Should I Use WordPress to Build a Website for My Small Business?

Your digital presence is equally as important (if not more) than your physical storefront as a small business. These days, the vast majority of customers will interact initially with your brand through your website – so you need to make a good impression.

When it comes to building a website from scratch, the majority of businesses turn to WordPress. In fact, currently, nearly 40% of all websites on the internet are powered through this platform! But some business owners have wondered: why use WordPress over another platform – are there any clear benefits?

Now, as a small business owner, you might not be a total tech wizard.

WordPress positions itself in the market as a platform that anyone can build a website with. While this is true to an extent, creating a professional-looking WordPress site that is both operational and well-designed requires an expert touch. The good news is there are many WordPress capabilities that the masses can use.

Let’s start by explaining a bit more about the internet’s most popular site builder – and the leading reasons why using WordPress is beneficial for SMBs.

A Brief History of WordPress

WordPress has been soaring in popularity primarily as a small business CMS (Content Management System) over the last 20 years. It originally launched back in 2003 when blogging was first starting to take off. Though it was originally designed with blog sites in mind, it has become the top web-content management software for non-blogging websites.

WordPress debuted an e-commerce platform called WooCommerce in 2008, which allows businesses to sell products directly through their WordPress site. Around 28% of all e-commerce websites are now powered through this platform!

But of course, there are tons of e-commerce and website platforms out there that allow you to design your own virtual storefront. So, why use WordPress? At Foxxr, we’ve had many small business owners ask these questions:

• “Why is WordPress so popular?”
• “Why do so many small businesses choose WordPress over their other options?”
• “How do I set up my virtual storefront using WordPress?”
• “Is WordPress beneficial for SEO?”
• “Just how easy is it to use WordPress if I have no experience with web design?”
• “Do I need to hire web design services to help build and manage my WordPress site?”

At Foxxr, helping SMBs with web design and site optimization is our bread and butter. We know all the ins and outs of WordPress, and we’ve created hundreds of customized websites for companies across all industries.

In this post, we want to get into some of the major WordPress Web design features driving its status as the leading CMS platform in today’s market. Here are 12 of the key reasons we recommend WordPress as a hosting service for small business owners.

1. WordPress is Perfect for Website Redesigns

Unless you’re a brand-new business, chances are you’ve already got a website – even if it is a basic setup. However, you don’t necessarily want to start from scratch, as you could lose any SEO presence you’ve already established. Plus, you’ll probably want to keep your current domain.

WordPress is ideal for website redesigns – as the platform is super compatible with many other site builders. In addition, the flexibility of WordPress makes it simple, convenient, and affordable to redesign an existing website.

Further, the platform is consistently updated and changed with various themes and plugins. So if you decide to go ahead with a rebrand or want to try out new designs, you can easily change things up. Even changes as simple as altering the website text and content or uploading new images can be done in just a few steps.

This is crucial as business websites need to grow and change with the businesses themselves. Having a platform that makes this process easy is a key competitive advantage of WordPress that SMBs can take advantage of.

2. WordPress Web Design Allows for Full Customization

Lots of small businesses opt for pre-made website templates when they first launch. These are great to get a website up and running quickly. However, keep in mind these layouts are being used by hundreds – maybe even thousands – of other websites. If you want to stand out in the crowd, you’ll need some expert theme customization.

When you design your site using WordPress, you are in full control of future updates and changes. You can also brand your web pages to your exact specifications. In addition, WordPress has over 11,000 themes to choose from, along with templates and plugins. This allows you to select the exact features you want to incorporate.

This is essential for SMBs that need to establish their brand and stand out from their competitors. Little details like custom plugins, color schemes, ad designs are what make your brand memorable. By working with a WordPress design and development expert, you’ll have full control over your website’s layout, and the possibilities are virtually endless.

3. Easily Add a Blog and Keep it Active Using the WordPress CMS

Content marketing is a key component of SEO – and building a business presence online. For example, maintaining an active blog on your website is a great way to show potential customers and search engines that you are an expert in your field.

The better you are at doing this, the more likely you are to earn top spots on the Google search engine results pages (SERPS), and in turn, get more web traffic. In fact, businesses that run an active blog generate 67% more leads every month!

Since WordPress was originally designed as a CMS, it is the ideal platform to launch and manage a company blog. Blogging capabilities are built right into the basic WordPress platform, making it fast and simple to run.

You can set up an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication), which syncs new content automatically, so your blog feed is listed in chronological order. This makes it super easy for visitors to scroll through your resource library and find posts that catch their eye.

