Learning how to create a website from scratch, executing it for your new online business, or updating an existing website, will depend on what you need. There are a number of popular website builders on the market right now, each with its own attributes that make building a business online more effective.
In this article, we discuss the pros and cons of building a WordPress website and what it can do for your online business.
Before choosing the best website-building software, it’s recommended to know what is needed for the type of website being built. Additionally, there are different business types, for example, a local business (brick-and-mortar), larger businesses, brands or franchises, online service-based businesses, eCommerce, a dropshipping store, blogs, and portfolios.
The above examples will be different for everyone, whether it’s owning a restaurant or bakery, with the menu available on the website, owning a service-based business like a personal trainer or consultant, a photographer or writer designing their portfolios, or online blogs.
Advantages of Building a WordPress Website
The primary benefits of using a WordPress website include ease of use, freedom of choice with numerous customizability options, and reasonable fees or none at all except for hosting services. Other benefits include the following:
Customizable Themes
WordPress offers hundreds of free or premium themes to choose from, which minimizes the time and effort of designing a webpage from scratch. Many of the purchased themes, also free themes, will include features for online shops, blogs, and portfolios, as well as hosting options at discounted prices and regular theme updates.
These assist novice website builders by providing a structure for a specific type of website design based on their business type and also by offering creative design ideas when you don’t know how to start or what color scheme will work best. For more complex needs, you might consider hiring WordPress web design experts to ensure a professional and polished site.
Site Functionality
There are hundreds of free plugins (or add-ons) to choose from when building your WordPress website, and these all optimize the functionality and effectiveness of the site. Depending on the type of business, there will be a plugin to facilitate its functions and improve performance and aesthetics. For example, you can create a complex WordPress table with the help of a plugin or you can pick from the multitude of booking plugins to create a site for a service company.
Some of the best plugins for WordPress right now include WooCommerce, which is ideal for setting up online shops; Yoast SEO, which manages site traffic through Search Engine Optimization (SEO); and WPBakery Page Builder, which makes the process of building web pages easier with its drag-and-drop capabilities, especially for beginners.
Site Security
WordPress ensures site security with various features like regular updates to keep the latest versions active; this safeguards a website from hackers and any other online security threats. Once a user is logged into their WordPress dashboard, they will be notified of a new update that is available, either for WordPress itself or for the installed theme and plugins.
Additionally, there are numerous security plugins to download to enhance site security and authenticity. Don’t forget to protect your devices, too. You don’t want them to be an opening for hackers or identity theft! Just use a security solution like Aura.
Disadvantages of Building a WordPress Website
Although WordPress offers one of the best website-building platforms on the market right now, there are some disadvantages to be aware of, specifically if you are a novice and have time constraints – these are discussed below.
Prior Coding Understanding
Advanced coding knowledge or experience is not a must for using WordPress, but a basic understanding of coding concepts will make it easier to use; these include HTML (Hypertext markup language) and CSS (Cascading Styling Sheets).
This also applies to the website building and design process, which follows on to the next point below.
No Built-In Builder Features
WordPress does not come with built-in drag-and-drop features; these need to be installed as plugins. If the plugins are not installed, it will require previous web programming knowledge to build the webpage, as well as trial and error, which might end up being very time-consuming if you do it yourself.
Time and Costs
WordPress requires self-management, which includes performing backups, updates, and installing various certificates like the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate (for site authentication and encryption) yourself.
While this gives you full control over the website, it is a time-consuming process and will need to be factored in when choosing the best website-building strategy for your business.
Additionally, in the event of any malfunctions like viruses, hackers, or software bugs from plugins or any other installations, precautions will need to be taken, and this may incur additional costs and time to fix.
Outsourcing a professional Laravel developer is another option, which will also involve more costs towards setting up your website.
Summary
Although there are various advantages and disadvantages of using WordPress to build a website, it will depend on your business and personal needs, including whether you want to do it yourself or hire a website professional to assist.
Visit TRUiC’s website for more information, guidelines, and reviews about using WordPress as a website builder, as well as other details and factors to consider when you start this process.
