Why we recommend WordPress
You'll find it easy to use and extremely powerful. You can get up and running quickly, and, your website can grow with your business through customisation.
We recommend WordPress for most* projects because:
- It's an extremely powerful open source Content Management System (CMS).
- It's optimised for search engines and – more importantly – people.
- It can be customised to have the right look and feel for your business.
- It can be extended with plugins to add functionality.
- We can code plugins for you to create custom business functionality or user experiences.
Design and Branding
We can customise the look and feel of your website with a standard theme, or, create a custom theme for your brand. A theme, or 'skin', can change the design of your website without changing the content, adjusting the layout, typography, or colours of your site. If you have a strong brand, creating a custom theme is usually the fastest, most effective way to align your website design with your brand.
Standard WordPress Themes
WordPress, out of the box, comes with a few standard themes that get you up and running quickly. And, they are free. You can customise the header, footer, and various other elements. You can also upload your logo and images to reflect your brand.
WordPress Themes
There are heaps of themes available online for a small cost or free (buyer beware). With existing themes we can get your site up and running faster for less investment so you can allocate budget to content or promoting content.
Custom WordPress Themes
Design is unique and often it takes less time to create a custom theme for your brand than it does to "bend" an existing theme. By creating our own custom theme we can approach your design from a best practices viewpoint rather than using something that's close to what you wanted.
Because we can choose between the Standard WordPress Themes, 3rd Party Themes, or Custom Themes we can work within your budget.
Extended Functionality with WordPress Plugins
We can add WordPress plugins to perform additional functionality on your website. If we can't find a reputable plugin to do what you need to do we can code a custom plugin.
WordPress Plugins
Being one of the most widely used Content Management System (CMS) means WordPress has one of the biggest communities and the most plugins available. A plugin is some custom code that can be installed to extend the functionality. For example, we use a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plugin to help us analyse and optimise your content. Plugins mean we spend less time creating custom code, unlike some other systems where you constantly need to "reinvent the wheel".
Custom WordPress Plugins
Your website will, almost always, require some custom functionality. While there are often existing plugins you can purchase sometimes they just don't do what you need to do. Creating a custom plugin means we can build out your business process online.
WordPress Warning
Because it's one of the most common website Content Management System (CMS) on the planet, WordPress is also one of the most hacked systems on the planet.
It's essential you:
- Constantly keep your website plugins and the "core" code updated.
- Only use reputable plugins or themes.
- Only use professionals to code your plugin.
- Pay for professional hosting, support, and maintenance.
- Install and maintain additional security plugins.
If you don't keep on top of these issues you're exposing yourself, your business, and your website to risk of being attacked, hacked, and/or spammed.
Luckily, we take care of all that for you.
Specialised WordPress Hosting
Over the years we've put together a package called a Supported Site which covers way more than traditional hosting so you can get on with more important things.
We uses a specialised hosting environment dedicated to WordPress. After several years using WP Engine we've become a WP Engine Agency Partner.
*WordPress is not for every project
A Swiss Army knife is portable and convenient and has a range of tools for many situations. However, a Swiss Army knife is not a specialty tool – you'll never see a chef in a kitchen using a Swiss Army knife. A chef has a special knife for every job, not as portable, but every knife performs a specialty task highly efficiently.
So, while it's great for most projects, there are other tools for the job. For other specialty sites we recommend:
- HubSpot – a specialised sales and marketing system (which is what we built this site on). HubSpot has a special plugin for WordPress integration.
- Zend Framework – a specialised set of tools for building an application from the ground up.
- Native Apps – Apple iPhones and Android Phones have unique frameworks for building Apps on their own system. This is more powerful, efficient, customisable and usually more expensive to build.
For more information read this article about Custom Build vs. a Content Management System.