You Should Use WordPress for Your Business Website

Regardless of industry, every business needs a website. 97% of people conduct an online search to find a local business near them. If you want to reach your audience, a website is one of the best ways to do so. There are multiple options available, but WordPress is by far the most popular and for good reason. Over 37% of websites today are powered by WordPress, with some of the world’s biggest brands trusting it. These include TIME, Microsoft, Facebook, and Disney. 

Small businesses and large corporations alike all love WordPress for its intuitive, easy to use design. It can be customized almost any way you can imagine. Did we mention it’s free? There’s also an extensive WordPress developer community with tutorials, guides, videos to help you grow and keep up your WordPress website. 

This article will discuss what WordPress is and some of the top reasons why you should be using it for your business’s website.

WordPress Business Website

What is WordPress?

WordPress originally started as a blogging system, however it is much bigger than that now. Simply, it is the simplest and most popular way to create and design your own website. More technically, WordPress is a full-featured web content management system (CMS). A content management system gives you the ability to edit and change the appearance of your website all without using code. This allows the platform to be accessible to people without programming experience.

WordPress allows you to choose how complicated you want your website to be. You can simply create a blog or something more complicated like a multi vendor marketplace using their partner Woocommerce. Other types of websites WordPress can power are portfolios, forums, social networks, and membership sites.

Why Use WordPress?

With plenty of other competitors out there, why should you choose WordPress? Below are just some of the top reasons to consider. 

Free

Few things are free in life, but WordPress is one exception. WordPress does not charge you to use their software. You are able to download, install, use, and change it to match your business’s needs all without paying a cent. 

Easy to Use

At first glance, WordPress might seem daunting. It doesn’t have the prettiest interface, but it is extremely easy to use. You do not need to know how to use HTML codes to be able to use it effectively. In fact, WordPress is known for its “5 Minute Install.” You can access and edit more or less everything you would need straight from the dashboard. On the rare occasion you find you can’t do something, there are countless WordPress plugins available to help. For example, there is a Google Analytics plugin that you can install on your site.

Woocommerce

Customizable

Many people who use WordPress are not designers or programmers. For these people, there are thousands of free themes available through WordPress for you to utilize. The themes themselves generally come with their own options panel that allows you to modify it to fit your business. Colors, logos, backgrounds, and text can all be changed to better fit what you need. 

Before you start looking at potential themes, you should ask yourself three basic questions to better understand your business’s needs. What is your website about? What will be the primary goal of your website? How do you plan to achieve these goals? Knowing the answers to these questions will give you a way to narrow down your search. For example, if you want to sell items, you want to look for themes compatible with eCommerce. You will also want to consider your content marketing strategy and lead generation strategy to ensure your website is compatible with them. 

WordPress’s company website is not the only place to look for themes. Other outside websites can be used to find the right theme for your business’s website. Some other websites include ThemeForest, MOJO Marketplace, and Onewp. However, Onewp and WordPress offer the most free options. Other services will charge you to use their themes.

Scalable

WordPress is unique in that you don’t need to pay an extra amount per month once you’ve reached a certain level of traffic. You also don’t need to pay more if you want to add or begin using new functionality. 

WordPress is usually installed directly onto your domain. All you need to pay for is your domain and hosting. Inexpensive hosting packages start at a few dollars per month and as your business scales, you can get more professional hosting plans for only a little bit more. If you already have a business website, then you are already paying for your domain and hosting.

WordPress Plugins

Since WordPress is the most used CMS in the world, it has plugins for almost everything. Plugins can be thought of as apps you can be added to your website. These will allow you to include more advanced features on your website. The chances are that there is a WordPress plugin for any service you want to integrate with your website.

Some of the most popular payment plugins include Stripe and PayPal. Adding a signup form is also easy to do directly from your website. Mailchimp is arguably the most popular plugin for this and many businesses already use it. Their WordPress plugin allows you to automatically add these contacts to your newsletter or email list.

WordPress Plugins

Multimedia Support

The websites with the lowest bounce rate are the ones that have interesting, engaging multimedia. WordPress allows you to easily include various multimedia sources like video, images, and audio files on your website. These can be added to the web page itself or individual posts. It is also easy to edit these files within the WordPress dashboard, on the Media Library Screen.

SEO Friendly

SEO is becoming increasingly important. Having a website that is not search engine optimized is as good as not having a website at all. WordPress’s platform is actually inherently SEO friendly. Their service was built to be that way. Search engines actually prefer WordPress sites because the framework is easy for them to crawl. In addition, there are plugins you can add to make it even more optimized. Yoast SEO is perhaps the most popular WordPress plugin to further improve your website’s SEO.

Mobile Friendly

Mobile usage is expanding at an incredible rate. If your website isn’t attractive and easy to use on a smartphone or tablet, it will instantly turn people away. They can simply look somewhere else for the same information. Many themes available for WordPress are designed to work on mobile devices. Plus, the WordPress dashboard itself is designed to work easily on your smartphone as well as your desktop. This allows you to manage and customize your website while on-the-go. 

WordPress

Multi-User Capability

Chances are, you are going to have multiple people who will work together to manage your website. WordPress prepared for this and has made it simple to give different people different access levels. Their categories are super admin, administrator, editor, author, contributor, and subscriber. A super admin is someone with access to the network administration features and all other features. Meanwhile, a subscriber can only manage their personal profile. 

Security

As the most widely used CMS, WordPress has become a target for hackers trying to access business’ and customers’ personal information. However, WordPress developers are dedicated to implementing security measures that will preserve the trust of its users. WordPress is constantly updating itself and its plugins, with over 20 updates every year. In fact, numerous banks all over the world trust WordPress to power their websites. f you are still concerned, there are over 900 available plugins that can increase your website’s security. 

E-Commerce Website Options

Many small to medium-sized businesses are now looking at adding an online store to their business. Whether you are starting a new business or taking your current store online, you can do this all using a WordPress plugin called WooCommerce. After adding the plugin to your site, you can set up a store in a matter of minutes. WooCommerce offers secure payment options, customizable shipping options, and much more. In addition, Woocommerce themes can be changed even after your online store has been built. Unlike a lot of platforms, these changes are generally easy and painless. You can also search for additional WooCommerce themes on Onewp.

Onewp

Should You Use a Marketing Firm?

Even with all of the features mentioned above, some people might still be overwhelmed at the idea of using WordPress. Others will begin the process on their own before realizing they need help from a professional. SEO Design Chicago has WordPress designers and developers with experience creating, optimizing, and designing websites.

Instead of spending time looking for a WordPress template, SEO Design Chicago’s designers and developers can create one that is exactly what you need. The custom-designed website we create will not look or feel like the cookie-cutter websites that your competition use.

Millions of websites, both big and small use WordPress to power their websites. It is the most commonly used content management system available and offers a multitude of customizable options. SEO Design Chicago’s team will ensure your website is built to enhance lead generation and user experience for every website visitor. Contact us today to learn more!

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