The current state of WordPress

What started out as a blogging platform (how some people still think of it) has now grown to one of the world’s most trusted and versatile fully phased content management systems.

WordPress has come a long way since it was launched. Here are some of the biggest brands and companies around the world who use WordPress either as a content management system or blogging platform. By all accounts it powers 26.4% of the web.

How versatile is WordPress?

WordPress is enormously versatile. If you know the ins and outs, and become proficient with WordPress, you can build a very robust website within it’s framework. At Litterini+Clark we started to use WordPress in its infancy and specialise in custom WordPress development. We have assisted a multitude of different clients by designing and developing highly functional corporate websites to smaller, cleaner sales based sites. Our clients vary from multi-national firms to small businesses and charities.

WordPress is constantly updating and adding new features that keeps the platform secure and and creates a great extensible framework with ever expanding functionality.

Ease of use

Ease of use is one of the key features that draws our clients to choosing WordPress as their preferred platform.

If you have the scope of your project, have good specifications written and can find a good digital agency, then you can have a CMS that will allow you to manage most of your content with ease. Generally a good agency can provide you with CMS that’s easy to manage with a WYSISWYG (what you see is what you get) philosophy.

Extensibility

WordPress is highly extensible if structured properly. If you are planning to launch an ecommerce store, learning management system where you can sell course online, or a simple blogging platform – WordPress can accommodate it.

WordPress does work with a template based structure, and with our experience with the framework we can build you a solid solution and platform whatever custom outcome you are looking for.

In terms of the dynamic side of a website, WordPress allows a number of secure ways to interact with databases, from creating, reading, updating and deleting databases. Commonly known as CRUD within development industry.

WordPress can be extended by writing custom plugins or by purchasing reputable plugins based on their reviews and ratings from a large selection of developers. At Litterini+Clark, we go with mixed approach based on the needs of the client. Depending on the requirements we either develop a custom solution, or choose a premium plugin we are familiar and confident with.

WordPress Web Hosting

Every day more web hosts are making WordPress hosting a priority. At the time of writing this article, WordPress claims of 59% market share when it comes to content management systems.

How does this improve the WordPress user experience? With more customers to target, hosting companies are providing more and more features including advanced security, latest software and awesome backup plans to name few. This allows us as an agency to provide our WordPress development services that’s backed by specialised hosting, giving all our clients peace of mind.

We have worked with a number of local providers and built some solid relationships with local web hosting companies. We can always put forward the best recommendations in terms of web hosting for each of our clients’ specific needs.

Security and speed is as important to us as it is to our clients. We always strive to provide the best user experience possible. By using a reputable local host we can provide faster load times and improve SEO.

Growth of WordPress

WordPress has most recently purchased WooCommerce.  

This purchase reinforces our belief that WordPress is serious in growing their user base and attracting more customers. They are treating the ecommerce market very seriously. This adds significant confidence to users in terms of commitment of WordPress as well as the growth of WooCommerce as an ecommerce platform.

If you want more details about Automattic, the parent company behind WordPress, take a look here.

Another notable acquisition came in acquiring top level domain (TLD) status for .blog. Details can be found here. If you are curious about available domains name and are looking to buy one have a look at this link.

Is WordPress right for me?

We love WordPress as it is very powerful and extensible. As with all other framework and tools out there, WordPress does have it’s limitations.

Our recommendation is that for any small to medium business, WordPress does the job. It’s not to say that for bigger websites of varied complexities that WordPress doesn’t scale, it does and we can provide a good solution, or point you in another direction.

We have helped many businesses to build their online presence by using the power of WordPress. If you have a web design and development project you are considering, drop us a note and let’s chat.