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SEO Idaho™ - Professional Website Developers and SEO Experts

What is WordPress?

The World's Most Popular Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system is a software application that  allows users to create, edit, publish, and delete content on their website, usually via a user-friendly dashboard on their website’s back end. Examples of popular CMS’s include Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and of course WordPress. WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system (CMS), currently powering approximately 36% of the internet, or roughly 19.5 million websites globally (Codeinwp.com, 2020).
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WordPress is an incredibly flexible and richly-supported content management system. Initially a blogging platform, WordPress’s free and open-source software, and the evolution and proliferation of theme and plugin development, has facilitated WordPress’s growth as a CMS that is flexible enough to meet almost all design and website functional needs. If a functionality isn’t currently supported with available plugins, one can be custom-coded. Same with themes. WordPress is an immensely popular, user-friendly CMS with a phenomenal support ecosystem.

A Quick Word About WordPress.org Versus WordPress.com

When referring to WordPress development, we are generally speaking of WordPress.org’s open-source software that allows developers to build custom websites and applications. In contrast, WordPress.com is a service that hosts and maintains basic WordPress websites. Similarly named, these two entities are actually separate. If you are considering WordPress.com as an option, you can read more about both the pros and cons of that specific service here. For anything more than hobby-blogging, you’ll want consider options outside of WordPress.com.

WordPress Facts and Statistics

  • WordPress is the most popular CMS used on the internet with over 50 - 60% of the global market, and it has been the most popular CMS for seven years running
  • WordPress Powers 35% of the internet, and is used by approximately 19.5 million websites
  • There have been over 1.25 billion total plugin downloads from WordPress’ Plugin Directory, reflecting the strong support base for WordPress and the health of its theme, plugin, and development environments
  • WooCommerce powers 28% of all online stores worldwide and easily integrates with WordPress
Statistics from CodeinWP’s “The Ultimate List of WordPress Statistics”
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Why Build Your Site on WordPress

Flexibility

Flexibility really separates WordPress from its competitors. The WordPress plugin and theme economy is extensive, allowing users without any coding experience to add plug-and-play functionality or update their site’s design with minimal effort. Additionally, the WordPress back end is intuitive and generally simple enough for even beginners to use, allowing the most tech-challenged of individuals to create and publish content. It’s ease-of-use and the ability to add functionality or new features with the simple upload of pre-packaged software (plugins), means WordPress builds can be leveraged to meet any client’s needs.

Extensibility

With a plethora of frameworks, themes, and plugins available, WordPress users can target additional functionality beyond that of a basic brochure site.

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Setting up an online store? WordPress integrates quickly and easily with WooCommerce, which powers 28% of online stores worldwide (Codeinwp.com, 2020). Need to capture leads and generate a mailing list for outreach? Mailchimp will allow you to add forms to your WordPress site via API or plugin, capturing visitor information and automatically adding it to your mailing list every time a form is submitted. Need a slider to dynamically display images on one of your webpages? Visit Wordpress’ Plugin Directory and do a quick search for “sliders”. You’ll likely be surprised at the amount of results.

The same works for form integrations, image galleries, pop-ups, security and cache plugins, and more. With WordPress, your initial build doesn’t need to be your final build. As your business grows and additional functionality is needed, your site can grow accordingly with relatively little hassle.

Superior Support Ecosystem

The WordPress ecosystem is strong and extremely well-supported. Themes and plugins listed on the WordPress Directory must meet specific requirements to be included, and you’re often able to find reviews from users who have intimate experience using those products, as well as detailed information about when the plugin or theme was last updated and what kind of support is available. If you have questions about web development, finding answers as they relate to WordPress is fantastically easy. There are numerous forums, videos, guides, tutorials, meet-ups, etc. for WordPress development. Lack of documentation and support is seldom a WordPress issue.

When are Professional Development Services the Right Choice?

As is common, it honestly depends on your needs and goals. Hiring a professional developer means you’re going to get a faster, more secure, customized build that meets your specific functional and design needs. The build will also be responsive to mobile, tablet, and desktop screens if done correctly (this is extremely important as the share of people who access websites via mobile devices continues to grow). Hiring a professional WordPress developer will save you an immense amount of personal frustration and time.

The trade-off is obviously monetary. When you build a website yourself, the costs can be confined to purchasing a theme, some plugins perhaps, and selecting a basic hosting package. Building a WordPress website is certainly possible on your own, but does come with some inherent challenges, limitations, and time obligations (i.e. learning how to correctly build, launch, and maintain a website). You should consider these facets of development when making a determination as to how you want your site built. Here are some additional considerations to help guide your decision:

Building Your Own Site? Consider the Following:

The greatest vulnerability to a WordPres website is out-of-date core, theme, and/or plugin files. Hackers use these vulnerabilities to access your site and cause havoc. When you launch a WordPress website it needs ongoing, monthly maintenance to keep the site up-to-date and secure. Additionally, you’ll want to back-up your site frequently in case of a catastrophic issue with your live site. If any of this sounds daunting, your best bet is to ensure your site’s health by leaving it to professionals.

Why You Should Hire SEO Idaho™ for Your Website Build

Experienced WordPress Developers

SEO Idaho™ has built, hosted, and maintained WordPress websites for 100’s of clients. You can review previous builds and see the quality for yourself on Our Portfolio page. We take great pride in building fast, secure, and modern websites for our clients that meet their functional needs and exceed their expectations. Still not convinced. Read some of the Google and Facebook reviews left by our previous clients.

SEO-focused Development

If you view your new website as a marketing extension of your business (and you should), then you’ll want your developers to be forward-thinking in regards to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Building a website is simply the first step in the journey to leveraging it as a source of revenue.

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Once your site launches, you’ll be competing with millions, perhaps billions of entries on search engine results pages (SERPs) for views and clicks. The journey to Page 1 of Google can be long and time-consuming, but you’re much more likely to achieve that goal if your website has been built with a focus on SEO. At SEO Idaho™, we’re not just SEO geeks who dabble in WordPress, but SEO experts who work hand-in-hand with our experienced and talented development team to create the best product possible for our clients.

Security and Maintenance

With the WordPress environment so well established, what’s the downside? As with all products, WordPress isn’t without its faults. As the most popular CMS in the world, it’s also the most popular hacking target (Codeinwp.com, 2020). This is why professional development and support is so important. Anyone can purchase a theme, install some plugins, and launch a site, but what comes after? Your site will require ongoing support and maintenance to ensure it is protected. Otherwise, hackers will use vulnerabilities such as those created by out-dated themes and plugins to harass and disable your site.

SEO Idaho™ handles these concerns for you. We perform monthly maintenance and security updates, and we back up your site. We’ll take the worry out of your web build and keep your site safe. With SEO Idaho™, we expertly build your website, customize it to your design and functional needs, and then we care for your site after launch. We take care of the technical concerns of your website so you can focus on the business concerns of your company.

Hosting

SEO Idaho™ has partnered with HostCozy to provide our clients with exceptional website hosting at incredible rates. We’re dedicated to keeping your website fast (important for SEO), safe, and live. You don’t need to shop around for the best hosting service available for your site. With exceptional rates, 24/7 support, and guaranteed uptime greater than 99.9%, you can be sure your site will always be accessible and performant with HostCozy.