WordPress is a free, Web-based software program that anyone can use to build and maintain a website or blog. It was originally intended as an easy way to set up a blog. But, thanks to the efforts of a large “open source” community of WordPress programmers working to extend and improve its capabilities, WordPress has become much more than just a tool for bloggers.
WordPress is an open source, database-driven content management system that, once installed, allows you to manage content, pages, media, create menus, etc. Generally, it gives you power to take control of your website without your web administrator’s help 🙂
There are four main reasons to consider using WordPress for a new website:
WordPress designs are based on “Themes”. Themes are composed of images and cascading style sheet webpage layouts, and this makes it very easy for us to customize the look and feel of a WordPress site using a pre-existing Theme and a new page layout created in Photoshop. On the low-end of the design scale, you can basically drop a company’s logo into the top corner of the page and you are good to go!
WordPress software allows anyone to create and edit new web pages and blog “posts” using only a web browser. No knowledge of HTML or other code is required. The WordPress editing interface is very easy to use. It works a lot like simple word-processing software. And, the site administrator can grant various levels of access to others, allowing them to contribute to the website/blog. Because the interface is web-based, creating and editing pages can be done from anywhere with an Internet connection.
The blogging features in WordPress allow you to update your website/blog frequently, to receive and respond to comments from your readers, and to allow others to subscribe to your site content using RSS. This is great for your human customers and potential customers. It is also great for search engines, because search engines love fresh content.
There are many more features of a WordPress website or blog that make it much, much better than a traditional “static”, “brochure-style” website when it comes to search engine optimization and social media. And many of these features are taken care of automatically, requiring little or no effort on your part.