WordPress in the enterprise: common misconceptions

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, having conquered more than 37% of the web with the demand from enterprise businesses only rising. Yet, every so often we come across a misconception, misunderstanding or a false belief when it comes to WordPress. As a result, we have decided to address the most common of these:

WordPress is not safe 

There are various enterprises who worry about this, of course, security is key and you want the best for your company. Luckily, WordPress is maintained by a world-class security team, and stays on top of vulnerabilities in their software. The key here is to make sure everything is up to date, as the issues become public knowledge and are solved through updates.

For extra security, WordPress can also be configured with security features to deter attacks and malware. You can read our WordPress Security Guide for more details. Here’s a neat list of the types of security conscious companies that use WordPress – so you know you’re in good company:

• The White House
• Metro 
• UK National Archives 
• India’s Prime Minister
• Sony
• NASA
• Microsoft

So if these organisations can deliver and use WordPress securely, so can anyone if they work with the right developers.

WordPress can’t scale 

For WordPress to work in enterprise environments, it’s not just about security. It’s also important to consider performance and scalability.

As you can see from the sites listed above, WordPress is used by some organisations which receive some high levels of traffic. The truth is, delivered properly by an experienced team, WordPress is perfectly capable of scaling to a point of delivering millions of unique page views per day.

To do this, the team delivering WordPress need to know how to work with it to get the best performance possible, whilst the right investment in infrastructure such as hosting, caching and CDNs will also be needed. But it’s certainly possible.

You can read more about this here: WordPress scalability.

WordPress always needs maintenance

Imagine you have just designed and built a building, you’re happy with the work that you’ve done. But at the end of the day, it’s just a building. 

With the right infrastructure, and good care it will last for a long time without major issues, but you may want to add in some furniture and give it a fresh coat of paint every so often to make it your home.

We use this analogy, because WordPress websites are basically the same. They need to be built with the right infrastructure to ensure that they last a long time, but you will need to take care of it through updates every so often to make sure your WordPress site stays ahead of the competition. This is the same for any website, not just a WordPress website.

Your site needs to represent your business as it grows and develops whilst staying inline with the latest trends and technology advancements.

You’re alone

When creating a WordPress site, if you have the right skills, you can build the website on your own, or choose a WordPress agency that you may want to partner with. Whichever you choose, you are not alone. 

Deciding to create a website on your own, may be the more lonely route out of the two, though you’re not completely alone. Because WordPress is an open source CMS and given how widely used it is, there is a huge community of WordPress developers sharing their work, code, plugins, tips and solutions to some of the challenges you may encounter on route. 

If you decide to go with a reputable WordPress agency, then you should be in great company. The agency will guide you through the whole process, and will provide the practical creativity behind your vision of a new website, ensuring it meets your strategic objectives on route.

Even when your partner agency has designed and built a shiny new WordPress site, you are still not left alone. Many agencies like us, will have a retainer or a set period ‘warranty’ and offer possibilities of working together in the future to make sure the website is updated and maintained. 

If you’re looking to move your digital experience to WordPress, why not get in touch?