We make our living from WordPress, so once in a while we take our head out of the sand and look around. As part of a different research that I was doing, I stumbled upon a big warning light.
Try it, to see what I’m talking about:
https://www.google.com/search?q=business+website
https://www.google.com/search?q=restaurant+website
https://www.google.com/search?q=website+for+my+hotel
Even though WordPress powers 25% of the Web, WordPress is nowhere to be seen in any of these results.
Today, clients find WordPress because Web agencies use and recommend it. But when clients already come to agencies with another platform in mind, this can quickly change. It’s happened before to other ex popular platforms.
The only way to reverse this trend and put WordPress back again in the mind of prospects is by getting together.
We’re trying to do our bit by launching a new WordPress Marketing podcast.
Are you interested in helping? Please leave your comments with your thoughts.
Well, I personally think marketing is overrated. Especially google adwords. If you like to gamble and have loads of money to experiment please go ahead and spend your money with google. I won’t and I think WordPress won’t. They don’t need customers that go just for low prices and bad templates. They need loyal and serious customers. And I personally think those people know how google ranking works. They look further that those first 10 places. Don’t believe the hype. Ofcourse they suffer from all new platforms out there. And that’s why they work on Project Gutenberg I guess. Whether I like that or not. I understand.
I tried to search the same way for WPML. “wordpress multi language plugin”. You end up 5th in my bubble. Not that good eihter by your standards?
As a webdesigner I think WordPress has a way bigger problem. That’s the never ending continuous “viral” updates. Every day, every hour etc there are updates. Loads of updates. Themes, plugins, translations etc. 90% work fine. But there are updates that cause problems. Mostly because there was no testing beforehand.
I can handle that. But customers want to do everything by themselves. Most don’t understand this update policy anymore. They ask me what’s happening? WordPress should be the customer friendly
CMS they say. And I agree with them.
I lost track of all updates, How many problems I had this year with strange updates conflicting with plugins and themes. I hold my breath every time there is a WP update. Few hours later all themes come out with shitty updates. And boom. Conflict. (like WPML had this several times the last month). Please test and test good.
Yes I do use local test sites. Always wait more then a week etc…
I think the whole WordPress eco-system has to co-operate more with each other. Otherwise this will lead to the downfall of WordPress I think.
I think one of the main problems wordpress has is that it is heavy and not tested on heavy load.
The wordpress community has grow far away from the blog purpose of wordpress and now wordpress is something like plateform for anything and that needs alot of work for moving wordpress from being blog into plateform.
I think the main problem is performance and using wordpress traditional core code.
I have worked on alot of custom wordpress website and mobile app and the following issues need to be fixed:
– API response time:
It takes alot of time to load the first second which seems due to wordpress loading all plugins and theme file to process the api request which a waste for an api request most of the time .
– wp query :
I have came across many problems due wp query which is slow and take alot of memory .
– memory problems:
On big scale wordpress eats the memoryp.
I think wordpress developer needs to change their orientation from being blog focused to something more global like backend plateform and use something like reactphp ( event driven , non-blocking I/O ) at least at the begining for api level and that will provide huge boost for wordpress.
I think security is a HUGE issue. WP is starting to get a reputation of not being secure enough for big sites. People are setting everything on interent security nowadays, WP should keep up. The (few good) security tools there are, are often payed and are not enough.. and still slow down your site a lot.
WordPress is a good platform, but some useful plugins are very expensive. Sometimes I prefer to do a project in the other platform because of main features that are not built in WP and should be installed by a plugin.
we are more then interrested, but also on the lookout for new developments.
As we know, the value and competitive advantage of WordPress is for content-driven organizations. It is not the best choice for a brochure site, or for a site with few changes over time. In an age where many consider content marketing to be the only marketing left that works, WordPress is the best platform.
To me, selling WordPress is selling content marketing.
I also downplay the much-touted statistics of WordPress powering the web because I do not see a breakdown that can show what share of the 25 to 30% of websites running WordPress are outdated and substandard private blog networks. If, as I suspect the statistics are skewed due to these Internet Marketing playgrounds, we should see a reduction or flattening of the share of WordPress sites as PBNs are taken down or replaced with non-WordPress mass page builders. With my prospects, I focus on highlighting the best practices of successful businesses using WordPress as their content management solution.
Very interesting!
I would be interested to know what you think the competitors are for small businesses with no e-commerce function? We use WordPress on 95% of our projects (all non e-commerce), and there are no other options that I’m aware of that would be suitable for these types of projects.
Sure, if the business has no budget and wants to create the site themselves, they might use Wix, Squarespace or a similar platform, but we would never create a site for clients using these platforms. And since we don’t do e-commerce projects I am not aware of many other solutions as capable and as well supported as WordPress for our needs.
Pj
I don’t think WordPress has much to worry about. I think the reduction in search for WordPress could be down to the increase in popularity of self build sites like Wix and SquareSpace. Business owners are taking it upon themselves to build their online presence on their own but once they start they realise just how hard it is, then turn to a developer or agency who is likely to recommend WordPress because it’s better for control over your site, security, future proofing, expandability etc etc.
