Do you run a small business? Are you looking to start one? If your answer to either of these questions is yes, there’s a very good chance that you’re considering using WordPress as your small-business website. After all, WordPress is one of the most popular and accessible content management systems on the web. It’s also one of the best when it comes to allowing businesses of all kinds to create professional websites quickly and easily. Take a look at how you can make WordPress work for your small business as a result.
Organize Your Content Before You Create a Website
Before you even think about starting a WordPress website from scratch, spend some time building an internal content management system (CMS) for your business. This will allow you to easily create content for your website, wherever you are in the organization process. While WordPress is an excellent tool for creating websites, it’s not a replacement for a CMS.
What is meant by “content management”? Your site’s content is the pages, articles, blog posts, and images. It’s what you want to publish to the web for site visitors to read. When they visit, your goal is to convert them from just visitors to customers. Lay out an outline of your content categories for your products or services and possible titles/topics for content.
As opposed to a CMS, WordPress is a website creation system that allows you to quickly and easily create a website. In other words, WordPress works best when used as an extension of your existing CMS. By creating your own internal content management system, you can make it easy to create and publish blog posts, videos, and images. You’ll want to include these types of content on your new WordPress website. You can also re-use your content across multiple internal channels and platforms, rather than having to re-write everything for each new platform.
Build a Website Using WordPress’s Built-in Features
WordPress has lots of built-in features that can help you create a professional-looking website. Some of these features are built into the core of WordPress, while others are available only with WordPress’s premium plans. You will have different feature levels depending on whether you use the free hobby WordPress.com solution or the professional business self-hosted WordPress.org platform.
It is really inexpensive to self-host the free WordPress software, often under £16 per month. When you do, you have the ability to leverage the open-source WordPress software with plugins. Tens of thousands of independent developers build these plugins to add features to your website. Just about anything you can dream up for a site feature usually can be accomplished with a free or very low-cost plugin.
Integrate Solent Statistics and Track Your Online Sales
You can use WordPress’s built-in analytics to track how many visitors your website receives, how long they’re on it, and how much they end up spending. These types of stats can be really helpful for businesses of all kinds, especially those with online sales. WordPress’s built-in analytics also let you integrate Solent Statistics; built upon Matomo. This is a powerful tool that you can use to analyse your website’s traffic, track where your visitors are coming from, and see what types of content draw the most traffic. You can also use Solent Statistics to see how many people have purchased a product on your website, which can be useful for companies that make online sales.
Use a WordPress Theme to Enhance Branding and User Experience
One great way to make your WordPress website stand out as a professional-looking and engaging business website is to select a pleasing and powerful WordPress theme. WordPress themes are the building blocks of a website and help you create a visually engaging and professional website. Thousands of free and paid WordPress themes are available on the internet, so choosing the right one for your new business website can be difficult.
WordPress themes are unlike other types of websites in that they don’t have to be created using WordPress. You can use a third-party tool to create your website, then bring it into WordPress as a theme once it’s finished. You can also use a WordPress theme to enhance branding by creating a consistent look and feel across your website, blog posts, and social media channels. Your theme can also help you create an easy-to-use and intuitive website experience, which is especially helpful for business websites.
Establish a Blog for Promoting and Marketing
Even if you haven’t thought about creating a blog on your WordPress website, you should consider establishing one regardless. A blog is a great way to promote your business and build your brand. Using a WordPress plugin, you can create a blog on your website that’s separate from your other content. You can use your blog to promote and market your business as you publish new blog posts. You can use your blog to:
• Write guest posts for other websites (if they accept guest posts).
• Publish case studies and testimonials from your customers if they accept these types of posts.
• Publish articles that promote your products or services if they are of interest to your target audience.
• Publish photos and videos that highlight your brand and products if they are allowed on your website.
Conclusion
WordPress is an excellent content management system for creating websites. It’s easy to set up and has a large community of users and experts who can help you learn how to use it. Millions of websites, including some of the largest and most highly trafficked, are built on the WordPress platform. Give it a look.