Why You Should Use WordPress for Your Website
When clients call me about building a website, most of them don’t have a clue about how it’s built. Let alone the best software to use when building a website. After all, there are many cool website builders like Wix, Squarespace and Shopify. So how do you know if you should use WordPress for your website?
Let’s look at some of the main reasons why you should use WordPress for your website.
W1. WordPress is super expandable
Firstly I want to say that this knowledge has come from 15 years in the industry. Using a few different web platforms, teaching at a few different colleges and running my own business.
So, what do I mean by expandable?
Well, WordPress has the ability to grow when your business does.
Let me explain further.
Just say you are a startup business and your site is quite small to begin with. Over time it grows and requires a bigger more versatile website.
The good thing about WordPress is; this is possible. WordPress allows you to build onto your current website.
This could involve simply changing the theme and adding some plugins.
Let me talk about plugins!
So plugins are just like apps for your phone. There are literally thousands of them available in the wordpress.org directory. You can also buy them from third party websites like; themeforest.net. Plugins make WordPress by far one of the most versatile platforms because they are cost effective and there are so many available.
Years ago, if you needed to add extensive functionality into a website it took hours of coding. But now you can just buy a plugin or use a free one where all the coding is done for you.
2. No lock in contracts
WordPress is available from most hosting companies. All you require is a domain name and you can install WordPress for free from within the cPanel of your hosting.
Hosting packages range from around $100-300 per year. Obviously you pay for what you get!
I recommend Digital Pacific for Australian businesses because you get local support (by phone) and their servers are located in Australia and not overseas. This is important if your visitors are coming to your website from within Australia.
Once you buy your hosting and domain name. You don’t have to pay for anything else. So you are not locked into a monthly subscription fee which other website builders require; like Wix and Squarespace.
3. WordPress support is endless
The amount of WordPress support out there is insane! If you have a problem with your site, setting up a plugin or theme. You can be guaranteed there’ll be a video or tutorial that’s just a quick google search away.
The good thing about purchasing a plugin is they often give you free support for a certain amount of time. And most of the time the support is excellent.
Just keep in mind, to always read reviews of plugins and themes to ensure you don’t buy something that is not well supported.
There are also many WordPress trainers out there, like myself that can give you a WordPress training session either face to face or online. As well as many WordPress courses online or face to face in your local city.
4. WordPress is Google friendly
Every website needs to be Google (SEO) friendly no matter what software you use.
If you know nothing about SEO (search engine optimisation), which most website owners don’t, then SEO can be a daunting task. The great thing about WordPress is that it is SEO friendly and has a lot of plugins to guide you with your SEO.
My favourite plugin to use is Yoast SEO. Click the link to watch my video – SEO tutorial for beginners with Yoast
There are also many other plugins that can help you with your SEO such as Google Analytics and many more.
6. Blogging made easier with WordPress
Adding a blog to your WordPress website is easy and essential for getting regular traffic to your site.
Google loves fresh content. Adding regular posts can include a range of content including; case studies, events, tutorials, how tos, projects, products and more.
Once your content is added, you can easily share it to your social media accounts directly from your site. Most themes have social media share icons or you can simply add a social media share plugin.
Blogging tips
- Blog on a regular basis
- Write a minimum of 300 words
- Add a main keyword a few times (depends on amount of text)
- Write unique content
- Never copy content or even use bits and pieces from other websites
- Writing everything in your own words is best
- Keep the topic relevant to your site
- Add headings to make your content scannable
- Add some internal links – to upsell a service or a product, or a call to action
- Add external links (if relevant)
- Use the Yoast plugin to optimise your posts
- Then share on your social media
6. WordPress can be easy to edit and manage
I have taught a lot of people over the years and their main complaint I hear about their website was the cost to get changes done by their web developer or designer. Which leads to many businesses preferring to manage and edit their own site in house. Which is fair enough!
The great thing about WordPress is that this is possible. WordPress is known as a CMS – content management system. Allowing you to manage your own content.
As long as your site was built with this in mind, it should be easy to perform simple edits including; adding text and images, adding blog posts, changing content and more..
A little WordPress training with an expert can help you with this and to get you navigating around your site in no time at all!
To sum up
Over the years I personally have used a few different softwares to build websites and teach clients. When I stumbled upon WordPress around 10 years ago, I have never looked back.
WordPress keeps getting better and better as it gets developed, with more plugins and themes. Making it one of the most versatile platforms on the market.
I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending WordPress.org for your website. Whether it’s big or small, WordPress has got you covered.
