Why Do You Need a Website? 20 May 2022 9:11 AM (3 years ago)
If there’s one essential component of a digital marketing strategy, it’s a website. However, many businesses haven’t caught on yet. Believe it or not, 28% of businesses still don’t have a website.
Well, if you’re one of them, we’re here to tell you that it’s time to make a change. So, why do you need a website, and why are so many websites made with WordPress? We’re glad you asked!
Why Do You Need a Website?
Let’s be blunt. If you don’t have a website, you’re not competing for leads. There is NO other marketing asset as important as your website. It acts as the center of your entire digital marketing strategy. It would be like inviting people over for dinner but you didn’t even make the prime rib!
Your website is where your ads, social media, and newsletters will all attempt to direct traffic. BEEP BEEP!
Not only that, but if you want to build an organic social media following or email list for your newsletter, you can create a mutually-beneficial relationship with your website. Think Barbie and Ken!
You can leave prompts across your website for your newsletter and social media links on your website content.
Also, where will your ads go without a strong website? If you aren’t directing traffic to an optimized website, then you’re wasting your money on ad campaigns, AND doll outfits. It’s easier to do than you think!
For example, if you spend $1 per click and have a 1% conversion rate, you’ll need $100 from each customer to break even. Consequently, improving your conversion rates could save you a lot of money on ongoing ad expenses. YES! Lets get that bread! Or Barbie Convertible? MOVING ALONG.
Building Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is the traffic you don’t have to pay for or prompt; they find you. The one organic thing you don’t have to go to Whole Foods for! Woo! This traffic typically builds more positive brand associations, more leads, and higher conversion rates than paid traffic.
The primary driver of organic traffic is search engines, and with an optimized website, you can build as much traffic as you’d like. This is a process known as search engine optimization or SEO. The quality of your website is the foundation of the entire strategy, as Google uses over 200 ranking factors regarding your website, such as:
- Mobile-friendliness
- Page loading times
- Server and security issues
- XML sitemap
- Navigation system
- Linking structure
- Page layout
The list goes on, but you can see that a DIY site doesn’t cut it anymore. Once you have a strong website, all you need is a killer content marketing strategy and minimal site maintenance.
With a typical site, nobody will find you without searching for its name. However, by using a blog, you grant yourself endless opportunities to rank on search engines for relevant information that people are searching for. From there, it’s a lot easier to convert them into leads!
Generating and Converting Leads
Optimizing landing pages and building a sales funnel is not as challenging as you think. Especially when you use the right CMS system. Once you direct traffic to your website, you have total control over the content displayed. This can help you increase visibility, build brand awareness, and convert leads as they come.
Once you’ve built an organic funnel with SEO, your need for ongoing expenses is limited. You won’t need to pay more even if you see exponential growth, so for long-term savings, nothing beats a strong website. Or a strong wallet!
Branding
Is there a better place to build a brand identity than on your website where you have total control? Branding can help you create instant recognition among your target audience, no matter how big or small your business is.
Why WordPress Development Is Key
Did you know that over 455 million websites on the internet are powered by WordPress? That makes it the most powerful CMS software without a close second. There are reasons for that.
Any CMS system can offer templates to choose from, so what sets WordPress themes apart? Well, WordPress has some of the best tools, known as plugins, that allow any web developer to easily analyze and adapt issues site wide. This makes the design process far more stable, secure, and efficient.
Fortunately for new site owners, efficiency comes with savings! Creating a website from scratch is not the cheapest business expense, but a strong website is essential to competing in today’s business world, so look for any way to save! There are other benefits of WordPress websites. For example, WordPress hosting offers:
- User-friendly service (and efficient)
- Free SEO insights
- A built-in blog for content marketing
- Free traffic from WP users
- Site-wide corrections and adjustments
- Wide variety of WP themes
- WP sites rank higher on search engines (on average)
- Stability and security
The list goes on. One key benefit that’s often overlooked is that, because it’s so popular, most web developers know how to use WordPress, and you can fix your website from any computer! That means that there’s little to no risk in hiring an experienced WordPress developer for your website!
Also, your website isn’t like a PPC ad campaign. You don’t need to keep pouring money into it every time someone clicks on it. Instead, you can get a WordPress maintenance plan that fits your needs, and then just set it and forget it!
Build Your Site Today
Now that we’ve answered the question “why do you need a website?”, you can see what hiring a professional WordPress developer can do for your business. In today’s competitive market, there’s no substitute for a professional website, but getting one for your business is easier than ever!
Stay up to date with our latest digital marketing tips and request an appointment today to launch your new site.
