Choosing the right framework for your website when you have a small or midsize business (SMB) can set you up for success as your business grows. Making the right choice can ease growing pains and lower the future cost of your website.
When starting a new website, one of the first choices to make is your Content Management System or CMS. Three of the best -- and most popular -- CMS programs are WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. Many small businesses choose WordPress without considering the differences between CMS programs and how they align with their website goals.
Among sites that use a Content Management System, WordPress has 61% of the CMS market share. However, looking at Fortune 500 company websites, WordPress has only 15% market share. Joomla’s market share is 5%, while Drupal’s is just over 3%.
Based on these market shares, you may be wondering if you should just go with the market leader, WordPress, vs. Drupal or Joomla. After all, it’s popular and well known. What works for others must work for you too, right? In fact, there are good reasons to choose another CMS, like Drupal. As Drupal web developers at The Worx Company, we’re biased. We think there are some great reasons why Drupal may be the right choice for your small business.
When Should You Choose Drupal over WordPress or Joomla?
If you check off one or more of these six reasons, Drupal may be right for your CMS.
- Your business website needs are complex
- You have a lot of content
- You want to grow your business
- You want interactive social features
- You want your website to be fast
- You place a priority on website security
Let’s review each of these reasons.
1. Drupal is a good choice when your website needs are complex.
Just because you aren’t a Fortune 500 company doesn’t mean your needs are simple. It’s important to create a website that meets your requirements rather than trying to stuff your needs into a CMS framework. Drupal is the best CMS for complex websites because its customization options gives you flexibility and control.
The internet and ecommerce have made it easier for SMBs to compete across the globe. The world has gotten smaller and more accessible to all. While potential customers have become more diverse, their expectations for a personalized experience has grown. Companies who can not provide it are increasingly at a competitive disadvantage.
Often technology can be a roadblock to creating end-to-end, personalized touch points. With Drupal, if you can imagine it, it can probably be built. Drupal has a lot of customization options built into its core. And if that isn’t enough, there are over 40,000 modules and more than 2,600 themes available to add functionality and design to your website. These modules are made to work together, which is something you don’t always get with other CMS’ plugins and add-ons.
2. When you have a lot of content, Drupal can organize it.
With Drupal, it is easier to organize your content. Offering digital content is more important than ever for SMBs. Articles, videos and images all need to be organized in a way that is easy to find and use.
While, in the past, Drupal has had a reputation of being hard to use, that changed with the introduction of Drupal 8. Content creators and managers don’t need technical knowledge. A small business owner can make changes to the content of the website easily. The WYSIWYG editor has a drag and drop interface just like many other popular content editors available today.
Content organization is a Drupal specialty. Drupal gives your site a structure that makes it easier for visitors to find their way around. You site can be organized around topic categories and then broken into subtopics. This makes your website more useful to your visitors.
3. Growing with Drupal won’t be a problem.
Drupal can grow with you and support all of your future website needs. If your business takes off or your website becomes really popular, you don’t have to worry about things like extreme traffic bursts. Drupal can handle more content, more users, and more visitors.
Drupal also has greater potential for a wide range of projects. Because it is so flexible, you can easily add to your existing capabilities. In our Drupal web development, we create a modular system so that you can add features and functions to your site at any time.
If you are growing globally, you’ll need to tackle different languages, customs and distribution channels. Drupal can support you in that challenge. Multi-lingual support is a core capability in Drupal. You can quickly build customized sites in any language because Drupal provides full translation of every part of your website.
4. Drupal offers interactive social features.
As an SMB, your ability to create a network of potential customers and partners is a powerful tool for growth. Interactive social features can increase traffic to your website, spread your content or build your company image. Perhaps you want to have a community platform with multiple users, online stores, social networks or publishing sites. Drupal, along with additional modules, is a great CMS for creating an online social community or networking site.
Drupal’s social functionality can allow you to create different user types. Users can create and manage their own groups within the community. You can offer user forums, messaging and notifications. You can allow users to invite others to the community. You can even create a point system in which you give users points for posting, commenting, sharing, or other activity that you value.
There are many modules for integrating social networks such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Social media integration can make your website more captivating and user-friendly. With Drupal social modules, you can share interesting information from a website, embed your latest Instagram posts, or show an article’s Facebook likes.
5. Drupal helps keep your website fast.
Speed matters for all websites and Drupal is made for speed. Drupal doesn’t have plugins to slow you down. It is less resource-intensive all while supporting thousands of pages and simultaneous visitors.
If you have an e-commerce site, faster pages make more money. A one second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. Even if you don’t sell online, potential customers will abandon your website if pages take too long to load.
6. Security is one of Drupal’s best features.
Cybercrime is on the rise. SMBs are not exempt from website hacks and viruses. In fact, 43% of cyberattacks are on small businesses. That’s why having a CMS with high security standards is essential. Many security problems are prevented entirely by Drupal’s strong coding standards and rigorous community code review process. Drupal has a dedicated security team that includes dozens of experts from around the world who validate and respond to security issues. If a vulnerability is discovered, patches are provided quickly.
Drupal’s built in security standards include encrypted account passwords, and industry-standard authentication practices. Drupal operates on a system of user roles and access permissions. Administrators can create user roles and give them specific, limited permissions. Menu links and features are hidden from users who do not have appropriate access.
Drupal’s Form API ensures that data are validated and scrubbed before they are entered into the database. It tests user-entered data to see that it matches expected formats and values. Drupal protects against brute-force password attacks by limiting the number of login attempts from a single IP address over a set period of time.
And if that isn’t enough, there are additional modules that can make your site even safer. Using Drupal as your CMS gives your SMB the same high level of security as the most secure websites in the world.
Looking for Drupal Web Development for Your Business?
The Worx Company is a Drupal web development company for all size companies. We’ve worked with SMBs who require complex, interactive websites at an affordable price. When you need something that has never been done before, The Worx Company can help!
If you would like to explore how Drupal can be used for your business needs, send us an email or call us at 405.773.1144.
