How WordPress will grow in 2016

Since inception WordPress has continued to grow and has helped several communities and has intensified technology improvements.

As per statement of WordPress Co-Founder Matt Mullenweg, WordPress has already been embraced by 25% of all websites across the world, and the number is about to increases every year.

People have showered their love and displayed their loyalty for WordPress by way of its overall growth, which is surprising. People love the platform due to:

• Open Source Tool
• Large Developers’ Community
• Flexibility and Customization Opportunities
• Instant Support Options
• Integrations
• Comprehensive Plugin Library
• Themes

1. WordPress Thrive

The amazing features listed above, which are accompanied by constant updates, will send more users adopting this CMS in this year. For instance, the roll out of WordPress version 4.3 in August had gifted the used with easily customizable interface update.

In addition, WordPress is also going to improve its general usability, which is due for years when compared to other platforms like Squarespace.

2. Marketing Automated WordPress Integration

WordPress is also known for its marketing simplicity. Now WordPress is going to intensify the marketing integration race by catapulting plugin directory and APIs that integrates it with all the best marketing tools.

There are several marketing automation platforms that integrate with a number of website platforms including WordPress.

With the updated software in WordPress, it is going to develop effortless marketing automation integration. In this effort, new plugins would remain useful.

3. Greater WordPress Plugins Support

Plugins are of the essence and in abundance. Nearly 9,000 plugins were added to WP and have been downloaded more than 1 billion times to date. It is predicted that WordPress will develop as a do-it-yourself platform and its plugins will become more supportive.

For better plugin support, WordPress recommends its Hacks and Plugins forum. The WordPress support community and tout has been the best part of any CMS, but it is expected that this CMS is going to play a much stronger role in plugin support.

4. WordPress for Applications

In this year, we’re expected to visualize a record increase in the use of WordPress for app development and testing. It is expected that WP will be widely used by the developers for prototyping data-driven apps and developing front ends. WP REST API is the visible example of this surge of usage of WP application. It is going to become a full-fledged application framework, which would require new APIs. This shows that any other application would also be able to communicate or integrate with WordPress in coming years.

5. WordPress Maintenance Need Will Increase

With the growth of this platform, people will also realize that their website requires better and improved maintenance. Addressing this need, apart from managed service providers i.e. WPEngine, a surge of support companies like Maintainn, WP Valet and WPLift will also be seen in coming years.

These tools will alert you to a problem, but it may require other tools and resources to solve these issues. More and more service providers would start offering customer website maintenance plans to ensure a higher level of maintenance and security for websites running on WordPress.

6. WordPress Update Process Will Improve

WordPress updates often lead to website maintenance for most of the website. Now when an important update is required, you receive a notification from WP with a button to push, which may not often work properly.

This will require the help of more WP experts to manage the WordPress updates. With more individuals opting for WordPress to develop their websites, the platform is expected to introduce more user-friendly and reliable update process. It may not be instant though!

7. Improved Design and Development

In addition to the REST API, WordPress 4.4 has rolled out more responsive images and a new embed feature. This update of WordPress has eliminated the need for extra plugins enhancing overall website performance. We expect to witness more improvement in design and development in 2016 to improve the user experience and website performance on smartphones.

While the predictions for WordPress is actually going to make a surge in the CMS platform, it is yet to see the actual changes that are expected this year. All these predictions are just expectations but what it is there is store is yet to be witnessed.