We’re big fans of using WordPress as a platform for building small business websites. In fact both Timbo and I both use WordPress for almost every website we build. And here are some reasons why we love using WordPress…
First of all, what is WordPress?
WordPress is an online publishing platform that makes it easy to keep text and images up to date on your website without having to know anything about programming. It’s so easy my Dad can use it (you know I love you Dad, but let’s face it, technology is not your thing). WordPress was originally design for blogging, but has grown into a powerful content management system used for websites big and small.
WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet‘s “top 1 million” websites and as of August 2011 manages 22% of all new sites on the web, so it’s pretty popular. It’s not only used for small websites and blogs though, there are some big names using WordPress, including CNN and Sony, so when your business grows, so too can your WordPress website.
Why do we recommend WordPress for Small Business Websites?
1. It’s free
Yep, WordPress is free to download, and most website hosting services (like my favorite, Hostgator) will offer WordPress as an installation option so you can have a basic WordPress website setup in minutes.
2. You can do almost anything you can think of with it
WordPress has 1000’s of plugins and theme’s which add or alter it’s functionality. This means you can add shopping cart functionality, or a classifieds system, or a photo gallery or… the options are huge.
3. It’s dead easy to use
As I mentioned in the intro, WordPress is very easy to use. I setup a WordPress business website for my Dad, who curses technology (regularly), and after a watching a 10 minute video was able to jump in edit and update his website. You don’t know what a relief was – no more “son, I need to update my website” conversations.
3. WordPress is search engine friendly
With a few tweaks and one of the many SEO plugins, WordPress is very Search Engine friendly. There are also theme’s (skins that change the appearance of WordPress) like the Thesis theme that improve on some of WordPress’ default settings to make it perform better, SEO wise. Thesis is one of my personal favorites for creating SEO friendly websites quickly. Out of the box, they don’t look all that pretty, but whack in a nicely formatted header and make some typography changes and she’s apples.
4. Many web developers and designers know how to code WordPress websites
I used to own and run a web design agency – we had our own content management system that we built client websites on. To my mind this turned out to be a bad idea for both the client and us as an agency because it made it difficult for the client to take their business elsewhere. And believe me, there were times when I wished it was easy for some clients to take their business elsewhere!
WordPress has a MASSIVE developer community so if you choose to build your website on WordPress, you’ll never have trouble finding someone to help you develop your site. Also, because there are so many developers using WordPress, it means you won’t have to pay an arm and a leg to have things changed if needs-be.
5. WordPress is (mostly) secure
The last thing you want is to have your website hacked and defaced by some pimply faced teen hacker. Believe me, I’ve had one of my own sites hacked before and it’s a pain in the proverbial to get things fixed and repair the security hole.
The smart fellas over at WordPress are constantly improving the software, including it’s security. There are also plugins, like Bad Behaviour, that can help lock your website down even further.
So there you have it, 5 pretty solid reasons why WordPress is perfect for your small business website.
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18 thoughts on “5 Reasons to Use WordPress for Your Small Business Website”
Hey Timbo and Lukee,
This is so coincidental that you posted this today.
Last night I had dinner with some friends. One of them is a well known artist and sculptor here in San Diego. She started showing me her YouTube video showcasing her sculptures she had made for a memorial to the earthquake victims in Japan.
Eventually the conversation changed to her website which was on some free platform I had never heard of. I asked her why she didn’t have a WordPress site so she control her online property and create something a little more robust.
Not a single person at our party had ever heard of WordPress!
I was flipping stunned. After I pulled myself up off the floor I realized that maybe, just maybe, the rest of the world is just not up to speed yet on the things I take for granted. Sometimes I just forget that these humans are not the advanced society we aliens are. 🙂
Good news is we are starting work on her WP site next week. I just sent her a link to your post.
James Hendricks
God knows what would have happened if I said “Have you ever heard of the Freedom Ocean?”
Hey Timbo and Lukee,
This is so coincidental that you posted this today.
Last night I had dinner with some friends. One of them is a well known artist and sculptor here in San Diego. She started showing me her YouTube video showcasing her sculptures she had made for a memorial to the earthquake victims in Japan.
Eventually the conversation changed to her website which was on some free platform I had never heard of. I asked her why she didn’t have a WordPress site so she control her online property and create something a little more robust.
Not a single person at our party had ever heard of WordPress!
