Why You Should Have a WordPress Website

In this information overload era we live, with info available to us 24/7, it’s no wonder consumers have changed from reading web pages to scanning them. Studies show that users scan in a C pattern starting with the right-hand tabs at the top, down through the content on the page, and finally, the footer. It is fascinating to learn how we have changed from left to right reading to C scanning. Did you know about this neat little fact? I sure didn’t back in the day.

And this leads me to many thoughts about creating a website that aligns with that reading pattern so you can stand out to your target audience. Many of our clients come to us with the belief that social media is where it’s at and where they should invest their time and money—and they are not wrong. But it’s not the ONLY place you should invest time and money.

If you’re not doing social media correctly—adjusting audience and content and reviewing analytics—you
will find that your reach could decline. Remember, in social media someone else owns the platform, which means they dictate visibility, cost, and growth. If they feel your social media pages are not meeting the correct ideal client base or don’t educate or entertain according to their algorithms, they can lower your reach, which can be devastating.

For example, in 2018, Facebook significantly pivoted away from curated content and took a deep dive into community and groups. As a result, many small business owners saw a major drop in page traffic. Long story short: someone else controls the platform, not you!

With this understanding of social media ownership, I recommend that clients have a WordPress website. Along with a strong social media component for building your business, WordPress has its own benefits for SEO (search engine optimization) that works well with a strong social media presence.

I, along with 835 million other companies as of recent 2022 stats, use WordPress websites. Don’t get me wrong: many platforms such as Wix or Kajabi serve a specific audience, but I believe creating and building a WordPress site is a solid path to take, and here’s why.

WordPress was created in 2003, so it has a long history of success! As of January 2022, WP powered almost half of all the internet sites and has seen a 5% increase since last year. It is an open-source, free-to-use platform and is a content management system (CMS). There are 2.9 million search queries
a month using “WordPress” as the keyword.

You need a great SEO strategy to take your website to the masses. WordPress is very SEO friendly. Many plugins, some of which are free, can help you create a solid SEO plan.

Another reason WordPress is the best choice for your business is that you can make a straightforward page or have a complex website that is customized to serve many of your needs. For example, one of our clients needed a website that functioned three ways because of their target audiences— wholesale, retail, and fundraising. Using WordPress is a great way to meet all of your needs due to the ability to easily customize your site.

And for those who don’t need a complex site, WordPress offers thousands of plugins and themes, along with blog, podcast, or video pages that are reasonably priced and user-friendly – things like shopping carts, page creation, form creation, and client databases, to name a few. In a coder’s world, WP themes lay nicely with various plugins. One of the most popular WordPress shop plugins is WooCommerce. This plugin is a great way to make your WP function as a shopping cart. A shopping cart allows your website users to create an account and purchase your available items—whether they be digital downloads, courses, or products that require shipping.

WordPress sites employ a gold-standard level of security that surpasses other website builder products. It brings to the table a security level that other competitors can’t match. Security is constantly changing and evolving to improve and block more breaches, phishing, and spam. It is a very safe and secure platform on which to build a website. However, it is very important that you work with someone experienced in WordPress to maintain your site. Plugins need to be updated, and setting them to automatically update is never a good idea. Make sure you are backing up your site regularly as well.

WordPress also plays nicely with Google Analytics. It takes a complicated metric report and flips it into an
easily understood report that you should review as part of a good SEO plan.

Sound a little confusing? It certainly can be, but, more than that, if you are running your own business, you should be spending time doing just that: running your business. Hire people to do everything you shouldn’t be—or don’t want to be—doing!

Working with a multi-VA company can allow you to partner with professionals who can handle all the details in your business so you can do your thing: growing your business while still having a work/life balance. Feel free to give us a call to discuss your needs and how we can help give you the freedom to do what you need to do.