There area unit numerous fiddly bits going into the calculation of Google’s search ranking that it’s no surprise once business homeowners question another fiddly bit. “Does X influence SEO?” is one among the foremost common queries in selling online.
The question of whether or not WordPress has any inherent benefits or disadvantages could be a common one moreover, and it is sensible. WordPress could be a website design, and generally, those go together with additional baggage – or additional benefits. The question is, will it this time?
A Simple Answer
The simple answer here is that no, WordPress sites don't have any inherent advantage or disadvantage over home-developed HTML/CSS websites. Google treats each type of sites constant, in broad strokes.
If you wish proof, simply investigate the net around you. If Google gave preference to WordPress over different CMSs or over the custom code, ninety-nine of the net would be mistreatment WordPress. something Google will offer preference to is dominant on the net, thus it ought to come back as no surprise that something sanctioned becomes the de-facto default.
However, WordPress will have some benefits and a few disadvantages for SEO, reckoning on however you set it up and what you’re mistreatment. I attempt to reassess those benefits and downsides below, thus you'll decide what you wish to try and do once developing your website.
WordPress SEO benefits
First up, let’s say the benefits WordPress has in terms of SEO, marketing, and general net use. even though a number of these aren’t specifically SEO factors, they will have a secondary impact, and it’s price considering.
It’s incredibly easy and fast to established a WordPress website. As long as you've got net hosting able to go, you'll go from nothing to a functioning WordPress website in beneath AN hour if you recognize what you’re doing. You oughtn't to look ahead to a developer to try and do their work and acquire one thing to travel live.
WordPress comes with a near-infinite type of plugins to expand and integrate options. Years agone it would are higher to use a custom developed website for a few advanced options, however, between the WordPress plugin directory, CodeCanyon, and every one of the opposite freelance developers, you'll essentially do something with a plugin either for free of charge or for an occasional cost.
WordPress is trivial to induce running quickly with a framework. The Genesis framework is built for speed, that means you’ll prime the ratings for Google SiteSpeed ranking. Page load times area unit a verified computer program issue, and it’s trivial to get a high ranking with WordPress.
WordPress may be responsive simply by selecting the correct theme. Google’s stress on mobile for SEO is increasing on a daily basis, from previous advantages to sites that have mobile compatibility to the recent mobile-first compartmentalization modification. having the ability to adjust to all of the simplest recommendations for mobile browsing just by selecting the correct theme could be a large profit.
SEO plugins like Yoast and All-In-One will assist you cowl all the bases properly. rather than needing an enormous list of each bit of SEO simply to recollect things like image EL text, you'll install one do-it-all plugin and piece all of the choices quite simply. It’s astonishingly helpful to be able to cowl everything in one place and not ought to worry regarding it.
It’s low cost or free in most cases, that is good for tiny businesses and people. WordPress on its own is free, you simply ought to acquire the net hosting. Most plugins area unit free or can price you one thing like $5-$10 for AN annual license, thus it’s not all that tough to induce a website up and running on an awfully low budget.
You have access to the admin console for simple publication with the bottom fuss. we have a tendency to tend to require it as a right, however, mistreatment one thing just like the admin console for WordPress makes net maintenance and content publication most easier. It’s why infrastructures like WordPress became thus common. If you'll use a applications programme, you'll publish content on WordPress.
The user expertise tends to be additionally standardized, resulting in higher user metrics. Your readers apprehend what to expect, and the way to navigate your website, without having to fumble around through navigation or realize semi-hidden links. Sure, you would possibly lose out a small amount in “feeling like everybody else” except for one and all you lose thereto, you keep cardinal.
WordPress.com SEO Disadvantages
Now let’s say a number of the disadvantages inherent in mistreatment WordPress specifically. Again, a number of these aren’t about to be direct SEO factors, however, they will have a sway in however you’re running your website, and in however users use it.
You’re limited in functionality to what plugins and themes you'll realize and area unit willing to shop for. If you wish a selected feature however you can’t realize a plugin you trust to handle that feature, you've got restricted choices. you'll use AN untrusted plugin and hope it’s not a security risk, you'll go while not the feature, otherwise you will pay a developer to make the plugin to handle that feature for you.
constant goes for themes; if you can’t realize the one you prefer, you've got to pay to possess one developed for you. reckoning on however difficult you wish it, it would be fairly expensive moreover. If you've got a self-hosted WordPress website, this area unit just about non-issues, as there are no limitations to plugins or themes.
