WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, powering a third of all sites on the web. When it comes to sites specifically running a CMS, WordPress dominates with more than 60% of CMS market share.
So what is WordPress and why is it so popular?
WordPress has roots as a personal publishing system built on PHP and MySQL. It’s open-source software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and has been under active development for more than 15 years.
Over the years, WordPress has matured from a blogging platform into a fully-featured content management system, providing developers with the ability to create highly customized digital experiences via a variety of APIs.
In addition to custom development, WordPress users can also choose from a wide variety of third-party themes (used to control site design) and plugins (used to add features) to extend their site.
The power of WordPress combined with a thriving ecosystem of product and service providers means that developers, designers, marketers, and agencies alike can create everything from simple brochure-ware sites to enterprise-level solutions.
Why do businesses choose WordPress?
From small and medium-sized business to large enterprises, WordPress is the go-to website solution for a combination of reasons.
OPEN SOURCE
Because of its open source nature, WordPress can be fully customized as either a standalone solution or as an extension of an eCommerce store, membership-only content, or other type of website. Sites aren’t limited in scope thanks to its ease of modification through technology like the JSON REST API and fully adjustable theme frameworks, like the Genesis Framework. Also, because it’s open source, costs are relatively low (there are no licensing fees), other than the costs for hosting, paid extensions, and development.
Gutenberg is a new spin on the classic WordPress editing experience that makes publishing easier for people who aren’t coders or designers.
SEO-OPTIMIZED
WordPress is optimized for technical SEO; plugins like Yoast SEO can take a business’ online marketing efforts to the next level by optimizing content for searchability and readability. By producing fresh content, businesses reap the benefits of discoverability through search engines.
USER-FRIENDLY
It’s extremely easy for content creators and marketers alike to log-in to WordPress and start producing content. No coding knowledge is required for content production either. Any beginner can quickly become familiarized with WordPress’ easy-to-navigate interface.
FULLY-INTEGRATABLE
WordPress comes with more than 50,000 free plugins. You can do just about anything you desire with endless options for extended functionality.
SECURE
Despite common news coverage of security breaches, WordPress core is quite secure. As long as you take precautions like keeping themes, core, and plugins up to date, enforcing strong passwords, using 2FA, and being vigilant about user role permissions, your site will be secure.
OWN YOUR OWN DATA
If you’ve ever tried to migrate content away from a proprietary solution, you know how frustrating it is to not be able to cleanly export data, images, etc. With WordPress, you have full access to and control over your data. All of your WordPress data and content is stored in a MySQL database and any images uploaded to your WordPress site are stored on your web server. This structure gives you the flexibility you need for site migration or third-party software integrations.
Content provided by our partners, WP Engine
WP Engine is the world’s leading WordPress digital experience platform that gives companies of all sizes the agility, performance, intelligence, and integrations they need to drive their business forward faster. WP Engine’s combination of tech innovation and an award-winning team of WordPress experts are trusted by over 70,000 companies across 130 countries to provide counsel and support, helping brands create world-class digital experiences.
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and has offices in San Francisco, California; San Antonio, Texas; London, England; Limerick, Ireland; and Brisbane, Australia.
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