I believe, businesses will still turn to WordPress eventually.
Well I don’t think WordPress is on a decline. Yeah probably most theme developers had a stroke when they announced Gutenberg but it is still one of the best CMS for small businesses.
People mention new technologies like AngularJS, ReactJS, VueJS but small businesses won’t pay for website developed by full stack developers. They want an affordable solution and WordPress is still a stable choice.
The performance issues can be dealt with cache plugins and normal hosting packages (other CMSs are slow as well on 1$ hostings what a surprise).
For SEO WordPress still outcompetes most CMS platforms. The WIX sites mentioned in the searches are not number one because of great on-site SEO (which Wix imho lacks) but hardcore off-site SEO tactics so it is not a good comparison.
I agree on going full PHP7+ that would be great.
Last but not least I don’t think WPML has to worry it is far superior to other plugins.
Our sales have been constantly up since 2010 when we started selling WPML. But this is still no excuse for being passive on the marketing for the entire platform.
We cannot imagine to work without WordPress. Even if it’s not a perfect CMS. But it’s the only one with enough updates to be secure. Try another one, and you’ll see an important number of problems without any solution. And it’s easy for any newbie to write an article and publish it, and update alone the content of a website. (Please remember Mambo (ex-Joomla), it was so complicated for a newbie).
Of course, WordPress is not perfect! It was a blog solution and now we use it to create e-commerce websites… So it cannot be perfect!
Your links seem to target especially Wix. In my opinion, Wix is not a professional platform. It’s for newbie, for begineers and people without knowledge about PHP, database, http://FTP... It’s not so simple for a beginner to install a WordPress on a server… So they use Wix.
Hi Amir,
If we see a decline on the graph, we have to figure out what is rising. Is it Wix? Squarespace? Even Shopify?
The volumes don’t add up.
But if you compare “wordpress” [software] with “react” [javascript], it seems to fit. I am not saying this is correlated but the rise and decline of both seem coordinated.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F02vtpl,%2Fm%2F012l1vxv
If this is a viable conclusion (if), then it is not a marketing problem. End-users or clients don’t use React JS, developers do.
And devs don’t need marketing.
Since WordPress is still growing in market shares (30%+) but declining in search (Google Trends), is it that bad? Or does it mean it is the go-to solution and you don’t have to search for it anymore?
My 2 cents 😉
I think that the power of WP is its flexibility. I made with it: commercial websites, CMSs and web applications. Sometimes it results too “heavy” but it is a price to pay to have all those features. If you know how, there are techniques to keep it lighter.
I’m interested in this discussion.
Fabio
Hmmm, maybe we take WP for granted, that it can and should solve all out needs? I’m afraid that WP grows too big, becomes a heavy player, too slow to adapt to latest technologies. I’d prefer to scale down, not up, simplify and speed up. We’re often too focused on look and feel, animations, video etc, that we loose focus on the business objectives.
WP is smart, easy to use, but yes, performance can be better, and ability to switch platforms should be easier.
I’ll continue with WP until something new comes up. I’m doing other platforms, but I always try to scale down. I’ve worked with huge solutions on expensive platforms. VERY often a waste of resources!
So keep it simple and stupid. Don’t grow WP out of the great core, stay agile and simple please.
Cheers
DIVERSO.DK
.
Of course, WordPress is in a strong competition whith other supplier and out of the box solutions like WIX, Jimdo, etc. Therefore it´s easier for our potential clients to make there own website without the helping hand of a professionel developer (at least on the technical level). And yes we have to deal with technical problems that are not always funny. WPML in combination with Woocommerce has driven me several times in the madness ;-))
But I think it´s a bit too easy to interpret a downswing from a single Google Trends-query and some search requests.
Currently we have around 7M global monthly searchrequests for the keyword “wordpress”. In combination with other terms like “theme”, “plugin”, “how to …” etc. we have around 20M searches every month. I think the search queries have evolved and far more differentiated than ten years ago.
WordPress will probably keep us busy for a while, I’m sure.
This is not good, because if you like to disable WPML. There will be a problem wwe have clients what should i say to the clients when you disable the option. I think that most people will search for alternative for WPML . This is not good!
Until a couple of years ago, all our clients’ sites were tailor made, but having to manage and maintain 20+ tailor made sites is not feasible. That was our reason to switch to a CMS platform, choosing WP because of its obvious benefits.
I tell my clients that we’re building their site with WP, but only as an argument explaining that in that way, we can keep delivery times short and costs low. Not because of the WP native benefits for the end user, but because WP enables us to offer cost effective web sites and integration.
So, in short, customers don’t find or choose us because we build with WP, but because our work doesn’t look too shabby and doesn’t require them to mortgage the house. WP is our tool, not our vocation.
