There is only one answer to this question; WordPress.
And this is why – it’s easy to use!
Simple as that.
In my last post I wrote about the differences between a website and a blog. In this post I’ll tell you why I only recommend WordPress to anyone who asks me what software they should use to create a website.
Creating a website or a blog with WordPress is quick and painless and can be done in about 10 minutes. Honestly. After that initial set-up you would obviously need more time to configure it correctly and have it running the way you want it to, but it’s a whole lot quicker and a lot cheaper than hiring a web designer. And you have full control over adding content. You can do it as often (or as rarely) as you like!
Times have changed
When I first started building websites I used Microsoft’s Front Page software, I swiftly moved onto the web industry standard, Dreamweaver, and built most of my early sites in basic HTML. Today there are numerous packages that handle the coding for you – they’re called Content Management Systems. Two of most popular are Joomla! and Drupal. I’ve tried both of these but I’ve always returned to WordPress or hard-coding.
About WordPress
WordPress is essentially a blogging platform. It’s designed for blogging, but there is no reason whatsoever why it can’t be used to create a standard website. It just needs setting up correctly.
There are two versions of WordPress. There is the standalone version which you can download for free and install on any web server (highly recommended) and there is the hosted version on WordPress.com.
Installing the standalone version gives you much more control over your site as you can do more with the software, and you can monetize your site, which is something you can do (with permission and on high traffic blogs only) on the hosted version, but WordPress takes a percentage of your earnings (50/50 split). You can read more about the WordPress.com advertising policy here.
Besides the monetization and control aspect of the WordPress platform and software, there is something else to consider – the web address for your site/blog. If you choose the standalone version you can use any domain name you want; if you choose the hosted version, your site/blog is set-up on a sub-domain of WordPress.com and becomes something like http://myblogwebsite.wordpress.com This is fine if you’re blogging for pleasure, but it doesn’t portray a professional image for business use.
The WordPress community
One of the other reasons why I use WordPress to create any type of website is the community behind it and all of the additional features that community creates. WordPress, in its basic form, is a Content Management System with limited features, but the code is Open Source, this allows programmers to develop additional scripts (called plugins) that enhance the functionality of WordPress.
Many of these plugins are free, but a cottage industry has blossomed around WordPress and there are now quite a few plugins you have to pay for. If you see a plugin using the word premium, expect to pay for it. This is no bad thing as premium plugins generally come with support and are far more reliable than the free versions.
You should be careful when using free plugins as some are poorly coded and can slow down your site. I don’t discourage people from using plugins (they are essential), but I do advise people to use as few as possible and to use the few they do use with caution.
WordPress themes
Another major feature of the WordPress community is theme development. Think of a theme as a design.
You change the whole look and feel of a WordPress powered site simply by changing its theme. And there are tons of free and paid themes available. Once again though, look out for the word premium for themes that incur a cost, and choose carefully, they are all coded differently and can make your blog not only look different, they can also make it work differently.
For example, the navigation menu may move from the top of the page to the side, or the list of categories may not show at all. These problems are sometimes easy to fix, but it is worrying when you install a new theme and it doesn’t look how you expected, or wanted, it to look.
[It's worth noting at this point that plugins are not allowed on the WordPress.com hosted sites for security reasons, and the free version comes with its own set of themes, no third-party premium themes are allowed.]
WordPress data
WordPress uses the coding language PHP and stores all content in a database. If you change the theme of your site and it looks different to the last theme, it is probably because the database is not queried in the same way.
Take tags as an example. Tags are like keywords and often appear as links at the end of a post to give readers the chance to look for articles on related topics. Some themes don’t use tags in this way and remove the code to display them. However, the tags remain in the database.
The same goes for dates, categories, authors etc. All of the information you put into your WordPress site remains in the database, but it’s only displayed on your site when the associated query/code is used in your theme.
WordPress alternatives
There are a lot WordPress alternatives on the market. If you’re looking for a place to host a personal blog without incurring any costs you should try any of the following:
If you are looking to create a blog or a website on a self-hosted server then I recommend WordPress, or using the services of a web designer such as my friend, Andrew (mention me if you contact him). If WordPress isn’t for you then you read this post for more ideas.
