Has your company decided that it is time to update its website? Are you a bit wary of taking things into your own hands, yet there is no money in the budget to hire a developer? Then WordPress may be the perfect option for you.
A typical site may need regular updates or new content uploaded indefinitely. With a content management system like WordPress, you can easily take control of your site without any prior tech experience under your belt. While the platform is not a piece of software, it runs on a live server and any changes that you make can be published immediately. All the technological mumble-jumble is already handled for you, so WordPress makes web publishing worry-free. Simply pick a theme to suit your needs and everything can be managed from your convenient, user-friendly dashboard. (However, if you do want to get your hands dirty, you may add code as you feel necessary.)
Here are some 8 top reasons why WordPress should be your first choice when building your site from scratch:
1. WordPress Has a Variety of PlugIns
Perhaps the best advantages that you will get when you choose to install WordPress are what are called “plugins”. Plugins are add-ons that you can install from your dashboard that will expand your site’s capabilities. For example, you can start an image gallery, a members-only area, a photo carousel, a slideshow or incorporate social media accounts. That are tens of thousands of plug-ins available to WordPress users, and you can easily find the best ones for your purposes by searching the platform by keyword via your dashboard.
2. WordPress Can Be Optimized for Tablets and Smartphones
You can easily optimize your website for any internet-enabled device just by switching to one of WordPress’s “responsive themes”. A responsive theme will ensure that your site’s users, regardless of whether they are using a tablet or any other mobile device, will receive a uniform and adequate experience browsing your site. It is important to double-check that your branding and unique content remain the same as they are when accessed from a regular PC or laptop, and WordPress makes this simple. The only portion of the site that should change is the layout, since it must be customized to each unique screen.
WordPress offers starter responsive themes that pretty much anyone can employ easily. However, they are able to be re-created in more complex and complicated ways if a skilled developer wishes to take the time to improve upon the design.
3. WordPress Users Can Update Content Easily
With WordPress, you can create the most basic of sites with little to no development experience. Everything is carefully laid out in easy-to-understand instructions. You can load text, images and other types of content without the worry of memorizing complex code. This is probably the top reason that a great majority of bloggers and businesses have adapted WordPress. The ease of use saves them time, which in turn saves them money.
4. WordPress Has Blogging Built In
Blogging can be a powerful marketing tool, but it can be difficult to incorporate a blog into a ready-made site. However, WordPress comes with a blogging platform already built in, and uploading and publishing posts can be done in a snap. You can draft or copy-and-paste your post within the dashboard, where you can edit and hyperlink it as necessary, as well as add images or videos. You can even request a post preview (with some themes) prior to publishing it live! Remember, while WordPress has certainly branched out, it started as a blog engine, and blogging is still what it does best.
5. SEO Management and Tracking Can Be Added to WordPress
WordPress has an array of plugins that allows Meta Descriptions, Meta Tags and H1 Tags to be used for SEO purposes. These are different types of phrases or keywords that search engines pick up on to arrange results listings. There are even plugins that can estimate how well your site or even a particular page is SEO-optimized. Some third party plugins can also track your performance for certain keywords over a given period of time. Having these statistics on hand will greatly improve your online marketing strategy.
6. WordPress Has a Large Developer Community
WordPress has the distinction of being used by over 20% of all the Internet’s websites. Due to its inherent popularity, it also boasts one of the largest developer communities in cyberspace. Whether those people are hobbyists or professionals, the developers are always hard at work improving the site and creating and revising plugins to serve other users better. Anyone is welcome to contribute source code if they feel they can add to the product. This diversity of skill ensures that WordPress has the best of all worlds and is sure to please even the pickiest of users.
7. WordPress Is Used By All Types of Companies
WordPress isn’t only for part time bloggers and start-ups, either. The New York Times, Sony Music, Time, Inc. and Xerox are all huge brands and all proud WordPress users. Do you know why WordPress is the go-to platform? It is because the interface is easily scalable and able to grow with a company, yet simple enough for large groups of staffers to be able to master quickly. Whether you have a one page personal blog or an international magazine, WordPress can handle the workload. That is why it is the platform typically used by online stores, interactive blogs and even small static business sites.
8. E-commerce on WordPress Includes Many Options
You can quickly locate free basic plugins that are suitable for any type of store, regardless of size. Many of these are a part of existing pre-made themes, some of which were specifically created for online retail. These themes may have cart processing and order forms, while a select few many even cover shipping. Relying on these plugins is much easier than having to integrate the same features into an existing site.
In conclusion, WordPress is extendible, customizable and built to be simple to work with, even if you are a non-technical user. That is why WordPress is a modern way to build a website from the ground up. After all, the platform is so easy to master and chock-full of fantastic features. So, don’t get nervous! Try it out today. You won’t be sorry.