Why WordPress is the Ideal Platform for Small Business Websites

Why to Choose WordPress when building a website for your Small Business

Building a website for your small business is an exciting endeavor. It’s your chance to showcase your products or services to the world and attract potential customers. But with so many options available, how do you choose the right platform? Well, there is a reason almost every professional you ask will say they choose WordPress. In this blog post, we’ll explore why WordPress should be at the top of your list when it comes to building a website for your small business. From its ease of use and versatility to its SEO-friendly features, WordPress has everything you need to create a stunning online presence that drives results. So let’s dive in and discover why WordPress is undoubtedly the best choice for small businesses like yours!

WordPress is the most popular website builder

When it comes to website builders, WordPress reigns supreme as the most popular choice among businesses of all sizes. Over 60% of websites using a CMS and over 40% of all websites on the internet are powered by WordPress. By the end of this blog post, you’ll see why it is such an easy choice made by professionals and, hopefully, decide to move forward with WordPress for your business website.

Speaking of market share, the 3 CMS options with the largest market share are Shopify, Wix, and SquareSpace. Surely, each does have their pros and cons, but consider that combined all 3 of these platforms still haven’t been able to receive more than 15% market share as of 2023 while WordPress remains over 60% on its own.

There are many reasons why WordPress has remained popular for over 20 years now. Throughout this post, we hope to touch on all of them but, ultimately, we recommend having a professional give you their opinion. Taction offers a free consultation we encourage you to use if you feel overwhelmed by all of the options out there and want to hear a professional set you on the right path forward.

WordPress is free and open-source

When it comes to building a website for your small business, one of the key factors to consider is cost. Fortunately, WordPress offers an attractive solution in this regard. One of the main reasons why many small businesses choose WordPress as their CMS builder is because it is free and open source.

Being free means that you don’t have to spend any money upfront to use WordPress as your website-building platform. This can be a huge advantage for small businesses with limited budgets. Additionally, being open source means that anyone can access and modify the source code of WordPress, allowing for endless customization possibilities.

Not only does using a free and open-source platform like WordPress save you money, but it also gives you freedom and flexibility in terms of design and functionality. With thousands of themes and plugins available, you can easily customize your website to suit your specific needs without having to hire expensive developers or designers. That said, unless you are an expert in web design, web development, or search engine optimization, it is usually a good idea to outsource the work if you can afford to do so. Even with easy-to-use features, experience and an eye for design go a long way when it comes to having a professional and consistent web presence.

Furthermore, since WordPress has such a large user base and community support system, there are countless resources available online to help you navigate through any challenges or questions that may arise during the website development process. Unsure of where to look? Most of the time simply typing into Google your problem with the word “WordPress” will yield questions and answers from people who had the same challenge you’re having along with the answer to the problem!

Choosing a free and open-source CMS builder like WordPress can greatly benefit your small business by providing cost savings, customization options, and access to a supportive community.

There are still costs associated with having a website!

While WordPress is free and open source, that doesn’t mean your entire online venture is going to be completely free. For a professional site you’ll still need to purchase a domain, keep it registered, and pay for hosting. Here are some budgetary factors to consider:

1. Hosting: In order to make your website accessible online, you’ll need to invest in web hosting services. Depending on your needs and budget, there are various options available, ranging from shared hosting to dedicated servers. Hostinger, BlueHost, and HostGator are popular options, amongst others.

2. Domain Name: A domain name is essentially the address of your website (e.g., www.yourbusiness.com). Registering a domain name typically requires an annual fee, which can vary depending on the popularity and availability of your desired domain. For instance, ending your site with “.com” will be more costly than a “.online” or a “.biz” domain. Have a domain in mind? Use a domain name search tool to see if it’s available and what the cost would be to purchase it (many Hosting providers offer a domain name search tool such as this one).

3. Themes and Plugins: While WordPress itself is free, if you want to enhance the functionality or aesthetics of your site, you may choose to purchase premium themes or plugins. These add-ons can help customize your website according to your specific requirements. Most options have a free tier with more features available on paid plans.

