Why I Chose WordPress to Build My Personal Website

When I finally decided that I was going to register a domain and make a digital home of my own, I was adamant about one thing —

I’m going to build it all by myself. Every aspect of my personal website will be handled solely by me.

So, the first question that popped into my head after sorting out the domain-hosting duo was what CMS would I be using?

WordPress was the only one I was closely familiar with.
But, is it really wise to use WordPress for personal websites?

I got all my answers when I was finished with the website, from start to finish, in just two days (including all copies and graphic assets)!

The Answer: (Spoiler Alert! )
WordPress, indeed, was the BEST option for me!

But what were the exact reasons?
Glad you asked

P.S. a few links in this post are affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission if you choose to buy through them. The cost to you remains the same, and my opinions remain my own.

Reason #1 – Familiarity with the Platform

As I mentioned above, I was already familiar with WordPress compared to the other options available like Squarespace or Wix.

I had the basic knowledge of how to use the Gutenberg editor as well as the Elementor builder and also got used to the admin UI of WordPress in the process. Even the basic knowledge I had wasn’t that hard to learn. If you are familiar with the web and the basic software settings/admin panels, learning WordPress from scratch will be a walk in the park — may need some time to invest, that’s all!

So, considering the headstart in the learning curve, it was obvious that WordPress will be my primary choice to build my personal site.

But was it the only reason?
Let’s find out!

Reason #2 – Free of Cost (Sort of)

The biggest motivation of all — IT’S FREE!!

Yes, WordPress is open-source and free to use. That means, unlike the other options mentioned before, I didn’t have to pay a dime for using the CMS.

But, I should clear a confusion lest someone gets misled by the “free aspect”

So, the no-cost availability of the CMS definitely played a big role in choosing for building the personal website.

Reason #3 – Makes Blogging Easy (and Fun!)

WordPress is often stereotyped as being an exclusive platform for blogging and portfolio websites that are lightweight in nature. While this generalization is unfair to the platform powering over 43% of the whole wide web , WordPress is indeed the best bet for blogging no matter the expertise or the experience.

With the up-and-coming features and flexibilities of the Gutenberg post editor, WordPress is super handy for writing & editing blog posts and other similar content. You can even start publishing content from day one — it’s that simple!

As one of my primary goals behind this website was blogging and expressing my ideas across the internet, WordPress was my go-to pick for building it.

And I must say, I couldn’t be happier! Blogging has been super fun and easy for me since — thanks to the magic of WordPress.

Reason #4 – Variety of Themes Available

“First impression is the last impression.” In terms of people, it may or may not be true. But when it comes to websites and their appearances, it’s gospel!

If you’re like me, you don’t have —

• the time
• the expertise
• the patience

to design the whole appearance of your personal website from scratch

For people like you and me, a nifty solution is available in WordPress called Theme.

For those unfamiliar, a WordPress theme is a collection of template files and stylesheets used to define the look and feel of a WordPress website.

While there are hundreds of themes listed on wordpress.org, there are a number of familiar names that WordPress enthusiasts love. To name a few:

Blocksy
Astra
GeneratePress
Kadence
Hello Elementor
OceanWP

are some of the popular ones alongside WordPress’ in-house native theme, such as the Twenty Twenty-Three theme, named after the respective year they’re released.

I, personally, chose the Blocksy theme for my personal website.

Why?
Here’s why

• Over 100,000 active users
• 5 out of 5 stars on avg. rating among 700+ reviews
• Proven track record of being lightweight and optimal for page speed
• Clean appearance and interface, especially the blog post layout
• An amazing collection of starter sites (ready-made templates of full websites) for both Gutenberg and Elementor
• Fully responsive and optimized for mobile devices
• Built-in Header and Footer builder for the website
• Integrated lazy loading of images

Ok, I genuinely lost count! But these are the core features that attracted me. And thus far, the performance and also the overall experience of the Blocksy theme is satisfactory for me. ✌️

Using the options for “limitless customization” from WordPress and the Blocksy theme for personal websites, I designed and built my site (almost) exactly how I pictured it! Also, I did them in considerably less amount of time. For a non-coder like me with zero experience in website design and development, this is a big deal.

