When it comes to picking out a content management system (CMS), you literally have hundreds of choices. This can seem pretty intimidating if you’re new to blogging. Trust me, I’ve been there.

No worries though! To help clear the air, this post will show you why WordPress (WordPress.org to be exact) is by far the most trusted blogging platform and why you should use it for your next digital venture.

How do I know? Well, I’ve been building blogs for the past seven years and I’ve had extensive experience with multiple platforms. To this day, WordPress is by far my number one recommendation for building a successful and professional blog. So, let’s take a closer look at why it’s still one of the best blogging platforms in 2017.

1. Ease of Use

The WordPress interface is very intuitive and easy to use. Everything from publishing a blog post, creating a page, adding an image, and uploading a video can be done in as little as a few minutes. The entire process has been streamlined and simplified so that you can quickly distribute content on a consistent basis.

Also, the learning curve for WordPress is much smaller when compared to other content management systems. Instead of spending hours trying to figure out how to build a website, the WordPress interface allows you to hit the ground running. Even if you have zero experience with HTML or CSS, the WordPress visual editor makes creating content a breeze. If you can use Microsoft Office, then you can use WordPress.

2. Trusted by Millions of Professionals

With over 300 million WordPress websites currently online, and nearly 59% of the total market share, it’s safe to say that WordPress is a trusted source for building a digital platform.

Credit: W3Techs

Top Universities, Fortune 500 companies, and even celebrities all trust and use WordPress as their blogging platforms. That’s not to say that just because a celebrity is using something then you should too. However, if a powerful brand is trusting their reputation with WordPress then you better believe it’s a reliable product.

3. Scalable

As you begin to grow and expand your blog’s reach, you’ll want to make sure that your platform can handle the load. Keep in mind that other factors play a part in your blog’s ability to scale, like your web hosting plan (big scary affiliate link), but WordPress is a proven digital foundation that fosters continuous growth. Additionally, most hosting services allow you to migrate from shared hosting to a dedicated hosting solution as your blog continues to grow.

With WordPress, you have the ability to publish thousands of blog posts, build multiple web properties, or even start a business. That’s a pretty powerful attribute. Think about it. You can literally create and distribute large amounts of content across the web in a relatively short amount of time.

4. Ability to Customize

Flexibility is key when it comes to designing a blog. Luckily, WordPress gives you the ability to easily customize your blog and deliver a truly unique experience to your visitors. You literally have the freedom to build a platform that communicates your particular brand and differentiates your blog from the competition.

5. Plugins

WordPress plugins are another innovative way to customize your blog. Simply put, plugins are pieces of software that you can add to your blog to enhance the overall performance and functionality.

Using WordPress plugins opens the door to a ton of possibilities. For example, my blog uses a handful of plugins to enhance security, build email lists, speed up performance, and much more. WordPress plugins are one of the many reasons why I use the platform for my personal brand.

6. Security

Unfortunately, we live in a world full of cyber threats. Turn on the news and you’re guaranteed to see some sort of cyber attack in the headlines. That’s why your blog’s security should be at the top of your list when choosing a CMS.

Blog With Ben Recomendation: The Wordfence Security Plugin

Thankfully, WordPress is backed by a community of steadfast developers and security professionals that are always keeping an eye on the safety of the software. Since WordPress is open-source software, you can rest assured that it will be regularly maintained and updated. Additionally, there are multiple security plugins that you can add to your blog for an added layer of protection.

7. Regularly Updated

As I previously mentioned, WordPress is regularly maintained and updated by its core leadership team. However, since it’s an open-source platform, this means that anyone can contribute code to WordPress. Due to this, there are literally hundreds of developers (more than most corporations) that constantly work to improve and strengthen the platform.

In addition to the WordPress core leadership team, there’s also a dedicated security team that’s made up of nearly fifty network and security professionals. They too are constantly striving to find vulnerabilities and increase the protection of the software in each WordPress release. It’s like you have your very own personal maintenance and security department working for your blog.

8. SEO Friendly

WordPress was designed with SEO in mind, and the platform gives you the ability to easily optimize your blog for the search engines. Whether you’re changing your permalink structure, interlinking between blog posts, adding alt tags, title tags, or meta tags. WordPress gives you the ability to implement a strong SEO strategy for your blog.

Another valuable SEO feature of WordPress is the ability to install an SEO plugin. We briefly covered a few of the advantages that a plugin can give a blog, but there are also many plugins that can greatly improve a blog’s SEO. The Yoast SEO plugin is one of those plugins and it has done wonders for my blog’s overall SEO strategy and implementation.

9. Easy to Monetize

You have a lot of options when it comes to monetizing a WordPress blog. You can build an e-commerce store within your site’s structure, add affiliate links to blog posts, or even sell your own products from your blog. The possibilities are endless and WordPress lets you easily implement multiple revenue streams within the platform.

10. Community

Finally, one of the main reasons why I’m so adamant about WordPress is because of the community behind it. Since 2003, the platform has grown to be one of the most used blogging platforms in the world. Because of this, we’ve seen an organic community of users, developers, engineers, entrepreneurs, leaders, etc. grow and flourish into a solid digital community.

WordPress is backed by some of the most talented and intelligent individuals that I’ve ever come across. They are also some of the most thoughtful and helpful people as well. There are forums, WordPress conferences, social media groups, meetups, and even companies that are all based off the WordPress platform. This strong, collaborative and collective group of minds is one of the many reasons why I’ve built my business around the WordPress platform.

Wrapping Up

I’ve been using WordPress for the past seven years and I don’t ever plan on stopping. This digital platform has given me the opportunity to pursue a career in digital marketing and it’s opened the door to so many possibilities.

If you’re thinking about using WordPress for your blog, I encourage you to download my free eBook The Blog Starter Kit. Inside I walk you through the entire process of setting up your very own WordPress blog. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on WordPress. Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email. I’m curious to hear how other people are taking advantage of the platform.