Website redesign meetings often start with our clients asking for our content management system (CMS) recommendations. New clients usually fall into a couple of categories. One is they don’t have a CMS and want more control. The more common scenario is they have a CMS that charges expensive licensing fees, is not user-friendly, or lacks flexibility.
What is a Content Management System? A CMS is a web application that makes it easy for non-technical users to edit and manage a website. It also takes care of a lot of the behind-the-scenes work like permissions, proper formatting for SEO (search engine optimization), navigation and more.
So when asked which CMS we recommend, OSD most often goes with WordPress. Why? Ongoing research over the years has found it to be the most cost-effective option for clients who want an end-user, site-owner, developer-friendly CMS. Here are some of the reasons why.
Ease of use
WordPress started as a personal blogging platform, so it was built for non-technical users who regularly update their site. Its user-friendly interface grew out of a focus on an intuitive, ease-of-use approach to managing content. Even novice users can make updates easily using the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Need to add an image or a document? No problem. Just upload and post it.
Tons of customizing options
Even though WordPress is built with the end user in mind, developers love it too. That’s because they have full access to the open-source code. As custom web developers, this is key for OSD. With WordPress, we know that virtually anything a client asks for is possible. However, this is only possible because we custom code WordPress sites from scratch. We don’t purchase templates with bloated code or behavior we can’t modify. We custom tailor every website to our client’s needs. We use WordPress for the content management system, but our designs and solutions are custom built for each client. As a result, our WordPress sites are as unique as our clients.
Frequent code updates
WordPress is constantly evolving to meet the needs of developers, site owners, and end users. WordPress core code (the backbone of the system) is updated on a regular basis, keeping your site secure and current with web standards. And with automatic updating turned on, security updates are seamlessly implemented on your site as they are released.
More users, more developers
Think WordPress is only for personal sites or blogs? Think again. WordPress is hands-down the most popular CMS for medium-size business websites and also has a proven track record of successfully powering major, global organizations. With a market share of nearly 60 percent, WordPress is dominating the CMS world. The next closest CMS’ are Joomla at 8.2% and Drupal with a 5.2% marketshare.
So if you build a site using WordPress, you won’t have any problems finding a developer who understands the language. And because it is one the most popular open source apps in the world, contributors around the globe (including OSD) have developed over 31,000 WordPress plugins that extend WordPress functionality in every way imaginable.
[grid]
[col-1-2]
[/col][/grid]
Sources and more information:
- Market share quarterly trends for content management systems for websites
- Usage of content management systems for websites
- Notable WordPress Users
- WordPress VIP Clients
- WordPress Showcase
- Michael
[/col] [col-1-6 data-mobile="hidden""] [/col] [/grid] [grid] [col-1-6] [/col] [col-2-3 class='paging clear'] « How sound is your field of vision? Clarify your marketing messages with one simple step » [/col] [/grid]