5 Reasons Your Next Website Should be Running on WordPress

I’ve been listening to you.

Listening to you my friends, family and clients, tell me that you want (and need) a website that is affordable, that’s easy to maintain, and that you can update yourself without being techies.

I’ve heard you grumble under your breath about how long it takes to get your tech guy to update your site, and how you wish it were easier. My friend Kate told me that her webmaster wouldn’t give her the log-in information to her own site because he’s afraid she’ll make a mess of it.

Can you imagine being held hostage by your webmaster? (While you’re paying him!?!)

Until recently I thought that this is just the way it was. I’m technical enough that I can happily wade into the sea of code, and usually make it to the other side unscathed.

But I find that’s not the case for most people.

Sure there are some WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors provided by the major ISP’s that will “build a site” for you with just a few clicks, but in my experience they are difficult to use, not very customizable to brand identity, and, while I’m working with them, I feel like I’m in a house of cards.

One click in the wrong place before you hit the save button (that I can never find), and say good-bye to hours of work. It’s happened to me more than once.

Now add in social media and the buzz about blogs, text, and trying to figure out what’s next. No wonder you’re confused. No wonder you have no idea what to do next. You just know that what you have isn’t working. And you’re frustrated. And you know that your business depends on you getting it right.

Enter WordPress.

The first time I heard about WordPress I thought it was software for blogging, and it is. But what I later discovered is that WordPress is also a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that can be used for much more than just blogging. I found that I can build a website, a website with a blog, but I can also add on all kinds of functionality.

Here’s why your next website should be running on WordPress:

1. It’s Free. Yes, you heard me right. I said “free.”
   
   You still need a web hosting plan with an ISP that hosts WordPress, but they’re easy to find. I use DreamHost.com. It’s about $9.99 a month, it includes WordPress as part of the price, and offers 1-click installation. I’ve installed WordPress dozens of times. It really is 1-click.

2. It Takes Care of the Content. Once your site is set up, it’s simple to update content without knowing one single thing about HTML.WordPress comes with a simple rich text editor (think a simplified version of MS Word) that makes adding new pages and posts easy to do.
   
   One feature I really like is page preview. It allows me to see how the changes I’ve made are going to look on the web before I save them. So if I’ve made a mistake, it’s easy to back out.

3. Plugins Extend Functionality. One of the most exciting things about WordPress is the large community of developers who are dedicated to extending the functionality of WordPress by creating software add-ons called Plugins.
   
   Often free or very affordable, these plugins allow you to add photo galleries, shopping carts, forums, maps, event registration and more to your WordPress site.If you want to take a look at what’s possible, here’s the official WordPress Plugin Site. As of this writing there are 12,356 available for download. Now that’s cool.

4. Search Engines Love WordPress. If you’d rather not know what a meta tag is, but want high rankings in Google, you’re in the right spot.WordPress, out of the box, comes with several built-in search engine optimization (SEO) tools, including static URLs called permalinks, blogrolling and pinging.
   
   I won’t go into the details here, but if you are really into SEO and want to know more, give me a call. If you just want to know it’s handled, choose WordPress.

5. It has a Theme. Simply stated, a theme is a design that lays on top of WordPress that determines what your website looks like (buttons, colors, layout, fonts, etc.) and also what functionality is available (plugins, widgets, etc.)
   
   Some themes are prettier than others, some more functionally robust. Depending on what you’re using your website for, there are hundreds of free themes that can meet your needs without any modification. My favorite is a paid theme called Thesis that allows complete graphical and functional customization of my websites.

When I set up my site, RocketGirlSolutions.com, I needed the flexibility to have complete control over the design. Right now my site is pretty simple. I have a dozen static pages, and a place for my blog. But I have big plans (and so do my clients), so it’s great to have my site built on a platform where the technology can keep up with my ideas.

As recently as five years ago, building an attractive, highly functional, easy-to-update web site wasn’t possible for the average, non-techy small business person. Today, thanks to WordPress, it is. Click here to learn more about getting started.