What is WordPress? Why choose to use WordPress?

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that allows you to create your own site quite easily. In addition to its ease of use, it has many other advantages. So here is my Ode to WordPress ...

WordPress is Free, and Customizable

CMS or content management systems make it easy to create and then manage a blog or a website. WordPress is a free and open-source system. As a reminder, installing and using WordPress doesn't involve any registration or subscription costs.

As a reminder, be careful not to confuse WordPress.com and WordPress.org!

There are hundreds of themes available, and many can also be used for free. Everyone is going to be ready to find their style, their universe, and choose a topic that will perfectly suit their activity. And addition to finding an ingenious template among the hundreds available, it's also possible to customize the template, for instance by changing colors, fonts, or plugins.

There are also hundreds of WordPress plugins, with very regular new additions. It is therefore a really economical thanks to creating an internet site while having the ability to calculate a result that's both personalized and professional.

WordPress Simplicity

WordPress is extremely easy to use. It is often configured very quickly and its ergonomics are particularly intuitive. The management of pages, themes, links, media, and plugins is completed in a very fluid and simplified way. It is not necessary to have notions in HTML language or in site creation nor to have a particular knack for computers or graphics.

The interface simply prompts you to add text, images, menus, and other gadgets with just a few clicks. It classifies the content into sections and sub-sections and makes it possible to easily manage the rights of the different users.

In addition, WordPress has become a global benchmark for building sites, so it is very easy to find self-help and support forums. The platform is so widespread that you can often even find the answer to a problem by entering it into some search engine.

Optimized SEO

WordPress is recognized together as the foremost effective tool for SEO in search engines. The WordPress CMS has strong capacities in this area. Its ASCII document is notably optimized with each update and thus the management of permalinks, categories, and tags are facilitated.

Good use of tags also boosts SEO. There are multiple kinds of SEO plugins that we can use specially designed for WordPress. Some of them are quite formidable while remaining free in their basic version, which is taken into account sufficient for many users.

Some basic techniques in web writing and good mastery of social networks will complete the job to ensure optimal SEO and therefore regular traffic on the various articles and on the pages of the site.

Use a Responsive interface

When you see the dramatic increase in the use of mobile phones and tablets for surfing the Internet, it is obvious that sites that do not adapt to them will lose a lot in traffic and efficiency. Positive point: WordPress technology doesn't integrate flash elements, which are difficult to read on tablets and smartphones. It uses the "jquery" which facilitates interactions but also operates on mobile devices.

More and more WordPress themes, even free ones, also integrate fully responsive technology, that's to mention perfectly suited to all or any sorts of receivers: computers, smartphones, and tablets. The responsive design actually allows different displays and ergonomics depending on the size of the screen used. It, therefore, doesn't postpone any user and facilitates navigation on the location .

For industry professionals, creating a site in 2013 without responsive technology is heresy given the current and expected growth in the use of mobile devices. The use of WordPress is, therefore, an asset in this area.

Boost your site

While WordPress is certainly the best CMS currently developed and the one that offers the most possibilities for extensions, it can have a certain downside: heavy and slow loading. However, we all know that a slow display discourages Internet users and has repercussions on SEO since Google now takes under consideration the response speed of an internet site to define its positioning.

However, there are effective solutions to boost WordPress. The first of these is choosing a quality web host. Industry professionals advise investing a few euros more for a quality host, rather than in a premium theme that will have no impact on the speed of display and therefore SEO. To be effective, hosting should include at least 1 GB of RAM, 1 GB of disk space, and the ability to install a recent version of PHP / MySQL.

Also, choose a theme with recognized performance in terms of speed and SEO. You can test these  WordPress websites like GTmetrix.com or Pagespeed by Google. Use a cache plugin (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or WP Super Cache) and a CDN which will take the strain off the server. Clean up your database with the WP-Optimize extension and don't overuse plugins, which add cumbersome to the site.

Use WordPress to do what?

If originally it was mainly used in blogs, it must be recognized that today its possibilities give it a whole new dimension. Small bulk list of what you can do with:

• a Blog, a Showcase Site, an e-Commerce
• a Forum, a Classified Ads site
• an online magazine
• an exchange platform
• a Directory, a WiKi
• a Social Network, an Intranet

see examples of WordPress sites

You got it right, this list is long and growing from version to update. All of this is made possible by the very large community of developers and because WordPress is Open Source. WordPress now allows optimal flexibility and offers the end-user the ability to make updates or changes, publish News, manage Newsletters with ease. So whatever your website project, study WordPress well, it could be right for you ...

WordPress flaws

Besides the possible cumbersome issues associated with plugin abuse, WordPress has a few other flaws. The search within the website isn't really optimized. However, it is possible to add a search extension to compensate for this lack, if necessary. The contact form is non-existent in the basic version. User and media management could / should be improved.

WordPress is also sometimes accused of being sluggish, in most cases it is poor WP usage coupled with poor hosting which together cause slowdowns on the site.

These flaws are not, however, obstacles to the use of CMS. Indeed, there are always ways to optimize WordPress, plugins, modules, and external possibilities to overcome these shortcomings. A real trainer / WordPress expert will be able to guide you to existing solutions for each type of problem and advise you on effective plugins.

Better use it with WordPress training

To start, it is advisable to take a training course. Because if the CMS is easy to use and relatively accessible to neophytes, a trainer will help you to exploit all the possibilities, create a site or a blog that will correspond exactly to your needs, and optimize your traffic.

To choose a good trainer, take a tour of their site, check their references and their real experience with WordPress. Usually, the trainer or consultant will also provide post-installation assistance, especially in the event of a problem, doubt or update. He will also be able to advise you on the choice of theme, extensions, host, domain name, SEO optimization, and the various features available.

In just a few days of training, you can be sure you are getting the most out of WordPress and using it to its fullest. In addition, personalized training will meet your specific needs, which may be very different from those of other users.

Finally, they will save you precious time in personal research and various puzzles to solve problems or questions. WordPress training is an investment of time and money that pays off very quickly given the performance achieved thereafter.

Check out the LySkills.com Video courses by LySkills.