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Note:\u00a0 Full credit for this article goes to Tom Ewer, for Elegant Themes Blog.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Don’t confuse WordPress (the open-source software package, found at WordPress.org<\/em>) with WordPress.com. The former is a fully-fledged software package\u00a0while the latter is a service that hosts personal websites in much the same way as Blogger, Tumblr and other such managed offerings.<\/p>\n WordPress began<\/em> as a personal publishing system\u00a0back in 2001, but by 2008 or so had evolved into a complete\u00a0content management system.<\/p>\n It\u2019s installed on your own\u00a0server (or that of your hosting service). You own everything that\u2019s created there and have full, unlimited creative freedom.<\/p>\n Furthermore, WordPress is built using widely used, fully tested programming languages including PHP and SQL, and can accomplish just about any task asked of a website.\u00a0It\u2019s eminently extensible with a vast and growing library of plugins \u2013 around 40,000 in the WordPress repository<\/a> alone! Many plugins are free, which means\u00a0you can get the site you want faster and\u00a0at a\u00a0lower cost than if it\u00a0were hand-coded from scratch.<\/p>\n You\u2019re not\u00a0limited to preexisting \u2018themes\u2019 (i.e. designs) either. Developers often\u00a0use these merely as starting points so that they can create unique designs without having to reinvent the proverbial wheel.<\/p>\n WordPress\u00a0is used by some of the most widely recognized brands in the world such as CNN, CBS New York, Harvard Business Review<\/em>, Boise State University, New York Times<\/em>, Dole, Glad, Mercedes-Benz and Vogue<\/em>. Boom.<\/p>\n Think of it this way: If WordPress is good enough for the Library of Congress, government sites in the U.S. and Great Britain, and the U.S. military, it\u2019s probably robust\u00a0enough for your\u00a0needs, too.<\/p>\n As of August 2015, WordPress powers nearly one in four sites on the Web \u2013 and of all sites that use a CMS, WordPress is the choice of\u00a0more than 80%.\u00a0 In 2014, WordPress remained the fastest-growing CMS<\/a> for the fifth year straight.<\/p>\n On the contrary, WordPress\u00a0is an SEO powerhouse\u00a0coded to be SEO-friendly \u201cright out of the box.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0It supports a wide variety of plugins that help developers fine-tune every aspect of SEO.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s latest algorithm puts fresh, original content<\/a> in the spotlight \u2013 and at the top of search result pages. WordPress makes adding content easy for you and your staff, if you\u2019d like to do it on your own.<\/p>\n Au contraire!<\/p>\n The company behind\u00a0WordPress, Automattic, employs a security team\u00a0consisting of 25+ experts whose only job is to make sure the WordPress core is safe from attacks such as injections, viruses, etc. They even have a Security Czar,\u00a0Nikolay Bachiyski, who\u00a0really<\/em> knows his stuff.<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t any. Really<\/em>.\u00a0WordPress (and its updates) are open-source, which means you are free to use the software any way you like. And unlike sites hosted on WordPress.com, you have complete creative and functional freedom. If it can be coded, it\u2019s okay to do.<\/p>\n A\u00a0worldwide team of developers\u00a0is constantly improving and rigorously testing WordPress. Some are employees of Automattic (the company behind WordPress), while others do it simply to contribute to the very active, supportive WordPress community. Updates are released regularly at no charge whatsoever.<\/p>\n The WordPress software package is\u00a0licensed under the GNU General Public License<\/a> (GPL), meaning that anyone can use, copy and\u00a0distribute\u00a0the software itself. (Don\u2019t worry: You have full copyright to\u00a0the styling and content you add.)<\/p>\n The WordPress community\u00a0comprises top-notch coders, testers and other contributors. Unlike software that\u2019s marketed by a single company and developed and maintained by a single team, WordPress has thousands of talented, dedicated folks behind it. Updates, fixes and improvements come at a steady pace.<\/p>\n WordPress meets all guidelines\u00a0of the World Wide Web Consortium<\/a>, an international community that\u00a0aims to\u00a0develop across-the-Web standards for coding.<\/p>\n WordPress also follows\u00a0best practices as laid out by\u00a0Google, Bing and Yahoo.<\/p>\n It works in all modern browsers. Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and other browsers (particularly Internet Explorer) have their individual quirks, which websites coded \u201cby hand\u201d must address. That means more time (and therefore more money) is required to cover the\u00a0reworking and testing needed to make sure your website\u00a0displays properly no matter what browser a visitor uses. On the other hand,\u00a0browser compatibility is baked right into WordPress. Sure, if your developer makes extensive changes and customizations, he\u2019ll need to make sure those changes work across all browsers.<\/p>\n Quite the opposite in fact.<\/p>\n WordPress gives a developer all the basics, so he doesn\u2019t have to create them anew each time, and it\u2019s ready to be customized to your liking.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re the least bit computer-savvy, you can add and style posts easily without paying for a developer\u2019s time. And if a developer goes AWOL, another can pick up where she left off.<\/p>\n Not bad, eh?<\/p>\n All developers \u2013 regardless of their approaches to designing and developing your site \u2013 must be proficient in, at a minimum<\/em>, HTML and CSS.