Why we switched from TypePad to WordPress

With the switch just about finished, I want to give you our reasons for switching platforms.

Both platforms have pros and cons, but ultimately WordPress made a lot more sense for what we wanted to do moving forward. Please be aware that we are using a WordPress.org installation, and we are not having WordPress.com host our blog. You can read more about the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com here.

• Design — It’s much easier to customize a WordPress installation than a TypePad account. Our old design was fine for our old mission, but we’re switching gears with the project and getting ready to launch a new feature and focus. If you know HTML and CSS, you can build any kind of design you want with WordPress. Plus, there are tons of themes for WordPress as well.
• Spam protection — TypePad’s spam protection was abysmal. A lot of really obvious spam got through and was on the site. Akismet, the spam plugin architecture for WordPress, is amazing and customizable. The amount of spam that makes it onto BeatBlogging.Org should drop dramatically.
• SEO — This wasn’t a huge consideration before we switched, but it should have been. The SEO of WordPress is much better for several reasons. One of the biggest reasons is because WordPress has a much better URL structure. Our search traffic is through the roof since the switch.
• Plugins — The plugin community with WordPress is another major reason why WordPress is such a strong platform choice. Some of the plugins we’ve installed help us track most popular posts (and then display the top 5 in the right column), backup the site, rebuild our sitemap after every post, provide spam protection, etc.
• Ease of use – Believe it or not, but I find WordPress much easier to use. If you know standards-based Web design and Web development, WordPress just makes sense. For people with little or no programming skills, TypePad may make more sense (although WordPress.com is another strong consideration). The TypePad platform is beginner friendly, but it can be maddeningly difficult to customize a site they way you want it. With WordPress, virtually anything is possible.
• Plays well with others — In addition to the built-in stat tracking, we use Google Analytics. It literally takes seconds to install Google Analytics on WordPress. Just find the footer file and paste the code in the appropriate spot. Now every page has stat tracking. TypePad is much more difficult. I had to convert our design to an advanced template and then install the code on multiple pages (there wasn’t a universal footer file). Since there wasn’t a universal footer file (per Web design standard practices), I had to read up on how to best install Google Analytics on TypePad.
• Navigation — There are so many ways to find content on the new BeatBlogging.Org. There is the current monthly archive by day, monthly archives for each month, categories and tags and a world-class search engine. Our old TypePad design didn’t even have a search engine, and it was hard to find old content using the site. WordPress themes tend to make more sense from a user interface perspective than TypePad’s.
• Price — Our TypePad account costs us $299 a year. WordPress.org software is free and open source. Our hosting costs us $50 a year. WordPress.com is free (there are premium features as well). TypePad is expensive for what you get.

Now, WordPress.org doesn’t make sense for everyone. You need your own Web hosting for a WordPress.org installation. You need to know how to install WordPress and set everything up properly.

Rest assured, if you’ve seen HTML and CSS before, WordPress.org is very easy to use and, yet, very powerful. The community around WordPress is a big reason why it’s such a strong platform choice. And many people find WordPress (.org and .com) to just be more intuitive than TypePad.

I’ll be looking into the differences between WordPress.com (hosted blogging like TypePad) and TypePad this week. Comparing WordPress.com and TypePad might be a fairer comparison, but every news organization should have someone around to customize a WordPress.org installation.