I was flipping stunned. After I pulled myself up off the floor I realized that maybe, just maybe, the rest of the world is just not up to speed yet on the things I take for granted. Sometimes I just forget that these humans are not the advanced society we aliens are. 🙂
Good news is we are starting work on her WP site next week. I just sent her a link to your post.
James Hendricks
God knows what would have happened if I said “Have you ever heard of the Freedom Ocean?”
HA! I nearly didn’t put that bit in about “What is WordPress”. I guess we all need to remember the curse of knowledge — when we become so familiar with our own industry, we forget that others have no freakin’ idea.
HA! I nearly didn’t put that bit in about “What is WordPress”. I guess we all need to remember the curse of knowledge — when we become so familiar with our own industry, we forget that others have no freakin’ idea.
I couldnt disagree more guys. We at The E Team are agnostic of technology – we use whatever is best for the requirements and budgets of our smaller business clients.
We evaluated WordPress very early in the piece and continue to do so. Whilst we are encouraged that it is now governed by corporate infrastructure (as distinct from its well meaning community of developers) it is tarnished by that same fact – its continual support by enthusiasts and their release of buggy, insecure plugins – all when robust proprietary solutions are very affordable, are fully supported, come with free upgrades and at the end of the day, will go out of business unless all is working correctly.
Unlike enthusiast built platforms that just move onto the next hot technology.
Our conclusion is that WordPress and its ilk are simply a way of keeping developers in the small business market, when if they have any integrity, would defer to their more capable and robust proprietary solution providers.
Just like I did!
I couldnt disagree more guys. We at The E Team are agnostic of technology – we use whatever is best for the requirements and budgets of our smaller business clients.
We evaluated WordPress very early in the piece and continue to do so. Whilst we are encouraged that it is now governed by corporate infrastructure (as distinct from its well meaning community of developers) it is tarnished by that same fact – its continual support by enthusiasts and their release of buggy, insecure plugins – all when robust proprietary solutions are very affordable, are fully supported, come with free upgrades and at the end of the day, will go out of business unless all is working correctly.
Unlike enthusiast built platforms that just move onto the next hot technology.
Our conclusion is that WordPress and its ilk are simply a way of keeping developers in the small business market, when if they have any integrity, would defer to their more capable and robust proprietary solution providers.
Just like I did!
Good to hear a counter argument Craig. Using the best solution for the problem is definitely an excellent approach. I use Interspire’s proprietary shopping cart for one of my e-commerce sites and highly recommend it. However, I still believe WordPress is a great place to start for small businesses wanting to get a website up quickly and cost effectively.
Good to hear a counter argument Craig. Using the best solution for the problem is definitely an excellent approach. I use Interspire’s proprietary shopping cart for one of my e-commerce sites and highly recommend it. However, I still believe WordPress is a great place to start for small businesses wanting to get a website up quickly and cost effectively.
Hi Tim and Luke,
i’m about 3 weeks away from launch for a new business, which I have been blogging about on my wordpress site (www.beetlebox.com.au) for about 3 months (the SEO guys have told me that its the first step in climbing Google’s rankings). I would agree with your points that its a good technology (esp for the price), and that its search friendly. I’d have to say that I think being “dead easy to use” is an exaggeration, however. Its very fiddly, and hard to navigate where the different options are. It is versatile, since you can find add ons for many different needs, but this is where it gets even more frustrating to use. I attached an e-commerce bolt on, and found it changing options tricky to say the least. The developers don’t follow a standardised set of navigation locations, which means you need to learn about each plug-in on its own.
I’ve decided to upgrade to a site that is designed and developed for my needs, which will look much better. The developer has been pushing me slightly to a custom CMS, as opposed to building in WPress.
In general though, WordPress is good for a businesses first site, and if nothing else, it will help to teach the business owner the basics for managing a new site build, or navigating a custom CMS.
Great podcast, keep up the good work!
Glen Christie
http://www.beetlebox.com.au
Hi Tim and Luke,
i’m about 3 weeks away from launch for a new business, which I have been blogging about on my wordpress site (www.beetlebox.com.au) for about 3 months (the SEO guys have told me that its the first step in climbing Google’s rankings). I would agree with your points that its a good technology (esp for the price), and that its search friendly. I’d have to say that I think being “dead easy to use” is an exaggeration, however. Its very fiddly, and hard to navigate where the different options are. It is versatile, since you can find add ons for many different needs, but this is where it gets even more frustrating to use. I attached an e-commerce bolt on, and found it changing options tricky to say the least. The developers don’t follow a standardised set of navigation locations, which means you need to learn about each plug-in on its own.
