During our research for the top industries using WordPress, we kept asking one question. If these are the industries WordPress shines is, then what are the most popular WordPress websites out there? So, we set out to find out. However, before we move on we want to give a quick disclaimer. Popular WordPress powered sites are actually integrated as a subdomain of a large website. An example is Slack, where slack.com is the main domain, and blog.slack.com would be the subdomain.
The blog in our example is still an independent website, but unfortunately, ranking and traffic estimation tools don’t track subdomains. They mostly only keep stats about the main domains. So, we relied on Alexa Rankings to see how popular the main site is, we used SimilarWeb for traffic information. As for the tech, we used the magical View Source tool – just go on a page, right-click and select View Source – and of course BuiltWith, the free tech analysis tool. Ready? Let’s dive in!
1. SlackHQ
Speaking of Slack, their blog is actually an individual domain, slackhq.com. The blog is 100% powered by WordPress and uses the slick and modern theme, Babka, created specifically for Slack. In May alone SlackHQ registered over 180 thousand visitors, an impressive number, but not as impressive as the 370.000 visitors in April.
Slackhq.com is built in WordPress VIP, the .com side of WordPress for corporates, and is hosted on WordPress servers. Among the most notable tech behind SlackHQ, we see Yoast, the most popular WordPress SEO plugin. We also see a rising star, the Sitelinks Search Box, a plugin aimed at making searching easier for users.
2. Zillow Porchlight
Zillow is a real estate agency that started in 2006, with its headquarters in Seattle. The main website is ranked #165 globally and hosts about 200 million visitors monthly. The blog, Zillow Porchlight is powered by WordPress. For cloud hosting and site performance, Zillow Porchlight uses Cloudflare. Unfortunately, we could not find an estimate specifically for the blog’s monthly traffic volume. But with over 200mil. monthly visitors, we think it’s fair to assume Zillow Porchlight is quite popular as well.
The theme behind Zillow Porchlight is also a custom made one, called “Zillow-marketing-base”. Among the tech used by the blog, we find the SEO plugin, Yoast. But, less known plugins are also a big part of the platform. One example being WP Scheduled Posts for scheduling and organizing WordPress content. And Sitelink Search Box, the plugin we mentioned above, helping users find content faster.
3. GoDaddy Garage
GoDaddy – for those outside the web development world – is one of the oldest and most recognizable domain suppliers in the world. If you want your own website, you need a domain. And GoDaddy is the place you get it from. As simple as that. The main site is currently ranked at #179 globally and in May it had over 56 million visitors. However, we are not here to talk about, GoDaddy. We are here to talk about GoDaddy Garage, their official blog, which is built with WordPress.
Since this is a subdomain, we don’t really have access to the statistics behind it. However, with that much traffic, it’s highly likely the blog is quite popular as well. On the tech side, GoDaddy Garage uses tools like a3 Lazy Load for optimized page speed and the everpresent Yoast plugin.
Not surprisingly, GoDaddy Garage also uses its own unique theme, GoDaddy-Blog. This only shows how easy and convenient it is for developers to build a personalized UI for their projects.
4. Evernote’s Official Blog
Evernote is a popular work management tool created by Stepan Pachikov. The official site is ranked #345 globally by Alexa, and it sees an average of 35mil visitors monthly. And WordPress is powering the platform’s official blog.
The theme used by this platform is called Mokka, another custom theme, created specifically for this instance. Notable plugins used are Yoast, Tealium for tag management, and Smart App Banner.
5. Yelp’s Official Blog
Yelp is one of the most popular review sites in the world. Basically, anyone who has an account can leave a review for a business, and if the business doesn’t have a Yelp page, users can create one. In their reviews, Yelp users can rank the business, add photos, and a description of their experience.
However, while Yelp.com is currently ranked #501 globally, according to Alexa, it is not powered by WordPress. But their very active blog.yelp.com is. In May alone, blog.yelp.com had approximately 136k visitors.
