WordPress is by far the most popular Content Management System (CMS) used by small business owners. In fact, WordPress powers about 60% of all CMS’s on the Internet. So, why has WordPress become the go-to platform for small business websites?
It all comes down to the fact that WordPress is super powerful and infinitely customizable, all while being exceptionally user-friendly. This puts it miles ahead of its competitors like Wix and Squarespace, which are very limited in functionality in comparison.
However, to get the most out of WordPress you are still going to want to hire a freelance web developer to design and develop your site. But with WordPress, other than hosting, that is the only cost that you should expect once the project is complete. Why? Because WordPress makes it easy to manage your website yourself. Meaning, you don’t have to hire another freelancer. To discover how, keep on reading.
Can’t code? No problem
Quick, do you know how to use Google Docs or Microsoft Word? Yes? Well, then you should have no problem managing your company’s blog. No coding required! With WordPress, there’s no reason to be intimidated.
WordPress is designed for both web developers and non-technical people alike. Its user interface makes it easy to find what you're looking for and keep your website up to date. Updating your websites copy, images, headers, and contact forms can all be handled by someone with a solid understanding of how to use the internet.
Now, we aren’t saying that WordPress is so easy to use that you can set up and build out an entire responsive website meant to convert users. Creating new web pages are always going to be something you leave to your freelance web developer. What we are saying is that once the website is done, managing your website's blog and making simple changes to keep up to date will be easy enough for the average small business owner to do on their own.
All of Your Website's Content, in One Place
All of the content on your website, whether it be blogs, white papers, e-books, videos, images, testimonials, lives in the backend of your WordPress website. WordPress essentially acts like a Google Drive of sorts, where you can safely upload the content of your website to the cloud to be accessed later. This is why it is called a Content Management System.
It’s a place where you can store and manage all of the content on your website. This is key for giving you control of your website after it’s been developed. Also, you can add multiple user accounts, so your entire team can have access to the website. Now, how does this help you?
Well, let's use the example of a landscaping company here in New Jersey. You could easily swap out your homepage image to reflect what season we’re in. In a matter of minutes. No need to hire a freelancer. You could then change the website's homepage copy to promote relevant services for that season and update the testimonials accordingly to lure customers in. Now, if you are a restaurant owner, you can quickly update the menu on your website to reflect the specials for that night, and throw in some images of the dishes.
WordPress gives you the best of both worlds: a fully featured CMS that can be used to create any small business websites, while still being simple enough to use that you’ll be able to edit the site yourself once it’s complete.
Plug-ins to Give Your Site A New Life
Plug-ins are add-ons for WordPress that can dramatically expand the functionality of your website. Have you noticed the pop-up chat box that appears on our website? It allows anyone who comes to our website to chat with us in real time, and we have the app on our phones so we can instantly respond if we receive a message. Why? In 2019, people doesn’t want to talk on the phone or email anymore. Instead, they want to chat. In fact, this is one of the biggest web design trends we expect to see in 2019.
But instead of hard coding it ourselves, we simply downloaded a plug-in and customized it to our needs. Saving us time and development resources. This is just one example of what a plug-in can do for your small business website. WordPress has a library of tens of thousands of plug-ins that can dramatically expand the functionality of your website.
Going back to our restaurant example, there are plugins out there that can add an entire reservation and online ordering system to your website. After some time spent configuring the plug-in, you can have your NJ restaurant have a whole new income stream. Pretty sweet, right? Instead of hiring a developer and taking weeks to get it coded, you can simply download it and install it on your site. For free.
A Massive Community for Support
WordPress’s popularity has led to a massive user base and an army of well-versed developers. If you ever do run into an issue with your website, a quick Google search will likely lead you to forums where users have already encountered this problem and figured out a way to solve it. With less popular website builders, this community doesn’t exist. Meaning that if you do run into a problem, you are going to have to hire a freelancer to fix it for you, which is going to cost you and take time out of your busy schedule.
Security Made Simple
WordPress gets regular security updates and patches. Meaning, your website will be safe from hackers and spammers. Better yet, you can set it to update automatically in the background where you can effectively offload this important aspect of your site to your hosting provider.
Again, we see that the value in WordPress extends past making it easy to update your website. The main value comes from the fact that since you will spend less time updating your website, your time will be freed up to spend on other business activities.
Finally, Wordpress is 100% Free
If you weren’t already convinced that WordPress is the best CMS for small business websites, then maybe this will: WordPress is completely free to download and install on your website. Further, it’s open source, meaning anyone can go in and edit its code.
This is why you see so many different themes and variations of WordPress on the internet because of the flexibility and customization, we confidently recommend all of our small business clients using WordPress. It provides the perfect mix of features and usability, all while being easy to use and robust enough for any small business to take advantage of.