Now it’s becoming clearer why I went for WordPress, right?

Reason #5 – Loads of Resources to Learn from

It’s mind-blowing just how much quality content is available on WordPress to consume! There are tons of expert and helpful creators making videos and writing blogs/docs on nearly everything you might make or fail to make with WordPress.

Whenever I faced issues or hit an obstacle in those 2 days of building the website or even now while editing it, I searched on YouTube and Google for solutions. And trust me, I’ve yet to be disappointed while doing so . Because I got the perfect solutions and fixes every time!

It also makes sense because it’s the world’s biggest CMS, so naturally, a large volume of content is produced every day across the globe

To quote Liverpool Football Club — “You’ll never walk alone” — at least when you’re building personal websites using WordPress!

Reason #6 – The Power of WordPress Plugins

If you ask WordPress users which one aspect of the software they like the most, a major share of them would this — “limitless customization”.

Remember when I used the term when talking about themes? The true customization lies here — WordPress plugins.

The beauty of these WordPress plugins is that I can “choose” if I want a certain feature or not, and thus “choose” to use a plugin for that. This way, unnecessary features & codes aren’t eating my resources, bloating my website, or making it slow like a sloth! The choice and the freedom are in my hands!

So, which plugins did I install?

Every website, even the personal ones, needs at least one form — be it for lead/subscriber collection, fetching queries, or just a regular contact form for communication. These needs can be easily met by using a form builder.

Among the many form builder plugins available for WordPress, I opted for Fluent Forms.

What attracted me most to this form plugin are:

• The trust of 200,000+ active users
• 4.9 out of 5 stars average rating from around 400 reviews
• Complete mobile device responsiveness in forms
• Fast and lightweight form builder in nature

Fluent forms for personal websites is a no-brainer choice considering all the advantages it comes with, as seen above!

In addition, I use Elementor as my page builder because I’m familiar with the interface and how to get things done with it.

To extend the functionalities of Elementor while also saving time on building stuff from scratch, I used two add-on plugins: ElementsKit and Happy addons.
With the widgets and ready template sections of these two plugins, I minimized the time to build and edit the pages. In addition, I designed sections almost exactly as I envisioned them!

Some other plugins that I use on my website are:

✅ For SEO optimization: Rank Math
✅ For AI on-page optimization and content outline: GetGenie AI
✅ For extending theme functionalities: Blocksy Companion

These are, more or less, all the third-party plugins I use on my personal website. For the minimal functions I perform, these plugins are more than sufficient . You can look for more innovative and feature-rich ones if they serve your purpose.

Reason #7 – A Strong & Impactful Community

A cause, however noble it may be, is nothing without its community — the people who believe in it from their hearts. What makes WordPress stand out among the crowd of CMS platforms (or any software, to be honest) is how widespread , organized, and helpful its community is!

WordPress users and voluntary contributors make for such a wholesome group that any issue or hurdle seems like nothing in perspective. With the pledge of ️ building a web of open-source, WordPress relies on its community for its growth and innovation. Read more to learn about “Five for the Future” which is an initiative to make all this come to life!

All these convinced me to go for WordPress to build my website without a strand of doubt. Furthermore, I started contributing to the development of the platform and also hosted a session at a local WordPress meetup in 2022.

WordPress for Personal Websites: The Final Verdict

So, here you go — the whole backstory of building my website using WordPress in the form of a listicle!

Did you find it helpful though? Are you also considering WordPress as your personal website CMS?
Please let me know your thoughts and/or issues. I’ll be more than happy to answer and discuss anything and everything related to personal websites and WordPress.

Adios!