Anyone can create a website through WordPress. Thatโs the beauty of it. But just because someone with very little web experience can put together a site in an afternoon with the popular CMS doesnโt mean that it should be tossed aside as a real enterprise solution for complex businesses.
If youโre wondering whether or not WordPress is a good foundation to build your site on, whether itโs powerful enough for enterprise companies, or whether it can perform at the highest level, I have some good news for you.
Letโs dive into a few popular WordPress misconceptions, and what you need to consider if you go down the WordPress route.
Misconception #1: โItโs just another blogging platformโ
To begin, Iโd like to address a few misconceptions that people have when it comes to WordPress. As alluded to above, many still think of WordPress as simply a blogging platform. In reality, WordPress powers over one-third of the entire internet. Thatโs more market share than Nike holds in the sports industry, Samsung or Apple in the smartphone space, or American Airlines in the US airline industry.
But the reason so many sites run on WordPress isnโt solely because itโs the market leader, but rather because itโs versatile. Due to its hooking system, open source nature, and ecosystem of themes and plugins, thereโs not much you canโt do with WordPress. Which means it can work for small businesses, pet bloggers, and giant corporations alike.
That said, larger sites have more diverse needs, and youโll likely require some help if youโre an enterprise company.
The Answer: Custom WordPress Development
When we say, โcustom WordPress developmentโ we really just mean consulting with experts who know and understand the ecosystem inside and out. Remember, WordPress is versatile, so specialized developers can help you with plugins, hosting solutions, themes (when necessary), integrations like WooCommerce, and more.
If youโre an enterprise company, youโre almost certainly going to need custom WordPress development. This ensures your website is built to fit all the needs of your business and produce a real impact for the organization.
Misconception #2: โItโs not secureโ
Another argument against using WordPress for enterprise companies is that itโs not secure. And without further protection, itโs a real concern. Because of its popularity and flexibility, hackers can usually tell when a site is powered by WordPress and theyโre always looking to break in. This is especially dangerous during the lag time between when vulnerabilities are publicized and when patches are applied. (Read: update your ding-dang software!)
In reality, these vulnerabilities arenโt limited to WordPressโthis applies to any type of software. WordPress is only insecure if you donโt take the proper steps and precautions to defend your site from hackers. Nothing online is safe if you donโt protect it.
One way enterprise companies (or any business of any size, really) can protect their sites is to make sure you invest in a good hosting environment or DevOps engineer. Here are some ways a hosting provider can help secure a WordPress site:
- Custom host configurations can make it harder to tell if your site is powered by WordPress.
- They can also do basic things like rename your admin path, since everyone tries โwp-admin.โ
- A host can also implement a firewall that detects if a certain IP is trying something nefarious, like a brute force attack, and then automatically block it.
Some of these things can be achieved through WordPress plugins, but a hosting expert can help you set things up correctlyโand test themโso that your efforts arenโt in vain.
Misconception #3: โItโs bloated and slowโ
Again, โout-of-the-boxโ WordPress can be clunky, especially if you donโt optimize for performance. But if youโre working with experts who know how to plan accordingly and who understand the server-side configuration, you should be okay.
One way we optimize the WordPress sites we develop is by utilizing TypeRocket, a specific WordPress framework. Through this framework, weโre able to extend and modify certain elements to build faster while optimizing for peak performance. That way, you donโt suffer from a bloated database or standard features you may not be using.
Enterprise Sites on WordPress
Still on the fence about whether or not WordPress can work for enterprise sites? Letโs look at a small example from one of our longest-standing clients, Airstream.
The legendary travel trailer and touring coach manufacturer has a large site with a wealth of data to manage for each productโeverything from specs and features to floorplans, images, and more.
This can make the site pretty bloated, pretty fast. Knowing how WordPress stores all data for custom fields, we were able to counter this issue by implementing custom data tables with TypeRocket. Using this method also made it easier to programmatically create importers and exporters, which made content management much easier for model year changes.
If youโre not a developer and you read the last paragraph as gibberish, hereโs what to take awayโWordPress has its limitations, but most of them can be worked through with the right team that understands both WordPress and what your business is trying to do.
WordPressโPopular, but Powerful
Thereโs a reason many people, companies, and organizations choose to build their websites on WordPress. And just because your cousin just started a fashion and food blog using WordPress doesnโt mean that it canโt be used effectively for your enterprise business. As long as you think through the limitations and create a great plan to address concerns like security and performance, youโll find that WordPress can be extremely powerful.