I’ve decided to upgrade to a site that is designed and developed for my needs, which will look much better. The developer has been pushing me slightly to a custom CMS, as opposed to building in WPress.
In general though, WordPress is good for a businesses first site, and if nothing else, it will help to teach the business owner the basics for managing a new site build, or navigating a custom CMS.
Great podcast, keep up the good work!
Glen Christie
http://www.beetlebox.com.au
I’m starting to think I should have put some caveats on this post! When you start implementing weird and wonderful plugin – yes, it can get complicated, and I do recommend you get a developer involved who’s been through the trials and tribulations of installing various add-ons to WordPress.
If you’re just after a basic website (no e-commerce, no booking system), then WP is great. If you’re wanting a powerful online shopping cart, then I’d definitely go with something else.
I’m starting to think I should have put some caveats on this post! When you start implementing weird and wonderful plugin – yes, it can get complicated, and I do recommend you get a developer involved who’s been through the trials and tribulations of installing various add-ons to WordPress.
If you’re just after a basic website (no e-commerce, no booking system), then WP is great. If you’re wanting a powerful online shopping cart, then I’d definitely go with something else.
I couldn’t disagree with you more Craig. Why lock a small business into a proprietary system that may not exist in a couple of years or force them into continually forking out for upgrades or for adding functionality? (I’ve seen both happen plenty of times – a design firm we work with is now going over to WordPress after working through several proprietary systems that had these kinds of issues)
You are right that there can be issues with plug-ins but any decent developer will properly vet any plug-ins they propose to use on your site and there is mountains of information out there to help you work out what works well and what may cause issues.
If WordPress is such an issue the why is such a heavily trafficked site like Mashable using it?
You may want to check your own integrity before implying that an open source system that provides a fantastic opportunity for small business to build robust and functional websites for very reasonable prices somehow lacks integrity.
I couldn’t disagree with you more Craig. Why lock a small business into a proprietary system that may not exist in a couple of years or force them into continually forking out for upgrades or for adding functionality? (I’ve seen both happen plenty of times – a design firm we work with is now going over to WordPress after working through several proprietary systems that had these kinds of issues)
You are right that there can be issues with plug-ins but any decent developer will properly vet any plug-ins they propose to use on your site and there is mountains of information out there to help you work out what works well and what may cause issues.
If WordPress is such an issue the why is such a heavily trafficked site like Mashable using it?
You may want to check your own integrity before implying that an open source system that provides a fantastic opportunity for small business to build robust and functional websites for very reasonable prices somehow lacks integrity.
Fred if your going to respond in this way then you need to check your facts.
I dont know of a single proprietary system that doesnt upgrade completely free of charge – unlike the Open Source solutions where most developers expect to be paid for that privelege. They do this to remain competitive in a very competitive marketplace.
Better still, these upgrades are fully tested and sanity checked prior to release.
It seems to me that Open Source like much of WordPress is simply a way of keeping developers in a game that, if they had any said integrity, they would admit they cannot compete in – at least in the smaller business space.
The proprietary solutions simply offer far too much to compete with.
And its those with any integrity that will admit it. You have to remember, I used to be part of development teams until I saw the writing on the wall and got out before it was too late.
Cheers!
Fred if your going to respond in this way then you need to check your facts.
I dont know of a single proprietary system that doesnt upgrade completely free of charge – unlike the Open Source solutions where most developers expect to be paid for that privelege. They do this to remain competitive in a very competitive marketplace.
Better still, these upgrades are fully tested and sanity checked prior to release.
It seems to me that Open Source like much of WordPress is simply a way of keeping developers in a game that, if they had any said integrity, they would admit they cannot compete in – at least in the smaller business space.
The proprietary solutions simply offer far too much to compete with.
And its those with any integrity that will admit it. You have to remember, I used to be part of development teams until I saw the writing on the wall and got out before it was too late.
Cheers!
I agree WordPress is good for small business and for those starting to build their own site. If you’re looking to have a site that has CMS, and needs to have it launched and running in a small period of time, one good option is to use WordPress.
I agree WordPress is good for small business and for those starting to build their own site. If you’re looking to have a site that has CMS, and needs to have it launched and running in a small period of time, one good option is to use WordPress.