Why using Wordpress and Tumblr as your Website is not a good idea

There have been times when I am looking around different forms online, or overhearing a conversation in public and get stopped in my tracks by a comment many say in a very matter of fact delivery

"Wordpress is the new Website"

in a lot of ways this hits me like someone making the statement "Red is the new Black", as if it is the basis of all that there is. Well lets look at some of the reasons why this can actually be a negative when it comes to getting your Website's vision to the public shall we.

Point: Companies discontinue product or go out of business

Anyone this past July 1st get effected by Google discontinuing their Reader service, or years ago had to scramble because everything you had was on a service like Yahoo 360? Hands up if that has been you.

Companies discontinue services all the time, either the host company gets purchased, declares bankruptcy or just decided to go in a different direction.  The problem is your entire online image is on their servers and linked to a specific service.  Depending on the amount of notice you are given it can become a scramble to secure your information and move it to "Plan B".

Point:Your  Website looks like hundreds of other Websites

Usually a service like Tumblr or Wordpress, offers up the use of pre designed templates, so that your information is simply a "copy and paste" or "drag and drop" update process, and while this has advantages from the standpoint of getting your information updated quickly it also carries with it a very large drawback

YOUR WEB PAGE LOOKS LIKE HUNDREDS OF OTHER WEB PAGES!

This can be a problem when you want your business, service or event to stand out to the public eye. Customers begin to ask themselves "well what makes Joe's Widgets any better than ABC Widgets anyway?"

The other problem that templates create is the risk of customers perceiving the attention to your Digital presence as being "Lazy" and start thinking "if this business is not putting the effort into this aspect of their public profile, what type of service can I expect from them in store?


Point: Ability to have a definitive backup should  your host's server fails

This actually goes hand in hand with the first point about discontinued products and companies going out of business and is the "plan B" mentioned in that point.  By having a fully designed Web Site stored on a USB drive, DVD Disk, the  Company's computer server or any other number of backup options, a Company's website can be back online in a matter of a half hour's time frame should "Plan A" ever fail on you.  All it takes is to transfer the server information for where the files are stored to the dashboard of your domain name and you are back online, no muss, no fuss.

Point: Dedicated Website can be coded to properly display 99% of the time on any platform

Websites can actually be effected by the platform the user is viewing them on, a Standards compliant modern website views through something like Internet Explorer 6 will not, by default, display properly, but code can be added in that accounts for these type of problems.

Moving to Mobile platforms has also brought along specific sets of challenges, as Elements that used to be designed with may or may not be supported (example Flash is not supported on Apple's iOS running devices like the iPhone and iPad) and while Java and Javascript are in fact two different programming languages the end user may have ended up disabling Javascript on their machines when following security warnings to disable Java (which has even been suggested by the Department of Homeland Security in the United States)

On the other hand, a Web Site designed for you by a Professional Designer will attempt to take all of these details into account, and while Tumblr, Wordpress and even Blogger (which this blog is hosted) are all wonderful tools to accentuate the positives of your Web Site project, they really can come up short in putting the right impression out for your potential customers.