According to March 2019 reports, WordPress Powers 33% of the websites in the world and this is a huge number. WordPress was started as a blogging platform and now it’s competing to be the best CMS out there.
As a blogger, if you have been looking for an idle platform; WordPress is great choice. This is the same blogging platform I and many other professional bloggers are using.
You can have a WordPress powered blog in less than 10 minutes. Refer to this tutorial which guides you on how to have your own WordPress blog in next 10 minutes.
Now getting back to the topic “Why WordPress“?
I started my Blogging career with BlogSpot and within 3 months I realized I needed something better and I moved my BlogSpot blog to self-hosted WordPress blog. You can learn more about all this in my Blogging journey article.
While blogging on BlogSpot, I realized that it is missing many essential features like SEO settings and the use of plugins. BlogSpot is not so scalable like the WordPress platform. Moreover, all the professional Bloggers around the web are using WordPress as their blogging platform and that gave me another reason to shift from BlogSpot to WordPress.
Since I had no prior experience of moving a blog from one platform to another, it was scary but after a bit of hit and trial, I successfully moved my blog to WordPress. Even today, I see a lot of bloggers who are on BlogSpot platform wondering why they should be using WordPress over BlogSpot and with this article I want to share some of the reasons that are compelling enough to give you a perspective.
Reason Why WordPress is my choice of Blogging platform:
1. WordPress support
When I started blogging on WordPress, I was a newbie and needed lots of support. WordPress support forum comes out to be the easiest way to get all the support I needed. Moreover, lots of users are on the WordPress platform and a simple google search will help you to find the WordPress answers you are looking for.
2. WordPress Themes and plugins
Whenever we start a new blog, one of the prime concern is design of the blog. There are three ways to go about it:
- Hire a WordPress theme designer
- Buy a Premium Theme
- Download free WordPress theme
Ideally, most of us will go for free or paid one & I personally vouch for paid once, because of support. There are hundreds of theme marketplace for WordPress, from where you can download any WordPress themes. Whereas for BlogSpot, it’s limited. Moreover, using Freelance Websites, you can easily find many designers and developers, who would love to redesign your theme at a cheap price.
3. WordPress as a static Website
If you are planning to create a static website, you can always trust WordPress as it is periodically updated and gives better and improved results. Having your static website with WordPress will help you in better SEO and ranking in search engine.
In the last couple of months, many of my clients who shifted from static HTML Websites to WordPress have seen a great improvement in search engine raking. There is no rocket science in it, as WordPress plugins help a lot to optimize your on-site SEO, and, dashboard makes it easier to make changes and update thing for non-techie people. Moreover, WordPress offers easy ways to integrate social media on your site and there is no second thought that in coming years, Social media is going to change the SEO industry.
Tip: Doesn’t matter what platform you use, make sure you take the advantage of Pinterest andTwitter to make your blog more social.
4. WordPress is SEO friendly
SEO is the last thing you will be worried about because by default WordPress is more SEO friendly than BlogSpot and other Blogging platforms. Though you can use best SEO WordPress plugins to enhance your WordPress blog SEO.
5. Trust and respect
To become a successful blogger, you need to gain trust and respect of a wider range of audience. Blogspot is a free blogging platform which is used by a lots of spammers to create backlinks. Therefore, people tend to avoid Blogspot blogs. If you have a Self-hosted blog (in this case it is WordPress), not only will you be considered as a serious blogger but it is more likely that people will have a firm belief in the reliability of information you share.
6. Monetization
Once you have the required trust and respect, you can easily contact private advertisers and increase your potential to make money. Many advertising networks, doesn’t entertain Bloggers from BlogSpot or many such sub-domain hosted site. Moreover, many ad networks like Google AdSense, Monetag have launched Dedicated plugins for WordPress blog.
Check out this guide: How to monetize a WordPress blog
Though these are some of the pros of WordPress but at the same time there are many cons of WordPress like it’s resource-hungry, you need to have good How to WordPress knowledge to fix WordPress when it throws an error.
What’s next?
I’m sure you have your own opinion regarding the blogging platform that you are using? We would love to hear your opinion.
Also, read :
Here are some of the reasons which I can explain why to use WordPress for blogging.
For further reading:
Hi Harsh, I think wordpress rules. I’ve managed to install it my 1st day and then used it to grow my business. Some issues with upgrading plugins but worth it
Hey Cip,
Agreed. WordPress is the best.
Thanks for giving very clear concept about wordpress.Writenow i am using wordpress in free domain.But i saw there a premium plan.What is that??Is it any host plan or anything else .
Bro, Now I’m in blogspot platform. After reading this, I decided to go with WordPress. Can you tell me steps to migrate from blogger to WordPress?
