Why Use WordPress? 12 Reasons You Should Care About

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Are you thinking about starting a blog? But perhaps you are not sure if WordPress is right for your blog or website.

I mean, why use WordPress? What is so great about it anyway?

Well, believe it or not, 34.4% of all websites on the internet are using WordPress in 2022. Including popular websites, such as:

• BBC
• Sony Music
• Disney
• TechCrunch
• Mozilla
• Microsoft
• Playstation
• AMC
• Blackberry
• Flickr
• Facebook and more!

This is a huge amount when you think about it. And if so many websites are using WordPress as their platform of choice. Then they can’t all be wrong, can they?

So, the real question is what are the benefits of WordPress? That is resulting in so many websites out there using it.

But before we look at the reasons why so many people are using WordPress. Let’s go over some basics.

What Is WordPress And How Does It Work

Firstly, it is important to understand. That WordPress websites can be broken down into either WordPress.org (self-hosted). Or WordPress.com websites. 

You should make sure to know the differences between them. Otherwise, you could make the mistake of starting your blog on the wrong platform!

In short, though, WordPress.org is self-hosted. Meaning it requires web hosting and a domain to complete your setup. Whereas WordPress.com is free to start with but comes with a lot of limitations. Especially if you want to monetize your blog later.

For this blog post, we will be focusing on the benefits of using a WordPress.org blog.

What Is A CMS?

Okay, so you may have also heard. That WordPress is considered a CMS (Content Management System). Which makes up the framework, and structure of your blog.

Simply put, it is just a fancy way of saying – you can use it to manage all the content you create for your blog. Including pages and posts. As well as other things such as your blog’s features, design, and properties.

All this you control, by using the easy to use WordPress dashboard. That comes included with it.

Right with the basics out of the way. Let’s take a look at the top reasons to use WordPress for your blog in 2019!

1 | WordPress Can Help You Look Like A Pro & Build Trust With Your Audience

First impressions are important even when it comes to your blog. Your audience will quickly decide whether they want to stick around. Which is why you should always put your best foot forward first.

You don’t want your visitors to leave your blog as soon as they have arrived.

But why use WordPress for blogging? Well, one of the top reasons to use WordPress. Is it can help you and your blog to look professional. Compared to free platforms out there. As often these free platforms are very basic in terms of features and design.

But more obviously, is that with a self-hosted WordPress blog. You will be using your own domain name. This might not seem like much at first. However, compared to a free platform, where your domain name might be “myblog19854.blogspot.com”. This can really speak volumes.

Try to think of it like this. If you went to a blog and it had a URL like this. What would be your thoughts?

Does it look spammy or suspicious?

Would you trust the information on the blog?

Could you take the blogger serious?

Would you ever buy anything this blogger recommended?

Worst of all, wouldn’t you know that the blog is on a free platform? And the fact that the blogger wasn’t willing to invest in their blog.

I bet many of these thoughts would cross your mind. Even if just subconsciously. And the same is true for most others out there. 

Which is why it is so important to go the self-hosted route. So you can get a professional-looking domain name. With a platform that is easy to customize and look professional too. 

That way your audience is much more likely to take you serious as you’ll look like an expert in your niche.

2 | WordPress Makes Building Websites & Blogs A Breeze

Does the idea of building a website from scratch scare you? It can seem like a daunting task. When you have no idea how to build a website and you’ve never so much as looked at code your entire life.

Well, don’t worry. One of the benefits of WordPress is that it makes building a blog from scratch a breeze. Even if you know zero code.

How exactly does this work? Well, a lot of the code and building blocks are given to you pre-built. You just never see the code side of it.

All you need is to get familiar with the WordPress dashboard. Then you can use the menus within it to choose a Theme to style your blog with. Add features using WordPress plugins. As well as create content in the form of posts using the Gutenberg editor.

Want to add a contact form to your blog? Don’t worry there is a plugin for that.

Looking to make your blog girly with a full-width image across the top? There is probably a Theme for that too.

Want a quick way to add an email opt-in form directly into your blog posts? Well, the editor can help you do that.

Anything you want to add to your blog. You’ll probably find that someone else has already built it. So you can use it on your blog too.

3 | One Of The Benefits Of WordPress Is That It Is Widely Supported

You know how I mentioned that WordPress powers 34.4% of the internet? Well, one of the benefits of this. Is that is means it is extremely popular.

And since it is so popular. This also means that it is widely supported!

Which makes your life much easier. As you have plenty of options for web hosting that supports WordPress. As well as active support forums, like WordPress.org.

You can even find plenty of blogs that talk about how to use WordPress. Plus Google will always fetch you tons of results if you give it your questions.

With so many solutions and tutorials a simple click away. You won’t be short for help if you ever get stuck.

4 | WordPress Can Help You Build A Unique Blog The Easy Way

For complete beginners to the blogging world. It can be a bit intimidating to know where to start with building a unique blog.

But with WordPress, it is much easier than you think. In fact, you could be setup and ready to start working on your blog in as little as 15 minutes.

Sure, WordPress itself can seem daunting and complex. But it is simply a fact, that there is a lot you can do with it. In general though, it is one of the easiest platforms to learn. Especially if you think about the lack of coding required.