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What Are the Major Components of a WordPress Website? 18 May 2022 7:56 AM (3 years ago)
WordPress websites make up around 39.5% of the internet.
That is a HUGE chunk, and with good reason. WordPress is one of the best web development platforms available. It’s ideal for almost any business. There’s a wide range of functions you can add to a WordPress site to make it work exactly how you want it to.
If you’re interested in creating a WordPress site for your business, you should start by knowing what the major components of a WordPress website are.
What Are the Main Components of a WordPress Website?
WordPress has a wide range of options, and your website can look and work however you want it to. Here are the 5 core components that every WordPress website consists of.
Domain
The domain of your WordPress website is the web address. This piece of text identifies where people’s web browsers will go when they click on a link to your site or enter it into their address bar.
Website domains are typically a word or short phrase, followed by a TLD (top-level domain). There are several very common TLDs such as .com, .org, and .net. While these are typically quite popular, you can set your domain to have any TLD that you’d like.
It’s always a good idea to pick a domain name that is the same as your business name. If not, then maybe one that matches the nature of your business or the industry that you’re in.
Imagine you created a website called letsgetthisbread.com and every visitor who arrived there was expecting a Bakery website. As cute as it sounds, you will wonder why no one visit’s your site for financial advice. Instead they just ask, “Where’s the link to the fresh baked sourdough recipe?” Awkward.
If you don’t want a traditional TLD, you could choose one that lines up with your industry, too. Technology companies often use TLDs like .tech, or a clothing company might go with something like .fashion. Uncommon TLDs are generally cheaper, so you could save some money by doing this.
There are plenty of sites you can use to buy your domain name. GoDaddy is the most well-known, but a Google search will give you several others to choose from. The domain registrar you go with won’t affect the performance of your site in any way.
Hosting
Where your website is hosted refers to the section of server space your website is located in. You essentially rent out this space from a hosting company as you’ll be using their equipment to store your website. You’ll pay for this monthly, yearly, or for multiple years at a time.
There are two main hosting options. The cheapest option is ‘shared hosting’ which is best for basic websites with few features and generally low traffic. It’s called shared hosting because a single server is shared between multiple websites (sometimes thousands), which means the resources can be very limited.
Larger sites on a shared server may use a lot of these resources. If you have a website on a shared server, it might often have issues with loading times, server errors, etc. Shared hosting might also not be very secure, and if the host isn’t taking proper security measures, your website could be vulnerable. So in this case, sharing is NOT caring.
For a far superior form of WordPress hosting, you want to go with ‘dedicated hosting’. This means your site will have its own resources and your own server space. This way the performance of your site won’t be affected by any others.
Theme
WordPress themes can be used to easily give your website a fresh look. There are countless themes available, so if you already have a website design in your head, we’ll likely be able to find something pretty close.
If you find a theme that you like and want to make some changes, the team at Your WP Guy can handle that with ease. It’s possible to build a site from scratch, but it’s generally much easier to start with a theme and make edits to get things where you want them.
There are plenty of free themes to choose from, or if you’re happy to pay for a premium theme, you can get something a bit more impressive. Many themes receive routine updates that can include a range of improvements. We can make sure your theme is regularly updated to the latest version so that you get the most out of it.
Plugins
Much like themes, there are a huge number of WordPress plugins available. These are what give a WordPress site functionality and make it incredibly easy to implement new features.
Whatever functions you want on your website, you’ll be able to find the right plugin. This includes things such as:
- Accepting credit card payments
- Displaying pop-ups
- Collect contact form submissions
- Booking reservations
There are also different plugins that visitors to your site won’t directly interact with, such as plugins for security or image optimization.
Whatever features you want your site to have, we can find the most suitable plugins, and ensure they’re kept up to date. This will keep your site working properly and maintain the best level of security.
Content
Content is everything that your audience will see when visiting your site. This means the copy, images, videos, etc. Your content is what you’ll use to portray your brand image to your customers.
Depending on your business and how you want to do things, you might do this in several ways. Blog posts are a very popular choice, as they can answer questions for your customers and provide them with value. They also work great for SEO (search engine optimization) to improve the ranking of your website in search engine results.
Make sure that whatever content you use sends the right message to your customer about what your company stands for and what you do. Communicate effectively, and use a range of content types to add some variety to your website.
Getting the Most Out of Your Site
With an understanding of the different components of a WordPress website, you should have an idea of how yours will come together. Maintaining a site can be hard work, especially if you don’t have much experience. Hiring a WordPress management service is often the best thing to do.
