Benefits of Using WordPress 

Many clients will come to me requesting an update to their outdated website, many of which are unfortunately a collection of static HTML web pages. My suggestion to many of these clients is to upgrade their website to a popular content management system (also referred to as CMS) known as WordPress. Many people have heard of WordPress nowawdays, and seem to think it’s mainly used for blogging websites. But the truth of the matter is that now anyone can use WordPress, whether they use a blog or not. WordPress is highly customizable and allows you to create a custom website or choose from many themes which can give your website the look and feel you want it to have.

Most themes make it easy to make the changes yourself, if you have the time to learn. Simple things like updating the content on pages can be easily done and many themes even offer other important changes that the user can do themselves. For more complex changes, you might still require the aid of a designer or developer, although simple changes like the text on the pages will be more accessible to the common user.

Social Media Networking – How WordPress can Help

Another major thing that is very popular right now with the general public as well as small and large business owners alike is social media networking. This is a great idea because it helps you advertise your site and/or services for free through word of mouth. If you already have a social media networking account, such as Facebook, take a look at how many friends you have. I’m sure you have a lot! Just think of how many of them might pass along things they’ve read on your page to other fiends of theirs, and the cycle just continues. Using social media networking can be a great benefit, although many people just don’t have the time to constantly update their sites. The great advantage to using WordPress is the ability to use a plethora of plugins that can help aid you in this process.

One such plugin that is very useful is one that allows you to automatically publish any posts you create to any of your connected social media networking accounts. This means that you can publish a post on your blog, in only one place, and then all of your social media networking sites will be automatically updated for you. No more running to each site to add the same content over and over again. What a weight off your shoulders! Some of the sites will get an excerpt of your full post including a link back to your blog, which is great for getting more visitors to your site, and some will only include the title of the post (so name them accordingly!) and a link back to the original post on your website. Either way, it is getting the word out that you just wrote something that may be of interest to your friends and other viewers, and they can take the time to go read it in full at their convenience.

I cannot stress how important social media networking can be to upcoming businesses and well-established businesses alike. Just the amount of free advertising you’re getting there is enough to put forth the effort to update your content at least weekly if possible!

SEO Friendly (Search Engine Optimization)

Another great built-in feature of WordPress is its search engine optimization. This means that before you even begin to set up any plugins or anything else for that matter on your website, WordPress has already been hard at work getting your website noticed in search engines. Now, don’t expect to rank at the top or even on the first page immediately just through using WordPress. This is a process that takes some time. But you can be sure that WordPress makes it easy for search engines, especially Google, to find your website more easily. And then there are the massive amounts of SEO plugins out there that you can use to help increase your search engine chances even more!

If you are looking for some help on SEO for your website check out my book on Internet Marketing

Plugins add Fun & Functionality

So what is a ‘Plugin’?

A WordPress plugin is extra software code that you can easily add to your website from within your admin area that give you extra functionality, such as extra Search Engine Optimization, or a fancy way to print out your web pages.  Many plugins are free, in fact most of the one’s I use are free.  But sometimes you may want to pay for a premium plugin that is more advanced and complex than some simple free ones.

When you first get your WordPress website installed, it will come with a standard set of features.  But when you add plugins, then your website becomes unique to you, and gives your site the ‘bells and whistles’ to make it really sing.

Closing Thoughts

I strongly urge any website owners to use blogging, as suggested above, social media networking, and the sharing ability to increase their chances of free advertising and better rankings on search engines. If you are in need of web design and development services, please contact me for more details. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

WordPress Highlights

Why Use WordPress For People Wanting A Website

• Easily add/delete/edit pages on the website
• Easily add images/videos to the website
• Have more advanced navigational menus which could include categories
• Integrated blog/latest news section
• Website can be updated from any computer  – Users can have certain levels of access
• Easily add plugins to add more features to the website
• Helping with SEO rankings
• More easily adjust web page layouts
• Customized sidebars and footers – have page specific widgets in sidebar (examples: recent posts, latest news, events, videos, announcements, facebook, twitter, etc.)
• More integrated social networking between the website and facebook, twitter, etc.
• Better able to keep site design uniformity when adding new content

Why Use WordPress For People Who Already Have A Website

The web is changing. It is no longer acceptable to merely put up a website and leave it for years. Design evolves, trends change and it is painfully obvious when your website hasn’t received an update in a while. This is where WordPress comes in. Whether it’s upgrading your theme, adding some new plug-ins or starting a blog, you can be sure your website will stay looking fresh with WordPress. The WordPress team is constantly putting out updates making the software run better and easier to use. Most of these changes are a simple click of a button and you can be sure your website stays fresh and accurate.

User Friendly

WordPress does not require you to be an expert with computer knowledge in order to incorporate or use it on your website. Now a days, almost all web hosting services offer a one click install from their control panel. With the use of few tutorials online, you can do it yourself.

Not just installing, WordPress is really easy to use as well. You don’t have to spend the time and money on training your staff how to use WordPress. WordPress is much simpler to use and there are tons of free tutorials for users to learn or professionally created video tutorial packages like this one.

Themes Support

You will never have a problem finding the right theme for you. WordPress has a huge free themes collection, and if you don’t find a free theme, then there are tons of low cost premium themes for you.

Extended Plugins

WordPress has many open-source plugins that can assist you in making WordPress look however you want it to look. These plugins can make your dreams come true. Installation for most plugins are just as easy as one click from the admin panel.
Standard Web Compliance

WordPress have gone to great lengths to make sure every bit of the generated code is in full compliance with the standards of the W3C. This is important not only for interoperability with today’s browser but also for forward compatibility with the tools of the next generation.

Easy Upgrades

Upgrading from previous versions and other software is a piece of cake. They have added a new feature in their recent release that allows a one click upgrade for all features in WordPress.