[ad_1]
WordPress launched the outcomes of their annual consumer and developer survey which confirmed blended emotions in regards to the path the software program goes and an growing sense of not being welcome within the total WordPress neighborhood.
The Gutenberg Editor
Gutenberg is the modernized model of the the default web site editor which brings the paradigm of a visible editor to the WordPress core.
Third social gathering visible WordPress editors have revolutionized the method of constructing web sites with WordPress, making it comparatively straightforward to create web sites with intuitive interfaces.
That was the aim behind Gutenberg, which launched the total web site editor in 2022. The WordPress core improvement workforce have spent the final two years making incremental enhancements to the consumer interface to make it extra intuitive in addition to including extra options.
What was mirrored within the 2023 annual survey, particularly in distinction the earlier yr, is a way that customers are feeling much less confidence in Gutenberg, regardless that extra publishers are utilizing Gutenberg now than at some other time.
Which Editor Do You Use?
Query 9 tracks the proportion of customers adopting Gutenberg, displaying a gradual enhance of customers from 37% in 2020 to 60% in 2023.
However in keeping with the solutions to query 10 that asks whether or not WordPress wants their wants, 29% disagree that WordPress meets their wants and fewer than half of customers (45%) agreed that WordPress met their wants. A full 26% of respondents answered that they had been impartial.
These outcomes imply that 55% of WordPress customers didn’t reply that WordPress meets their wants. This was the primary yr the query was requested so there’s no information to indicate whether or not that’s a rise or a lower however it’s nonetheless an underwhelming outcome.
Much less Customers Consider WordPress As Good As Others
Query #19 requested if WordPress was nearly as good as or higher than different web site builders and content material administration techniques.
In 2022 68% of customers agreed that WordPress was nearly as good as or higher. That quantity dropped to 63% in 2023.
The variety of customers who disagreed that WordPress is nearly as good as or higher elevated from 9% in 2022 to 13% in 2023 and the quantity of people that had been impartial elevated by 1% to 24% of respondents.
That implies that in 2023 37% of WordPress customers responding to the survey didn’t agree with the assertion that WordPress is nearly as good as or higher, a rise by 5 share factors from the earlier yr.
Clearly the outcomes about how customers really feel about Gutenberg and WordPress on the whole point out that customers are dropping confidence in WordPress.
That response should certainly be a disappointment to the core improvement workforce as a result of the 2023 model of Gutenberg is definitely extra intuitive to make use of than it has ever been the WordPress efficiency scores are additionally at all-time highs.
So what’s occurring, why is are consumer satisfaction alerts trending downwards?
Why Consumer Satisfaction Is Trending Downward
A clue as to why consumer happiness and confidence in WordPress is trending downward could have one thing to do with customers wanting over the fence on the Wix and Duda platforms that boast considerably higher efficiency scores and are additionally simpler to construct web sites with.
On the opposite aspect of the fence are third-party web site builders (like Bricks Builder, Breakdance Website Builder, and Elementor) and WordPress hosts (Bluehost) that supply an arguably superior web site constructing expertise for builders who want superior flexibility and for customers who don’t know methods to code.
Maybe a clue to why customers satisfaction is dropping could be discovered within the solutions for query 20 which asks what the three finest issues are about WordPress.
The largest declines had been for:
- Ease of use
- Flexibility
- Price
- Block themes
Ease Of Use
In 2022 32% of customers cited Ease Of Use as one of many three finest issues about WordPress. In 2023 that quantity dropped to 21.7%
Flexibility
Flexibility ranked 31% in 2022 however by 2023 that rating dropped to 18.5%.
Price
In 2022 37% of customers cited Price as among the finest issues however by 2023 that quantity collapsed to 17%.
Block Themes
Block Themes went from 10% citing block themes as one of many three finest issues to solely 5.3% in 2023.
Customers aren’t feeling it for WordPress and that lack of “feels” is mirrored out there share statistics reported by W3Techs that point out a two yr detrimental downward development in market share.
Market share dropped from 43.3% in 2022 (cited in an article by Joost deValk) and (according to W3Techs) it dropped additional to 43.2% February 2023 and from there it dropped additional 43.1% in February 2024.
Wix utilization elevated from 2.5% in February 2023 to 2.6% in 2024. Shopify went from 3.8% in 2023 to 4.3% in 2023.
Joost deValk, co-founder of Yoast search engine marketing sounded the alarm again in 2022 when he famous that WordPress market share was shrinking, pointing to the sluggish tempo of efficiency enhancements and the issue of utilizing WordPress as two main causes for the shrinking market share.
The article written by Joost defined:
“WordPress has a efficiency workforce now, and it has made some progress. However the actuality is that it hasn’t actually made massive strides but… I believe WordPress, for the primary time in a decade, is being out-‘innovated’.”
What Frustrates WordPress Customers
One other clue as to why WordPress customers are more and more expressing dissatisfaction is what they really feel most pissed off about WordPress, famous in query 21 the place survey respondents had been requested to decide on the highest three most irritating issues.
The reply of “too many plugins (discovering the appropriate one)” skilled a whopping 133% change, with 8% citing too many plugins in 2022 and 18.6% in 2023.
Website enhancing expertise (17%), safety (16.4%), and efficiency (16.2%) had been prime sources of frustration with WordPress.
One brilliant spot is that the variety of respondents who had been pissed off as a result of web site enhancing is troublesome to be taught dropped from 26% in 2022 to fifteen% in 2023.
These solutions had been echoed in query 25 that requested which three areas of WordPress want extra consideration.
Listed here are the highest 5 areas customers say want extra consideration:
- Efficiency 19%
- Safety 18%
- Developer sources (examples, demos, docs, tutorials, and so on.) 16%
- Design/UI 14%
- Core performance/stability 13%
The Future Of WordPress
WordPress was at a crossroads two years in the past as regards to web site efficiency they usually took steps to handle these issues. However their opponents are “out-innovating” them by bettering at a sooner tempo, not simply in web site pace however in ease of use, search engine marketing and options.
The outcomes of this survey present clear path to the WordPress neighborhood who’ve a historical past of being aware of consumer wants. A part of the answer is acknowledging search advertising and marketing, affiliate and publishing communities who’re influential however not acknowledged within the annual surveys.
After I noticed the survey final yr I supplied the core improvement workforce suggestions about query quantity 5 which requested how respondents used WordPress.
These had been the alternatives:
- A private or ardour venture
- A service providing for my purchasers
- A platform for working my enterprise
- A web site for my employer or place of business
- College or lecturers or analysis
- Not one of the above
What was lacking had been the classes of content material publishing, internet affiliate marketing, recipe bloggers and native companies.
Lumping WordPress customers like Disney with family-run eating places and recipe bloggers into the class of a “platform for working my enterprise” is unhelpful and gives little actionable insights. That oversight feeds into the notion that WordPress is aloof to the hundreds of thousands of customers that the survey seeks to grasp.
The excellent news is that WordPress isn’t aloof. The survey gives suggestions on how the publishing neighborhood feels. My e mail conversations with members of the core improvement workforce make it clear to me that they’re eager to embrace all their customers as a part of the larger WordPress neighborhood.
Learn the abstract of the WordPress survey:
2023 Annual Survey Results and Next Steps
Obtain the PDF model with extra particulars:
Report for 2023 WordPress Annual Survey
Featured Picture by Shutterstock/Krakenimages.com
[ad_2]
Source link
