SEO Perspective: Aspects that gives Static HTML/CSS website an edge over WordPress websites
In the present scenario, a business with no website is considered to be non-existent. However, when it comes to getting a website developed for their business, most of the business owners are unaware of the importance of choosing between a wordpress website and static website. There is always a fine but distinctive line of difference between a static and wordpress website, especially when they are weighed against the much considered web based concept of today i.e. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Before digging deep into the real factors that gives static websites and edge over the wordpress website when SEO is the common factor, it is good to have a basic idea about static and wordpress websites.
Static Website
Static HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language websites are the ones that are usually developed once and rarely updated. If you wish to air a static website, you need to approach a professional programmer he/she does it using professional programmer tools. Therefore, if you are a non-techie and if you got a static website developed by a programmer, you need to re-hire a similar professional, when you need to make any changes to its content or layout later.
WordPress Website
A WordPress website, on the other hand, can be considered as a much scalable version when compared to a static website. It is basically a Content Management System or CMS that can be easily handled even by non-techies. You can easily change its content and layout whenever needed.
Why Static over WordPress?
The above definitions/elaborations might have convinced you to fall for WordPress rather than a static site. It’s not over yet, let’s see how a static website can turn the tables and dominate totally when the factor under consideration is SEO.
Security
One rule of thumb that should be never compromised when building any website is the security. Any WordPress website is highly customizable and one downside of this is the maintenance. Literally transformed, you need to regularly update or maintain the core code and plug-ins integrated to the CMS and failure to do is makes your website more vulnerable to hacks. However, this is totally not the case with static websites; a static website which is especially developed using a static website generator is far more secure when compared to any WordPress website.
Speed
Speed is always a crucial factor that influences any search engine’s affinity towards websites. Static websites, owing to its simplicity, always occupy or take-up fewer server resources and hence they load faster. On the other hand, a WordPress website, which is often integrated with many plug-ins or complex core codes take more time to load.
Coding Architecture
The code architecture of any WordPress site can be a tad cluttered. Therefore, you might often encounter some complex or cluttered code snippets while optimizing such a site. With a static website, you don’t need to have greater concerns with respect to code architecture. The coding architecture tagged with such websites are often less dubious.
Prior to choosing a static or WordPress website, it is always advised to choose your website functionality requirement.
Update:2018 – We have since reversed our position on this and now believe WordPress to be the better option from an SEO perceptive. The plugins and the increased range of cheap web designers has made wordpress the more practical option.
