Matthew Gates http://notetoservices.com 4m 880
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
When a client comes to me and tells me the type of website they would like, I almost instantly think of one Content Management System (CMS) that I know anyone can learn and use. I could choose Joomla, Drupal, or another CMS, but then I realize the amount of training time and effort I would have to put into it if the client actually wanted to learn to update the website on their own. For this reason, I always choose WordPress for my clients because I can get a website up for them within the week, train them, and know exactly what they do to it when something goes wrong.
I had always felt there was a strong connotation that WordPress was a bad CMS and should not be used. I even went as far as hiding the fact that I was using it. Often times, web designers who favor Joomla or Drupal might state that there are security issues with WordPress, and wouldn’t recommend it themselves. They fail to mention that every few months, there is an important update for those two platforms. As long as there are security issues and security updates, it gives me the confident sense that the CMS is actively being maintained.
Now I openly state that I use it for many of my projects. WordPress is completely customizable along with all themes, free and premium. There are countless numbers of scripted functions that can be added to it and plugins and widgets that can enhance and assist with the visual effects and functionality of the site. Each plugin can be customized and changed for any reason at all. Most plugins are open source and do not require any consent to changing them. Some plugins do require credit or a pro edition that can be purchased, but the majority are free.
I have been using WordPress for over three years as my primary CMS and know the ins and outs and how to fix almost any situation. One of my clients has a site that is multi-user with many of her clients logging in through the backend. Normally when there is a problem, I can go right in and fix it knowing that the site may have very little downtime while I fix the issue. I use it for my own website and most visitors would never even know that it is WordPress being used. WordPress can be imitated to look like almost any site out there.
WordPress also has natural SEO features built in and plugins, such as SEO Yoast, can be downloaded to enhance SEO. The majority of websites that use WordPress and some SEO plugins get picked up almost immediately by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines without any issues. For many of my own websites and others, I often find Googlebot indexing every page, every tag, and every nick and cranny.
Tags are another important feature of WordPress which help increase search engine visibility and provide many natural keywords that often get picked up by Google. For one client, I went through each of their pages, several dozen pages, adding tags to each page and alt titles to every photo on the website. Within a month, Google Analytics revealed the number visitors jumped from about 300 a day to 600 a day and has remained steady for several months. That is a 100% increase in a month!
If you know how to use Microsoft Word, you can use the backend of WordPress. Training time often takes me no more than an hour or two and there are hundreds of YouTube videos going over every possible aspect of WordPress. While clients may not understand how to change themes, update plugins, customize the backend and functions of the website, they can very well create a post or a page with a few clicks. I hardly ever get emails or calls for using WordPress after a training session. After a few times, the client gets the hang of it and this can even lower their monthly invoice because they no longer have to rely on me to add or edit pages for them.
If a client ever decides they no longer want to use my services, I do not leave them helpless and wondering what they should do about a web designer. Any web designer who is up to date can easily manage a WordPress website. I feel very confident in choosing WordPress, setting up a client website, and having them maintain the site themselves. It is also great to maintain their website because if you know what you’re doing, you can do anything in a matter of minutes including updates and backups.
If there is a CMS that I highly recommend to anyone becoming a web designer, web developer, looking to start a business with a website, or just looking to have a personal website. I recommend WordPress for its simple installation, ease of use, open source code, easy and customizable CSS and PHP, and its many plugins. On top of that, there is a ton of support and answers regarding WordPress. There is rarely a question or issue that has not been resolved. If you want to start building your website today, choose WordPress. You will never have to look elsewhere again.
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