A Content Management System (CMS) is the building blocks of almost every website on the internet. They’re used to build and manage sites, so the CMS that you choose will become an integral part of the way your business operates.
At Zinc, we use both WordPress and our bespoke CMS to build our sites. We’ve been in business for as long as WordPress has been available, so we’re well versed in helping our clients understand the risks and rewards of each system.
What is WordPress?
Best described, WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) which uses PHP and MySQL. WordPress is the most popular website management or blogging system in use on the World Wide Web, supporting more than 20% of all websites used today.
What is Admin247?
At Zinc, we have created our own proprietary CMS. It is created in a similar way to WordPress, using PHP and MySQL to create an easily manageable, modular system, but with one major difference: it is built and supported in house. This means that we have the capability to create bespoke functionality, build your site entirely around your requirements, and offer expert support on your system.
What are the benefits from using WordPress?
1. The great thing about WordPress is you can choose to use an existing theme design or have a theme designed just for you!
2. There are thousands of Plugins which integrate with WordPress, from galleries and forms to SEO and back ups. You name it, there is likely to be a pre developed Plugin which will suit you
3. WordPress is so easy to update.
Do search engines love WordPress?
Yes! As a blogging platform WordPress provide rich content and pages which can be easily crawled by search engines. Couple this with easy access to Open Graph data and easy population of metadata, you have access to professional level of SEO capability and a wide array of plugins to help optimise content and images further.
What is WordPress used for?
WordPress launched as a blogging system platform but has since become an option for everything from e-commerce to forums. Imagination truly is the limit with WordPress, so no matter how unusual your site is, get in touch with us to discuss your requirements.
WordPress and SEO
Many think that WordPress comes with an integral SEO advantage, but this isn’t the case. WordPress has easily incorporated SEO plugins such as Yoast or All in One SEO, but these still need to be configured correctly and use properly aligned keywords to have any SEO benefit.
WordPress can be a great option for your site, but there are also risks associated with it. For some, it’s the wrong choice – here’s why.
Security and WordPress
The fact that WordPress is Open Source leaves it vulnerable to online attacks. There have been many instances where WordPress sites across the internet have been taken down en masse through the discovery of one weakness. It’s key to consistently keep your WordPress updated to the most recent version to protect it from all known vulnerabilities.
Support
WordPress is a collaborative effort – developers across the world have created plugins and themes for the platform. Not all of these are regularly updated, or even offer any kind of support. When choosing a plugin or theme, it’s best to search for one with support available.
WordPress Spam
By default, WordPress allows registered users to comment on blog posts. This creates an easy way for others to post links to their own websites, making your website a magnet for spam, link-requests and trackbacks. Comment systems must be manually removed, or constantly moderated to keep them clean and secure.
Code bloating
As WordPress sites often begin without any special functionality, it’s not uncommon to have ten or twenty plugins attached to a site in order to have forms, live chats, ecommerce capabilities, and more. Unless carefully planned, this amount of code can slow a website to detrimental levels. Search Engines can penalise sites that take too long to load resulting in low rankings.
SEO issues
Yes, Search engine love WordPress, that much we know is true. But we also know that WordPress easily creates duplicate content issues which Search Engines loathe. The tagging and category system in WordPress which creates so much SEO value can also create some major indexing problems, a confusing site map and pages which have almost no content which will pull down your Search Engine rankings.
WordPress is a great platform for launching high-quality websites, but like any website software the platform has both advantages and disadvantages.if you are looking for answers around WordPress, Bespoke CMS and scalable enterprise Content Management Systems, call us on 01604 59 89 99 – wed be happy to help.
