WordPress is one of the most used CMS tools in the world, powering numerous websites both large and small. Even with its wide use and relevance, there are still some common myths and misconceptions about WordPress that can often lead to a misunderstanding of its potential. WordPress isn’t the one-stop shop for every solution, however, it has, and is, continually being updated to meet a broader range of needs. With this in mind, there are a few myths that need to be addressed to make an informed decision on if WordPress is the right tool for you.
Myth: WordPress is Only for Blogging
Back in 2003, this may have been true, as WordPress was originally built as a blogging platform. However, over the past two-plus decades WordPress has undergone many different changes and updates transforming itself into what is now one of the most widely used, tested, and familiar CMS platforms today.
This doesn’t mean that WordPress has forgotten its roots and no longer provides robust blogging tools, but it does mean that WordPress has evolved to become so much more than just a blog platform. Today you can utilize all the included WordPress features and themes to create a great-looking and fully functional website to suit your needs.
On top of the included tools that WordPress offers, it has structured itself to be a highly customizable platform through user-created and shared plugins. With all these features and options it is now possible to create any kind of website you would like, from a basic personal blog to a fully capable ecommerce store, going well beyond the humble beginnings of a simple blog creation platform.
Myth: You Need to Know a Coding Language to Use WordPress
One of the reasons that WordPress is so popular is the way that it enables the least technical user to create a great-looking and functional website while at the same time providing the platform and tools for even the most experienced programmer to build upon its base. This means that no, you don’t need a computer science degree or hundreds of hours of experience to work with and produce an appealing website with WordPress.
In fact it is continually getting easier and faster for you to get started building great websites. With features like plugins that offer the ability to add unique functionality to your site, pre-made themes that essentially are out-of-the-box websites themselves, to robust drag-and-drop page builders like Elementor, you could potentially have a site up and running within a few hours all without having to know or write a single line of code.
WordPress is a great tool, and although getting more in-depth knowledge of the tool itself and the way that it is working behind the scenes does open up more possibilities and opportunities, it definitely is not a requirement to get started or even thrive on the platform.
Myth: WordPress Websites are Slow
Slow and outdated websites are often more trouble than they are worth, not just to maintain but they can also leave your users frustrated, and unwilling to interact with your site. With this in mind it is understandable that you would want to ensure the platform you are building your website on is able to provide a quick response and up-to-date visuals to gain user interaction.
WordPress does a lot to ensure that its platform performs well. WordPress receives updates regularly that optimize the speed and performance of its delivery system, ensuring that they are utilizing the most up-to-date standards.
source platform, which allows for other users to create and share optimization programs, in the form of plugins, that further help in site performance and speed.
For example, a plugin that we often use at Sanctuary is WP Rocket, which will automatically optimize the code being utilized by the site, even eliminating unnecessary and unused code so that site speed increases. Imagify is another plugin that we use to optimize images on the site, as this is where the most significant gain in performance can be had, given that images are often the largest files on a website.
If you haven’t heard enough ways that WordPress increases its performance and speed, there is also a great benefit in building your site on such a well-known and used platform. Entire hosting platforms have been set up specifically for WordPress sites. This means that the hosting platform has optimized all its features around WordPress, allowing for faster delivery of data across the site as well as built-in features to monitor site traffic and performance.
Conclusion: WordPress is Popular for a Reason
WordPress is not a perfect system; there are definitely pros and cons to utilizing this platform over others. However, there is a reason for its popularity and its large presence across the internet. We believe that the reason is its flexibility and scalability. WordPress allows us to create websites from simple brochure landing pages to full-fledged e-commerce stores all on one platform, allowing us to iterate on new ideas and trends as we learn more about the capability of the system and more tools are continually developed for it.
If you are even considering WordPress as an option, we encourage you to spend some time looking into it further and determining if it would fit your needs.
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