WordPress won’t just help you build a blog though. It will help you build a blog that is unique too. As it has a massive amount of easy to use customization features. All of which is a lot cheaper than paying for expensive designer fees.

Think about it this way, you have access to tons of WordPress theme choices. Which gives the overall look and feel of your blog. But you can also customize your theme even further as they all have individual settings too.

And you know what? If you ever change your mind on the appearance of your blog. You can change it with a quick switch of your theme. This is just one of the many benefits of WordPress that can make your blog more unique.

Also, there is almost every feature you can think of covered by WordPress plugins. You are not restricted like using free platforms. Where you can only change a few color settings and not much of the overall design.

Which brings me to my next point.

5 | You Have Complete Control Of Your Blog

Why use WordPress? Well, having complete control over your blog is one of the top reasons to use WordPress if you ask me. In fact, it is probably one of the biggest benefits of WordPress you can have. Most importantly though, you own your data.

And yet so many bloggers out there are willing to give this advantage up. By going with free platforms instead.

Believe it or not, those free platforms that sound too good to be true. Usually, are. Because they heavily restrict what you can do with your blog.

Emphasis on your blog.

After all, it is your content, your writing and your ideas you are putting out there. Why would you want to do that on a platform that can take it all away from you?

Not sure what I am talking about? Well, think of it this way.

If You Use A Free Blogging Platform You Are Giving Up Control

When you are blogging on a free platform like Blogger. They own your blog. And if they decide that you are breaking one of their many rules. They can and will delete your blog.

Shocking, right?

So, if it is important to you to have control of your ideas. And ensure your content is not deleted because you broke some obscure rule. Then self-hosted WordPress is the way to go.

This isn’t the only case where you have more control with WordPress compared to other platforms though.

If you wanted to, you can even go the full coding route if you want. None of the coding is ever locked away for you. As WordPress is completely open-source.

Unlike platforms like Squarespace. Which are closed-source instead. So there will be certain things you can’t edit. And you are completely reliant on the features and tools they give you. No independent developers are creating a wide range of plugins for you to use.

6 | SEO Friendly

Did you know? Google loves WordPress websites. Because their structure is super friendly for their crawlers to explore your blog. So Google can map everything into it’s index with minimal effort. All because WordPress always has the best coding practices in mind.

This isn’t the only way that WordPress is SEO friendly though. WordPress is also a light-weight platform. (Providing you select your plugins well and avoid themes that aren’t high-quality.)

Another major reason why WordPress is so SEO friendly. Is because there are also plugins developed to help improve the SEO of your blog even further. Popular options being Yoast SEO, Rank Math and Squirrly SEO.

There are also other benefits of WordPress for your SEO. Including things like:

• Auto pinging when new content is published so Google will notice your content sooner.
• It is easy for you to add, edit and update content.
• Important image tags can be edited on upload. Such as title, description and especially alt text.
• Built-in RSS feed to send your content to a feed directory with a link back to it.
• You can customize your permalinks. Which is important for SEO purposes. So you can give your URLs human-friendly text that also contains keywords. (Ignoring this benefit is a common mistake, so make sure you aren’t making it!)

So, back to the question of why use WordPress for blogging? Simple. It will help you get more traffic back to your blog by being extremely SEO friendly.

7 | Monetization Options

One of the top reasons to use WordPress for blogging. Is the monetization options you get access to.

Many other platforms, especially the free ones. Heavily restrict what monetization methods you can use. On WordPress, you can use any of the methods you want, including:

• Selling ads
• Affiliate links
• Sponsored content
• Selling your own content and more

(All from day 1 if you really wanted to.)

In fact, with WordPress, there are also additional features. That can let you create an online store using WooCommerce, or even a membership site.

What does this mean for you? 

Well, all of this makes WordPress a better option if monetization is your long term strategy. So, if you aim to monetize with ads, sponsorships, podcasts or digital products. WordPress is what you want for your blog, hands-down.

Sure, if you don’t want to monetize your blog at all. You don’t need to go with WordPress and you can totally go with a free platform if you want to. But this doesn’t change the other restrictions those platforms have. Like customization and ownership of your content.

8 | Free & Open-source

Want to know another one of the top reasons to use WordPress for blogging?

WordPress itself is free to use and open-source. So, you can also freely edit any code or features included with it. Meaning anyone can go and create features, add plugins, or expand upon the base structure.

With this kind of platform, often the options are limited only by people’s imagination. If you can think of it. There is likely a way to add it to your blog already. 

After all, there are currently over 55,000 plugins right now. Plus an estimated 31,000+ Themes too. All which have been created through varying developers and designers over the years. Something a standalone development team. Under a closed-source project would struggle to ever achieve. This is truly the power of open-source!

The downsides? There are a few. Firstly, with so many different plugins and themes, the quality of coding for these can vary. Although the WordPress.org database puts everything through a detailed review process. As a way to help maintain standards.

The other downside. Is that although WordPress itself is free. You’ll still need a domain name and web hosting to run it. Which means you’ll likely have to pay for at least these 2 basics before you can start your blog.