Your WP Guy offers various WordPress management plans and can take care of a range of tasks such as routine updates, security installation & monitoring, and daily website backups. To find out more click here to schedule an appointment today.
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5 Reason Why WordPress is the Best Website Platform 18 May 2022 7:01 AM (3 years ago)
There are currently more than 455 million live websites using WordPress.
That number speaks for itself! WordPress is one of the best website-building platforms available. Over the years it’s progressed massively in terms of functionality. It even offers a wide range of features and tools. If you want to build a website, then WordPress is your best option.
So what are the five of the most important benefits of WordPress? Let’s find out!
First of All: What Is WordPress?
WordPress is a content management system that you can use to create and manage websites. It was previously used almost exclusively for blogs. Now it powers SO much more.
Many small businesses have very basic websites with just a bit of information about the company. By using a website platform like WordPress, you can take your company’s website to the next level.
So let’s hop on that elevator with the benefits of WordPress.
Benefits of WordPress
There are plenty of other content management systems available, so what makes WordPress so special? Ultimately it comes down to all the benefits it has, which make it ideal for almost any company.
1. It’s Free
This is perhaps one of the biggest advantages of WordPress, especially for new businesses that don’t have a huge budget. All you do is go to WordPress.org and download the software. Dang, someone pressed the easy button!
If you’ve never made a website before, it’s important to know that while WordPress is free, getting your website up and running isn’t. You will need to host your WordPress site somewhere, and that will come with a cost.
One option is to host the website yourself. Doing this means you’ll need to handle the hosting costs as well as any maintenance and security yourself. This isn’t generally recommended if you don’t have experience with hosting websites.
The other option is managed hosting, where you pay for a professional service such as Your WP Guy to handle everything. We can ensure your website gets up and running smoothly, and we will support you with continued maintenance. It’s the best way to make sure your website stays functional as we’ll take care of everything.
2. Themes
Even if your WordPress website is already built, you might want to change up the look to make it more appealing to your audience or just better match it to your brand.
These days most people find out about brands through their websites. When someone visits yours, you want them to be impressed. Themes give you that wow factor.
There are countless WordPress themes available, meaning a huge amount of visual options for your website.
One of the best things about WordPress themes is that they can be changed quickly without needing to delve into the code of the website. You can choose from plenty of free themes, but if you want something a bit more impressive, there are also premium themes available.
They allow you to adjust essentially any aspect of your web pages, such as navigation bar location, column layouts, and any kind of color combination.
3. Adding Content Is Simple
Content is key for any company website. Adding content with code can be incredibly difficult, and many people think that’s the only way. Fortunately, WordPress makes adding and editing content easy.
Many websites include blogs, and WordPress allows you to create these with the click of a button. These blogs will also be formatted immediately based on the theme you’ve chosen, so you don’t have to worry about adjusting anything afterward.
Similarly, it’s simple to add a new page, which will again automatically format itself based on your theme. When adding a new blog post or page, the editor is similar to a standard Office setup, so you will almost certainly be familiar with it.
There’s also a media button that allows you to add photos or videos to your site easily, and you can choose where you want these. It’s how we added the photos in for this very blog!
4. Updates
Cyber-crime has become a huge problem in recent years, and you want to make sure your website is secure. When exploits are discovered, publishers work to get their software, apps, and systems updated as soon as possible to ensure security.
With WordPress, this means that any themes or plugins on your websites will be quickly updated, provided the developer still supports them. We can keep everything up to date on your website, which is one of the best ways to make sure it stays secure.
This will also keep things running smoothly and make sure that all features stay working as they should. All of these factors are important for a business website.
5. Plugins
Plugins are one of the best features of WordPress. They mean that we can add a whole host of things to your website to improve it.
Some of these are visual plugins to make your website look better, and others are things that add new functions and features.
There are even a range of plugins that visitors will never know are there, but help improve your site overall. This includes things like security plugins and page builders.
There are plenty of plugins to choose from, and many have similar functions. We’ll always choose the best plugins to meet the needs of your website, and like everything else, we’ll make sure to keep them up to date.
Maintaining Your WordPress Site
With all these benefits of WordPress sites, it’s clear that using it for your business could be a great idea. Maintaining a WordPress site, however, does take time and a degree of technical skills.
If you want your site to really stand out and perform well, then hiring a WordPress maintenance service is the best choice.
At Your WP Guy, we have a range of plans available, so you can choose what kind of service you need. We can handle updates, security monitoring, website backups, and more. If you want to know more about what we offer, just click here to request an appointment.
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