The White House uses WordPress

When Joe Biden took office as the new President of the United States, he also launched a new website for the White House, whitehouse.gov, built on WordPress.
- "This proves what we've been saying for a long time: WordPress is scalable, secure and can definitely compete with other CMSs," says Magne Ilsaas, CEO of Dekode. 

The White House chooses WordPress (again)

With each new president who sits behind the desk in the Oval Office, the White House website also changes. The Obama administration had its website on WordPress, while the Trump administration switched to Drupal. 

During the campaign, the Biden administration used WordPress (as did 23 out of 25 of those running for office) and decided to stick with the same CMS for the launch of whitehouse.gov. 

As general manager of Dekode , Magne Ilsaas has worked for over 10 years with WordPress for both Norwegian and foreign companies. Large and small. Simple pages and complex multisites. In this connection, he has encountered many strange and incorrect attitudes to the CMS.

Shattering myths

- In many countries, such as the USA, WordPress is a natural choice on an equal footing with other major CMSs, but here at home it is still talked down. This has to do with knowledge of the platform and the fact that most people in this country associate WordPress with small-scale blogs and simple websites. If we look abroad, this is not the case. WordPress is the fastest growing CMS for large-scale websites. It has both tremendous growth and reach. 

Magne says that it sounds a bit silly to say that 23 out of 25 presidential candidates in the US in 2020 built their sites on WordPress, but at the same time it addresses many of the myths we still hear about the platform. 

- "What I think we can say with certainty about these types of websites is that they need to be secure and handle huge amounts of traffic. Each and every one of these sites handles many donations and transactions. Not least, these are sites that are rigged for huge marketing budgets and have to play along with all the modern digital marketing tools.

- For those of us who follow this, it's almost paradoxical to hear that WordPress isn't good enough for a Norwegian brand on the one hand, while on the other hand we see that brands such as the White House, Techcrunch, Nasa, TED, Slack, Times, Facebook, choose WordPress.

A more social website

But it's not just the CMS that's getting noticed with the new White House website. Here, the Biden administration has also taken clear steps when it comes to multilingual functions and accessibility.

Whitehouse.gov was launched with the ability to easily switch between light- and dark-mode. This is to change contrast and improve readability for the visually impaired. You can easily adjust the font size or choose to have the page in Spanish. In addition, they have added a number of pronouns when submitting a contact form, so that you can choose whether you want to be referred to by gender or gender-neutral words. 

The relaunched site also includes an accessibility statement with a commitment from the Biden administration to work towards compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, level AA criteria.

Secret message in the code

When the website was launched, there was a secret message in the code, which curious developers all over the world found. In the HTML it said: "If you're reading this, we need your help building back better". Next to it was a link to a form to apply for a job in the U.S. Digital Service - the IT department of the White House. 

Shortly after the launch, you can read the following message on the application form:

High volume of applications
The U.S. Digital Service is excited to report that we've recently received a large number of applications. We're reviewing them as quickly as we can, and will respond shortly. We thank you for your patience!

An effective way to recruit the most avid WordPress enthusiasts!
(Ps. if you want to work in Dekode you can apply here - we are not as secretive in our recruitment)

WordPress - a safe choice

IN Dekode we see that also more and more Norwegians clients select WordPress. We are naturally pleased that it appears more and more frequently as a request in many tenders. For several years, we have worked with the Ministry's Security Service (DSS), which has over 80 websites on WordPress for all the ministries. WordPress has also made inroads into Norwegian politics and we are proud that we are facing an election year where Dekode is behind the websites of Høyre and KRF .

The White House website is implemented by 10up, which is one of the largest WordPress communities in the world. The site is hosted by our friends at WordPress VIP.

- This is "WordPress done right" says Magne, - and if you do it right, you can solve exactly what you want, he concludes.  

Dekode are proud to be one of the 11 Gold Partners of WordPress VIP, so if you have any questions about large-scale WordPress , we're here to help.

If you're as nerdy as we are, you can read more at .....

WP VIP - How WordPress VIP Powered the Biden-Harris Transition Website

WordPress.org - The White house

WP Tavern - Biden White House Sticks with WordPress for Website Relaunch

https://pagely.com/blog/whitehouse-gov-chooses-wordpress-again/

The Verge - WhiteHouse.gov now has dark mode

Reuters - White House website adds gender-neutral pronouns as Biden meets LGBT+ demands

Reuters - In hidden message on White House website, Biden calls for coders