Common WordPress Myths Debunked

WordPress, being used by over one-third of all websites, is the most accepted CMS on the internet. It’s used to build dynamic websites that automatically obtain content from a consequent database. This means a lot of people are conscious of the platform.

Back in 2004, people used WordPress only as a blogging tool. In today's scenario, WordPress covers more than 50 percent of the market share for CMSs.

While WordPress has an outstanding reputation, some make depressing assumptions about its quality and features. Some people believe that it’s not protected, while others will tell you it’s difficult to use. In reality, these couldn’t be further from the truth. As a frequently used platform for building websites and other online applications, misconceptions have broadened keeping people away from WordPress.

In this article, I will explain the most common WordPress myths, clarify them and offer solutions on how to overcome them.

• WordPress is Just a Blogging Tool: This is possibly the most prevalent WordPress myths. Back in 2004, WordPress was purely a blogging system. Today, WordPress is an exceedingly multipurpose tool. WordPress is developed by way of fully-tested programming languages and technologies, PHP and MySQL. WordPress is not limited to text only.
• WordPress is Not Secure: Many people believe WordPress is the most effortlessly hacked CMS. While there is some reality to this. Websites built with WordPress can be exposed to hacking, but there are ways to maintain it against disturbance. When installing WordPress, choosing a strong password is always recommended. In addition to a strong password, one should alter the username to something other than the default “admin".
• It’s Difficult to Customize: Opposing to popular conviction, WordPress is comparatively easy to customize. It supports themes, that can be swapped out in just a few clicks. If someone wants a precise layout for the website, just downloading a theme featuring the preferred layout is adequate. Once activated, all the website’s pages will feature the new theme’s layout. Besides, nearly all themes offer their customization options, allowing an easy change in the website’s background color, header image, font types and more.
• It Costs Money to Download and Uses: WordPress being open source, is free to download and use. Several third-party themes and plugins cost money, but WordPress itself is free. Many webmasters by mistake believe WordPress is a premium CMS because it’s sold in several plans at wordpress.com. All plans sold through wordpress.com include the hosted edition of WordPress. One can download the self-hosted version for free at wordpress.org. Besides being free, the self-hosted version offers better liberty when customizing the website.
• It Isn’t Scalable: Choosing a scalable CMS is significant if scheduling to build a large website that attracts a bunch of traffic. If a CMS isn’t scalable, it will confine the website’s expansion and, therefore, its accomplishment. The excellent news is WordPress is entirely scalable. One can maintain adding new posts and pages through the admin dashboard, and one can effortlessly rearrange these posts and pages through the same admin dashboard.
• Trackbacks and Pingbacks Are Useful for Search Engine Optimisation: WordPress supports trackbacks and pingbacks that, when enabled, create backlinks when linked to another website in a post or page. While this feature may sound valuable for search engine optimization (SEO), one should consider disabling it. The backlinks created from trackbacks and pingbacks are usually nofollow, so they are mostly overlooked by search engines. More significantly, research shows up to 99 percent of all trackbacks and pingbacks are spam. One might get a few justifiable trackbacks and pingbacks, but most of them will engage links to spammy websites. Therefore, it’s suggested to disable trackbacks and pingbacks to guard against spam.
• It Will Slow Down Your Website: Some webmasters are unwilling to use WordPress, fearing it will slow down their website. Each time a visitor accesses a page, WordPress must obtain that page from the database. As long as there is a good web hosting service that does not install too many plugins, visitors should be able to swiftly load the website. The website can even be accelerated by downloading and using a caching plugin.
• There’s No Customer Support for It: An additional common WordPress myth is that there’s no customer support for it. While it’s factual that there’s no official customer service offered by WordPress developers, one can still get answers to all the questions. There are several support forums offered at WordPress. If someone encounters difficulty when installing WordPress one can seek to assist in the installation forum. If any technical error is encountered after installing WordPress, one can look for help in the troubleshooting forum. On the other hand, if someone having a question about the web site's theme, one can contact the theme’s developers for an answer. Most quality themes, as well as many free themes, offer customer support.
• WordPress is only for smaller sites: It stems from the fact that the majority of the platform’s original adopters used it to make quite simple personal blogs. WordPress’ fame and ease of access means that it’s often used by first-time website builders, who have a propensity to keep their creations fairly small-scale. WordPress may seem deceptively straightforward at first, but that’s only because it’s been intended to be easy to pick up. It’s scalable and able to offer a solid base for even the largest sites.
• WordPress websites all look the same: The last of the WordPress myths on the list is a little different. Those who know how amicable, beginner-friendly, and appreciated WordPress is might tell that all WordPress sites look the same. However, anyone who knows the first thing about WordPress themes can tell that this is not the case. Themes change the look and layout of the site. One of the reasons this myth exists is that inexpert users are likely to merely use the few default themes that are incorporated with WordPress. Even individual themes tend to come with a lot of customization options. Therefore, sites built employing the same theme can look very different.

In this article, I’ve debunked the most widespread WordPress myths. The fact is, there’s no reason people should avoid using WordPress. It’s is a splendid application full of potential.