From WPBeginner – http://bit.ly/1pE7fgF

Often beginners ask us: Why should I use WordPress? Isn’t my old site good enough? Why do I need to switch to WordPress? If you’re asking these questions, then you’re at the right place. In this article, we have compiled a few reasons why you should use WordPress, in what ways you can use WordPress, and who is using WordPress.

 

People often make the mistake of classifying WordPress as just a blogging platform. Although that used to be true in the past, WordPress has evolved through out the years into a versatile content management system (CMS). While you can still use WordPress to create a simple blog, now it also allows you to create fully functional websites and mobile applications.

The best part about WordPress is that it’s easy to use and flexible enough for just about anything. That’s the main reason why WordPress has grown so much in popularity. According to a recent survey, WordPress powers 22.5% of all websites on the internet.

Due to it’s robust features, many of the top brands use WordPress to power their websites including but not limited to: Time Magazine, Google, Facebook, Sony, Disney, LinkedIn, The New York Times, CNN, eBay, and more.

Let’s take a look at why you should use WordPress.

WordPress is Free as in Freedom

WordPress is a free software, this means you are free to download, install, use and modify it. You can use it to create any kind of website. It is also open source which means the source code of the software is available for any one to study, modify and play with.

There are currently 2600+ WordPress themes and 31,000+ plugins available for free. You can download, install and use them on any website.

To run WordPress, all you need is a domain and web hosting. We recommend using either Bluehost or SiteGround because both of them offer our users a free domain and 50% off their hosting prices. Check out our guide on why is WordPress free?

Due to the nature of open source, WordPress is a community software. It is maintained by a large group of volunteers majority of whom are WordPress consultants with active interest in growing and maintaining WordPress. Anyone can contribute to WordPress by writing patches, answering support questions, writing plugins, creating themes, translating WordPress and updating documentation.

By using WordPress you become part of that awesome community. You get free support from other community members, download free plugins and themes, and once you have little experience with WordPress you can even contribute back to the community.

WordPress is Easy to Use and Learn

WordPress is used by millions of people and almost every day new people are joining the WordPress community by creating their first WordPress powered websites. The reason why people quickly adapt to WordPress is because it is fairly easy to use.

Our website WPBeginner has tons of articles written specifically for beginner level WordPress users. We have a detailed step by step guide on how to install WordPress and hundreds of other WordPress tutorials.

If you want someone experienced to setup your WordPress site, then our talented staff members are happy to help you get started. The best part is that we offer a Free WordPress Blog Setup service.

For any WordPress related issue, you can search the web or search our archives, and you will definitely find help.

WordPress is Extendable by Using Themes and Plugins

Most people using WordPress are neither web designers nor programmers. As a matter of fact most folks start using WordPress without any prior knowledge of designing websites.

The reason why WordPress is such an ideal candidate is because there are thousands of free templates (themes) to choose from, so you can give your website any look you want. There is a WordPress theme for just about everything. Whether you want a photography theme, magazine theme, portfolio theme, or an eCommerce theme. There is a perfect theme available for every kind of website.

WordPress themes are easy to customize because a lot of them come with their own options panel allowing you to change colors, upload logo, change background, create beautiful sliders, and do other cool things with your website without ever writing any code at all.

WordPress is super flexible and can be extended by using plugins. Just like themes, there are thousands of free and premium plugins available for you to use (What is a plugin?). Not only these plugins can add extra functionality to WordPress, there are lots of plugins which can add a whole new platform to your WordPress site. Take a look at the plugins we are using on WPbeginner.

WordPress is Search Engine Friendly

WordPress is written using standard compliance high quality code and produces semantic mark up which makes your site very attractive to search engines.

By design WordPress is very SEO friendly, and you can make it even more SEO friendly by using WordPress SEO plugin. To understand you how to improve your site’s SEO check out our WordPress SEO tips for beginners.

WordPress is Easy To Manage

WordPress comes with built-in updater that allows you to update your plugins and themes from within your WordPress admin dashboard. It also notifies you when there is a new version of WordPress is available, so you can update it by just clicking a button. You can keep all your WordPress content safe by setting up automated regular WordPress Backups.

WordPress is Safe and Secure

WordPress is developed with security in mind, so it is considered quite safe and secure to run any website. However, just like the real world, the internet can be an uncertain place.

There are intruders out there who want to get their hands on as many sites as they could. On our websites, we use Sucuri to monitor security threats and we highly recommend them.

WordPress Can Handle Different Media Types

Using WordPress you are not just limited to writing text. It comes with built-in support to handle images, audio, and video content. You can also use for document or file management.

WordPress supports oEmbed enabled websites which means you can embed YouTube videos, Instagram photos, Tweets, and Soundcloud audio by just pasting the URL in your post. You can even allow your visitors to embed videos in comments.

What ways to use WordPress?

WordPress can be used in many different ways. It is open to possibilities. Our site is not a blog, it is more of a business resource website, and we are running it on WordPress. You can use WordPress as the following:

• Arcade
• Blog
• Content Management System (CMS)
• Gallery
• Portfolio
• Rating Website
• Shopping Store
• Video Collection Site
• Membership Site

Note that above are just some examples of how you can use WordPress. To see how other top businesses are using WordPress, visit the WordPress Showcase

We hope this article answered your question about why you should use WordPress. The best way to experience the true power of WordPress is by using it. Give it a try, and let us know what you think.