Also, whilst there are tons of free themes and plugins out there. It is worth noting that some are also premium. Meaning they need to be paid for before you are able to use them.

9 | WordPress Is Reliable

Next, I want you to consider this – WordPress is reliable.

Why? Because this platform has been around for a long time and is clearly here to stay. Since it first emerged in 2003.

Despite being so old. It still to this day gets regular updates. And even recently. They completely revamped the blog post editor to be more user-friendly. With further major changes to come in the next few years. To help make the platform more sustainable for many years to come.

So, in short, why use WordPress? It is reliable. So if you start your blog today on WordPress. You won’t have to worry about it suddenly becoming obsolete in a couple of years.

10 | Top Security

Another one of the important benefits of using WordPress. Is the security of the platform.

Overall, WordPress is top when it comes to security. As it has frequent security patches created by many skilled developers. Rather than restricted by a specific team. Which can bring a fresh eye to spot issues and exploits others may have missed.

But there is a catch.

Being one of the most popular platforms out there. Unfortunately makes it the target of many hackers. And the truth is, even if you use WordPress you can still get hacked.

No platform is 100% safe from hacks.

So whilst the WordPress core itself is highly secure. And the plugins and themes found in the WordPress.org database. All go through significant reviews to be included. It is still possible for there to be vulnerabilities.

Believe it or not though. Most hacks and infected WordPress blogs. Are actually caused by using out of date software or weak passwords.

That’s right! Basically, not keeping your blog updated or using a weak password. Is the number #1 reason your blog can get hacked. So, if you do decide to use WordPress keep this in mind. Updates and secure password are that seriously important!

Oh, and did I mention? That you can further improve your WordPress security using high-quality security plugins. Which can add an extra layer to your security. Such as WordFence and Sucuri.

11 | Why Use WordPress For Blogging – Mobile-Friendly

Being a mobile-friendly blog is becoming increasingly important. With the amount of traffic coming from mobile devices. In fact, it was as high as 48%+ at the start of 2019.

You want users to have a frustration-free experience of your blog. Even if they are using their smartphone, right?

But, designing your blog to work well on a small mobile screen. Compared to a desktop has its own problems.

This is where WordPress steps in. As many of its themes are mobile responsive these days. But even if your theme isn’t. The building blocks of WordPress will still try to make your blog responsive.

Heck if that’s still not enough. You can even install a plugin to help get your blog to be more mobile responsive.

So, why use WordPress for blogging? Well, out of the box it is mobile-friendly. Making life easier for you as a blogger. But also your audience. As they can browse your blog with less frustration on their mobile phone or tablet. Which is becoming an increasingly popular method to browse the web.

12 | It Is Powerful & Flexible

Growing your blog using WordPress is easy. You can start simple and small. Eventually growing it into whatever direction your journey takes you.

WordPress is so powerful it has almost unlimited potential. All because it has so many tools under its belt. Such as monetization tools, plugins, themes and addons. Like an online store or creating a membership site.

Believe it or not, WordPress is so flexible. You can even translate your blog to other languages using plugins like MultilingualPress.

That’s not all though, as there are lots of other powerful features you can get when using WordPress. Some of which I have already mentioned, including:

• Fully SEO optimized
• Lots of customization options like themes, plugins & core settings.
• WordPress can manage all your media files, on top of the usual blog posts and pages content.
• The WordPress editor is increasingly being improved upon. And made easier for complete beginners.
• You can easily add internal searching to your blog. Using the WordPress search widget. There are even plugins to help enhance the search tool even more. Meaning people can find exactly what they are looking for.
• User roles allow you to have multiple people working within the same systems. Whilst keeping everything secure and where it should be.
• WordPress can even be used to create any kind of website

Why Use WordPress? There Are Plenty Of Reasons To Fit Any Bloggers Need

Hopefully, by now, you can understand why WordPress is one of the best platforms out there. To start a blog and build an audience with.

As you can easily create a professional-looking blog that is unique to you and your ideas. All without any previous knowledge of building a website. Through the use of customizable and flexible tools. Such as themes and plugins.

Key Takeaways Of The Top Reasons To Use WordPress

We’ve covered a lot of reasons to answer the question of – why use WordPress for blogging? But here are some key points you should keep in mind.

WordPress is the most popular platform out there. And should definitely be high on your list to consider using it for your blog.

Whilst it is free you will still need to think about getting a domain name and web hosting to complete your setup.

Also, to summarize, the benefits of using WordPress are huge. Including:

• The easiest way to build a blog or website.
• Lots of options to make your blog unique using themes.
• You have complete control of your data, content and how you run things.
• You can use it to make any kind of website.
• It gives a professional look so your audience takes you seriously.
• SEO and mobile-friendly to help you get traffic and keep it.
• Top security so long as you keep everything updated and use secure passwords.
• Widely supported so you can easily find help when you need it.
• Full flexibility for monetization and even plugins that can help you with this.
• It is reliable and won’t disappear any time soon.

So, tell me – have I convinced you to use WordPress for your blog? If so, what was the reason why? Or if you have decided against using it for your blog. I would love to hear about your reasoning behind the decision!

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