You might be asking yourself, “What is WordPress and why do I care?”  In this day and age you have an abundant amount of choices when it comes to building a website, but all are not equal in terms of ease of use, functionality, and cost.  This article will help you understand why WordPress is an excellent choice.  First I will answer “The What!”

Simply put, WordPress is an online platform that allows you to build stunning websites and blogs very easily. It is very stable, user friendly, and very secure. It can do everything from a simple blog to a full blown e-Commerce website that sells products. Now, that is what I call flexibility (WordPress can touch it’s toes!)! WordPress is a content management system (CMS). At a basic level, a CMS organizes your content into content types that allows you quick access to add/edit elements of your website. WordPress goes much deeper than this, but I simply wanted to give you a sky-level view. I will cover WordPress more in-depth as the weeks go by.

Now to address “The Why!” There are several reasons why you should consider using WordPress to run your website.

It is completely online. The beauty of this online platform is that you don’t have to install any software on your computer. You could be at your workplace, your sister’s house, or a friend’s house, and at any point you could get on their computer, login to your WordPress website, and make any updates immediately. You don’t have to excuse yourself and drive all the way home or even boot up your laptop with specific software you need to update the website. With WordPress, all of the content exists online – you simply login and make your changes.

Themes! WordPress uses themes (or templates) to stylize your website. There are thousands of WordPress themes made by various developers around the world. This means you have an excellent chance of finding a theme with the design elements you want on your website. Of course you will still want to brand your website to be consistent with your organization. That is where I come in and do theme customizations to have your website represent who you are.

Easy to Update. You will be amazed at how easy it is to update your website once it is built. If you know how to use word processing software then you already have a handle on how to update posts and pages on your website! You can add a new post, type your article, insert an image or two, and publish it. Doesn’t that sound easy?

Expanded functionality. Plugins, plugins, plugins! A vital element of WordPress is its use of plugins. Plugins are apps that allow you to expand the functionality of your website by simply adding that plugin to your WordPress website. There is almost a plugin for anything you can think of: forms, slideshows, security, e-Commerce, fonts, testimonials, backup/restore, portfolios, social media, the list goes on and on. Plugins can be installed at any time to enhance your website. Awesome!

Hope this helped you gain an understanding of what WordPress is and why you should use it as the solid foundation to build your website on!

-the GEEK