Maybe we’d rather focus on making WP ( and WPML ) even better and faster and on enhancing our own marketing message as agencies?
Bye,
Ward
Hey Amir!
Sure I’m interested in your thoughts and initiatives regarding WP, the more after my recent experience with you and colleagues.
Nonetheless, I would get this issue the deeper as possible as I personally don’t see enough data to be worried, at least in this post of yours, but I’m sure you have more in mind so, for now, consider me intrigued. 🙂
Yes, as a owner of web development company focused on WordPress – I also feel worried about google trends.
In my opinion wix is a competition, however I’ve seen multiple clients switching from wix after few weeks of using it.
Your point about search results is good, considering the fact that there are places such as Themeforest who should be interested in being on top positions to sell their themes
Yes, I agree. The marketing is not very good, yet the platform is truly a good one, with some problems, but very good. (always room for improvement)
so what are you thinking can be practically done to help?
I use WorpdPress for all my clients, small or big companies, business sites or online stores, and I am 100% satisfied with it (and my clients too). There are many myths about WordPress, for example that it does not support large stores, and that is a lie that harms the CMS.
There are many alternatives and they will be launched more in the future, this is inevitable. But that does not mean that WordPress will disappear from the market. They have improved a lot these past 10 years and they will continue to do so for sure.
I agree. So why not market it?
It’s not the fact that the platform is bad. The issue is that there are serious bottlenecks that need to be addressed, while other stuff is on top of the list instead. For instance, there is a lot of emphasis on Gutenberg. And there are already several builders out there. At the same time, the real issues are:
– ACF Pro is not part of the core. They should have bought it long ago like they did with WooCommerce
– same goes for WPML. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all great, but debugging stuff and servicing the multilingual functionality has become a usual routine, without which things can go terribly wrong and very very fast. And having multilingual functionality has become a de facto standard in web development recently
– ACL sucks. While building a website for one-person administration is ok, having a complex role structure or multi-role environment is pain. Members plugin helps, but not all plugins are compatible and not all plugins have granular roles
– everything goes into posts and posts’ meta tables of db. And don’t get me started on serialization. While having a small website it’s a non-existing problem, for platforms with many posts / products / other data it may be a huge bottleneck and can slow down the queries a lot
I understand that the initial concept was keeping the CMS robust and light, but given Gutenberg development and the fact that more and more often you need to bundle the huge Jetpack plugin to the web app, makes you question the concept and how consistent the concept has been applied and whether the priorities were set correctly. At the moment it feels that the platform progress is driven by wordpress.com needs – having an easier editing interface to enlarge the user base, rather than developer driven – better ACL, better db structure, multilingual functionality and custom fields.
> At the moment it feels that the platform progress is driven by wordpress.com needs..
Exactly this.
Exactly this.
Hi @Amir, IMHO the main reason WordPress marketing is failing is the lack of clarity on the message, for example Wix “make easy websites for dumb successful people” and in WordPress we need a Wodpress “smarter and better for business” or something on that line.
There is no real message for the real “Consumer” so far they are focused on making it better and nurturing the community. But they are not doing a good job at positioning it to people who will be paying “Developers, Designers, Hosting, etc”. Maybe Automattic is expecting the ecosystem to take care of that.
I agree with you in terms of being concern with the future of the platform, and I believe the answer is about “positioning”, positioning WordPress as “The solution for your Business online”
Regards
Luis Gellon
I agree about a better message. The only “marketing” content available for WordPress, on wordpress.org, is the homepage. It consists of 289 words. That’s it. There’s nothing else.
The rest of the content are “version announcement” blog posts and huge list of themes and plugins.
If this was your business, would you spend only this effort to attract prospects to your product?
First, brand new WordPress (n) must be built, the old shit doesn’t do the job if you want to build something more than PBN.
thanks Amir for the interesting article!
I just think WP has evolved and got stuck in the middle o of something that is quite difficut to understand, for me.
Something “easy” fo a developer, but not so, for a normal person and his project (winx, squarespace, every hosting has a site builder…).
If I have to build something professional, WP is not the first choice. It wos years ago, now its not anymore. I prefere working (and getting crazy!) with code.
and SEO the same. It wos really good years ago working with WP, but now it’s not any more (speed).
When I see an e-commerce with WP I think its “not professional”, to me WP is a realy realy good blog CM. the best for this.
If you want to help with the actual WordPress marketing you should contribute to the WordPress.org marketing team
https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/
Thanks Richard. Are you active there? I read the agenda and I’m looking for an introduction.
The #marketing channel on the WordPress.org Slack is open for everyone.
I’m sure everybody gets a warm welcome 🙂
Hi Amir,
Further to my previous comment in this thread, I think an effort made to increase the number of showcase sites and to add case studies would be a good use of time for the Marketing make team. Indeed, those of us who ply a trade based on WordPress could help by linking to these success stories.
I too would be interested in contributing to the marketing team to help expand the .
https://wordpress.org/showcase/