Why use WordPress for your business website? Your website is the hub of your marketing, and it makes a big difference whether it looks good, has the functions you need, and is easy to maintain and flexible to change. WordPress provides all those things.
Not that long ago business owners with not much knowledge of the web were at the mercy of their web designers. Often, they ended up with horror stores instead of websites:
- Expensive, overly complicated sites that no one but the original designer knows how to update — or fix if it breaks.
- Cheap, tacky sites that were an embarrassment to the owner.
- Cookie-cutter templates that look like every other template sold.
- Beautifully designed sites with flash animation but no traffic.
- Overpriced turnkey templates with a ridiculous monthly maintenance charge for no service.
I’ve even seen a site where, instead of having the site owner’s search engine information in the header, it has the site designer’s. If that was done after about 2002, the designer is guilty of SEO malpractice. There is a readily available alternative: WordPress. Since its release as a humble blogging platform in 2003, WordPress has grown into a powerful means of connecting professionals of all kinds with potential clients. As of December 2016, WordPress passed 75 million websites worldwide, in every imaginable niche and field. A WordPress site doesn’t even have to look like a blog.
Why Use WordPress?
Here are 7 reasons WordPress is the best choice to serve as the hub of your marketing presence.
1. The Machinery Is Free
When you get a WordPress site, all the underlying code to run the site is available for free on the web. If you want to take the time to learn how to install and run it, you can do that. If you would prefer to have someone else do it for you, you’ll be able to choose from a wide variety of content creators and designers who know WordPress and some other valuable subject matter and not be limited to a tiny group of people with specialized knowledge of how to build a website and not much else. That also means that no matter what you want to accomplish with your site and no matter what problem might crop up, somebody somewhere is working on it and has a solution.
2. It’s Much More than a Blog
To many people, ‘blog’ makes them think of someone writing about eating toast for breakfast. Bloggers do write about every subject under the sun, but more and more people are using it as a way to deliver solid, authoritative information on their topic. You can use your WordPress blog page (and you can call it whatever you want) to—
- Educate your customers about your services
- Increase your authority in your customers’ eyes
- Maintain contact with customers who don’t currently need your services but will in the future
- Build relationships with colleagues
- Present yourself as an authority site to Google
Here’s a post about how blogging makes your website SEO friendly. But if you really don’t want a blog page, your WordPress site doesn’t have to have it. When you’re ready, it’s there and waiting for you to turn it on with only a click.
3. Freshen Up Your Site Easily
With hundreds of separately coded HTML pages, if you want to update your business information, you had to copy the changed code into every page on your site. And heaven forbid you should ever want to change the color or tweak the design. With WordPress, you can change all the footers, all the headers, all the sidebars in a couple of clicks. And you can change the entire design in a few minutes.
4. It’s Uniquely Yours
Choose from literally thousands of WordPress themes (designs) and then customize the colors, layout, images, and fonts to present yourself in a way that best engages your reader.
5. It’s Search Engine Friendly
Ninety-five percent of web searchers never turn past the first page of search engine results. If you want to put your site before web searchers who are looking for you, you want to be as high in the search rankings as possible. Google loves WordPress sites, because of the way they organize information. Aside from that, it’s easy to give the search engine programs signals about your site’s topic without every dipping into the programing, so you can tweak it in moments without running the risk of breaking the site.
6. Make It Visually Appealing
In only a few keystrokes you — or your web designer — can add images or video to liven up the presentation and engage your audience.
7. Painless Updates
Once you have WordPress installed, future updates to the WordPress program are free and install with just one click, so the WordPress platform is always up to date. When it’s time for a new look, just pick out a theme and make the switch.
Why Use WordPress for Your Business Website?
I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. WordPress may be free, but a WordPress website for business is an investment, like everything other tool for your business.
A business website needs a level of sophistication and functions that a hobbyist doesn’t need. You’ll need good design that works with your business. But you can start simple and let your website grow with you. You also get an enormous variety of options and the freedom to easily change the design and function of your site whenever you need to.
You can learn WordPress, but it may not be the most cost-effective method for you. You have is the freedom to do as much of the design, maintenance, and day-to-day management of your website as you want, and you can find competent help to do the rest.
If you’re wondering about using WordPress for your business website, I can help you know what’s possible and make a plan that fits your budget and will grow with your business. And if you’ve got a shiny new website, I can help you keep it backed up, up to date, spam-free, and safe from evil-doers (website maintenance).
Contact me for a free half-hour consultation, to see if I can help you get your website going.
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