In today’s marketplace, every business needs a website. It is the first place your customers go to discover your brand. It may host your online store or represent your brick-and-mortar establishment. The question is how to develop your website. You can commission a hand-built website, hire an onboard developer, or use one of the many quick-and-easy website builder platforms on the market. For a small business, it can be tough to know which is the right route to a high-quality website that your team can maintain.
A small business needs a website that runs like a machine. You need easy updates to content like blog posts and service pages so your team can manage the website without a specialist. You also need your website to meet the necessary security and performance requirements to compete for SEO and SERP ranking. Why do engines and colleagues keep suggesting a WordPress website? Aside from sourcing around 1/3 of websites on the internet, WordPress offers a toolkit approach to website building that is uniquely useful to small business priorities.
Why do we recommend WordPress to small businesses in need of a new website? Here are our top five reasons to make small business WordPress website.
1) All the Tools You Need are Available
WordPress starts with a basic website framework that you can build onto with “plugins”. It is a module and toolkit system for building websites one feature-set at a time.
You can get a homepage up almost instantly on a properly configured server with many free themes that provide the basis “Home”, “About, “Contact”, “Blog” site map structure. From there, you can add modules for a web-store, security, store locator, booking calendar, or online menu and delivery tracking system. Customer accounts, security, and performance modules are considered essential but you can choose the package and pricing that works best for you.
Everything you need to build a WordPress website of business quality is available and affordable for the website in a plug-and-play experience. This makes it easy for small businesses to quickly construct the features they need for a modern and high-performing website that suits their business model.
2) Quick-Build Themes and Infinite Customization
WordPress makes it extremely easy to get started. If you need the basic structure of a beautifully branded, high-performance website, you can get one up in one or two days depending on your ready assets. With the right plugins, most small business models can put together a WordPress website that does everything you need it to for engaging leads, selling to customers, booking, and providing platform services for logged-in accounts.
The right theme and plugins can get you started very quickly – with easy slots in the design for your website colors and brand assets. At the same time, WordPress is also built by code and therefore extremely customizable. You can have a unique theme (your entire website structure and style) developed by a programmer, with an all-in-one approach or your own custom plugins as well. WordPress is as flexible as a hand-built website, but extremely easy to piece together quickly out of existing elements triest, tested, and 5-star rated on the market right now.
3) Vast Network of Users and Developers
WordPress is not an island. Your support network of users and developers is vast. If you have a common-use question or even an elusive error message, there are literally millions of other people using WordPress who may have the answer. If you want guidance on an existing plugin or to commission a unique feature, there is a developer with the right experience for the job. You can hire onboard WordPress experts, outsource to WordPress developer shops, hire WordPress specialized marketing, content, and community managers, and ask the greater community for tips.
You are never stranded when working with WordPress because of the vast network of other WordPress users and programmers found through the marketplace, job market, and community.
4) No-Code Website Management and Content Updates
WordPress has played a major role in the WYSIWYG movement to low-code and no-code platform management. “What You See is What You Get” or “whisywig” conversationally is an engine built to help you design web pages and edit your content without delving into HTML, Javascript, and other bracket-based coding languages.
Instead, you can use a visual interface that allows you to arrange page elements and enter content without knowing the difference between a and a. The WordPress WYSIWYG editor (Gutenberg Editor) is a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to build pages and templates from your existing brand assets. For a small business team, this is an incredible time and money saver because you can quickly produce regular content without the daily need for a web code specialist.
5) The Structure is Familiar and Easy for Customers
Last and never to be underestimated; customers are familiar with WordPress sites. Even with very unique themes, the basic structural elements are all there. Customers know they can find the big pages in the header and site map links in the footer. They understand how to navigate a WordPress blog and – whether they realize it or not – customers are familiar with the most-used eCommerce web store platforms.
This will make your site approachable and easy to use. It will feel natural and intuitive to navigate your WordPress website which reduces friction and improves your overall conversion funnel. With a pro to help you smoothly connect all the modules for a high-performance website experience, your customers will naturally flow from intake to conversion without the need for guidance because, without realizing it, they already know the way.
Small businesses make every decision based on a balance of efficiency, quality, and performance. WordPress meets that criteria by offering both easy-to-construct websites for any business model and ultimate customizability if you want to take more detailed control. For more information about WordPress websites for small businesses or to commission a professionally configured and branded website tailored to your business needs, contact us today.
