WordPress is a popular blogging platform. Apart from personal blogs, one can also use that to build websites that require collaborative content creation and management. WordPress sites are easy to use and manage. What started as a blogging platform has grown into a full-fledged content management system (CMS). With tools to schedule, manage and analyse the performance of a post, WordPress is miles ahead on its content management capabilities.

Features that attract users to WordPress :

• WordPress is easy to use. The instructions are straight forward and simple, which if followed, can result in amazing personalized pages.
• The variety of themes available for free makes it an easy favorite among users since beginners would not prefer to spend money on specialized themes. The opensource themes available in this platform are excellent to design and execute a decent page.
• WordPress has a range of plugins and widgets which help in achieving specific site goals. This saves the time which is otherwise spent on developing and testing unnecessary code.
• Large developer community who are always working to update the application and make the experience smooth and hassle-free. This community would be of great help to troubleshoot and to get tips.
• WordPress has the reputation of being friendly with Google. Since WordPress sites are up-to-date, Google SEO prioritizes WordPress pages which in turn drive traffic.
• Dashboard utility serves as a single stop to analyse and interpret site results. It brings all the parameters into a single place which helps the content managers plan the strategy.
• It supports collaboration among teammates. It allows multiple access with different User Ids and makes content-management efficient.

Choosing to use WordPress is a wise decision. The benefits are far too many to list exhaustively.

Some important advantages of opting for WordPress sites are :

• No specific technical knowledge is required to use WordPress. This saves the time and money in training staff to use WordPress with ease.
• Quick installation time. Since it is widely used, most website hosting services have a ready-made package to install WordPress-based websites. These packages install WordPress pages in a click.
• WordPress updates are fast and light. Since there is a strong community working on improving WordPress, the updates are timely and fast.
• WordPress is not bulky. It does not slow down the system causing downtime and a headache to its users. It is light and fluid.

However, it has its own tiny share of shortcomings as well :

• There is no difference between the ‘discuss’ and the ‘comment’ option. The reader can always interchange the two and create a mess to the post.
• As the business grows bigger, the website is expected to cater to that kind of traffic. The most common complaint with this platform is that scalability is tough with WordPress.
• To have intense graphics on the site, one cannot do it in WordPress without knowing coding. This can be a setback for people who are not developers or who don’t know coding.

That said, here is a list of ten most popular WordPress Plugins that are essential for a website to drive traffic and increase views :

• OptinMonster
• WPForms
• YoastSEO
• W3 Total Cache
• Soliloquy
• Jetpack
• Akismet
• User Registration
• MailChimp
• Social Icons