WordPress is a popular platform that powers millions of websites worldwide. The platform provides a user-friendly interface and customizable features to make website creation and management more accessible. According to BuiltWith, the open-source usage rate of WordPress in South Africa is 79%. This clearly shows that WordPress is the preferred platform for web design and development in South Africa but there are specific reasons why.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) that allows users to create and manage websites without needing advanced technical skills. It is a popular choice for bloggers, small businesses, and even large organizations because of its flexibility, ease of use, and wide range of customization options.
According to W3Techs, WordPress is used by over 40% of all websites on the internet, and its market share in South Africa is no different. The latest statistics show that WordPress is the most popular CMS in South Africa, with a market share of 67.3%. This means that two-thirds of all websites in South Africa use WordPress as their CMS.
Why Do You Need WordPress Hosting?
To launch a website using WordPress, you need to have a domain name and a web hosting service that supports WordPress. If you are looking to host your site on a WordPress platform, we recommend using a managed WordPress solution or a similar WordPress-specific hosting plan. WordPress hosting is specifically designed to optimize the performance of WordPress websites. It typically includes pre-installed software, automatic updates, enhanced security features, and specialized customer support to help users with any WordPress-related issues.
Reasons to Choose WordPress
In South Africa, WordPress is not only popular for its ease of use, affordability, and scalability, but it also offers a wide range of benefits for website owners. These benefits include:
Ease of Use
One reason for WordPress’s popularity is its ease of use. WordPress is considered user-friendly and easy to use because you don’t need any coding skills to use it. The platform provides a simple and intuitive interface that makes it easy for anyone to create and manage a website. This means that even people with little or no coding experience can create and manage their websites without minimal fuss. WordPress also provides a wide range of customizable themes and plugins that allow website owners to add features and functionality to their sites without having to write any code. Although WordPress allows beginners to create websites instantly, experience with HTML and CSS is recommended for more control of customisations.
Cost-Effective and Affordable for Almost Anyone
WordPress is a free and open-source platform, which means it’s available to everyone, mahala! It also has a large community of developers who create free plugins and themes. For South Africa WordPress’s popularity is strongly influenced by its affordability. Many small businesses and individuals in South Africa cannot afford to pay for expensive web design and development services. WordPress provides an affordable alternative that allows them to create a professional-looking website without breaking the bank. Additionally, WordPress’s open-source nature means that it is free to use and can be customized to fit the needs of any website owner.
Flexibility and Scalability
WordPress’s flexibility and scalability is also a key factor for South African businesses. As a business grows and its website needs change, WordPress can adapt to meet those needs. WordPress allows website owners to add new pages, features, and functionality as their business grows without having to start from scratch. This scalability makes WordPress an ideal platform for small businesses that are just starting and larger businesses that need to expand their online presence. WordPress is highly customizable, which makes it ideal for creating all kinds of websites, from blogs to e-commerce sites.
SEO-friendly
WordPress is designed with SEO in mind, making it a great platform for creating SEO-friendly websites and optimizing your content for search engines. It has built-in features that help to optimize your website, making it easier for people to find your site online.
Here are some key factors why WordPress is known to be an SEO-friendly platform.
Optimized URL structure
WordPress generates search engine-friendly URLs that include the title of the post, which makes it easier for search engines to understand the content of the page.
Mobile-friendly
WordPress themes are designed to be responsive, which means they adapt to different screen sizes and devices. This is important because Google favours mobile-friendly websites in its search results.
SEO plugins
WordPress has many SEO plugins available, such as Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack, that allow you to optimize your content for search engines, including creating meta descriptions, sitemaps, and optimizing images.
Clean code
WordPress is built with clean code, which means it loads quickly and is easy for search engines to crawl and index.
Content management
WordPress allows you to easily manage your content, including adding and editing posts and pages, which is important for keeping your website up-to-date and relevant for search engines.
Large Community
WordPress has a large and active community of developers and users in South Africa and globally. Having support available means you can easily find resources and tutorials to help you with your website.
The WordPress community is a vast and supportive network of people who use and develop the platform together. Being a part of the WordPress community can provide you access to a community of like-minded individuals.
Here are some benefits of being a part of the WordPress community.
Access to resources
The WordPress community offers resources for learning, including documentation, tutorials, and forums. The community is here to help you learn how to use the platform.
Support
The community provides support through forums, Slack channels, and meetups, where you can ask questions, get help with technical issues, and connect with other WordPress users and developers.
Collaboration
The WordPress community is all about collaboration, with users and developers working to improve the platform and develop new features and plugins.
Networking
Being a part of the WordPress community provides opportunities to network with other users and developers, which can lead to new business opportunities, collaborations, and friendships.
Open source
WordPress is an open-source platform, meaning anyone can contribute to its development and improvement. Open-source software like WordPress helps us to foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and innovation within the community.