While no one can argue the usefulness and amazing accessibility of WordPress, it, unfortunately, operates under a myriad of misconceptions. Don’t miss out on all of the great things you can do just because you made a bad assumption. Here are some of the biggest falsehoods keeping you from realizing WordPress’ awesome potential!
1- WordPress is only for blogging
While WordPress is commonly known as a blog site, it is actually the preferred host for nearly a third of all websites, beyond blogs. Corporations, schools, government agencies, and commercial stores all use WordPress to power a huge variety of sites. And don’t limit your imagination to simply portfolios beyond a blog, but directories, online-encyclopedias, presentations for school or work, auction sites, and multilingual pages are all easy to create. Essentially, WordPress should be your first consideration for hosting a site before exploring any other option. Chances are, WordPress will be able to support whatever function you need.
2- WordPress is not secure enough
The idea that paying for site-hosting ensures superior security is a sad falsehood. You can pay a monthly fee to a host and receive even less security than with WordPress. In fact, its freedom contributes to its trustworthy security as an open source software. Open source software is available online for anyone to study, find, and inspect weaknesses in the armor, so to speak. It can be argued that this very ability for everyone to see WordPress’ code makes it more hackable, but simply using best password practices will greatly increase your protection. The dynamic nature of open source software means that bugs and problems are quickly addressed, and as long as you are taking the simple precautions to bolster administrative access to your site, WordPress is safe to use.
3- You cannot add a shopping cart to WordPress
Did you know that WordPress is not limited to the default features? There are tons of plugins readily available to add, say a shopping cart, to your site. The plugin WooCommerce, for example, powers nearly half of all shopping websites online, and does not cost you anything to use. It can be set up to sell both digital and physical products, not limiting your store at all! There are definitely better types of plugins for certain kinds of stores, but there is certainly a cost-efficient plugin best suited for whatever online shop you want to design.
4- A free hosting site is probably poor quality
It is a natural consumer instinct to assume that only the most expensive products are the most worthwhile. Novice site builders have literally wrote in and inquired as to why the best developers would want to create free software? The open source code is the secret to its success! WordPress is programmed by thousands of high quality developers, all collaborating to find flaws in the system, and constantly improve the functionality. Because of WordPress’ easy interface and publishing system, created in thanks to its best programming practices, it is incredibly popular worldwide. CNN, Adobe, and Microsoft are just a few of the companies that utilize WordPress as their content management system. The high standard of these companies speaks to the equivalent quality of WordPress.
5- You cannot customize your WordPress
If you are operating under the assumption that every WordPress site looks the same, you are deeply mistaken! The style of your WordPress site can be changed through the thousands of themes already available. There are tons of free options, and for those looking to really set their site apart, there are lots of low-cost premium options to purchase. There is also a variety of plugins where you can truly customize your site in a simple drag and drop interface that requires no extra coding skills of your own.
6- WordPress is not professional
Yes, WordPress is a beginner’s dream for users who are unversed in coding, HTML, or CSS. This is a common misconception that true professionals and advanced users can see no benefit from its easy accessibility. The advanced corporations and businesses using WordPress speak for themselves on the level of professionalism! Beginners get to have the same level of quality without any previous design or programming knowledge, and for more skilled users, the flexibility and openness will allow easy custom coding to perfect the software to their needs.
7- WordPress can only handle low traffic
This is a sneaky myth perpetuated by other developers to distract from the fact that WordPress is the platform for some of the highest trafficked sites online. Techcrunch and The New Yorker are just a few examples of popular sites that are in no way inhibited by WordPress hosting. Being self-hosted, the user can manage performance and allocate resources if their site is growing. For the non-tech savvy, there are third party providers that can manage the technical improvements so you don’t have to.