First before we begin, what is a Content Management System (CMS) website? Content Management System is a software a application that allows publishing, editing and modifying content as well as maintenance from a central interface. That means, that once the site is setup and designed to your liking, you or your staff with very little technical or web development skills can update and manage your website, as well as blog regularly, add calendar events, promote sales and company news through your website.
Although other Content Management Systems like Drupal and Joomla! are also very useful, statistics show that Wordpress is the leader of the group because of its’ current and growing popularity.
“WordPress powers more than 18.9% of the web – a figure that rises every day. Everything from simple websites, to blogs, to complex portals and enterprise websites, and even applications, are built with WordPress.” – WordPress.org
With one in six websites on the internet being powered by WordPress, and 100,000 more going live each day, let’s explore why WordPress is an incredibly powerful website management tool for small business owners today.
Benefits of WordPress Websites
1. Ease of Use: After setup, design and plugins have been installed and setup, you are ready to begin managing your site. I regularly sit down with clients with little or no technical savvy, and within one hour, they can blog, add pictures, updated content, add events and new pages.
2. Content Control: After your one hour of training, you now have the control on keeping your content fresh, dynamic and engaging. You are now in the driver’s seat and can update your website as often as you need or like. You are not dependent on anyone to wait for updates nor do you have to pay costly maintenance fees.
3. WordPress speak Search Engine’s language: Wordpress offers clean and simple code that is search engine friendly as well as easy to index. It also offers multiple search engine tools such as tags and meta tags (for title, description and keywords) that help identify each post, page, and image on your website. In essence, WordPress adds road signs throughout your website so search engines, and ultimately users can find your content easily.
4. Varied Design Options via Themes and Child Themes: There are literally thousands of themes to choose from and with some advanced coding, you can also customize a chosen theme, creating what is called a Child Theme. So it is possible with some time and effort to create a fairly unique experience that compliments your brand.
5. Advanced Functionality Options with Plugins: There are so many options if you need added functionality for example: event calendars, secure online forms, portfolio galleries, employee or customer login pages, and so on.
6. User Level Management: If members of your staff need or want access to the site, you can add multiple users with different levels of access to your website. Administrators manage the site, editors work with content, authors and contributors write that content, and subscribers have a profile that they can manage and make comments. This lets you have a variety of contributors to your website, and let others simply be part of your community.
7. Free Blog with every WordPress site: Since WordPress was originally created and became popular as a blogging platform, your site will have a blog, RSS feed, email subscriptions to your posts and comments, and comment capabilities built in. Blogging is essential to any business’ internet marketing plan. For more information on blogging: Blogging for your Business – the Whys & Hows?
8. Compliant with Current Standards & Protocols: Every piece of WordPress generated code is in full compliance with the standards set by the W3C. This means that your website will work in current browsers, while maintaining forward compatibility with the next generation of browser. *For more information on W3C Standard Compliancy. WordPress is also licensed under the GPL which was created to protect your freedoms. And WordPress is available in more than 70 languages. And most themes available are responsive so they are mobile-friendly.
9. Developer Tools Available: Wordpress encourages developers, designers and programmers to build and contribute custom products for their already extensive library of themes, plugins and tools. If you need unique designs or functionality, we can develop a WordPress website with custom developed features for your company. Call us for a free estimate.
10. You own your content and application. Hosted services or free web applications come and go, and once gone so is your content. Using WordPress means no one has access to your content. Own your data, all of it – your website, your content, your data. And there are no monthly fees to have access to your content (besides your hosting and domain fees, as with any other website).
Contact me for more information on setting up, designing, customizing and training on a new WordPress website today.
[See our portfolio of custom designed Wordpress Sites]