Why Do We Love WordPress?
Some web designers state very proudly that, they do not use templates. Of course when the situation is not right, neither do we. On the other hand, let me state very proudly that we do use templates.
WHY? Because it’s about your website budget producing a return on investment and not about our ego.
WordPress, What Is It & Why do I Use It?
WordPress is a CMS or content management system. A CMS allows the content of the website, i.e, the text, images etc, to be kept separate from the template and programming.
WordPress is essentially an open source, (100% free), blogging platform. The nature of open source software, means that it is highly customisable. The source code is available so that you can extend it, hence the name, open source.
There are thousands of themes and plugins available for WordPress and it has been developed with search engine optimisation in mind.
In short, WordPress allows me to spend your budget on the things that bring you customers and leaves the door open for design change or development.
So What Does This Mean To You?
Well in a nutshell, it allows me to do things back to front. Whilst I believe that design is extremely important, I believe that delivering some results is better. The reason is simple. By delivering results, your website becomes an asset. You will be much more likely to invest further in it.
I know that this sounds like a sales ploy but it is actually the right way to do things. You need to develop your website over time. Most people don’t. This is where it all goes wrong for around 80% of small business websites. Delivering business gets the website paying its own way.
As a developer, it’s really hard to convince a cash strapped small business owner to commit to ongoing investment. This is a problem because it leaves me delivering something that has little real benefit to the business. That is something that I do not want to do. There are plenty who will though. Clearly this is a big problem and WordPress allows me to address it.
WordPress allows me to deliver better results for less. It allows you great flexibility. Either one of us can work on the website. There are many simple tasks that you or a member of your staff can carry out. With just a little training we can help you to turn your website into a real asset for your business. Or of course, we can do it all for you. The point is, you have options and lots of them.
Check out this WordPress Video and see just how easy it is to use.
Don’t Be Held Back By Budget!
It is a simple fact that a bad looking website that gets visitors will get more sales than a pretty website with none. That is not to say that you must have a bad looking website of course!
In my opinion, your budget should be spent first on research, then planning, then SEO, even sales copy-writing and finally, what’s left on design. It is simple common sense isn’t it? Well take a look around, apparently it’s not.
It Gets Better!
If that’s not a good enough reason for starting with WordPress, it gets better, much better.
I could write pages about the benefits of WordPress, so instead, I’ll just list the main ones below.
- Can be configured to act as a blog or a website.
- Either you or I can log into your website and add/edit pages and other content. This gives you great flexibility. You can run your own website, run it with our help, or run it with the help of a third party.
- Themes/templates can be changed with little, if any impact on the content or structure.
- Thousands of free and paid themes / templates available online.
- Custom themes can be created for a unique website.
- Thousands of free, paid and above all, easy use plug-ins are available. Everything from a simple image slider to a specialist SEO tool can be installed and configured, easily.
- Custom plug ins and programming functionality can be integrated to meet specific needs.
- Your content is kept separately in a database. This makes it possible to change your plans, often without too much trouble.
- A huge online community. WordPress is reportedly used for around 2% of all websites. You can find help all over the web. Video’s help guides, even tutorials showing how to build your own theme.
WordPress can be a truly great solution for a start up or small business but it does not meet the needs of all. Make sure that you discuss your medium to long term needs and expectations with a professional.
About Steve Hippel
+Steve Hippel is into web design SEO and web marketing. He specialises in helping SME's get more from there websites and online marketing efforts. View all posts by Steve Hippel →Leave a Reply
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