Sitecore vs WordPress .
When searching for a Content Management System it’s important to consider your business goals and what you want to achieve in the long-term. Whilst Sitecore and WordPress are both brilliant pieces of technology, they are both also very respectively different platforms that suit very different audiences.
In the world of digital we are quite often asked what makes one product different from another, what does one do better than the other. In this blog I aim to tackle those questions and allow marketers to make better, more informed decisions about the potential platforms available.
Content Management Features
WordPress is essentially an open-source, blogging platform that can be built to look like a website with the right theming and plugins meaning that, whilst it’s great for blogging, it’s a very basic CMS. Sitecore on the other hand, is an enterprise level platform that powers 32,000 of the largest sporting, travel and banking businesses; making it a great commercial platform. Unlike WordPress, Sitecore doesn’t require any plugins, you simply need a well-trained development team or an award winning Sitecore-partner agency.
With Sitecore features such as basic content reuse are much simpler; you can easily fill a variety of areas within your site from the same content source making it quicker to update and change data in a variety of locations - perfect for offers and events! In WordPress this functionality is much more limited and requires you to manually input the content into each location. Therefore Sitecore is a much better choice if you’re planning on reusing and updating content.
Versioning, otherwise known as revisions in WordPress, enables you to create a different version of your site when making lots of updates and allows you to preview the site before pushing any changes live. This functionality is very similar across both platforms.
Sitecore and WordPress both have workflow functionality. However, with Sitecore this is much more advanced and intuitive as it creates tiers of users and permissions; allowing managers to review and approve content before it goes live and track overall site changes back to the correct user.
Marketing Features
Unlike Sitecore, WordPress has a complete plugin library for 3rd party platforms, however, the lack of integration and marketing tools makes this CMS far inferior to that of Sitecore, which not only has its own marketing features but integrates with others too.
Sitecore also allows for personalisation of content, making it easy for marketers to create and display different messages, copy, blogs etc. to the allocated, pre-defined personas of their visitors.
In addition to this, the release of Sitecore 9 includes Machine Learning and Marketing Automation functionalities in the form of Cortex; an AI feature that takes all of the hard work out of segmentation and personas helping marketers to create the most seamless user journey yet.
Roadmap and Future Features
If you’re a business that has already put together a brief, roadmap and have plans for future development of your website and digital platforms then you’re ready for an enterprise platform such as Sitecore.
Updates, Scalability and Security
WordPress’ popularity makes it more vulnerable to hacking attacks and therefore experiences regular updates which have the potential to break plugins and themes. As a result of this there is a security risk for larger companies, especially those using the platform as an ecommerce solution.
I recently sat down with Senior Client-Side Developer, Jamie Donnelly and asked him for his thoughts on Sitecore Vs Wordpress, here’s what he had to say, “at some point when scaling up, Wordpress maintainability can become an issue. For example, keeping all of the third party elements up-to-date to ensure the site remains secure. With Sitecore, almost everything is under one roof, meaning the platform is more secure and therefore has room to scale.”
Interested in learning more about the Sitecore platform? Find out more about the latest release here.
Whatever your business, be it a regional or global brand, the content you produce plays a vital role in your success. You know that… hence you’re reading this.
A well formulated and executed content strategy not only drives more traffic, at the core, it defines what your business is and helps build a strong connection between you and your audiences.
So let's quickly look at why developing a coherent content strategy is important and how setting clear goals and understanding your audience will elevate your online performance.
What is a Content Strategy?
It's basic right? Content is at the core of how you define the way your business presents itself and an effective strategy should look to ensure that tone of voice, messaging and the core values are surfaced across all channels, from service or product pages on your website, to blog posts, through social media updates blah blah blah.
But let's keep it simple - your content strategy should be a clear roadmap that connects your marketing activities to your business goals. Align to your customer’s wants and needs and engage them at every interaction point and boom, you're in business.
Who are my Audience?
You likely start all your projects with this chalked on the wall because your business knows “exactly” who its customers are right? Sounds obvious but we often find its not been done forensically enough (not based on data), is too old (more than 12 months ago - forget it) or its a spin off from some brand work that was legitimately aspirational but doesn’t face the reality of who you your business is actually engaging today.
So start (or circle back) with audience research, building out those personas to understand their ambitions, their lifestyle, their pain points or concerns, and crucially their wants and needs - in your context.
Do I need to tailor content?
As part of your research find out where your audiences spend their time online and how they interact with content: Some may spend time thoroughly researching a product or service, whereas other audiences may want their content to be quick, snappy or easily digestible in the form of a video, infographic or short blog posts.
Ultimately, the key is to produce a strategy that creates the type of content your customers want to see:
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What are the problems that your product or service will help them solve?
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Who are they most influenced by?
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What voices influence their behaviour?
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What type of content do they consume?
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Where do they consume content and engage with brands?
Different Content, Different Objectives
All content is not born equal: When producing your strategy, it is important that the objectives for each individual piece are defined, that these fulfil your marketing objectives and tie to the overarching goals for your business.
There are various content frameworks that exist to aid content development in this way, but one that is popular and effective is Google’s hero, hub and hygiene method: It provides a framework on developing content to achieve different goals and gives guidance on the effort needed to create each type of content.
Hero Content
Hero content is essentially campaign content, it is big splash ideas designed to appeal to a large audience with the aim of telling your brand’s story at scale.
Ways of measuring hero include the amount of PR mentions or links from authoritative domains plus social interactions and mentions of your brand across all channels.
Considering the scale of hero campaigns, this content is not regularly produced and is reserved for peak promotional times where it’s important for a business to stand out from their competitors.
Hub Content
Hub content is the stuff that keeps your audience engaged, it expands on the themes of product or service level content, educates users and helps create a connection between themselves and your brand.
Hygiene Content
Hygiene content is the bread and butter of any website, it is the BAU content for products and services, it is SEO focused and targets important keywords at a product, service or guide level.
How do I manage all this?
Content development is only one part of the ongoing work needed when working with an effective content strategy. We call it “feeding the beast” because it really is the fuel in your brand vehicle and once you start you really can’t stop (if it’s delivering results) but that’s where performance measurement comes in.
Your greatest gift in managing the outputs from your hero/hub/hygiene style efforts is to understand If your content is working. To truly deliver results your business must first understand the objectives and goals of each piece of content to effectively measure its success. That as a guiding light from day 1 will let you slow down, speed up, stop or start new content briefs and projects.
Remember - content strategies are not set in stone. They are living breathing things and should adapt and pivot as insights become available and your brand naturally evolves.
If ever you want to chat content and explore new initiatives we’re always here to help.
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