WordPress can also auto-post recent content to your home page, enable email subscriptions to your blog, and allow readers to leave comments. WordPress makes blogging fast, simple, and high-tech – and it has all of the necessary management features built right in.

You can also use WordPress plugins to make your blog posts stand out. For instance, you can easily add moving GIFs to your posts to make them more visually exciting. You can also insert links for instant social media shares or create search engines within your site to help readers find specific content.

If blogging will be a big part of your online business strategy, WordPress is your best friend.

4. WordPress is Virtually Synonymous with “Scalability”

As your business grows, your website will need to keep up. For example, you may need more powerful servers to support higher traffic numbers or automatically sync with inventory numbers. Plus, you’ll want to integrate new features into your site to capture customer information or handle higher amounts of inquiries more efficiently.

With WordPress, there is no need to immediately purchase all the elements you eventually want on your small business website. Instead, you can begin as basic or advanced as you wish and then add new plugins and functionalities as needed. Plus, lots of WordPress plugins offer free “lite” versions to try out, with varying levels of service depending on your business’s needs.

It’s easy for online stores to quickly add in more product pages through WooCommerce if you expand your goods or services. In addition, some of the most powerful websites use WordPress, so you won’t need to switch to another hosting service once your business grows.

5. The WordPress Interface is Easy to Learn

It’s safe to say that most business owners are not all website design/development experts. Thankfully, WordPress is designed to be user-friendly. Therefore, there is no need to be a professional web developer to make simple updates to a WordPress website.

Simple tasks like adding new pages, posts, and images are very easy once you get the hang of it. The interface is highly intuitive, so you can learn how to navigate the back-end pretty quickly for smaller tasks. Additionally, because WordPress is a browser-based system, you can manage your website from any computer connected to the Internet.

Now, that being said, it is important to note that having professional web design & development experts on deck is crucial to maintaining a professional website. While you may build your site through WordPress’s portal, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be a good one. It would be best if you were sure everything works flawlessly and the user experience is established in a way that contributes to your bottom line. For a high-level business website, having a WordPress expert on your site is critical.

6. WordPress is Exceptionally “Search-Engine Friendly”

SEO involves keyword research and lots of search metric analysis – and it is a key building block to a good website. Unfortunately, technical SEO can be complicated, especially if you are unfamiliar with the terms and tools used. Fortunately, WordPress has a number of valuable SEO plugins and integrations.

There are quite a few reasons why WordPress is so great for SEO:

• First, HTML code – The platform is designed with a very simple HTML code system. Simpler code is easier for search engines to read and index, which could help you rank higher on searches.
• Permalinks – You can incorporate keywords directly into the WordPress links, which helps search engines better “understand” the content. This also creates shorter, easy-to-read URLs.
• Metadata management – WordPress shows you exactly where to add key SEO features like meta tags, keyword phrases, descriptions, titles, and more to every webpage.
• Optimized images – You can embed ALT tags and descriptions into the images on your website. This can help you to rank on Google image searches.
• Fast loading speeds – Google loves fast-loading websites. WordPress offers numerous plugins specifically designed to boost loading speeds. Some of these will compress files and images, while others are designed for caches, making a huge difference.
• Mobile optimization – You don’t need to worry about creating multiple site versions for mobile users. WordPress automatically optimizes accessibility, so it’s totally phone-friendly.
• Social media integration – Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts can be integrated into your website so users can share content.

SEO is a cornerstone of online business strategies – and WordPress does a lot to make it simple.

7. Your Website Will be Automatically Kept Secure

Poor website security can destroy small businesses in an instant.

Since your website will be managing sensitive information like customer names, addresses, and financial information, you need to ensure that it is totally secure. Customers will quickly abandon their digital shopping cart if they sense that your website isn’t safe.

Thankfully, WordPress does a lot to keep its websites secure. While no platform can guarantee bulletproof security, WordPress constantly updates its features, which equips you and your site visitors with the latest safeguards against online spies and site hackers. In addition, there are a plethora of security plugins for added protection and alerts of any suspicious activities.

8. WordPress Assists You with In-House Security as Well

You might be surprised to learn that the leading cause of security breaches is due to human error. WordPress helps to reduce this risk through multi-step security features for admin and users. These allow you to designate multiple users/administrators for your website. But to keep things organized and secure, WordPress also lets you designate “access levels” and “procedure restrictions” that keep you in control of who sees your information and what they do with it.