You have to stay all of your plugins and themes – and WordPress itself – up thus far. There’s a great deal of standard maintenance concerned in running a WordPress website. you've got to stay your content and meta information up thus far for SEO functions. you've got to update each plugin whenever a replacement update rolls out, and ensure to create certain it didn’t modification any of the functions you suppose. you've got to update WordPress itself, which might invalidate some previous plugins and needs immediate attention. It’s nearly a full-time job after you add in info maintenance.
Security issues are a lot of worse after they happen. Since WordPress is an immensely popular CMS for web development, any major security issue that pops up will immediately be taken up by thousands of hackers looking to compromise any site they can. With a custom HTML site, the security risks are harder to identify, and thus require more personal attention from a motivated hacker, which is something less likely to happen.
Sometimes a plugin update can screw things up. Even major plugins can accidentally tweak a setting that can dramatically hurt your site until you fix the issue. On the plus side, at least fixing the issue is usually a fast setting change.
Finally, make sure to remember that there’s a difference between WordPress and a WordPress.com site. Using a WordPress.com site – with a domain.wordpress.com URL – is going to be less valuable to SEO because of it. You lose out on branding, you lose customization options, and you might be part of a “bad neighborhood” in terms of customer impression. At the absolute very least, you need a custom site on custom hosting using WordPress.org’s framework, not a simple site builder WordPress.com page.
How Custom HTML Stacks Up
Now let’s talk a bit about how a custom site based on HTML and CSS can stack up. The first and most obvious benefit to using completely custom code is the ability to do basically anything you want with it. HTML5 and CSS3 combined can do some incredible things, up to and including making a fully animated site. A lot of those fancy scrolling effects and dynamic adjustments to sites as you use them are done in an SEO-friendly way using modern code.
You have complete customization options. With WordPress, you tend to be limited to what people have put together as customization options. If you don’t have an SEO plugin, some advanced parts of SEO are difficult to change. If you don’t have a plugin to easily manage your images, they can get out of hand. If you want a fancy animation effect, you need to find someone who has made a plugin for it or develop it yourself.
You have total control over your SEO. You’re not limited to what someone else thinks is best practice, you can do whatever you like. Of course, if you’re not an SEO expert, you might prefer having the guidance of a plugin, so this may or may not be a benefit. With freedom comes the ability to shoot yourself in the foot, you know.
Development costs can be pretty ridiculous. At the low level, when you’re paying a cheap designer, you might actually just end up with a WordPress site anyway. If not WordPress, you might end up with another CMS in its place, like Joomla. Complete custom code tends to be more expensive, and you’ll be paying for it in both time and money. You’ll get something excellent out of it with the right investment, but it’s still an investment.
You need custom development, which can have security holes. Whenever you’re developing custom code, you need to make sure it’s as secure as possible. You need to trust your developer to be aware of existing security holes and to take steps to mitigate them without introducing more. It’s quite difficult to find everything, and a legion of hackers is more powerful than a single developer. You need to remain vigilant to detect and protect against any possible intrusion at all times.
It can be annoying to manually format and upload content. The main initial benefit of a CMS – and in fact why WordPress was created in the first place – was to make it easier to create and publish content. Without using a CMS, you’re going to be doing a lot of manual work. That’s fine if you know what you’re doing and you enjoy it, but it can be tedious otherwise.
Which Option Should You Choose?
At the end of the day, you are of course entirely free to choose whichever method you want to use. If you have the money to spare for a high-quality developer and you want to do something customized, with detailed and interesting animations and custom code, I would recommend using a custom HTML site.
If, on the other hand, you want a simple website that operates a storefront and has a blog that covers all of the SEO bases, you can do a lot worse than WordPress. There’s really nothing wrong with using WordPress, so long as you’re able to keep up with the maintenance.
Personally, I prefer using WordPress to set up a site, using a handful of default plugins to give it the basic features I want, and then hiring a developer to give me plugins or themes for custom code or features I want to create.
Think about it this way; nothing stops you from adding custom code on top of WordPress.org installations. Using WordPress as a place to start simply makes 90% of the initial development work done for you. You can get a site up and run in an hour, spend a few weeks back and forth getting the last 10% developed, and have a great site by the end of the month. From there, all you need to do is produce the quality content Google wants to see.
Google isn’t going to give either one preferential treatment. You simply need to cover the main SEO bases whichever platform you choose to use. Make sure your metadata is sorted out, make sure your site loads quickly, has a good domain, has strong branding, and has a mobile version. Produce high-quality content on a regular schedule, even if it’s a relatively slow schedule. These are the elements Google looks for, and you can do them regardless of whether you’re using WordPress or a custom solution.
