As a professional wedding photographer, having a website that showcases your portfolio and services is essential for attracting new clients and growing your business. With WordPress being one of the most popular website builders, it’s important to understand the differences between its two main platforms: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Although they share the same name and use the same software, the two platforms have some important differences that can affect your website’s design, functionality, and overall success.
In this blog post, I’ll explore the main differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, and help you decide which platform is the best fit for your wedding photography business.
WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org for Wedding Photographers
WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two different platforms that use the WordPress software to create and manage websites, but there are some crucial differences between the two:
Hosting
WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform that requires you to find a web host and install the WordPress software on your own hosting account. WordPress.com, on the other hand, is a hosted platform, which means that your website is hosted by WordPress.com.
Customisation
With WordPress.org, you have complete control over your website, which means you can customise it in any way you like, using your themes and plugins. With WordPress.com, however, you have limited control over your website’s design and functionality, and you can only use the themes and plugins available on the platform.
Cost
WordPress.org is free to use, but you will need to pay for web hosting and a domain name. With WordPress.com, there are different pricing plans depending on the features you need, and you can use a subdomain for free, but if you want a custom domain, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Maintenance
With WordPress.org, you are responsible for maintaining your website, which includes updating the WordPress software, themes, and plugins, as well as backing up your website. With WordPress.com, maintenance is handled by the platform, which means you don’t need to worry about updates or backups.
Why I’d Recommend WordPress.com FOr A Wedding Photographer
A wedding photographer looking for a powerful and customizable platform for their website would be better served by WordPress.org rather than WordPress.com. WordPress.org offers complete control over your website’s design, functionality, and content. This means you can customize your website to your liking, choose from a wide range of themes and plugins, and make your website stand out from the crowd. Additionally, WordPress.org allows for more advanced SEO customization options, including the ability to install SEO plugins that help optimize your website’s content and increase its visibility on search engines. With WordPress.org, you can also use your own domain name and have full ownership and control of your website’s data. This makes it easier to create a professional online presence and establish yourself as an authority in your field, which is crucial for wedding photographers looking to attract new clients and stand out in a crowded market.
What is WordPress.org?
WordPress.org is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. It is a self-hosted platform, which means you need to download and install the WordPress software on your own web hosting account in order to use it. WordPress.org allows you to create and manage a wide range of websites, including blogs, e-commerce stores, portfolios, and business websites. It is highly customizable and offers a wide range of themes and plugins that can be used to add features and functionality to your website. Additionally, WordPress.org has a large and active community of developers, designers, and users who contribute to the platform and create resources such as themes, plugins, and tutorials to help users get the most out of their websites. Overall, WordPress.org is a versatile and powerful platform that offers great flexibility, scalability, and control to users who are willing to invest time and effort into building and maintaining their websites.
What is WordPress.com?
WordPress.com is a website hosting platform that offers a simplified version of the WordPress software as a service. It allows users to create and manage websites without needing to worry about technical details such as web hosting, server configuration, and software updates. WordPress.com offers a range of plans, from free to premium, each with different levels of features and support. With WordPress.com, users can choose from a variety of pre-designed templates and customize them to their liking using a simplified website builder. WordPress.com also provides a selection of plugins and widgets to add functionality to your website. While it is less flexible and customizable than the self-hosted version of WordPress, it is a good option for beginners who want to quickly create a simple website or blog without the need for technical skills or web development knowledge.
Why is WordPress.org better than WordPress.com for SEO?
WordPress.org is better than WordPress.com for SEO for several reasons. First, with WordPress.org, you have complete control over your website’s design, functionality, and content. This means you can optimize your website for SEO by choosing a theme that is SEO-friendly, installing and configuring SEO plugins, and customizing your website’s code and structure to make it more search engine friendly. With WordPress.com, you have limited control over your website’s design and functionality, and you can only use the themes and plugins that are available on the platform.
Second, WordPress.org allows you to use your own domain name, which is important for building your brand and establishing your website’s authority. This can help improve your website’s rankings on search engines like Google, as having a custom domain name sends a positive signal to search engines that your website is credible and trustworthy.
Third, with WordPress.org, you can access your website’s code and make any necessary changes to optimize it for search engines. This means you can implement advanced SEO techniques, such as custom meta tags, sitemaps, and schema markup, to make your website more visible and attractive to search engines.
Overall, while WordPress.com is a good option for those who want a simple website or blog, WordPress.org provides greater control and flexibility, which makes it a better option for those who want to optimize their website for SEO and establish a strong online presence.
Conclusion
In summary, WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform that offers more control, flexibility, and customization options, but also requires more technical know-how and maintenance. WordPress.com is a hosted platform that is easier to set up and use but has some limitations regarding customization and control.
Further Resources
https://wordpress.com/go/website-building/wordpress-com-vs-wordpress-org/