\u00a0 Most also know some JavaScript (and its related libraries, such as JQuery).\u00a0 WordPress developers, however, need to know the intricacies of PHP and have at least a decent familiarity with SQL,\u00a0and<\/em> they must know\u00a0the architecture and coding specific to WordPress to boot.<\/p>\n Long story short, the skillsets of\u00a0WordPress and traditional developers complement and overlap each other, and\u00a0WordPress developers are no less professional than any others. The difference?\u00a0 The latter don\u2019t start every project with a blank screen. Instead, they begin with tested, proven,\u00a0widely used and well-coded framework that\u2019s already done a lot of the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n Sounds smart, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.0.92″ area=”sidebar-1″ orientation=”right” show_border=”on” background_layout=”light” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Myths about WordPress. Or, why WordPress is the best CMS! Note:\u00a0 Full credit for this article goes to Tom Ewer, for Elegant Themes Blog.<\/em><\/strong><\/p> Don't confuse WordPress (the open-source software package, found at WordPress.org<\/em>) with WordPress.com. The former is a fully-fledged software package\u00a0while the latter is a service that hosts personal websites in much the same way as Blogger, Tumblr and other such managed offerings.<\/p> WordPress began<\/em> as a personal publishing system\u00a0back in 2001, but by 2008 or so had evolved into a complete\u00a0content management system.<\/p> It\u2019s installed on your own\u00a0server (or that of your hosting service). You own everything that\u2019s created there and have full, unlimited creative freedom.<\/p> Furthermore, WordPress is built using widely used, fully tested programming languages including PHP and SQL, and can accomplish just about any task asked of a website.\u00a0It\u2019s eminently extensible with a vast and growing library of plugins \u2013 around 40,000 in the WordPress repository<\/a> alone! Many plugins are free, which means\u00a0you can get the site you want faster and\u00a0at a\u00a0lower cost than if it\u00a0were hand-coded from scratch.<\/p> You\u2019re not\u00a0limited to preexisting \u2018themes\u2019 (i.e. designs) either. Developers often\u00a0use these merely as starting points so that they can create unique designs without having to reinvent the proverbial wheel.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> WordPress\u00a0is used by some of the most widely recognized brands in the world such as CNN, CBS New York, Harvard Business Review<\/em>, Boise State University, New York Times<\/em>, Dole, Glad, Mercedes-Benz and Vogue<\/em>. Boom.<\/p> Think of it this way: If WordPress is good enough for the Library of Congress, government sites in the U.S. and Great Britain, and the U.S. military, it\u2019s probably robust\u00a0enough for your\u00a0needs, too.<\/p> As of August 2015, WordPress powers nearly one in four sites on the Web \u2013 and of all sites that use a CMS, WordPress is the choice of\u00a0more than 80%.\u00a0 In 2014, WordPress remained the fastest-growing CMS<\/a> for the fifth year straight.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> On the contrary, WordPress\u00a0is an SEO powerhouse\u00a0coded to be SEO-friendly \u201cright out of the box.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0It supports a wide variety of plugins that help developers fine-tune every aspect of SEO.<\/p> Google\u2019s latest algorithm puts fresh, original content<\/a> in the spotlight \u2013 and at the top of search result pages. WordPress makes adding content easy for you and your staff, if you\u2019d like to do it on your own.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> Au contraire!<\/p> The company behind\u00a0WordPress, Automattic, employs a security team\u00a0consisting of 25+ experts whose only job is to make sure the WordPress core is safe from attacks such as injections, viruses, etc. They even have a Security Czar,\u00a0Nikolay Bachiyski, who\u00a0really<\/em> knows his stuff.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> There isn\u2019t any. Really<\/em>.\u00a0WordPress (and its updates) are open-source, which means you are free to use the software any way you like. And unlike sites hosted on WordPress.com, you have complete creative and functional freedom. If it can be coded, it\u2019s okay to do.<\/p> A\u00a0worldwide team of developers\u00a0is constantly improving and rigorously testing WordPress. Some are employees of Automattic (the company behind WordPress), while others do it simply to contribute to the very active, supportive WordPress community. Updates are released regularly at no charge whatsoever.<\/p><\/h2>\n
Myth 1: Isn\u2019t WordPress Just for Blogs?<\/h2>\n
Myth 2: WordPress Is Just for Personal Sites and Small Businesses, Right?<\/h2>\n
Myth 3: WordPress Negatively Affects SEO?<\/h2>\n
Myth 4: WordPress Isn\u2019t Secure!<\/h2>\n
Myth 5: A Software Package This Good Can\u2019t Possibly Be Free. What\u2019s the Catch?<\/h2>\n
Myth 6: So If It\u2019s Coded and Maintained by a Bunch of Volunteers and Some Employees, It’s Not Good.<\/h2>\n
Myth 7: You \u2018Specialize\u2019 in WordPress Development, So It Will Cost Me More, Won\u2019t It?<\/h2>\n
Myth 8: Real Developers Hand-Code.<\/h2>\n
\u00a0<\/h2>
Myth 1: Isn\u2019t WordPress Just for Blogs?<\/h2>
Myth 2: WordPress Is Just for Personal Sites and Small Businesses, Right?<\/h2>
Myth 3: WordPress Negatively Affects SEO?<\/h2>
Myth 4: WordPress Isn\u2019t Secure!<\/h2>
Myth 5: A Software Package This Good Can\u2019t Possibly Be Free. What\u2019s the Catch?<\/h2>