The Yelp blog has its own theme, creatively named “yelpblog-updated”. Among the tech used by the Yelp blog, we find some familiar faces we discussed in our top WordPress plugins. This includes Yoast, the popular SEO plugin, and MonsterInsight, for analytics and marketing.
6. TechCrunch
TechCrunch is one of the world’s most popular tech-oriented online magazines. Globally ranked #1.856 according to Alexa, TechCrunch is powered by WordPress.com VIP. And, the most impressive part is that over the past 6 months, the site has seen a constant stream between 15mil. and 21mil monthly users.
For performance and page loading speed, TechCrunch also uses Cloudflare. But, for their UI, they built their very own WordPress theme, TechCrunch-2017. Among the plugins used by TechCrunch, we find Gravatar for user icons and Batcache for optimized page rendering.
7. Thought Catalog
Thought Catalog is a community more than anything. The platform is powered by WordPress and it provides a home for all types of writers, aimed mostly towards women though. Thought Catalog features self-improvement advice, family stories, and even creepy demonic encounters. And the best part is that these creepy stories are genuine personal stories by the community for the community.
An interesting platform indeed, Thought Catalog ranks #6,535 in Alexa’s global ranking. And in the last 6 months alone it hosted on average 13mil monthly visitors. The theme they use is called “ThoughCatalog-2014”, and as you already figured, it is their own theme. As for the tech behind the platform, the list includes Jetpack, for security and other marketing features. Along with that, Thought Catalog also uses MailChimp integration, Lijit Search for the search function, Batcache for page rendering, and more.
8. The Next Web
Much like TechCrunch, The Next Web also deals with technology-oriented news. This platform is also found among the top 10.000 sites globally, with the rank #4.570 and sees an average of 6 million visitors monthly. Most interestingly for this article, The Next Web is built with WordPress.
Their unique theme is called Cyberdelia. The Next Web also uses Sitelink Search Box for easy content search. Of course, their tech stack includes Yoast, Cloudflare, and many many other technologies for Social Media integration, Google Analytics, and so on.
9. BBC America
BBC America is – obviously – an American network, behind shows like Killing Eve, The Graham Norton Show, and many other notable titles. The site is fully powered by WordPress and although it is currently ranked as #18,371 globally, it still enjoys a constant average stream of over 1 million visitors every month.
The custom theme behind this platform is called “bbca”, naturally. For performance and site speed BBC America uses the W3 Total Cache plugin and a plethora of custom-built plugins. For video streaming, BBC America uses thePlatform, a Comcast Technology Solutions player. And for hosting, they use a combination of solutions including Oracle Hosting and Akamai Hosting.
10. Disney Books and Blog
Disney.com is the #3,869 highest ranked domain today, with over 12mil visitors last month alone. Everyone, from toddlers to the elderly, knows who Disney is as it has been a part of our growing up for nearly a century. We also chose this example because while disney.com is not built with WordPress, many other connected sites are. Three examples are their official corporate European site, their official Disney Book online store, and the official Dinsey blog.
While we don’t have exact stats on the traffic going into the official blog or the corporate website, we know that Disney Books enjoyed the presence of about 200k visitors last month. Not as many as for the main domain, but still an impressive amount, considering how vast the Disney website network is.
Surprisingly, the Disney blog actually uses a theme we know, Neve. However, Disney Books uses their own theme, “DisneyBooks”, while the corporate EU site uses a theme called “TWDC-theme”. On the tech side, the Yoast and Sitelik Search Box plugins are present on all three sites, among many other techs.
Conclusion
It is both interesting and impressive to see that companies like Slack, Yelp, and BBC, who enjoy millions – or even billions of visitors – each month choose WordPress for their sites of blogs. This article further proves that WordPress is a favorite among so many other options, and it is on its way of conquering the world wide web. It is free, it is volatile, it is reliable and it is scalable. WordPress is everything you want and can possibly need in a tech.
However, although we discussed these top 10 most visited WordPress websites today, we never know what tomorrow holds. Technology moves so fast that maybe next month different sites will be on this list. So stay tuned for more updates!