It’s no secret that WordPress is popular. 28.6% of all websites use WordPress, and WordPress holds a dominant 59.4% market share when it comes to content management systems. But it’s not just tons of small websites using WordPress – did you know that some of the biggest websites and brands in the world use WordPress, too?
That’s what I’ll be digging into in this post! A look at some of the biggest websites using WordPress, backed up by Alexa traffic ranking and real data.
- 1 The Biggest Websites Using WordPress in 2017
- 2 1. Walmart Electronics and Entertainment Blog
- 3 2. Yelp and the Yelp Blog
- 4 3. GoDaddy and the GoDaddy Garage
- 5 4. Etsy and the Etsy Blog
- 6 5. Zillow Porchlight Blog
- 7 6. Microsoft and the Skype Blog
- 8 7. Home Depot Careers Page
- 9 8. UPS Global
- 10 9. Glassdoor Blog
- 11 10. TechCrunch
- 12 11. Macy’s mBlog
- 13 12. Harvard University Blogs
- 14 13. People.com
- 15 14. Verizon FIOS
- 16 15. Whitepages Pro
- 17 16. NBC Sports College Football Talk
- 18 17. Thought Catalog
- 19 18. Disney Books / Blogs
- 20 19. Microsoft and the Windows Blog
- 21 20. FB Newsroom
- 22 Wrapping Things Up
The Biggest Websites Using WordPress in 2017
Note – for the purposes of this post, “biggest” is defined as “highest-trafficked”.
Ok, you can find plenty of lists of big brands or cool websites using WordPress. But, I wanted to be a little bit more objective when I built this list. So, here’s how I came up with these websites…
First up – there’s a tool called BuiltWith that allows you to generate reports of websites built with a certain content management system.
I used BuiltWith to generate a list of…
- Sites in the top 10k Alexa rankings
- Using WordPress
- Sorted by their Quantcast rank
Quantcast, like Alexa, is a method to approximate a website’s traffic/popularity. The lower the score, the more traffic a website receives.
Here’s what that initial report looked like:
Then, I applied a bit of manual curation to that list to filter out sites where WordPress either wasn’t a focus, or was used for some small project that didn’t get much attention. Basically, I wanted to make sure that each website doesn’t just have WordPress installed, but uses WordPress in a meaningful way.
For example, Craigslist uses WordPress…but only on an odd blog page that clearly doesn’t receive much attention. For that reason, I didn’t include Craigslist on this list, even though it’s one of the biggest websites in the world.
Then, I:
- Supplemented the list with a few big sites that didn’t show up in BuiltWith’s search for some reason
- Found the Global Alexa Rank and sorted each site by its rank (Alexa doesn’t work for subdomains – so the Alexa Rank is always for the main domain name).
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I didn’t include WordPress.com because…that’s cheating!
Alright – let’s jump in.
1. Walmart Electronics and Entertainment Blog
Alexa Global Rank: 177
Though Walmart doesn’t seem to be too serious about this blog (which means I’m kind of breaking one of my rules), it was so cool to see the world’s largest retailer using WordPress that I couldn’t help but keep it on the list.
While I’m not sure how pivotal it is to Walmart’s marketing efforts, Walmart has regularly updated the blog since January 2013, which suggests they do at least care about their WordPress site!
2. Yelp and the Yelp Blog
Alexa Global Rank: 181
Though Yelp has technically migrated their blog to a separate domain name at yelpblog.com, I’m still counting this one as Yelp’s main site because it’s linked to liberally from throughout Yelp’s site.
Yelp uses WordPress to cover a few different blog topics, ranging from guides for business owners to company news, restaurant tips, and more.
3. GoDaddy and the GoDaddy Garage
Alexa Global Rank: 189
GoDaddy uses WordPress to power the GoDaddy Garage, a blog dedicated to helping small business owners and webmasters. Given GoDaddy’s push into WordPress, it’s nice to see that they rely on WordPress themselves to power their blog.
4. Etsy and the Etsy Blog
Alexa Global Rank: 190
Etsy is a popular handmade marketplace that’s taken the world by storm. They also have a high-traffic Etsy Blog that shares all kinds of tips for craft fans and shop owners. This blog is a serious content marketing effort – not a throw-in. And, it’s powered by WordPress!
This one is a great example of a major brand leaning heavily on WordPress for a very important part of its site.
5. Zillow Porchlight Blog
Alexa Global Rank: 232
Zillow is a massively popular real estate website. On the Zillow Porchlight blog, they share a variety of tips for homeowners. Like with Etsy and GoDaddy, Zillow Porchlight is a serious content marketing effort, so WordPress is definitely getting some real use here.
6. Microsoft and the Skype Blog
Alexa Global Rank: 308
Microsoft powers the entire Skype Blog using WordPress. The Skype team updates the blog multiple times per week, making this a serious use of WordPress by one of the world’s biggest companies and websites.
7. Home Depot Careers Page
Alexa Global Rank: 357
Home Depot employs 385,000 people across its locations, which makes its careers page just a little bit more important than the average careers page. Because it’s such an important page, it’s awesome to see Home Depot using WordPress to power its entire careers section.
8. UPS Global
Alexa Global Rank: 398
Shipping giant, UPS, uses WordPress to power their Global UPS site, which provides a huge variety of tips and tools to help with international shipping.