I have been using blogspot since last 7 years ..having good visitor count ~800 per day … so reluctant to switch over to word press … not sure though will think on switching over to wordpress .. and then hv to find hosting company !!!
With WordPress, bloggers can do lot of engagement with user, It is highly trustable platform especially for blogging world. Personally I also use it on my all blogs. Thanks.
This post is a bit of an eye opener for me as I’m new to blogging. The thing that has made me decide I’m going with a WordPress.org blog is the professional factor – if I can’t be bothered to pay a tiny amount for a domain and hosting, how serious can I be about blogging? Great post – i’ve even linked to it from Blogbods as I don’t have my own blog yet – it’s happening this week! I know you possibly said it as a joke….but I for one, would be massively grateful if you DID actually list the 25 reasons why WordPress is great for SEO – Ive got so much to learn, and I’m sure i’m not the only one. Would be very useful. Anyway, thanks!
I have to agree with most WP lovers that WP has many advantages comparing to other blogging platforms. However, I still prefer Blogspot because not only I don’t know how to setup a WP blog and am still afraid of switching to WP, there’s also another reason why I stayed with blogspot… My blog is in Chinese, and 20% of my readers are from mainland China. Blogspot is not blocked by China (as of now, China sometimes blocks it again), but WP is definitely unaccessible in China. I would like to keep my 20% readers. Which is why I prefer Blogspot over WP.
Hello sir once again really awesome post, Sir what do you think what should i do when some people copying content from my website? whenever i made they immediately made changes to their blog.
Wanted to ask you one thing , do we compulsory need SQL for using WordPress or we can go without it?
PHP and MySQl (DB) core of WordPress…
Great points, all! To these I’ll add:
• Intuitiveness – through years of refinement, the interface is simple for a beginner to understand, yet fluid enough not to slow down those more experienced.
• Cross-functionality – whether you start with a self-hosted site or with a free wordpress.com blog, the interface remains similar enough so that your knowledge of how to use the platform easily transfers.
I’ve designed custom WordPress themes; self-hosted sites with WordPress as content management system; incorporated WordPress blogs into non-WordPress sites; and of course have a WordPress.com blog. That said, having used other platforms like Blogger or LiveJournal (no disrespect), it’s WordPress for the win in my book.
@Rsmithing
Thanks for your comment and it’s good to see you expert comment. You mentioned the right key for WordPress popularity and that is continue evolution. With time, they are changing and adopting more current trend. Infact, now they work as trend settler and other platform follows them.
As I mentioned BlogSpot or other platform have their pros and cons but when it comes to select which is the best: There is no second thought about WordPress being there.
Hey Harsh, this comment inspired a full post over at my blog on, guess what… WordPress! I link to this thread and your blogging journey over at:
http://rsmithing.com/2012/01/11/wordpress-is-best/
As a professional blogger, I’d appreciate your comments over there if you’d care to share any advice with my readers. Thanks!
I agree that WordPress is the best CMS when in comes to making blogs, simple websites but really feel that still it lacks the punch when it comes to managing bigger sites (I am aware of the fact that biggies like Mashable, TechCrunch are powered by WP) but still it has got to get some tweaks to make it the ultimate one…
P.S: I am an avid WordPress user… 🙂
Hi harsh, very good article.
I think blogspot is free and easy to use, and i want to learn wordpress. Plz suggest any free web host 4 learning wordpress.
Thanks.
Harsh stop misguiding newbie people by saying that WordPress is better than Blogger. The only advantage i see WordPress have over blogger is its commenting system otherwise blogger is far better than WordPress. It doesn’t mean that you are using WordPress and you are successful than everybody will be successful in WordPress. Thought i am a new blogger but i see much potential in blogger rather than WordPress.
Blogger is already SEO friendly but in WordPress you have to install plugins and customize it in order to make it SEO friendly. WordPress sites are very easy to hack where as blogger is more secure than WordPress. In blogger we don’t have to deal with huge databases and hence more peace of mind.
@Zeeshan
My intention is not to misguide people but to showcase what WordPress offer and how it’s beneficial. I agree with your statement on Database issue. It’s a headache to maintain hosting and Db issues. Though, when it comes to SEO WordPress is way better than BlogSpot.
Here are quick Points: BlogSpot is not SEO friendly by default, you have to hack the template to make it SEO friendly.
Meta Title, Description, Keyword, Robots.txt They can’t be edited straight forward.
These things can be controlled by hacks, though how feasible it’s for everyone? Where as WP plugins are most of the time plug and play.
Even if we ignore this, I would always recommend self hosted WordPress over BlogSpot, as blog is still owned by Google and they have the right to delete it anything…
Also, think of other advantage like you control your own blog, you can block anyone by I.P…. You have plugins to make your life easier… Though, it takes the same time as BlogSpot to learn things with WordPress, but it’s worth…
I am in love with WordPress. WP has transformed my life in many ways. WP is really one of the best application to use after one buy a domain name and hosting. Hundreds of ways you can get benefits from this.
