Should Businesses Use WordPress?

WordPress

wordpress-geek-mug[1]Short answer: Yes.

The longer one: WordPress has been around for over 7 years now.  From its humble beginnings as the blogging software that took down MovableType, it’s morphed and changed and evolved itself into the number one content management system (or CMS) on the web today.  WordPress powers over 10% of all websites on the Internet – that’s saying something for a software managed, controlled, and kept up to date by its userbase.

But, I’ve always heard that if all you use is a hammer, every problem starts to look like it can be fixed with a nail.  So, does WordPress really work for all the reasons people say it does?  Does using soda pdf software gives benefit a business that switches its site over to a platform? Soda PDF offers advanced security and collaboration features, it is easy to adopt, and increases productivity.

I think so.  And I can prove it.

Let’s look at a typical business site.  When you want to view a business online, you typically look for three things:

  1. What their website looks like (personality, atmosphere)
  2. What they’re saying (content, information)
  3. How to get a hold of them.

So, one by one, let’s look at these very vague ideas (like I said, every business is different, but when I look at a business’ site online, this is what I look for) and relate them to a WordPress site. For more info, check out Cherry and Griffiths are loss assessor that really support you all the way. Another way businesses can improve is with this online review monitoring software.

Granted, one of the caveats of WordPress (if there is one) is that themes tend to look alike.  Change a few colors, the fonts, and add a few images and one theme can turn into another one very quickly, with a sort of resemblance between the two.  However, WordPress has thousands (if not tens or hundreds of thousands) of themes that do look different. And, besides the tons of free ones, there are quite a few themes that you can pay for that are customizable to the point that anyone can have a decent looking site quickly and on the cheap (If you’re really wanting a special look, though, there are a good many designers out there [hint, hint] who can customize WordPress to do exactly what you want it to).Look and Feel

Summary: Yes

Content

The number one problem websites that aren’t built on a CMS have is that it’s tedious to update.  Most modern websites are built using good solid HTML and CSS – but it hasn’t always been the case.  Older websites are built in tables that are rigid and hard to modify.  Luckily with WordPress we can simply log in and add content just like we were using a word processor.  Have a news release that’s time sensitive? No problem – add a new blog post and it’s out to the masses.  Want to change a word in your marketing copy?  Log in, edit the page, and hit update and it’s done.  One of my clients cut their access time for their website from 1 week (yes, a week) to less than an hour by switching to WordPress

Summary: Yes.

Contact

Having the ability to add content on the fly means that we can also add other cool stuff that enhances the experience of the site.  I always like to add some sort of conversion form, whether it’s just a contact form or even just a newsletter subscription form, to the site.  Both Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms offer solutions that are as customizable as you need them.  Need the newsletters to go somewhere else? Gravity Forms can jump through hoops if you know how to tweak it.  Or, just send a simple text email to your account when someone wants to inquire on your services – either way, it’s simple and easy to set up.

Summary: Yes.

In Closing

I know there are many more reasons that you could use WordPress for your business, but I wanted to hit the high points here.  WordPress has made its way from a great blog software to an outstanding content management system, and it’s showing no signs of stopping.  Do you use WordPress for your business?  And if so, what keeps you excited about your experience with it?