How WordPress Changed The Way I Build Websites

Lets not pretend WordPress is the perfect web development platform, but lets see WordPress for what it really is: powerful. I’ve worked with WordPress for over six years. In this time, I’ve developed a number of professional and personal sites, including the one you’re at right now.

Like any other tool, WordPress can be intimidating at first, but the learning curve is short and benefits are extremely high. The basic idea of WordPress is to offer a platform for content creators and web designers to build powerful solutions and websites without the need for extensive coding. The website design, layout, enhancements, plugins and features are all managed through a simplified dashboard anyone can use. This dashboard also offers in depth customization for the veteran coder.

Simplicity isn’t the only reason I use WordPress. The biggest benefit for the independent web developer is time savings. WordPress offers a platform that allows web developers to roll out solutions in hours rather than days, or even weeks. WordPress also offers expandability and flexibility through thousands of plugins and themes readily available free of charge. Let’s also not forget the massive adoption of WordPress improving security and “one-click installs” offered by most major web hosts.

WordPress is constantly evolving. The platform has changed dramatically since it’s inception. Right now there are features that allow for the drag-and-drop of menus and the complete customization of categories, sidebar widgets and layout preferences. WordPress theme developers are more clever, implementing new layout schemes and integrated features such as shopping carts and embedded media.

At the end of the day, what does this mean for the developer? It means I have flexibility. It means I can be creative. It means I can focus on what’s important: the content. At the end of the day, it is the content that creates the website. The less time is wasted on web development and feature design, the better. After all, people don’t go to sites simply because they look pretty.