Hey folks, let's face it - everyone and their technophobe grandma has questioned the relevance of WordPress, even now in 2023! If I had a penny for every time I heard someone question the relevance of WordPress…Discussions about its relevance pop up more frequently than our half-hearted attempts to stick to New Year gym resolutions - and look how that turns out!

Wityh so many options available to you for making a website, why would anyone choose Wordpress? Is it still relevant with all these new options in 2023?

With its roots planted firmly since 2003, WordPress stands as a wily old-timer, obstinately refusing to fade into obscurity. This is the platform that's seen the rise and fall of digital dinosaurs like MySpace, Vine, and Google Plus. No biggie, WordPress just sits back, enjoys its cup of digital tea, and gets back to work. It's continually improving, getting faster, and becoming more feature-rich. And let's not forget, it powers a whopping 43% of the internet. Talk about influence!

Why You'll Be Head Over Heels for WordPress

As a business owner, selecting the right platform for your website can feel like picking a dessert from an extensive menu - everything looks good, but what will satisfy your sweet tooth in the best way? WordPress stands out as a clear choice, and here's why.

  1. Ease of Use: WordPress is designed to be user-friendly. Its interface is straightforward, making it easy to add content and make updates. Even if you're not tech-savvy, you'll find WordPress is as easy as pie to use.

  2. Wide Developer Community: One of the greatest strengths of WordPress is its active and large developer community. This means plenty of plugins, themes, and additional support options. Having a problem or need a special feature? There's likely a plugin for that!

  3. Get Your Hands Dirty: For those who love a good DIY project, WordPress gives you the freedom to dive in and get your hands dirty. You can customize it to your heart's content and tweak the platform to fit your specific needs.

  4. SEO-Friendly: WordPress is designed to be SEO-friendly out of the box. Combined with the right SEO plugin, you can easily optimize your content to rank higher in search engine results.

  5. Robust E-commerce Capabilities: With WooCommerce, WordPress offers a fully-featured e-commerce solution. It provides everything you'd expect from an e-commerce store - and it's free and customizable just like WordPress itself!

  6. Multilingual Capabilities: WordPress enables you to create a multilingual website, making it an excellent choice for businesses serving customers in different languages.

  7. Budget-Friendly: WordPress itself is free! You'll have to cover hosting, but there are options for every budget. Plus, most plugins offer free versions, so you can add a lot of functionality without adding a lot to your costs.

  8. Scalability: WordPress can handle your business as it grows. Whether you're a small business or a large corporation, WordPress can handle your needs.

  9. Safety and Security: With the right plugins, such as WordFence, WordPress websites can be highly secure. Regular updates from the WordPress team also help keep your site safe from threats.

  10. Flexibility: From blogs to e-commerce stores to corporate websites, WordPress can do it all. No matter your business type or size, WordPress has the flexibility to accommodate your online presence.

So, if you're weighing the options between WordPress and the rest, remember that WordPress provides a unique blend of ease, versatility, and power - the perfect recipe for a successful website. Choose WordPress, and you'll soon find yourself falling head over heels for this robust platform.

Why We're Head Over Heels for WordPress

We, The 215 Guys, are certified WordPress enthusiasts. Even though there are infinite options to build websites for clients, we like developing in Wordpress.

Why do we love WordPress so much? It's our go-to for 95% of our client websites. And guess what? Our clients – from youngsters to golden-agers, tech newbies to aficionados – all find it pretty easy to tango with WordPress.

We've used WordPress to build all sorts of websites. Complicated, custom e-commerce stores? Check. MLS integrated realty sites? Yep. Simple informational sites? Absolutely. You name it, WordPress can handle it.

You might think WordPress can't get any better, but it does. How? Let's take our custom-made theme as an example. Our customized page builder is a handy tool that lets you create pages easily. It comes with ready-made sections that you can use on your page. There are almost 75 sections to choose from right now, and we're always adding more. This theme is made to work fast and keep your site safe. And when it's time to make changes to your site? It's as easy as pie.

