So I went to pitch a local private primary school in downtown Toronto. I like school website redesign work. Typically they are very professional to sell to and work with.
In this particular case they had a parent slash IT adviser sit in with us. I’m a fan of this usually as a trusted IT that understands our offer can be a great asset to help close the sale. Or as in this case they can kill the sale.
So I was just starting to get into the rhythm of my pitch when the IT guy chimed in and said he wasn’t on board with a recommendation for WordPress. I stumbled for a second but then reassured him that we could build it in other Content Management Systems (systems like Drupal, Joomla, Modx, Muse, Ghost or build it out custom for that matter.
To put this in more perspective asking your IT guy which CMS platform to use is sort of like asking your mechanic which kind of car you should buy. While they can certainly assist and give voice to their opinions, they should not be the deciding factor.
He really seemed stuck on the fact that we had pushed WordPress though. So we started discussing WordPress – its strengths (lots) – its weaknesses (huge hacker target) and why we envisioned the site they needed on WordPress.
As usually happens we found out that his knowledge of WordPress was built on misunderstandings. He did have experience though with Joomla and Drupal which he recommend over WordPress.
We quickly went over why we didn’t see either as a viable option.
1st both Drupal and Joomla are harder to build with and harder to work with. I have seen many companies move on from both options because getting experts in either is becoming harder. It’s not that we couldn’t build it, I actually started and trained on Joomla. It’s that the expertise required for the these platforms is hard to come by.
If you think about it, we could sell the Joomla or Drupal option knowing that the expertise is hard to come by. This would keep them in our pipeline. Hell why not build it in a custom CMS that we own and only let the client lease. We see a lot of that.
2nd the perceived increase in speed and security is typically false. Are either of the other CMS systems faster? They can be but its function dependent. WordPress also has cache plugins and content deployment integration that can serve up a WP site as quickly as any other.
The security issue is admittedly a bit touchy. As WordPress drives a lot of sites, it also attracts a lot of hackers, spammers and even ISIS to spread its message. With WP running just under 27% of all websites it becomes a very attractive target.
Want to know if your WordPress install is safe? Try this automated free tool – https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/
Add to that knowledge that only 22% of WordPress sites are up to date – including security updates.
When we build WordPress websites we use years of experience to avoid plugins that weaken the CMS. We also add in security protection by changing the standard WordPress login (so hacker bots cant find it) reducing the number of login attempts, adding a 3rd authorization number and limiting ip access to the site.
We know how to build a quick, well protected WordPress websites. Not everyone does. There in lies the issue.
Considering a WordPress website redesign? Call us for a free, no pressure chat about your website needs. We are happy to discuss all the options available and we love talking shop. 416.889.7812
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