Over the last two years, WordPress has emerged as one of the most common choices for photographers looking to host their own websites with galleries, images, and blogging. Given current trends, this collective turn to WordPress is likely to accelerate.
WordPress is now the fastest growing website platform in the world, with over 25 billion WordPress blogs and sites now in existence. Although it was once a simple blogging platform, WordPress is now much more than that - a fully featured content management system that can support all kinds of websites.
This is a great thing for photographers. As the WordPress community has expanded, and the scope of WordPress has expanded, a growing array of resources have appeared for photographers.
The number of photo WordPress themes available for photographers has exploded in the last two years. Just do a quick Google search and you'll have hundreds of choices, including both free photo WordPress themes for those photographers with minimal needs, and premium WordPress themes for those who want exceptional design, gallery management, and management functionality. Some of the top providers include Photocrati, WooThemes, StudioPress, and WPZoom.
In addition to photo WordPress themes, there are also hundreds of new WordPress plugins to handle every aspect of gallery management, image display, slideshows, and photo blogging. The most popular is NextGen, which itself has spawned a range of add-on plugins by other developers.
A final factor affecting migration to WordPress is SEO. In the past, many photographers opted for flash-style photography templates from companies like Photoshelter or Photobiz. But flash-based site have significant SEO drawbacks and awareness of these drawbacks has grown. WordPress, by contrast, is considered to have one of the most SEO-friendly platforms available today. Given the increasingly competitive environment, such SEO concerns are important.
For all these reasons, if you're a photographer looking for a website, you ought to give WordPress a try. For more information about WordPress, check out WordPress.com or WordPress.org.