WordPress is too complex for the average small business owner to use. The on ramp needs to be simpler.
WordPress powers 31% of the web. I’ve used it on this very blog since 2005. But WordPress has a problem for the millions of small business owners that don’t have a website: the learning curve.
That’s why I’ve reviewed WordPress alternatives like Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace, Yahoo Small Business and GoCentral.
These website builders make it much easier to get started than WordPress. The problem is that they can’t easily be exported to WordPress when a website owner is ready to harness more flexibility and customization. (One exception is DreamHost’s Remixer, although that’s not a very competitive site builder.)
With 13 years of WordPress experience, it’s easy for me to do just about anything required in the Admin interface. But when it comes to customizing the look and feel of a site, it’s difficult unless you’re a coder. Gutenberg promises to make some of this easier, but the site structure itself will still be difficult.
Some of the pre-built frameworks can help but still have a long way to go. Consider Genesis, which this site and PodcastGuests.com are built on. The Genesis framework is designed to make customizing a site easier, but I still can’t use it without a developer.
There are lots of great themes for Genesis. The problem is that the out-of-the-box experience with these themes is nothing like what you’d expect. They are installed with a default blog structure rather than what the theme looks like, and users have to then dig into widgets to recreate the desired look.
WP Engine acquired StudioPress, the maker of Genesis, earlier this year. It has a big opportunity here. It should create a one-click experience for people to choose a theme built on Genesis that matches the layouts shown on the site.
Of all the WordPress experiences I’ve tried, GoDaddy’s seems to be the closest to hitting the mark for making it easy to customize a site. This is thanks to an integration with Beaver Builder, a drag-and-drop plugin for WordPress. GoDaddy asks for your site category and contact details, layers in its Primer theme, and then lets users customize their site using Beaver Builder. Here’s an example of a site built on GoDaddy and Beaver Builder.
It’s still too difficult for someone who isn’t experienced with the WordPress admin, but at least it doesn’t require a developer to create the site.
Automattic’s WordPress.com is another viable alternative. The sign up process asks how skilled the creator is and customizes the experience accordingly.
The holy grail is to allow people to create a site on a sort of WordPress-lite. Something that doesn’t look like WordPress…something like the site builders. Then, when people are ready for the added flexibility that WordPress brings, they can unlock it be converting to the full version of WordPress.
Hey Andrew, I couldn’t agree more that “WordPress is too complex for the average small business owner to use.” Even Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, agrees that it’s too complicated and expensive for most people. Yet, WordPress and many of its converts are so obsessed with expanding WordPress, that they push beginners into believing they can build their own websites using WordPress.
Finally, people admitting the truth. I have always found WP to be very unpleasant to use and not user friendly at all. And yet you see so many people claiming it’s so great and the easiest thing since sliced bread. I used to work in IT myself and have always hated using WP since. That’s why I don’t use it now, I just hate it, and you can get really super bogged down with it sometimes.
Oh, it’s a wonderful tool for publishing. I love using it to publish this site. It’s just that it’s too difficult for the typical very small business owner to figure out how to set up.
Let’s professional do their job, 110% of self made website are ugly, not functional, and they have negative impact on owner bussines. The rest is just BS for looser. If you don’t have money to pay for a web site you must change you buissines plan or you don’t need a complex website.
Hey Andrew. Great article and very interesting thoughts!
I think Gutenberg will increase the ease of use for non-developers with WordPress (including with Genesis / StudioPress), so hopefully this will continue to get better over time.
At WP Engine / StudioPress, we are actually working on technology for Genesis and the StudioPress themes which will make it even easier for non-developers to create and style their sites leveraging Gutenberg. We’re actually super excited for the way we view these experiences being used by DIY webmasters This is small part of what we’re investing in for Genesis / StudioPress themes post-acquisition.
Even though we’re working on features which make it easier for the DIY webmaster to create and modify their site, one of the powers of WordPress & Genesis is the ability for developers to create the exact experiences and integrations they need for the site their building.
The flexibility for developers does introduce complexity into the system; however, it’s this flexibility which provides WordPress and Genesis their strength.
Not every site owner wants to do things 100% on their own, and every business owner I’ve ever met has always wanted functionality and integrations which weren’t out of the box. Platforms like Wix make it easy to design of course, but not easy to create unique experiences and custom integrations.
I agree that if you want to 100% self-serve that Wix / Squarespace can be the way to go (so long as you’re okay with moving away later being hard), but for many brands the power of flexibility and control of WP + Genesis are helpful 🙂
Finally, I’m glad to see you all are using Genesis for domainnamewire. If you ever have any feature requests or feedback, we’d love to hear them!
Thanks for your comment. What would be very valuable is if people could one-click install a Genesis theme and then choose between the blog style and the widget style shown in the screenshot.
I agree that WordPress is tough to use, if you don’t know where to start.
For anyone looking for a Squarespace or Wix-style way of using WordPress, there’s always Divi. That theme is part of the Elegant Themes community, and a relatively low-cost membership provides tons of tutorials and support. Another alternative is to use the free Elementor page builder with themes like GeneratePress or Astra. There are many easy tutorials on YouTube for beginners.
Of course Genesis is going to be difficult for WordPress newbies. It’s meant for professional designers. It’s like saying cars are too difficult to drive, using Porsche or BMW as examples.
Slam dunk 100% agree. Divi is astonishingly easy to use. I literally whipped this site up in 1 day with Divi. https://dropthe.com One of the easiest and most enjoyable sites I have ever made. The front end editor makes drag and drop a snap and the support of Divi is 2nd to none.
Yes, we built https://www.vacation.rentals on Laravel with Angular and Vue, but we also realized the enormity of the situation from day 1 and needed a framework that could handle heavy loads like this. Still, WP is a wonderful took with the right theme.
Hi.
I think the arguments you come with are not directly related to WordPress, but rather the Page Builder plugins/themes and Genesis and it’s child themes. Neither of these are WordPress, but rather extensions built by external developers. I would still argue that WordPress is very easy to learn to use and has a very user friendly interface. Therefore I think the title of this article is a bit amiss.
If the average small business owner needs a blog, then it’s rather easy to install and get started with a theme and plugins. If the average small business owner needs a more complex website, then yes WordPress can be used for this, but may not be the right tool for such a user, if that user prefers to DIY.
Luckily it’s easy to find developers and webdesigners cheaply who can help with the rest. Then it’s up to the developer/webdesigner to set up the WordPress backend to be user friendly and easy to use. Not all developers/webdesigners do that though. Again, not a WordPress problem. 😉
You lost the average very small business owner at “install”. Thankfully, a lot of registrars now automatically install it for the user.
Once you understand WordPress, it’s easy to create. It’s getting it set up/designed that I think is not easy for the typical person.
Well, the fact is that no matter how user-friendly the Web platform, the end user must have a good sense of design. That’s why professional Web designers exist.
I know everyone is hooked on cheap labor, but you do have to pay for a professional online presence.
I’m not a plumber and, if some of the pipes in my house were leaking, I’d pay a professional plumber to fix them. So, why is Web design any different?
I’m sorry, but there will always be limits to WYSIWYG programs. You can either deal with that fact or learn how to customize CSS style sheets .Otherwise, hire a Web designer.
None of this matters. Most small business owners don’t want the write content, take business images, or know how to organize a website. Most have poor design skills.
Saying that the holy grail for website development is an easy use website builder misses the mark. Websites will still be confusing, disjointed, and weak if the primary content is still two sentences and the builder doesn’t know if he/she needs a basic inquiry page.
What you seek may happen when AI evolves enough that a computer can do everything with little human input.