I Normally feel like I am always rubbishing WordPress
This is true often I am giving WordPress a hard time. Overall though I think WordPress is a good product and a really cheap way to get a quality website design up and running on your own. Often I am comparing WordPress CMS against creating a static html/php based website and this is what this articles is about. WordPress as an eCommerce store we just don’t recommend for a bunch of reasons, one of which is we can make a far better store in Magento for same money.
He are the reasons I don’t recommend WordPress often for business clients:
Skill and time
The level of basic coding/cms skill and time is in short supply for many of our business Website clients. These are the two things you need plenty of if you are going to manage your own website.
After a lot of years of being a Website/software Developer I have found the wishful thinking of managing your own website stays wishful thinking. Most business owners are to busy with the day to day operations of there business to learn to do basic coding or have the time to update.
The idea normally comes from not wanting to be trapped into paying high update costs or being tied to one developer. The truth is for most business owners managing a CMS based website of any sort is the most expensive option. A business owners time is often worth far more than a developers.
Furthermore, it is just not that easy. Even as developers we are sometimes pulling our hair out with WordPresses somewhat buggy/ridged platform. If we then expect a first time user to do this operation it unrealistic to say the least. What I see normally is handover of the website takes place. The new owner dives into make some easy changes. Next minute the picture link is broken and the next is hard right on the page. We then get the call to fix it.
So my thinking is where is the saving here?
Security and WordPress
WordPress is a vector for hackers! Partly because there are lots of real flaws with it. The other is a lot of WordPress website owners are new and make typical new mistakes.
Yes these things are fixable and you can fight them off with constant up keep. But as above skill set and time are to factors against the owner. Consequently it falls back to the website developer and no money saved!
With html/php static site there are virtually none of these worries.
WordPress Search Engine Performance
This is just a fact! You’ll get told differently by website designers out there selling your WordPress. However facts and facts, you can run an experiment with the same content in html/php and WordPress and html/php will beat it everytime.
Now I’m not saying you can make WordPress perform as well. However, it takes more effort and Money to do so and always will. Additionally, SEO WordPress plugins are often poorly supported which creates another securty issue.
Nice Video on WordPress SEO and Illustrattes that extra work we mention
Traffic compacity
For a small website with low traffic WordPress is perfect. However if we have plans for any expansion WordPress can start to fumble. I am not talking about owners who setup there hosting in budget services. I am talking about apples for apples comparsions. html/Php vs WordPress can handle far more traffic quicker and better in the same hosting account. Consequently, expansion can force you out of WordPress into a completely new build. Where having a html/Php site can have cms elements added as needed and will last a lot longer before an optimisation is needed.
Extra setup cost and maintence cost
Here is the downside to having the cost saving run it your self CMS. It will cost you more to setup from the start. If you are having an original website setup from the scratch it will cost you more. If it is not something is being cut somewhere so beware!
If you find WordPress CMS is to much for you or you don’t have to time you’ll need to bring in the professionals anyway. While the hourly rate will be some what similar for html/php and WordPress you can do a lot more changes and up keep in html/php quicker. This is especially true if you want to make a change that is a little outside of WordPresses framework, which is a common thing. Essentially a job that would take 10-20 minutes in html/php can take all day in WordPress. Your self managed savings are out the window.
The other thing to consider is everytime your developer needs to login he’ll need access. You will either need to give him access each time or trust him/her and staff will keep your Website details safe.
Who ya gunna call?
Your site is self managed and you have to make changes before meeting that big client or launching that new product/service. You don’t have time during the day, so you need to call your developer again, making the WordPress CMS redundant again.
Gold Coast WordPress Design
WordPress beat up complete
These are the common points I put to my clients before we make the choice whether WordPress is a good option for them. Its a simple matter of being honest with yourself as a business owner and saying is self managed something that I manage and I need to do everyday?
A good website developer/designer will lay the options out for you and explain the pros and cons to you. Additionally, they should explain how these pros and cons effect their daily operations, for example; Because html/php is the core of our business anyone of our staff can handle pretty major changes in html/php, where WordPress for more extensive updates is limited to just a 1-3 individuals. Consequently, the cost and time to publish can be extended for our company and many others.
WordPress still a popular option for websites
WordPress is still a popular option for a website platform. There is a place for it we think under certain conditions and you should consider how your situation relates to WordPress’ limitations.
