WordPress is touted as being the main, big player in website design. Supposedly more powerful than others, like Xara which uses one large file.

But... I wonder if this is true!! When I test a wordpress site I am working on using Pro-Styler theme for loading speed , Xara's load time is much faster. Approx. 1 3/4/ seoncds compared to 5-6 seconds and sometimes more for the WordPress site. AND so far... the WordPress site has only a header and a foot whereas my Xara site has 7 pages and 2 of the pages contain many photos ... BIG photos.

Additionally, as far as search engine rankings, the Xara-built site ranks as number 1 and number 2 depending on the search criterion. [And so easy to insert the Keywords into Xara]. The site is tropicoletrading.com to promote palm trees sales in Canada.

Now I want to build another site. This one will involve blogging. Xara doesn't do blogging internally. Would have to use a third-party like tumblr. I could use embed a website using a widget or link to it. WHICH IS BEST - embedding or linking? And is using a third-party blogging site such a bad thing?

OTHER POINTS .. I may want to offer an on-line store and Xara can use Ecwid and Wazala. Are there others?
WordPress offers many more possibilities/tools in the form of plug-ins to do many things.

So this is the crux of my conundrum. Terrific design abilities with Xara and ease of use ....fast load speed ... terrible SEO rankings.

WordPress offers more tools and does Blogging internally.

Any words of wisdom to help me make my decision on which website building tool to use? Xara or Wordpress?

Larry Cole