4. Maintenance and Security: Regular updates and security measures are crucial for keeping your WordPress site safe from hackers and malware attacks. For this reason, investing in regular maintenance services or security plugins can be valuable for the long-term health of your business’s online presence.

5. Professional Help: If you don’t have experience with web design or coding, hiring a professional designer or developer may be necessary at certain stages of building or updating your website. Their expertise can ensure that everything runs smoothly while saving you time and potential frustration. Every successful business should get to this point eventually, as your time isn’t being well spent if you spend it working on tasks you aren’t a master of.

WordPress is easy to use

One of the biggest advantages of choosing WordPress as your website builder is its ease of use. Whether you’re a web development expert, tech-savvy hobbyist, or a complete beginner to web design, WordPress makes it simple for anyone to create and manage their own website.

Setting up a WordPress site is quick and straightforward. With just a few clicks, you can install the platform on your hosting server and start building your website right away. The intuitive interface allows you to easily navigate through different sections and customize your site according to your preferences.

Managing content on WordPress is incredibly user-friendly. You don’t need any coding knowledge to update pages, add new blog posts, or upload images. The built-in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor lets you edit text just like in a word processor, making it easy to format content without any technical expertise.

Furthermore, there are countless themes and plugins available that enhance the functionality and design of your website. These predesigned templates allow you to choose from various layouts and styles that suit your small business needs perfectly. Additionally, plugins provide additional features such as contact forms, social media integration, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, cybersecurity features, etc. – all with just a few clicks.

Drag & drop builders within WordPress

One of the main reasons people choose to use Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly are due to the drag & drop features built into their platforms. The great thing about WordPress is that there are numerous drag & drop plugins to decide from instead of being isolated to using just one.

These intuitive tools make it incredibly easy for anyone, regardless of technical expertise, to create a visually stunning and functional website. With drag & drop builders, you can simply select elements from a library and place them onto your site. You can easily add text boxes, images, videos, contact forms, social media icons, and much more without having to write a single line of code.

These builders also allow you to customize the design and layout of your website with just a few clicks. You can change colors, fonts, backgrounds, and arrange elements in any way you want. This gives you complete control over the look and feel of your website.

Popular WordPress drag & drop builder plugins you can try for free!

If you need to visualize or experience these drag & drop functions for yourself, here are a few free options to consider:

1. Elementor
2. Brizy
3. Beaver Builder
4. SiteOrigin

Each option above has premium options that will offer substantially more to offer, including preset themes, features, faster support, and the ability to use features across multiple websites.

While WordPress is easy to use, hiring a professional can go a long way!

While WordPress is easy to use even for beginners, hiring a professional web designer or developer can take your website to the next level. They have the expertise and knowledge to create a customized design that aligns with your brand image and delivers an exceptional user experience. Additionally, SEO professionals can optimize your site for search engines, ensuring that you rank higher in search results and attract more organic traffic.

Remember, investing in professional assistance may seem like an additional cost upfront but will ultimately save you time and effort in the long run. Your website is often the first point of contact between potential customers and your business – make sure it leaves a lasting impression.

Unclear why you would hire a professional when you are choosing an easy-to-use platform? Consider any other profession such as a baker or mechanic. Sure maybe you can bake a great cake from a box, maybe even from scratch, but would your customer be more inclined to eat it if you made it or if a professional baker made it? If you fixed your own car, would you be as confident driving it on the highway as if you took it to a mechanic? Do the best you can with the resources you have. If and when you have the resources to hire a professional, you’ll notice the results and be better off for it.

WordPress has a large community of support

WordPress has a large and vibrant community of support that sets it apart from other website builders. With millions of users worldwide, you can easily find forums, online communities, and social media groups dedicated to WordPress. This means that if you ever encounter a problem or have a question about your website, help is just a few clicks away.

