Whether you want to build a website on HTML or use a content management system, such as WordPress, would depend on its purpose and how you want to use it. You also need to consider the design aspect to make your decision. Though the ease, flexibility, and robustness of WordPress have made many website owners convert HTML to WordPress, there are still many users who prefer HTML.
WordPress versus HTML
WordPress is a flexible platform that lets you create a website without any need for coding. You can easily customize your site and have complete control over it. Whereas, for an HTML website you would need to hire a developer as it requires knowledge of scripting languages and therefore you don’t have much control over it. Let’s make a comparison between the two options on different parameters.
Speed
Speed is a crucial factor in page ranking. More is the page load time, more is the bounce rate. With more and more people using a mobile devices to search the net, it is critical that your speed is good as the maximum bounce rate is reported from mobile users. You must give due consideration to speed when you decide to build a website.
WordPress Speed
Since PHP is a server-side language, your server uses the PHP code to reclaim information from your database. It can, therefore, affect your speed and increase the page load time. However, there are several ways in which you can increase speed. You can purchase a content delivery network or optimize the images to boost speed of your website.
HTML Speed
Since HTML websites do not require code or database queries, it loads faster than a WordPress site. You can further optimize your website by taking several steps, such as compressing the images, removing white space, using lazy loading of images, etc.
Ease of Use
While deciding how to build your website, ease of use is an important factor that needs to be considered. However, ease of use can sometimes compromise flexibility.
WordPress
Since WordPress does not require any coding, you have complete control of your website. Managing content or changing your site’s appearance is quite easy. You can configure its settings through its dashboard and enhance its functionality through any of the several plugins that are available.
HTML
The ease with which a WordPress site can be managed and maintained is not there in an HTML site. There is no dashboard in it and, therefore, if you have to edit content, enhance its functionality, or change its appearance, you will have to write HTML and CSS. Also, there is no pre-built theme and plugin that you can use to perform these tasks. If you don’t know the scripting languages, it becomes all the more difficult.
Price
WordPress
It is an open-platform that can be downloaded free of cost. You only have to pay for the domain name hosting. Though you will have to purchase the premium themes and plugins, it would still be cheaper than engaging a developer to build a website. The cost of premium themes and plugins, domain registration vary, and that influences the final cost of the website.
HTML
The cost of building and managing an HTML site is much more as compared to WordPress. The more the number of pages you have, the costlier it would be. If you don’t know the technical languages, you would need to hire a developer every time you need to make a change or have to add content. The price factor has led many website owners to convert HTML to WordPress.
SEO
Search Engine optimization is critical for the success of a website. According to a survey, more than 90% of traffic share for a keyword is garnered by the websites listed on the first page of search results. Let’s compare the two options for SEO friendliness.
WordPress
You can easily optimize your website via its dashboard. You can choose a responsive theme to make your site mobile-friendly. You can download or buy a plugin to get help. Plugins such as Yoast SEO, or WP Rocket can help with your site’s SEO.
HTML
There are many ways to optimize your website, such as adding keywords in your posts, linking to external and internal pages, optimizing your URL and tags, adding meta description, etc. optimizing the on-page SEO is relatively simple compared to technical SEO.
Blogging
WordPress was launched as a blogging platform, but later evolved into a comprehensive CMS. It, therefore, has an in-built blogging feature. Once you create content, it can easily be scheduled, published, or edited. Though you can create compound blogs on HTML, it’s a time-consuming process.
Which platform to choose would depend upon several factors as explained above. Existing site owners can either convert HTML to WordPress or migrate website to WordPress.