This is a big (and good) question that I am often asked, so I decided to write this article to put forward some key points. There are many platforms that you could choose to run your website on, so how do you make that choice and what’s the best one?
To use a simple analogy from the world of technology – have you ever tried to buy a top end camera, computer, smart phone or a new TV? If you have, you’ll discover that each model typically has different specifications, features and benefits. The manufacturers’ (and salespeople) will claim that their product will do “this”, “that” and “the other” – perhaps even make the tea and hang out the washing for you! Often, it becomes quite difficult, time-consuming and confusing to make a clear decision because there’s so much choice – all ‘generally’ matching your wishlist, with varying degrees of specific accuracy.
Choosing which software platform your website should use is of course, more serious than selecting a new camera or TV. Clearly, the financial and time investment required is considerably more, and quite simply, the future success of your business is at stake.
In many cases, unless you are a tech guru or have heaps of time to spend on research, a good call is to take advice from a couple of trusted advisers, for example, your current website designer and perhaps another IT person you work with. Purple Dog are also happy to offer advice.
Whilst it’s true that those you speak with on this subject will have their own preferences and personal agenda, at least a couple of trusted, valued opinions will be a good starting point.
What to consider
If you Google this very question, you will find hundreds, if not thousands of wildly opposing views – from website designers, to software programmers, to business owners. All advocating their favourite platform, whether it be e.g. WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Business Catalyst, Shopify, Magento and / or a gazillion others.
Before you spend a lot of time reading all the different opinions, some important considerations are: (you can prioritise according to your preferences);
- Ease of use for you and your customers
- Specific capabilities & functions that meet your needs
- The expertise of the company providing the website design and/or the support (e.g. Purple Dog)
- SEO and design factors (will it look good, will it be search engine friendly)
- Pricing and ongoing costs (how much and when)
- Security, reliability, updates and maintenance
- Growth and content management
- Programming languages and other technical considerations.
Things like Return On Investment are obviously important too, but these are usually driven by the amount of time spent marketing once the site is live.
From my own point of view, I have worked with a wide range of platforms and prefer to advocate the WordPress self-hosted platform. At Purple Dog Design, we have built many websites using WordPress, and so we can speak from experience of its awesomeness! I recommend WordPress for the following reasons;
- It’s Open Source and not “owned” by one business that could cease trading tomorrow
- Clear and easy access to all source code and databases – nothing is restricted.
- It’s powerful, flexible and robust – the depth of functionality available will match (if not exceed) other platforms and I’ve never come across a feature or requirement it can’t handle.
- Search Engines love WordPress – and used in the correct way, you can achieve excellent results.
- I’ve seen the “inner-workings” and the “outer-result” of many websites and platforms. WordPress is by far the most attractive and easiest to use.
- I have over ten years experience with WordPress Content Management System – so I know it very well.
- The website design process is enjoyable and the Making changes and handling upgrades / managing security is straightforward, with some practice.
- WordPress was used by more than 23.3% of the top 10 million websites as of January 2015.[6]
- It’s stable, robust and reliable. Whilst vulnerabilities do exist – as with all software – overall, WordPress has an excellent safety record.
- From a pricing perspective – it’s largely down to the relationship you have with your website developer. You can either hire someone (such as Purple Dog) to manage your site, or you can handle it yourself.
WordPress is also the most popular CMS system in use with over 60% market share. It also wins the accolade for most used blogging system in use on the Web,[7] at more than 60 million websites.[8]
Just because WordPress is the most popular Content Management System, does it mean you should use it? No, of course it doesn’t – but it is certainly a very compelling reason to seriously investigate its capabilities and whether it will work for you and your business.
WordPress is great for website design, marketing, management and more. Of course it has flaws, as every system must. However, the fact that it is so popular speaks volumes. Indeed, whilst it may seem as if it is being used by every man and his [purple] dog, it in fact, indicates a highly flexible system that is able to deliver real results in a wide range of situations, where multiple different requirements exist. If it didn’t do this, it wouldn’t be as popular as it is.
As with most things in life, the choice is yours. In the end, I believe it’s the right choice for most businesses and would be happy to discuss this further with you, or provide a free audit of your website design and hosting / software & functionality requirements – please do get in touch.