Very nice article 0n WordPress
As mentioned in one of the replies, a newbie has some sort of hesitation in trying wordpress.
Since we learn a lot of things on trial and error basis, we should consider this also, since I have been hearing about the benefits of wordpress from so many popular bloggers.
WordPress is cool.
There are many posts on the web about which platform to use and many have their own opinions. The battle could go on for ever, but it boils down to the individual themselves. I am glad I found WordPress and would never ever think of changing to another.
Oh My God!
It has been 1 hour, i am still reading your posts in shoutmeloud!
i liked your page suggestions. It’s so good to navigate from one post to other. Gosh! I used “open link in new tab” each time!
not to miss the original page!..
And My Favorite post in your blog is 345$ in a day!!!
but i really dont understand what is the use of four 125×125 slot!
and one final word “wordpress rocks”.
Questions[pls dont mind if the questions are stupid, i am using blogspot for 10 months and everything is free there, sign in, post something, ads and finally money and i never cared to grab subscribers, beautiful theme, navigations] well the questions are:
:
1.DreamHost is to Host the Website. i guess they gonna provide control panel. i am not getting what exactly is “wordpress platform”..
2. what is the cost of buying dreamhost and wordpress thing. Yes I realised to gain quality. investment is required.
3. will they charge money for wordpress plugins?
never go for DreamHost as they suck for life time, as Harsh Suggests better you go for HostGator.. It is simply awesome and is one of the best web hosting providers that were available in the market..
I think anybody who is serious about blogging has to use WordPress. The advantages it has over all the other blogging platforms are, in my opinion, too many to ignore.
I dont know about others but for those who know how to write but have no idea about hosting or html as a language or whatever its called, blogspot actually is a blessing in disguise ! I being a noobie knew nothing about hosting or ways to make a website but with blogspot i must say the task became easy. Its cheap, easy to use, no hassle of learning html. I have nothing against wordpress, its just that i like blogspot !
Good point Paritosh, For a newbie I always suggest blogspot for simple reason it’s free and once you are familiar with blogging and traffic building. It’s better to move to self hosted blog.
No Offence but WP has got nothing to do with SEO. Its the theme that does it part of being Search Engine friendly and once you have traffic, then any website can be monetized.
And what do you mean by WP as a static website? I guess the static page.
AshFame
Compare to other blogging platform WordPress has better advantage in terms of SEO and it’s not because of the theme.
Reason
Permalinks = Permalinks always play a great role in Permalink, In blogspot we can’t change the Permalink
SEO friendly Image = Though blogspot images are indexed easily but still they are not SEO friendly because of the lack of proper alt tag, which can easily be achieved in wordpress with SEO friendly images plugin
Keywords on every post = Keywords plays a great role when it comes for individual rank of any single post. Which can be easily manage by ALL in one SEO plugin or platinum seo plugin.
There are actually more then 25 reasons I can think of right now, I might end up creating a post in the form on comment here 🙂
The point is, I never said blogspot is bad for SEO but wordpress has added advantage over blogspot in terms of SEO.
Monetization = Most of advertiser including social bookmarking websites doesn’t prefer any blog with .blogspot domain. I’m sure many user has face this issue. I personally faced this issue when I was on blogspot.
I admit that permalink option is a better feature when compared to other blogging platforms such as blogspot but I took the WP usage more as CMS, so my answer was inclined on that subject.
WP theme is what interacts with the SE crawler and hence it plays a significant role. Can’t be ignored 😛
Plugins like you mention for images are for those lazy bones who have left the alt tags blank. I always do it by hand.
Anyways, WP is one of the best thing for building up a website but soon I may come up with post in which it lacks and can never be improved.
Kindly add me on Gtalk.
Ash
There is a difference between hard work and smart work. When same 1 hour work can be accomplish using a plugin, which is better option? 🙂
Meanwhile added you on Gtalk!!
I’ve got many successful results over WordPress just because of it is not only user friendly, but it is SEO friendly. While using WordPress, a lot of my focused keywords indexed on the first page of Google.
That not to mean only WordPress is great, but it is great among all, that’s all.
Androidage I might disagree with the statement on Focus Keyword as it could be achieved on BlogSpot too or any other platform. Provided, you have enough permission to add meta information and obviously content has to be SEO optimized. Though, in WordPress all this things become very easy because of Themes and plugins and as you said, WordPress is more SEO friendly and do we need more reasons apart from SEO when we talking abt Working online? 🙂
I agree to Harsh. WordPress is the best blogging platform. And theme is not complete thing that offers SEO. Many few themes do not offer SEO. WordPress offers permalinks structure which is one of best SEO techniques for any successful site