WordPress seems to be a big thing in recent times or, am I the only one that has noticed?
I actually thought it was just a non-coding tool until I settled down to consult experts in the field and found I was wrong all along.
In a chat with Chukwuemeka Orjiani M., Founder and CEO of iDot Creations Ent., he said: “WordPress may seem like a non-coding tool for beginners, but at the end of the day, if you do not understand CSS, HTML and PHP very well, you may find it difficult to use WordPress at professional level.”
Explaining further, Adeyinka Adenaike, a Website and Tech-Savvy Expert, said: “WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) publishing tool that can be used to develop different types of websites such as blog, magazine, eCommerce, corporate, forum and social media websites.
It started in 2002 as a blog publishing tool but grew over time and it is open-source which means you can use it to create any type of website for FREE.”
Interesting Statistics About WordPress
- Roughly every two minutes, another top 10 million sites start using WordPress. (W3Techs, 2021)
- Its usage has increased at an average of 12% per year since 2011. (W3Techs, 2022)
- Wordfence blocked 18.5 billion password attack requests on WordPress websites in the first half of 2021. (Wordfence, 2021)
- Approximately 90% of WordPress vulnerabilities are plugin vulnerabilities. 6% are theme vulnerabilities and 4% are core software vulnerabilities
- This tool powers 36.28% of the top 1 million websites. (BuiltWith, 2022)
- It has been the fastest growing content management system for 12 years in a row. (W3Techs, 2022)
I never knew that there were different types of WordPress, but Adenaike enlightened on this. WordPress.com and WordPress.org are the two types that exist.
WordPress.com is more of a hosting platform which powers your website and it is limited but WordPress.org is a self-hosted software which allows you to download, customize and make it yours.
Orjiani made us understand that generally, WordPress can be used by everyone, professionals and non-professionals, to create beautiful websites within minutes, but it still requires vast knowledge of graphic design, imaging and certain other skills to get the website together.
Why do most publishing companies leverage this tool?
Did you know that WordPress is leveraged by BBC, CNN, Microsoft, several Banks, and others? The tool powers about 43% of online websites and has a huge database of free and premium themes and plugins (extensions) to extend the functionality of any website.
This makes WordPress unique.
Adenaike asserted that this tool is user-friendly – both the backend, frontend and also developer friendly, unlike other CMS platforms. “It is secure and also has some security extension plugins to tighten the security.”
Orjiani agreed that: “It is open-source, free to use, can be navigated and modified seamlessly, and has so many themes to suit your design needs.”
But he said it can have security issues, and also, the lack of programming knowledge can make it very difficult for you in terms of the use of certain plugins and code-breaking.
Asides from publishing and building websites, what else can WordPress be used for?
Adenaike said this globally used innovation can be used as a headless interface for Apps. “When using WordPress in its headless state, you are free to display your content when and where you want it in any technology platform. An example of this in practice would be authoring a blog in WordPress that will then be made available to your iOS and Android app to read.”
On reasons why WordPress is one of the most preferred non-coding tools, Adenaike highlights:
- It has the highest database of free plugins and themes compared to other CMS
- It has well-informed documentation online
- It is open-source and there is room for contribution and a large number of online community
- It is flexible, dynamic and can be used to create any type of website like membership website, eCommerce website, job and recruitment portal, education websites, etc
Conclusively, I couldn’t help but wonder; Would this tool still be a big thing and still be widely used as it is today in the next 10 to 20 years?
Adenaike’s response was simple: “Change is one constant thing. New technologies and coding languages keep coming out always, but with the way WordPress keeps evolving with technology, I believe they will still be widely used in 10 to 20 years.”
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