Versatility Keeps WordPress Kicking

WordPress offers an impressive range of plugins, making it highly adaptable and versatile. For example, one of the plugins we often use is WP Rocket. This plugin is essential for boosting the speed of WordPress sites. While WordPress has indeed gotten faster over time, it still isn't as speedy as a static website. But with WP Rocket, we can significantly speed up the site, creating a smooth and fast user experience.

Another plugin we frequently use is Wordfence. This plugin is all about security. It helps protect WordPress sites from hacks and breaches, ensuring your website's data remains safe. With Wordfence installed, we've never experienced a breach on any of our sites.

These plugins and many more make it possible to customize WordPress to do just about anything you want. And on the off chance that a plugin doesn't exist to meet your specific needs, there's no need to worry. The great thing about WordPress is its large developer community. With millions of WordPress developers available, you can always hire someone to create the exact functionality you need. That's the beauty of WordPress.

This developer-friendliness is a crucial reason why WordPress has survived and thrived for so long in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. WordPress offers an open, collaborative space that invites innovation and improvement. Developers from all over the world can easily work with WordPress, creating new plugins and features to enhance its capabilities.

In fact, this open-source nature makes WordPress a sort of digital canvas, where developers can add their strokes of genius. They continuously improve the platform, not just for their own projects but for everyone else who uses WordPress as well. This continual evolution and betterment of WordPress means that the whole product keeps improving, adapting, and staying relevant.

This ongoing enhancement, coupled with the existing versatile and user-friendly features of WordPress, is what sets it apart from other content management systems. It's like a snowball rolling downhill, gathering momentum and growing bigger with each rotation. Every improvement made by the vast developer community contributes to making WordPress more powerful, more versatile, and more user-friendly.

So, while other platforms may struggle to keep up with the changing digital trends, WordPress, with its adaptable nature and army of developers, continues to thrive. It's not just surviving in the digital age; it's flourishing. And that's why we, at The 215 Guys, are such big fans.

WordPress and SEO: A Match Made in Heaven

Oh, and did we mention SEO? While no platform can guarantee top rankings (if you ever hear otherwise, run!), WordPress coupled with the right SEO strategy and tools can work wonders. WordPress' versatility is its strength here. With a plethora of SEO-friendly plugins and its easy-to-use interface, it allows us to focus on crafting the best content possible.

WordPress in the E-commerce World

As for e-commerce websites, WordPress is still a strong player in the game, thanks to WooCommerce. We've built a range of stores on this platform, from your local coffee shop to the Shark Tank company. You want a custom cart experience? We did that for Termini Bros, creating a system that lets customers choose all sorts of shipping options per item.

WooCommerce is a fully featured e-commerce solution, and it brings to the table everything you'd expect from a top-of-the-line e-commerce platform.

From managing product catalogs, handling shipping, and tracking orders, to providing robust security features and multiple payment gateway integrations, WooCommerce has it all. Plus, just like WordPress, WooCommerce is open-source, meaning it's free to use and can be customized to meet any unique needs you might have. This goes beyond just changing colors and fonts - you can modify how the entire system works if you want to!

The flexibility of WooCommerce aligns perfectly with WordPress's philosophy of customization and adaptability. This gives you the freedom to design your online store exactly the way you want it. Whether you're selling handcrafted coffee mugs or running a multinational retail giant, WooCommerce has got you covered. And the best part? It's as easy to use as WordPress itself, making it the perfect companion for your online business venture.

So whether you're looking to start an e-commerce business or want to move your existing online store to a more reliable and flexible platform, WooCommerce should be on top of your list. Its ease of use, coupled with the endless customization possibilities, makes it the perfect tool for any e-commerce project, big or small.

Read our full Woocommerce guide here.

What's in Store for WordPress?

To address the elephant in the room, yes, WordPress is continuously evolving. Far from being just a blogging platform (a common misconception we often debunk), WordPress is gearing up to tackle the future. Its open-source nature and supportive community ensure that its development never stagnates. WordPress is on a mission to shed any lingering perceptions of being 'old and slow' – it's committed to delivering a better, faster, and more secure experience for all users.