Medical Marketing Enterprises, L.L.C.

Website Optimization, SEO, Reputation Management for Medical Practices

WordPress Revisited | Is Your Website Built on the Best Platform?

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Wordpress is best platform for building websitesThis post mirrors this weeks podcast on Russ and Randy where we discuss the advantages of WordPress.

For many reasons, WordPress.org is absolutely the best platform to use to build your website.

WordPress.org is the world’s most popular CMS sytem.  CMS stands for Content Management System and can be best thought of as “blogging software.”  There are other popular CMS systems such Joomla or Drupal, but WordPress is the best.

Not WordPress.com

There are two similar products names WordPress:  WordPress.org and WordPress.com.  They even share the same logo.  For the purposes of this post, I am not referring to the “.com” version and when using the term “WordPress,” I’m referring to WordPress.org.

WordPress.com is a completely free blogging system.  Suffice it to say that it has too many restrictions, can not add functionality nor can it be optimized compared to the WordPress.org version.  You also do not have control over you files (they reside on a server of which you have no control or access).

I do not recommend WordPress.com for any business.

13 Reasons to Use WordPress.org

  1. Best for SEO – this is the best platform which allows you to optimize your site and your content (articles, posts, pages, etc.).  It is also coded to be easily and efficiently crawled by the search engines.  Google loves WordPress (so I read).
  2. User Friendly – if you can use Microsoft Word, you can use and operate a WordPress.org website.  You do NOT need IT experience or even need to know how to code.  Keep in mind that this is my preferred platform – that means I have even learned how to use it!
  3. Open Source – this allows multitudes of 3rd party developers to enhance the basic product.  WordPress enjoys the largest selection of 3rd party themes, add-ons and plugins.  As it is the largest and most popular in the world, the WordPress community is always updating and improving.
  4. Most Popular Platform – as the largest and most popular system, it has millions of users.  This translates to unlimited forums and “resources” available to help you when you run into a problem.  Chances are high that many have faced the same problem as yours.
  5. Turn-key Design – WordPress themes can be installed or switched out with click.  No need for website designers.  This flexibility in design, the way your website looks, can save you literally thousands of dollars.
  6. Mobile Responsive – similar to #5, most current WordPress themes are mobile responsive – no need to waste time and money building a mobile responsive site.
  7. Server Based means that you can work on your site from any Internet connection, even your phone.
  8. “Self-Hosted” means that you need to purchase a hosting account (GoDaddy, Bluehost, Hostgator), but it also means you have complete control and ownership of your files.
  9. Free installation – any legitimate hosting company will offer installation for…free.
  10. Versatile – WordPress.org offers the most plugins which means that WordPress is more functional and versatile than any other system.  You can even do eCommerce easily!
  11. Best Blogging Software – this was built for blogging, for our purposes, this allows to easily add content.
  12. Sophistication – regardless of the what your needs are, this platform grows with you as your expertise improves.  For instance, maybe you are not ready to open up comments or blog.  You can easily do it later.
  13. Search Engine Friendly – It is also coded to be easily and efficiently crawled by the search engines.  This gives you an SEO edge.

If you have any reasons (for or against) you’d like to add, please comment below.

All the best!

Randy

Is Your Site Mobile Responsive

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Mobile Responsive vs. Mobile DesignedThe following is a guest post from my good friend Howard Jacobson.  Howard is a pioneer in intellectual property and has extensive programming talents.  This is from a thread we exchanged over Google +;

“Mobile responsive design” really is two different things. “Mobile” design means to design a web site for a mobile device (e.g., a smart phone or tablet). “Responsive design” means to design a web site for a browser window of varying size no matter the device on which the browser is running.

Until the advent of mobile browsers, web sites were designed only for PC / Mac screens of a certain size. In the earlier days of the web, that size was perhaps 500 pixels wide (because computer screens were limited to a width of 600 pixels. Later, the size grew to perhaps 650 or so because screens became capable of displaying 768 pixels width. Later still, screens became capable of displaying more pixels, and the standard web site width became 960 pixels.

Then, mobile devices came along. These devices have much smaller screen widths and so cannot display well a web site designed for a PC / Mac screen. Many web sites initially responded by creating a duplicate of their site but redesigned for a much narrower browser width. These duplicates were not “responsive”, but they were “mobile.”

As mobile device designs proliferated, the number of different device widths increased. So, one mobile site design did not work well on all mobile devices (e.g., phone versus tablet). The need for a “responsive” technology became apparent so that web site developers and designers did not have to design multiple different separate web sites for different devices (e.g., iPhones versus iPads versus MacBook Airs versus large desktop displays).

CSS3 and Javascript provided that technology. (HTML5 and other technologies like jQuery also help.) These technologies allow a web site to “respond” to the size of a web browser and dynamically adjust the size and arrangement of items on the page as the width of the browser changes (wider or narrower) no matter the device on which the browser is running.

The web site developer and designer create only one site and include the CSS3 and Javascript that detects the browser width and changes the CSS3 properties of page elements to adapt to the changing browser size. This kind of web site is a “responsive” web site.

– Howard

While this may seem confusing, the remedy is quite simple.  Mobile responsive designs are simply website designs which can adapt, via mobile browsers, to varying screen sizes.  One website fits a variety of mobile screen sizes.

“Mobile design is really out of vogue.  All design is now “responsive.” says Howard.

Studiopress makes this simple.  The newer themes from Studiopress are all mobile responsive, keeping you way ahead of the game.  All of our customers and our own sites are built upon the sturdy Studiopress themes;  built on WordPress, optimized and now mobile responsive!

Randy

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