galleries, sliders, shopping carts, forums, maps, forms – the list is virtually endless. The most popular ones which we use for clients are contact forms, twitter feeds and newsletter subscriptions.
  5. Built in blog
    With blogs becoming more popular by clients as a way of improving rankings on search engine sites such as Google, the WordPress blog functionality is one of the best. It allows for; categories, tags, threaded commenting, easy theming, widgets and anti-spam solutions – plus much more!
  6. Easily accessible from anywhere
    WordPress sites are usually built on relatively simple and accessible technologies. The web pages render HTML and CSS allowing them to show up on iPhones, Blackberrys, Android, iPad etc. It’s also easy for alternative browsers such as text only browsers which are excellent for those with disabilities.
  7. Your website can stay current
    With WordPress you can easily update to the current version – just by clicking a button. With no worries about compatibility with other software and networks.
  8. Interaction with visitors
    The WordPress blog allows visitors to leave messages or posts which means you can have interaction with potential and current clients.
  9. Multiple users
    Your company may need to have several people updating your site – for instance different blog authors. With WordPress you can easily create individual accounts for each user and assign them with different access levels.
  10. Support
    WordPress is supported by a large base of developers who are constantly improving the offering – which means you are always getting improvements in technology, completely free.

WordPress 3.3 has now been released here are the top five things you need to know about the latest version:

New media uploader – the uploader now allows you to drag and drop, so it’s easy to get video and photos onto your blog.
Pop-up menus – forget endlessly scrolling through menus trying to find what you need, hidden options now pop-up with a mouse scrollover.
iPad optimised – so you can blog from the comfort of your tablet.
Improved co-editing – when that pop-up “Mike is currently editing this post” crops up, it now actually means he is editing that post, not that he was looking at it an hour ago.
Tumblr import – You could always import your other social media, but now Tumblr has been added, making filling your site with endless images much easier.

The above points are just the main advantages of using WordPress for your CMS – to find out just how it be beneficial for you, our experts are here to help! Get in touch today