Unsure where to look? Simply type into Google the problem you are having with the word “WordPress” at the end of your search and you’ll find questions and answers from people that faced the exact same challenge as you (only you’ll benefit from having their solution without having to wait for it).

The WordPress community is made up of developers, designers, bloggers, business owners, and enthusiasts who are passionate about the platform. They are always willing to lend their expertise and share their experiences with others. Whether you need advice on choosing the right theme for your small business website or troubleshooting a plugin issue, there’s someone out there who has likely encountered the same challenge before.

Furthermore, many developers contribute to creating free themes and plugins for WordPress because they believe in giving back to the community. This means you don’t necessarily need technical skills or a big budget to create an attractive and functional website for your small business.

In summary, the strong support system provided by the WordPress community makes it an ideal choice for small businesses looking to build their online presence without breaking the bank or becoming overwhelmed by technical challenges

WordPress is versatile

WordPress is known for its versatility. This is the nature of an open-source platform. Anyone can develop a theme or plugin for WordPress that can be offered to the masses with the click of a button. With WordPress, you have the freedom to create any type of website you can imagine. Whether you need a simple blog, an e-commerce store, or a portfolio site, WordPress has got you covered.

WordPress Versatility: Themes

Within WordPress, and within various webpage builder plugins (like the drag & drop options mentioned above), there are countless free and premium themes that allow you to have a professional starting off point to design your site. For newbies: a theme is essentially a professionally-designed template or skin for a website.

WordPress themes allow you to change the look and feel of your website without having to code. This means that you can easily select a template for your website that matches your brand or business, without having to hire a web developer. There are literally thousands of themes available for WordPress, so you’re sure to find one that suits your needs.

WordPress Versatility: Plugins

Plugins are like apps for your website, allowing you to add extra functionality and features with just a few clicks. Whether you need an e-commerce platform, social media integration, or SEO tool, there’s likely a plugin available that can meet your specific needs.

With over 60,000 plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory, the possibilities are virtually endless. You can easily find plugins to enhance your website’s performance, improve security measures, optimize site speed, and much more.

The best part about using plugins is that they’re designed specifically for use with WordPress sites. This means they integrate smoothly without requiring advanced technical skills or coding knowledge. This is the true advantage WordPress has over all competitors due to it being an open-source platform. Any developer can create a plugin to be used for WordPress sites therefore everyone on the platform can benefit.

WordPress Versatility: Content Management

Another aspect of WordPress’s versatility lies in its ability to handle different types of content. It supports various media formats such as images, videos, audio files, and documents. This means you can showcase your products or services in the most engaging way possible.

For any type of content, employ a professional whenever possible to ensure the best possible website worthy of your business. While you can certainly get an entire website up and running on your own within minutes, it won’t compete with a competitor who hired a well-seasoned writer, experienced photographer, voiceover professional, and graphic artist to create their content. If hiring a professional isn’t possible today (you are, after all, creating a website on your own without a web designer) consider which areas of your site can be improved when you have a larger budget to work with.

WordPress is the best option for small businesses

When just getting started, keeping costs to a minimum is crucial. With WordPress you can use a template to have a perfectly operational website without having to pay monthly or yearly that you would otherwise have to pay when choosing a fully-built, all-in-one platform like Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly.

While guidance is helpful, you CAN do it on your own. That said, as you become more successful with your business venture you should look to outsource the design, content creation, maintenance, management, and security of your site to a professional. Once that happens, that professional will be happy to be working with WordPress instead of having to manage within the restricted environment of one of the competing website builder platforms.

Moreover, as your business grows and evolves over time, WordPress is built for scalability. You can easily add new features and expand your site without having to start from scratch.

WordPress is scalable for growing businesses

WordPress is not only the best option for small businesses, but it is also scalable for growing businesses. As your business expands and evolves, WordPress has the flexibility to grow with you.

