WordPress Websites? I Those Were Only For Bloggers

A lot of people have a misconception about WordPress (and the others simply never heard of it). WordPress started as a blogging platform and it’s back end features and ease of use made it skyrocket into what it is today. That is, one of the best open-source CMS (Content Management Systems) and blogging platforms out there.

Having a WordPress website is a great option for small businesses because as mentioned before it’s simple to use and is an amazing content management system. In simple terms, if your website is built off WordPress you have the ability to edit existing content as well as write new content, completely on the fly. You can access the back end of your website from any computer around the world as well which is an amazing feature!

WordPress websites have a laundry list of benefits. For one you can chose from thousands of themes (or skins) for your websites. Most of them are completely free but some premium themes may cost you some money. On top of that you can easily customize your website with widgets (tiny programs that do specific things such as prevent spam, add social media buttons to every page, etc.) All of these features fall into what I mentioned earlier about the ease of use associated with WordPress which has made it so popular. Now, let’s get to the good stuff. The way your WordPress website can improve your business!

WordPress For SEO

Having a WordPress website, along with knowing a few simple tricks will get you extremely far when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Keep in mind that you want to make sure your web development team starts you off with a solid SEO foundation. This includes: having well written, keyword optimized content on all main pages, correct meta data, no HTML errors, proper heading structure, etc. All of these terms may fly over your head but you want to make sure you get at least a basic understanding of them because they will allow your website to perform well in search engines.

Performing well in search engines means that your website will get viewed by potential customers searching for your services online! Once you have that all set in place, make sure to download a WordPress SEO plugin. We happen to use the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin which allows us to analyze certain aspects of our content as we write. Keep in mind however that even if your website is optimized for search engines, it is actually people who will determine how good your website actually is!

Having a WordPress website will help you in many other ways. For instance, many themes allow for snippets of recent blog posts to be shown on the home page. Google’s robots constantly crawl webpages and having content that constantly updates on your home page is a major plus. The key is to be consistent in your blog postings! Speaking of blog posts, constantly writing new material pertaining to your industry is a great way to be seen as an industry leader (more on that in the next paragraph). But, by constantly writing and optimizing content your website becomes an SEO giant!

WordPress For Content Marketing

We can’t seem to stress enough that the old way of interrupting your customers with your message just doesn’t work anymore. The consumer of today picks and chooses what information he wishes to consume and interact with. Most of them are simply browsers of online content and when they need something they’ll take to the internet to find what they need.

One thing that will set you apart from your competition is to display your expertise. The best way of doing this which most people don’t take advantage of is blogging on topics pertaining to your industry. When a potential customer visits your website, they may just be doing some research. You hope that they are already well informed however, this isn’t usually the case. It is then your job to educate them on the subject.

Put yourself in your customers shoes and think of problems they go through that your business can solve. Then write about it. The key is to write in a manner that is sincere and not just a thinly veiled advertisement. Once they realize the value of your work and know that you are fully capable of taking care of their needs then you become a prime candidate for their business.

By optimizing your website for SEO you will ensure qualified leads are visiting your website. Then by making sure there is plenty of quality content on your website for them to learn more you will ensure that they will consider your business in the future (or present). This makes your website a 24/7 customer representative selling jobs around the clock. You may even be able to tell your slick-haired salesman to beat it once you realize how powerful a sales tool your website has become!