5 Compelling Reasons Why You Should Build Your Small Business Website on WordPress

There are numerous reason why most business owners choose WordPress as their platform of choice for their websites. Two main reasons are simplicity and how it works in tandem with social media, another crucial component in building an online presence.

What is WordPress?

WordPress (WP) is an Open Source web publishing platform used to create blogs and websites. Why does it matter that it is Open Source? It means that tons of technical people from all over the world are constantly finding ways to improve the code and create a better platform. There are thousands of themes, plugins, and widgets that can do pretty much anything you want your site to do.

In addition to perfecting the platform, because approximately 30% of all websites on the Internet are powered by WordPress, you can find articles, videos, how-to blog posts, and answers to almost any question or problem imaginable.

If you want to learn how to make a business website, do a simple search and you will have your choice of tutorials and advice on exactly how to build your site.

Tons of Functionality

As mentioned above, there are WordPress plugins for almost anything and everything you want to do on your website.

Rather than having to pay a programmer to write the script to accomplish your goal, plugins provide the added functionality without needing coding knowledge.

WordPress itself provides an enormous amount of plugins as do third-parties. One word of caution. As WordPress is continuously updating, the plugins also need to update to be compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

It’s best to stay away from plugins that aren’t updated. You should also stay away from those that haven’t been tested for compatibility for the version of WP you are running.

Additionally, not all plugins play nice together. There are times when something breaks on your site and you have no idea why. It is always suggested that you de-activate every plugin you are using and then re-activate them one-by-one. This way you will be able to identify which plugin is causing your issue. More times than not, a plugin is the culprit.

It’s Free

You can download, install, and use WordPress without spending a penny. Whether your site is a personal blog or a commercial website, the fact that it is free is very appealing. This is an excellent incentive for new businesses and start-ups where budgetary constraints are an issue.

You do, however, have to pay for your domain and the hosting for your site. You might also choose to pay for premium plugins or themes, but there are still plenty of free ones.

Connects with Third-Party Tools

When you use WordPress, you can still use your email marketing service of choice, payment options, and lead generation tools. Want to add a pop-up form to your site? There’s a plugin for that.

Makes SEO Easier

If you want to get traffic to your site, you must follow search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. There is no need to worry if you don’t know how to do SEO. There are plugins for that.

For example, with Yoast SEO, all you have to do is configure a few settings and the plugin handles the rest. Not sure what the settings mean? Do a search for “how to set up Yoast SEO” and you will find so many answers it might be difficult to choose just one.

Can Schedule Posts

Many business websites today include a blog because it keeps their content dynamic (better for search engine rankings) and gives the business more opportunities to provide fresh, relevant, and valuable information.

However, because running a business requires more time than most business owners have, the fact that you can schedule your posts in advance is a huge time-saver.

You might decide to write all your posts for the week on Sunday night, and schedule them inside your dashboard to post at a time when you have the most traffic coming to your site. If you don’t know when your peak traffic times are, there are plugins and analytics that can provide you with the answers.

WordPress is a powerful, flexible, and versatile platform for websites. Whether you want your site for a personal blog, your company website, a membership site, or e-commerce, WordPress is up to the task.