The cost of WordPress will continue to be zero, as will the free plugins you have added to the site. With other website builders, this is not the case as virtually all of them have costs associated with the features you would need to take the website to new heights.

Some costs, however, you might be worth considering as your business grows; such as improved hosting packages, premium plugins, or hiring a professional web developer to take the design and functionality of your site to the next level. Examples of costs that are usually worth considering as business grows are eCommerce plugins that allow for no-fee transactions, email marketing plugins that can send out automated emails when customers leave the site before finishing the checkout process, or hosting packages that provide more frequent backups of the site.

WordPress is SEO-friendly

WordPress is not just a great website builder, it is also incredibly SEO-friendly. When it comes to optimizing your website for search engines, WordPress is the absolute best home for your business website.

One of the key reasons why WordPress is so SEO friendly is its clean and simple code structure. Search engines love websites that have well-organized code because it makes it easier for them to crawl and index the site.

Another reason why WordPress is favored by search engines is its ability to generate SEO-friendly URLs. With WordPress, you can easily customize your URL structure to include keywords relevant to your business or industry.

In addition, WordPress offers a wide range of plugins specifically designed to enhance your website’s SEO capabilities. Popular plugins like All in One SEO and SEO Press allow you to optimize meta tags, create XML sitemaps, and improve overall on-page optimization.

Furthermore, with WordPress’s responsive design options and mobile-friendly themes, your website will be better positioned in search engine rankings as mobile-friendliness has become an important ranking factor.

As you can already tell from this post, we love it when we find out that new clients built their sites on WordPress. A sigh of relief occurs when we realize we’ll have all the tools necessary to improve their visibility on Google and other search engines due to a smart decision they made before they started working with us.

Alternatives to WordPress

When it comes to building a website for your small business, WordPress may be the most popular choice and the one we most often suggest. However, it’s always good to explore alternative options and see if they might be a better fit for your specific needs. Below are three options as well as reasons we might suggest a small business use them over WordPress:

• Google Sites
  • Did you know you could build your site directly on Google? It’s true! For some businesses getting started, a simple Google site is all that you really need to show people you’re a legitimate business. Google Sites also has a few templates (themes) to make is so that you can have a completed site up and running faster than you could read this blog post!
• Shopify
  • While eCommerce sites are generally faster, lower cost, and more customizable on WordPress, Shopify has done an amazing job at building an all-in-one platform for business owners who want to pay for it. Shopify has everything you could possibly need to sell products online. Much like WordPress plugins, Shopify Apps bring customization to Shopify websites that allow for some excellent versatility.
• Weebly, Wix, and Squarespace
  • For anyone going the DIY route with no plans on hiring a web developer down the line, any of these options are worth considering. Weebly for its simplicity and affordability, Wix for its ease of use and quantity of features, and Squarespace for its industry-leading design and quality of built-in tools.

While these alternatives have their own unique advantages, WordPress remains the go-to option for virtually any small business due to its versatility and large community support system. The best choice will depend on your specific requirements and preferences

TLDR: New Website? Go with WordPress

Having a professional and functional website is essential for small businesses. And when it comes to building a website, WordPress emerges as the clear winner. With its popularity, flexibility, ease of use, and strong community support, WordPress proves itself to be the best choice for any small business owner.

For small businesses looking towards growth and expansion in the future, scalability is crucial. Thankfully, with its powerful framework and ability to handle high traffic volumes seamlessly while maintaining performance levels intact; WordPress proves once again why it stands out as the top choice for entrepreneurs aiming big in their respective industries.

WordPress is an ideal choice for small business owners looking to create a website. It’s easy to use, cost-effective, and offers plenty of customization options so that you can create the perfect website for your business. Plus, with its wide range of plugins and themes available, there is no limit to what you can do on the platform. Whether you need an eCommerce shop or just a simple blog site, you’ll be happy with your decision to start on WordPress for years to come.

Whether you are looking to go the DIY route or have a professional create your site for you, book a free consultation call with us at Taction so we can get you started with confidence.