7 Reasons You Should Redesign Your Small Business Website in WordPress Don't get bogged down creating and maintaining a high-priced, one-of-a-kind site, just to have a web presence and host a blog.
By Dan Scalco Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Your website serves as the digital storefront for your business. If it doesn't look appealing, load quickly or even have a mobile version, customers are going to keep walking. Many small business owners rely on their website to bring in a steady stream of leads and educate potential customers on what they offer.
Related: 5 Steps to Take to Start Your Small Business Blog Today
However, when it comes to designing and developing a website, most of those same small business owners think they can't have all the bells and whistles that larger businesses have. But that's not true. Why? Meet WordPress.
WordPress is a free platform that powers the back end of your website. It's commonly referred to as a "content management system" because of its ability to let you easily create and organize all of the pages and media you upload to your site.
Interested in learning why it's the best option for your small business' website? Keep reading . . .
1. You'll be able to start using your website as a blog.
If you're using a separate website to host your blog or, worse, have no blog at all (at least yet), switching your site over to WordPress will quickly solve that problem. Not only is the software incredibly easy to operate (adding new pages/posts literally takes seconds), but it's the perfect platform for blogging about your small business.
Simply set up a page on your site dedicated to your blog (just call it "blog" or some catchy name that plays off your brand). Then you can start adding posts to that page. A blog is your easiest and most effective way to continuously add new content to your site and keep customers up-to-date with your business.
2. WordPress constantly updates itself for safety and security.
Instant updates mean you can be confident your website's security is always up to date and aligned with the best, most current policies. While some other content management systems might require you to manually check for updates or may be slack on performing maintenance, WordPress does the work for you.
You can sleep soundly knowing that your site will automatically update, and knowing, too, that WordPress will keep working to better its system and make things more secure for users and visitors.
3. WordPress is open source.
"Open source" simply means that developers are able to contribute to WordPress' software in the form of plugins, themes and updates. How does that benefit you? The system is constantly improving and getting better, and a new addition doesn't cost you a cent. You can reap all the benefits of these improvements without paying for them.
Related: With Open-Source Software, You Don't Have to Start From Scratch
4. WordPress is SEO friendly.
SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the idea of making your website more searchable by engines like Google and Yahoo. While mastering SEO can take some investment of time WordPress offers ways for business owners to optimize their site in the easiest ways possible. Check out the free Yoast SEO plugin, which shows you step-by-step how your content ranks and where there's room to improve.
Related: Top 7 Things You Don't Know About SEO
5. WordPress is no newbie.
This CMS is swimming in familiar water. It's been around for more than ten years so it's safe to say it's a sure thing. While WordPress (like any CMS) isn't perfect, it's pretty much problem-free. Over the years, its engineers have had time to work out those little kinks and improve, aging the system into a timeless CMS that all levels of web developers have come to love.
6. Coding for WordPress is standard for any web developer.
A lot of small business owners hire a web developer who then builds a complicated website that no one else can manage. That's all well and good if you never need to change your website again -- but that's rare.
One of the reasons WordPress is so great is that it's become such a popular choice any web developer knows how to code for it. Whenever a problem pops up that you can't fix, or you decide to redesign your website's look, any developer will be able to get the job done.
7. Having a WordPress website puts you in good company.
Yes, WordPress is "every guy's CMS." That being said, its capabilities extend far beyond the basic ones; and some of the biggest companies in the world use WordPress to power their sites. How big is "big"? The New York Times, Mashable, TechCrunch, and Inc. (to name a few).
WordPress is great for small businesses because it has everything you need to create a visually pleasing, fully functional, scalable website, and it also offers endless possibilities if your business or budget grows down the road.
Related: Priceless Words From the Founder of WordPress
Wrapping Up
Whether you're just starting out as an entrepreneur or your small business is growing like a weed, you want a website that grows as you do. WordPress gives you that option.
