Why ‘ROY’ in IT is Wrong About Wordpress - Dani’s SOAPBOX
Ok, let me get this out of the way. If you are a circa 2005 purist with your “WORDPRESS IS BEST” mantra, feel free to skip. You might be too far gone. The reality is, web, technology and digital innovation are changing constantly. If you have been “in the business” for longer than 2 years and not had to eat a gigantic piece of humble pie because of a wrong first impression or theory gone wrong. YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. Opinions of platforms, plugins, integrations or technology should be fluid. Its a good thing when WIX proves you wrong and ups their game. It means we are ALL making strides forward. If a designer, engineer, developer, consultant or copywriter cannot admit that they were wrong about a previous opinion after a new feature rollout, fire them. This includes me too!
HERE’S THE DEAL: Few things irritate me as much as those who refuse to allow innovation + progress. Then, they continue to steer clients and good people down a narrow path just to make themselves money. Its dishonest, its slimy and its just plain wrong. So get ready for sassy Dani, its gonna be a bit snarky (but still informative).
First things first.
WORDPRESS IS NOT BEST
Yes, for a few years it was. It was the big dog on campus. But times have changed and Wordpress continues to be the most annoying, most user-unfriendly platform on the market. Still many clients and friends have been hesitant to let this tattered icon go. So let me say it for the people in the back one more time… GOOGLE DOES NOT GIVE PREFERENCE TO ANY PLATFORM OR CMS (LIKE WORDPRESS OR EVEN MY BELOVED SQUARESPACE).
So how did we end up here? Why do people think and say this? What about this meta tags and SEO? Truth, for a while, SEO wasn’t at the top of the Squarespace priority list. They wanted to make beautiful sites easy to maintain. They achieved that. Now they continue to develop and engineer new ways to keep up in the race.
Squarespace has since updated Meta Descriptions, Alt Image Text for images (though you have to put this in for each image placement vs a global Alt Image Text like on Wordpress), Meta Titles etc. All things purists chant in picket lines (or reddit boards) are a non-point now. So move on and accept defeat. Wordpress has LOST the small and medium market.
People Like ‘ROY’ Telling You to Think BIG
We all want to be successful and effective? Right? But when did it become an insult to not be scaleable to a Fortune 500 level? But even with lofty goals, you can still be incredibly successful and happy on Squarespace. Wordpress can scale you up as high as you want to go however, Squarespace can easily cover the needs of about 95% of the website market PLUS its wishlist needs. They have member areas that can be used for courses or other paywall content. They are continually developing e-commerce (though I think Shopify wins this category), their blogging is AMAZING and page building couldn’t be easier. Unless you are a Target, Starbucks, Ikea or some other major player… Squarespace IS your best option. You do not have to “dress for the role you want” when it comes to web design. That is actually quite dangerous and ill-advised. Here’s why, (I probably say this next sentence twice a week in my consult calls)
“If you are NOT updating your site because you are afraid of it or its a chore, ‘THAT’ crushes your SEO more than any platforms optimization.”
MAC vs PC | DANI vs ‘ROY’
Ah, the battle rages on. Star Was vs Star Trek. Dogs vs Cats. West Coast vs East Coast. Chipotle vs Moes (Chipotle… ALWAYS)
When I try and describe this battle of platforms to clients in an effort to help them make a choice, I promise I am not as impassioned as I am on this blog. I am thoughtful, I listen and consider all of their needs. I just launched a Wordpress site last week. HOWEVER, this following phrase always seems to make it click for people:
“Wordpress is like a PC, fully customizable but it takes more work. More Time and the customizations leave it open to be broken and hacked.
Squarespace is like a MAC, closed and vetted system that works effortlessly together. Less options are vetted but the options are ‘safe’. Updates are easy and there is little maintenance from the customizations that I do apply. ”
Some choose the customization, opting to have more maintenance requirements for more customizations through third party plugins etc. MOST choose Squarespace. They choose because they want to be able to make their own updates to content and images without having to pay me (gasp!). They dont want to log into their site’s dashboard to update numerous files only to have one be incompatible. Therefore, breaking the whole site and effectively ruining their day trying to get the site back up. (bet you feel seen Wordpress users?!)
There you have my SOAPBOX, I hope I dont make these more regular but who knows, I am kinda sassy sometimes. My family calls it passion but I know thats just being kind.
Cheers,
PS: To any “Roy’s” out there, I am sorry for using your name. I bet you are an awesome person. I had to use a name and for some reason I pictured “ROY” from the IT Crowd being a Wordpress Purist and just ran with it. (Apologies to Chris O’Dowd as well)