9. Glassdoor Blog
Alexa Global Rank: 453
Glassdoor is a popular job discovery and rating site. On the Glassdoor Blog, they share a variety of tips for job-seekers…all powered by WordPress!
10. TechCrunch
Alexa Global Rank: 614
When it comes to tech and startups, TechCrunch is one of the biggest names in the industry. That’s why it’s so cool to see them uses WordPress and WordPress.com VIP to power their entire website.
11. Macy’s mBlog
Alexa Global Rank: 757
Popular retailer, Macy’s, uses WordPress to power a massive content marketing effort called mBlog that features style tips, shopping guides, interviews, and more.
12. Harvard University Blogs
Alexa Global Rank: 1,030
While Harvard University doesn’t use WordPress for its homepage, it does use WordPress to power a huge number of student and faculty blogs across all of its colleges. Harvard University is, obviously, one of the most well-known universities in the world, so it’s cool to see them using WordPress in such a heavy-duty manner.
13. People.com
Alexa Global Rank: 1,200
People.com is a popular entertainment tabloid (you may have seen the magazine at the checkout line in your local grocery store). People.com’s website is powered entirely by WordPress and WordPress.com VIP.
14. Verizon FIOS
Alexa Global Rank: 1,256
This one is a bit out of left field – but Verizon uses WordPress to power its entire Verizon FIOS page. FIOS is a major Verizon product, so it’s neat to see WordPress get to play such a central role on Verizon’s website.
15. Whitepages Pro
Alexa Global Rank: 1,747
Whitepages is a popular “people search” website. In addition to consumer-focused searches, they also offer a Whitepages Pro plan for businesses that’s powered by WordPress.
16. NBC Sports College Football Talk
Alexa Global Rank: 1,998
In the USA, college football is big. That’s why it’s also big that NBC Sports made the decision to use WordPress for their College Football Talk sub-site. Like some other big publishers, they opted to use WordPress.com VIP to power their site.
17. Thought Catalog
Alexa Global Rank: 2,592
Thought Catalog is a popular digital publisher powered by WordPress.com VIP. Unlike some of the other biggest websites that just rely on WordPress to power a blog, Thought Catalog is 100% powered by WordPress.
18. Disney Books / Blogs
Alexa Global Rank: 3,226
Ever heard of a little company called Disney? Disney uses WordPress to power its entire Disney Books site. This site uses what I assume is a custom post type to display all of Disney’s books.
Beyond that, Disney also uses WordPress on some other parts of their site like their Oh My Disney blog.
19. Microsoft and the Windows Blog
Alexa Global Rank: 3,757
Though the Windows Blog has recently taken a tumble in the Alexa rankings, it’s still a website from Microsoft powered by WordPress, and that’s pretty dang cool!
The blog is regularly updated and clearly, something that Microsoft takes seriously, which makes this an interesting use of WordPress by a major brand.
20. FB Newsroom
Alexa Global Rank: 8,355
Facebook Newsroom is low on this list because I used “fb.com” for the Alexa rank rather than “facebook.com”. But, I couldn’t leave this off the list because it’s so cool to see the world’s largest social media network running its newsroom on WordPress and WordPress.com VIP.
Wrapping Things Up
I hope you enjoyed checking out some of the biggest websites using WordPress.
As you can see, many big brands still only call on WordPress for blogging. But that’s starting to change with companies like Verizon and Home Depot using WordPress for non-blogging purposes.
Now over to you – does one of these websites stand out to you? Or did I miss a great example that should be on the list? It would be great if you shared in the comments.
Article thumbnail image by MSSA / shutterstock.com
What a great article. Next time I have a client who has never heard of WordPress, I can forward this post to them. That ought to open their eyes.
Love this. Will definitely have to share to clients who aren’t sure about WordPress, although that doesn’t happen often anymore. I love how Godaddy’s Garage Blog is using WP, even though they provide “website building tools”. It speaks volumes if they don’t even use their own product!
One major missed site which uses WordPress is the Star Wars blog.
http://www.starwars.com/news
Wow, I didn’t know all of that. Cool! I love WP but sometimes it’s hard to imagine how big sites can be run with it. Your post shows that it’s really possible 🙂 And thanks for sharing that BW tool, gonna check it.
Great to see few top websites on WordPress platform.
All website Are too Good ??
Great research. I hanks to sharing.
I would like to know biggest ecommerce websites using woocommerce.
They don’t use Woo commerce !!
So what do they use…?
Major e-commerce sites would never use it. It’s too widely used and anyone can look at the source code which creates a massive security risk. Smaller sites are fine, like personal blogs with merch.
Me too. I’m currently building an e-commerce site for a client using woo. WordPress is a great CMS but compared to .net woo feels like a hack with poor security.
Me too!
Even if the future trends tech magazine Wired.com “only” is at 991 on Alexa, it’s 2015 transition to WordPress is one of the most interesting cases that absolutely deserves a mention in your list. Rebuilding and migrating the complete long running tech magazine to a new plattform isn’t a small undertaking. In that regard, one would assume that a magazine so dedicated to future technologies has it’s well thought out reasons to choose a plattform like WordPress.
https://www.wired.com/2015/10/why-wired-com-migrated-and-why-your-site-should-too/
https://www.wired.com/2015/10/cyphon-wired-archive-migration/