Why I Use WordPress For My Websites
Nowadays there are so many options when it comes to building a website.
There’s WordPress, Squarespace, LiveEdit, Weebly, Wix, and others…
No wonder creating a website feels overwhelming!
Whether you’re planning to hire someone to help you with your website or do-it-yourself, you may be wondering what the pros and cons are for these different platforms. You’re likely also wondering, “does it really matter which platform I use?”
Over the last 5 years, I’ve had the incredible experience of working with countless health coach clients on their websites.
Some of these coaches started out by choosing an “easy” website platform (like Squarespace or IIN’s provider – LiveEdit) so they didn’t have to hire a web developer, or take the time to learn WordPress themselves. They later found out that they just couldn’t seem to make their websites do what they wanted them to!
And in the cases where I brought my web developer in to help “fix” their websites, we often weren’t able to implement all the “best practices” for a high converting website.
While I love the idea of using an “easy” website builder, over the last few years I’ve learned that there are several key reasons to choose WordPress instead.
Today, I’m going to share why I use WordPress for all of my websites and recommend it to our clients.
While there are a number of reasons I go with WordPress, here are the top 4.
WordPress is Flexible
WordPress is built to be incredibly flexible and adaptive to fit almost anyone’s website needs. Since it wasn’t built for any one specific audience or niche, it can have any type of functionality or layout. The sky’s the limit with WordPress!
Drag and drop builders like Squarespace look great only if you intend to use their existing layouts exactly as they are. If you want to move something – add a CTA here, change an image size there – you’re going to have serious trouble and end up banging your head against your desk. For example, with LiveEdit, the IIN website platform, you can’t even move your sidebar to the right of the page!
When you work with a WordPress designer (like us) or choose a flexible theme, you have far more control over the look of your site and can easily make changes without being trapped by a limiting layout.
WordPress Offers Thousands of Plugins
If you’re new to thinking about websites, you might not be familiar with plugins and what they do. Before your eyes glaze over with the tech jargon, simply put, plugins are applications that make difficult things easy to make happen (automatically) on your website.
Because there are so many WordPress websites built for businesses very similar to yours, developers and companies have created plugins to help you build your list, grow your online audience, and sell your programs and services. They already understand your needs and have simplified things for you. Most of the plugins out there were created specifically for WordPress sites, so they won’t work on other platforms.
Many of the plugins are free, and if there is a fee it’s typically not more than a one-time investment of $97.
Whether it be for social media sharing, a list building pop-up,or search engine optimization, theres a plugin for that and it will make your life so much easier (aka no custom code required!).
WordPress Grows With You
Unlike Squarespace and some other website builders, WordPress will easily adapt to your growing business needs. Because the WordPress platform is so flexible, new pages and functionality can easily be added. I know this sounds like a repeat of the first point, but it deserves mentioning on its own.
The “easy” website builders may seem like a great option now when all you really need is an attractive website with a blog that is easy to update. But if you think about your long term business goals, you need to question if those platforms will meet your needs 2, 3, and 5 years down the road.
Using Squarespace as an example, here are a few points to consider:
- Squarespace doesn’t accept PayPal as a payment gateway, so if you want to sell products, programs or services and give your clients this easy payment option, Squarespace is out of the question.
- Squarespace doesn’t allow you to create a membership site, so if you want to have a membership area of your site, where you host an online program, you’ll have to use a third party site.
- Squarespace doesn’t perform advanced SEO or use advanced Google Analytics, so if you are interested in boosting your organic search results or really understanding where your traffic is coming from, Squarespace will limit you.
With WordPress Its Easy To Hire Someone
WordPress runs about 18% of the entire internet – it is the gold standard! Since WordPress is used by most developers and virtual assistants, it is incredibly easy to find experts to help you set up, design, revise, run and manage your site.
This is why I use WordPress for all of my websites. WordPress allows me to maintain complete control over my website so I feel confident knowing that my website looks great and is always working to attract my ideal clients and build my list.
Now I’d love to hear from you!
Post your thoughts and questions about website platforms so I can support you.
