by Nathan Allen •
05.24.2018
Senior Web Developer
At Firefly Partners we build tailored website solutions that nonprofits can manage with confidence. At the crux of it, that’s why we call WordPress our content management system (CMS) of choice. Whether your team is made up of non-technical experts, well-trained web developers, or a mix of both, a WordPress website can be updated, managed, expanded, and secured by professionals of all skill levels. Here are five of the many reasons we love WordPress.
Your Site, Your Way
WordPress isn’t just for blogs anymore. The old school way of thinking is that platforms like Drupal are more geared toward large and complex sites and that WordPress is more suited toward simple sites that are image-rich but content-shallow. That is absolutely not the case anymore. Many organizations and for-profit businesses with thousands of pages of content manage their sites on WordPress and have built custom and complex technical integrations. For example, we built a new site for CollegePossible.org using WordPress that is complex and yet easy to manage. We have yet to run into a situation where we cannot deliver for a client using WordPress.
SEO Is King
WordPress is much more SEO friendly than other platforms because it structures URLs in a simple and hierarchical way that Google simply loves. Your keywords for a given page are a part of the URL which equals SEO magic, giving your WordPress site pages priority placement in search results organically. There are also great plug-ins for WordPress that can easily boost SEO results.
A Simple Machine
WordPress provides an easy path to organizing and publishing content, in ways that work for content managers and developers. A Microsoft Word-like editor makes creating new pages a breeze, and custom fields allow for the addition of different types of content as they’re needed. We all know the frustration of accidentally messing up pages. With WordPress, admins can easily add restrictions that prevent other users from breaking layouts. This means that developers can empower their team to make changes and updates. Sites can be built in a streamlined, stripped-down manner, allowing for fast load times. WordPress is light and fast, giving developers a nimble tool and visitors easy access to the information they need.
Security Matters
WordPress learned from security vulnerabilities from many years ago and has made security a priority. The major change WordPress made was making security updates automatic. This prevents sites that have been built and forgotten from getting out-of-date and easily hacked. WordPress proactively emails users to let them know they need to update their security patches and keeps admins aware of the state of their site’s security better than in the past. A website is only as secure as the people who administer it, so breaches can happen on WordPress or any other platform really. At Firefly, we take steps to add additional layers of protection without being burdensome such as modifying admin URLs, using CAPTCHA to prevent attacks, and requiring approval of new site admins. And every one of our clients is equipped with all the information they need to keep their sites up-to-date and safe.
Help Is Around the Corner
The final reason we love WordPress: The WordPress Community is one-of-a-kind. There are more than 74 million sites running on WordPress and it powers 28.9 percent of all websites. There are thousands of WordPress developers all around the world and the knowledge base supporting the platform is vast and growing. WordPress continues to evolve, grow, and become more robust and powerful every day. It will continue to be one of the world’s most popular website platforms and with this level of support, expert help is never far away.
Is a website redesign in your organization’s future? Click here to see how Firefly Partners can help.
