Very few clients ask how we will build a website for them, or what software we use. The question we do get is “Will I be able to edit the site myself?” The answer is YES! We are proud to exclusively use a content management system (CMS) called WordPress to build our websites.
Why? It is the #1 blogging platform (read more about this here) among the top 100 blogs. It is also used by quite a few Fortune 500 companies! There are a lot of OPINIONS flying around out there about the best way to build a site, but instead of jumping in and forming technical arguments that are lost on most people – we just use the #1 platform and rely on the “Wisdom of Crowds“.
WordPress is open source software. This means it is free for anyone to use, change, write plugins for, etc. WordPress runs on Linux, PHP, and MySQL… you don’t need to understand what these are, just know that they are all open source products that power the web server on which your site will live. Free software, free operating system, free content management…. this translates into lower operating costs.
WordPress is among a handful of widely used content management systems. We have tried several – all of the top 4 or 5 – and find WordPress to be the easiest to use while maintaining the best practices among website standards. We strive to keep the technology as transparent as possible and hep you focus on CONTENT. Remember – Content is King!! SO easy to use translates into more relevant, fresh content.
WordPress is SEO friendly. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In real estate, you hear “Location! Location! Location!” In the world of website, the 3 most important rules are: 1)Findability 2)Findability & 3)Findability! You need to be found by those searching for you or your website is useless! Matt Cutts is the expert we will point to to explain why WordPress is a good choice for your SEO needs. He is the head of Web Spam at Google and lives to improve search quality. He also sneaks in some great tips to help you out when writing your content:
Oddly, some website producers hide the software that runs the website. We recommend you ask any potential website producers/designers what they use and why. Take notes, go home and see if the information measures up to your own research. We welcome these type of questions – in fact, here is a blog post to help you ask the right questions!