Guilty as charged for not having WordPress

Most people know I’m no coder, but when it comes to getting a small business online I’m actually a huge fan of WordPress as the platform of choice. Why? Well firstly it’s gets you started online cheaply and secondly a WordPress website is actually quite easy to use. Too many times I’ve heard small business owners tell me that they can’t update their website and have had to get their web designer to do it for them – at a cost. And whilst it’s great to outsource, and concentrate on your core skills, outsourcing your website management is costly and time consuming at a time when quite frankly you don’t need it. Bah!

Now I have to come clean here. When I first built my website I got confused with the whole thing and I actually built a WordPress.com website. Whilst it was great that I took action after my website class, there are reasons why it's better to build a WordPress.org website, which I'll go into shortly.

WordPress to solve the problem

So let me tell you about WordPress. Well, WordPress is not only the most popular free and open source blogging tool available on the Internet, but it’s also a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that can be used to build websites. It’s used by over 16.7% of Alexa’s top 1 million websites and as of August 2011 it manages 22% of all new websites. It’s used by large corporates too and just to make it complicated for you, there are two versions of it – wordpress.org and wordpress.com!

Worpress.org or wordpress.com – which one to use

WordPress.com is a hosting platform that provides a quick and easy way to get your blog or website online. It’s free and easy to use and once you’ve signed up you can create your blog or website immediately – for free. It’s great for hobbyists or special interest blogs, but if you’re serious about building a website for a sustainable business (large or small) then it’s important to have control over the look of your website so it doesn’t look like a generic blog. This is why I almost always recommend using WordPress.org.

Here are 8 advantages you’ll have if you use WordPress.org as your website:

1. Search engines love WordPress. As sites using this CMS will be indexed in the search engines much faster than traditional static websites you’ll have traffic coming to your site sooner rather than later.

2. WordPress has an unlimited number of plug-ins or add-ons that have been developed to perform everything from shopping carts to contact forms. These are updated and upgraded constantly so you’ll always have the latest technology and innovations at your fingertips.

3. It’s usually considerably cheaper to have a website developed with WordPress than any other website. The available plug-ins are generally one-click installations which means you won’t have to pay a web developer to do costly coding to develop the features you’d like on your website.

4. WordPress has a great deal of SEO built right in. This enables you to rank well in the search engines. And despite web designer telling you that they do SEO, in my experience most don’t do it very well.

5. WordPress is easy for anyone without coding skills to maintain on their own. This means you can add new content whenever you want without having to pay a web designer to do it for you. Yay!

6. These days every business website needs a blog. By having a WordPress site you’ll have one there built right in so you can easily interact with your visitors.

7. WordPress has a built in RSS feed. This means that you have the ability to syndicate your content. This makes it a very useful traffic-grabbing tool.

8. By having a WordPress website you can market it to all of the blog directories. This means you have the potential of reaching many more visitors than a standard HTML website.

If you need a check-list for your wordpress website, or you want to 7 ways to generate leads through your wordpress website just click the links. Please let me know how you'll use this and, also how you're getting on with the website design you're planning. If you have any more tips, please just add them in the comment box. Feel free to share this with anyone who might find this useful too. Until then….

With love and gratitude – as always,

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JaneFrankland

Jane Frankland is a cyber security market influencer, award-winning entrepreneur, consultant and speaker. She is the Founder of Cyber Security Capital and the IN Security Movement. Having held executive positions within her own companies and several large PLCs, she now provides agile, forward thinking organisations with strategic business solutions. Jane works with leaders of all levels and supports women in security. Her book, IN Security: Why a failure to attract & retain womenin cybersecurity is making us all less safe' is a best-seller.

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