It’s also super easy to add or remove users and change their access restrictions as needed. So, if you add more people to your team or promote from within, administrators can quickly make changes to their WordPress log-ins.

9. No HTML-editing/FTP Software is Needed with WordPress

WordPress is designed to be a fully functioning system in its own right. So, unlike some CMS platforms, you do not need to integrate external software to enable functions. For instance, many template website services require you to download (and pay for) additional software for functions like text formatting, image/document uploads, image editing, creation of picture galleries, or integration of video content.

All of these features come built-in with WordPress, and you can customize them through the massive library of plugins. These plugins add a group of functions for a WordPress site – and many of them are free. Some are paid or offer monthly or annual subscriptions.

There are thousands of WordPress plugins available, which provide features like:

• Contact Form Builders
• SEO Management
• 301 Redirects
• Affiliate Link Management
• Broken Link Checker
• Email Service Integration (i.e., Mailchimp, Constant Contact)
• SSL Certification
• Two-factor Authentication
• Cookie Tracking
• Website User Insights
• Landing Page Builders
• Automation Features
• Live Chat Support

Once you download a plugin, you can access it through the Plugins Manager tab on the admin page. From here, you can select active and inactive plugins and see which ones have updated versions available.

10. Web Developers Love WordPress

WordPress is super user-friendly but still incredibly powerful. It is the preferred platform for many web developers.

In other words, it’s very easy to find a professional WordPress web developer to handle a major website revamp or to solve a problem you can’t on your own. In addition, many professionals and agencies solely work on WordPress sites.

However, it is important that you only work with web developers who really understand all of WordPress’s features. The market for WordPress developers is massive. This means there are plenty of good developers, bad developers, and mediocre developers.

While most developers can fix a bug in your system, you want to ensure that your website accurately represents your brand and delivers a strong user experience. So when you need some help with your site, gauge the developer by their past work.

Here are a few questions to ask:

• First, have you developed WordPress sites in my industry?
• Second, can you show me some examples?
• Second, what are some of the biggest challenges to creating a website in my niche?
• Do you have any experience with ___ particular problem?
• Finally, what are your average timelines for completing websites of this size?

Having a well-designed and developed website is crucial for any company’s success these days. However, you can’t trust just anyone with the online face of your brand.

Moreover, managing WordPress tasks on your own is much easier than most other platforms. This is largely because the platform’s community is so big. There are massive networks of Q&A boards, tutorials, walkthroughs, and more for questions and guidance.

11. WordPress is Fast

WordPress’s internal setup makes it possible to be coded faster without compromising on quality. With fully hand-coded websites, this process can take months to complete – and the chances are that there will be numerous mistakes.

By using WordPress, you’ve got access to a preferred service that has been around for decades. In addition, WordPress is constantly improving the platform to eliminate bottlenecks and inefficiencies. This means there is less downtime as designers and developers work on your site.

For instance, we aim to have smaller websites up and running in about 30 days – sometimes, even less. So, first, we follow a system to ensure that your team and ours are on the same page regarding your website’s functionality and design. Then, make sure your site meets all of Google’s guidelines and is completely operational before the launch date. Using WordPress makes this process very quick and easy.

12. WordPress is Affordable

Now let’s talk about arguably one of the most important reasons small businesses love WordPress: the price. WordPress is as affordable as it is advantageous.

WordPress is one of the most affordable website services because you can add-on functions as needed. As a result, you don’t need to pay for extra features you won’t use right away. Plus, most of the basic, essential WordPress plugins are free, and many more advanced plugins are relatively inexpensive.

Now, we don’t want to encourage the idea that WordPress is “cheap”.

While there are many tasks you can manage on your own for free, bigger projects call for experts. Skilled designers and developers cost a premium – there is no way around it. However, having experts work on another platform that is not as user-friendly as WordPress may end up costing more.

The Wrap

After learning about these benefits, it’s no wonder why many small businesses have chosen to use WordPress for their websites. This powerful platform is easy to use, affordable, and incredibly powerful – what more could you ask for!

If you want an expert’s opinion to help you get started or need web services, please reach out to our team. Foxxr specializes in WordPress web design and development services. No matter what your needs are, we are equipped to custom-build or fully revamp your business’ website.

We offer multiple website design packages that will fit in with your business’s needs. This means that you can choose the level of support and services you get from our team, depending on your requirements and your budget.

To learn more about WordPress design or connect your business with an experienced WordPress web developer, contact us at Foxxr today!

First published on: Aug 25, 2016

Updated on: Sep 6, 2021