Most business’s have to consider multiple methods when creating a website, two of the most popular choices being:

1. Creating a website using WordPress. (WP)

2. Build a Website From Scratch (Uniquely Coded Websites)

Perhaps you want to create new website to attract newer, higher paying clients for your business, or maybe you want to create awareness around your brand.

Both choices offer different functionalities. WordPress offers user-friendly features which are attractive to non-coders while uniquely coded websites allow for 100% flexibility.

But which one should you choose?

Good question!

Below we have laid out 10 points to consider when choosing how to launch your website.

1. Define Your Business’s Needs

There is only one reason to create a website for your business: to improve your business.

But every business is different.

Some businesses need their website to harbor innovative technologies like Twitter and Foursquare — while others need a simple layout to advertise their services.

Ask yourself which category you fall under.

Most likely, you need to advertise your business.

If you fall under this category, then WordPress is the perfect choice for you.

Maybe you only need a simple static website (no blog, no ease of access social sharing, no extra features) with only 2 – 3 pages.

WordPress would be perfect for this situation, as a uniquely coded website could be overkill for a small static website.

But there is an exception. What if your website needs a specific innovative feature? Maybe you need to add interactive tutorials to your website (with the same aspects as a game), or use a very specific layout.

A uniquely coded website would be more useful in this situation.

2. Speed of Launch

When do you need to launch your website?

WordPress websites take time to build when you consider the development of a unique template, the web copy, and the strategy behind implementing your website — but creating a website with WP is still quicker than creating a website that is uniquely coded.

If you are looking for quickness, use WordPress.

3. Content Marketing

Are you planning on implementing a content marketing strategy?

If the answer is yes, then use WordPress.

And for most cases, you should expect to implement a content marketing strategy to market your company.

For example, a completely new website generated 600+ page views and 50+ social shares in less than 2 weeks using one piece of content.

Imagine multiple pieces of content doing the same.

As well, great content generates attention for extended periods of time.

WordPress offers numerous options for content marketers to help you advertise your business. In this regard, there is no comparison.

4. Ease of WordPress Plugin Technology

If you want a lot of features, WordPress is for you.

Let us explain, WordPress has a mature open-source community (meaning many developers from all over the world are creating plugins to help users).

Because of this, users can use plugins to help them with:

1. Web development

2. XML site mapping

3. Search engine optimization (SEO)

4. Web analytics

5. And much much more…

For those who want to focus on their business and not mess with the minutiae of managing their website — WordPress is a great platform.

Tampa Bay Web Design Firm focuses on helping  companies manage their online resources. Call us for a free consultation: 727-237-2035

Here are a few popular plugins you can use with WP:

1. Yoast SEO – A great plugin to help increase your search rankings on the Search Engine Ranking Pages (SERPs)

2. Jetpack –  A general “do-it-all) plugin to measure site traffic, referrals, and many other powerful features

3. ShareThis – Trying to connect with an audience? Let others share your work using this plugin.

5. Coding Skill Level

Generally, WordPress is friendlier for non-coders.

You can implement small changes without having to wait for a developer to do it.

You can add blog posts with having to delve into code.

If you don’t code, use WordPress.

The platform is marketed as a powerful user-friendly platform that anyone can use, but to properly harness its capabilities an experienced developer is needed.

6. Which Way is Safer?

WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world.

Over 22% of new U.S. Registered domains are through WordPress, and WordPress.com gets more unique visitors than Amazon every month.

Because of its popularity, it is among the safest content management systems in the world (if not the safest).

But as well, it is safe to create a uniquely coded website if you have great developers.

If safety is a major concern (and it should be), using a developer to help you with your website is a must either way.

There is no way around this especially if you start logging payments and user information on your website.

7. Website Support

There is support for both choices.

There are many developers who specialize in WordPress and developers who enjoy creating uniquely coded websites.

For WordPress, there is a large community of users that solve thousands of issues.

For uniquely coded websites, there are developers who will help you fix any issues you come across.

Both choices are viable, but if you plan on stretching the capabilities of your website to get the most out of your business, both require outside support.

8. SEO Support

Which choice will get you found on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo?

Both.

It is actually better to manually streamline the back-end of your website with uniquely coded websites, but the improvements are negligible.

So if SEO is your major concern, both choices work.

But if you aren’t experienced with SEO then you may need extra support.

WordPress offers plugins (like Yoast which is mentioned in section 4), that can help you maintain your SEO efforts.

To get in a little bit more depth, Google also weighs website responsiveness as a major factor in rankings.

There are downsides though.

Uniquely coded websites can quickly become back end messes if you don’t have great developers. Google can’t crawl through your website and index it properly if this happens.

WordPress is quick, but not always quick enough — and Google uses this as an important metric for search engine ranking. But developers can help you solve this issue.

We will give WP an extra few points for being compatible with all browsers and mobile devices — which is not an easy feat for a uniquely coded website.

9. Mobile Friendly

When considering that 3.65 billion people in the world are mobile users, you want your website to be mobile friendly.

As well, as mentioned in the previous section, Google is weighing mobile responsiveness as a major factor in SEO rankings.

WordPress completely wins in mobile friendliness. It’s just so much easier.

It lets your developers focus on the real tactical changes you need to increase sales for your business.

10. Uniqueness

WordPress offers templates for its users, and this can make your website very similar to others.

BUT, WordPress is open source.

Developers can create themes, new templates, and alter existing templates to create a new design for your website.

So if you are worried about having a unique website, both choices will work for you.

Conclusion

It can be tough choice when starting you website. You feel like you might miss out on a opportunity if you make the wrong choice.

If you feel this way, default to WordPress — it fits the needs of the majority of people who need a website.

As well, it is much more user-friendly for non-coders, and provides a lot of built-in functionalities that only experts can implement in uniquely coded websites.

But still, there is reasons to manually program your own website, and you may need further information.

If you want to know more, we offer free consultations and can answer any question you may have.

Call us at this number: 727-237-2035