Feature
WordPress dominates, even for businesses. Facebook and Twitter linking is prevalent.
Those are some of the findings in a "State of the Web" report released today by CodeGuard, an Atlanta-based website cloud backup provider
Nothing earth-shattering, we know. Any surprises?
"We were surprised by just how dominantAngular is," said David Moeller CEO of CodeGuard, which analyzed 250,000 websites. "We expected it to be implemented across many websites, but not nearly as heavily as we found. It has been growing in popularity and this helps to solidify this."
Latest on Angular
Google launched AngularJS as an open-source web application framework to address challenges in developing single-page applications.
In March, Microsoft and Google announced an ongoing collaboration between Microsoft TypeScript and Google Angular teams. They announced Angular 2, the next version of the Angular JavaScript library for building websites and Web app, was to be built on TypeScript.
"Working closely with a rich library like Angular has helped TypeScript to evolve additional language features that simplify end-to-end application development," according to Microsoft officials, "includingannotations, a way to add metadata to class declarations for use by dependency injection or compilation directives."
Why should businesses care about Angular? It may be a good to way to help build web pages. Angular implementer Backand has some tips to keep in mind when using AngularJS.
Key Findings
CodeGuard's web report also found:
- LinkedIn love: Nearly 30 percent of websites are linking to LinkedIn
- Lack of mobile-friendly websites: Only 50 percent are mobile friendly
- WordPress for business? WordPress, to no one's surprise, dominates across the board. With a median page count of 20, WordPress is supporting much more than a one- or two-page blog.
In the not-so-huge-news department:
"We were not surprised by Facebook's social link domination," Moeller added. "For those who care about their business, they have a Facebook page and link to it from their website. We were not surprised that nearly 80 percent of the websites we backup are WordPress. We had heard that three-quarters of new websites are built with WordPress, so our finding was in line with known data."
Moeller said he also wasn't shocked to find Twitter linking at 73 percent.
Consider WordPress?
What can businesses glean from this report? Moeller and CodeGuard arrived at a few themes.
For starters, WordPress is clearly dominating the content management space, and CodeGuard officials expect this to continue for the foreseeable future.
"Many hosting providers make it trivially easy to install WordPress on a standard shared hosting account and some are even offering specialized packages that just focus on providing customers with a single WordPress installation," Moeller said.
Businesses launching new websites or building microsites should give WordPress a hard look before moving on, he added. "You don't get fired for having an agency build a WordPress site for you," he said. "You get fired for not maintaining it properly."
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If you opt for a WordPress site, you have to keep it updated, security researchers concur. Two weeks ago, WordPress issued an emergency update to patch a fresh zero-day vulnerability that could have enabled commenters to compromise a site.
Last month, the US FBI issued an alert about the potential danger of individuals sympathetic to Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists abusing vulnerabilities in the WordPress platform.
As the biggest CMS platform on the planet, it attracts attention not only from enterprises and bloggers but hackers and attackers as well.
Get an SSL Certification
Moeller said that having HTTPS by default on 7.68 percent of sites is great, but he hopes to see that increase significantly over time.
"While obtaining and installing SSL certificates has historically been a cost prohibitive proposition for individuals and small businesses," he added, "services like CloudFlare and StartSSL are making it easier and cheaper than ever before."
Get an SSL, now, he said.
"Your website visitors will see a change from http to https," Moeller added, "and it means that your communications with them will be encrypted. They are likely to trust you more and buy more. And there are free options available."
Care About Mobile
Some businesses just don't care about mobile, CodeGuard officials found. They should.
"With the pressure from Google and the increase in mobile browsing on smartphones and tablets, more than half of all website owners are ignoring, resisting or de-prioritizing the importance of mobile friendliness and responsive designs," Moeller said. "Perhaps these are legacy sites that the owners are reluctant to invest in, but they are being backed up, so we know that the content and continued operation of these websites has some value to the owners."
With Google's April algorithm change, which gives mobile-friendly websites a boost in mobile searches, expect mobile to start mattering "big-time."
"We expect the mobile-friendly numbers to change dramatically," Moeller told CMSWire. "This means more work for website devs/agencies as businesses feel the pain of dropping in the mobile SERPs. We expect the real pain SMBs will feel will drive change."
Title image by Lisa Brewster.
