The reason that some law firm IT and legal marketing folks aren’t fans of WordPress is that when they neglect to update it or make ill-advised use of plugins and themes WordPress becomes unsafe.
It really is as simple as that. WordPress is one of the most, if not the most, stable, secure and highly performing content management solutions available to small and large law firms, whether it be for a blog, a microsite or a website.
Whether WordPress performs, is secure and stable comes down to its set up, maintenance and feature upgrades. Because of this, most law firms, including the largest law firms, are not running their WordPress sites themselves, they are using a managed WordPress platform or host.
Think of an Indy racing car. Team Penske, perennial favorites at the Indianapolis 500, will be driving three Chevrolet’s this May.
Chevrolet’s? Sounds too simple of a car to win the 500.
Highly performing Chevrolet engines delivering 550 to 700 horsepower capable of propelling cars at an average of over 230 miles per hour for 200 laps, 2 1/2 miles each.
Now hand that Chevy to an amateur or mechanics otherwise skilled and someone is going to get killed, let alone have the car highly performing.
It makes little sense for a legal marketing company to use a checklist of unfounded WordPress deficiencies to sell their own website software.
WordPress costs more to use. WordPress, no matter who you use for hosting or a platform, is dangerous to use and always insecure. WordPress is difficult to use. WordPress doesn’t work for search performance.
That’s like the warning on a hairdryer, “Do Not Use While Sleeping.” Maybe you have good web software, but to say WordPress is dangerous when used incorrectly is silly.
In a piece at Search Engine Land, Detlef Johnson, the editor of Third Door Media, said it well. WordPress is very safe. Neglecting to set it up right and failing to maintain it, among other things, can make it unsafe.
Detlef states the obvious. There is no such thing as a 100 percent secure system. WordPress, like any software, needs security updates to operate safely, and those updates, installed correctly, are not going to cause problems.
Take the iPhone, for example. Each time Apple comes out with a new version, it’s accompanied by a new operating system. We’re now on iOS 12. Within days of the original release updates come out for security and performance reasons. Such updates follow regularly. We’re up to 12.1.4.
Look at apps such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn which are updated every couple weeks. Security and performance always top the list you see in the upgrade.
The key is who is developing the upgrades, who is installing them and on whose platform the upgrades are being installed. Does the company have a strong managed WordPress platform and a record of performance.
As a lawyer or law firm, make informed choices when it comes to web software and the parties whose web platforms you will be using. But don’t let anyone tell you WordPress is not suitable for law firms.
If you need any comfort, look at the fact that over one third of the top ten million web properties and over two thirds of sites with a content management system (CMS) are powered by WordPress – including the majority of law firm sites for firms, large and small.