Don’t have another panic attack
“Help! I need to change the address on my website”.
“Yikes!, the web developer is charging me $150/hr just to make a these few changes”.
“Oh No! The whole page has gone haywire” Now what do I do?
Do these lines sound familiar to you? Or maybe you have met small business owners who regularly have these panic attacks and feel powerless. Fear not there is hope.
WordPress is the answer
Today, WordPress is one the most popular CMS for building websites. With WordPress you can build a blog, a website or both. You can read my article, to learn more about what defines a good CMS.
But how is WordPress different from a non CMS based website?
In a standard HTML based website, a developer creates a static template. Based on this template, each web page is created and saved as a separate file. So every page contains the template of the page and the content. This means having the presentation layer (template) and content layer in one page. The file then has to be uploaded to the website.
To make a simple change to the content of the web page that file needs to be changed and then re-uploaded. And there is the additional danger that you might mess with the formatting of the template (the presentation layer).
With WordPress all content is stored in the database. Changing content is a simple matter of editing just the content and there is no fear of messing with the template. The presentation layer and content layer are completely separate.
So now, lets look at the top three reasons why you should use WordPress to power your website.
Reason 1: Content, Content, Content
One of the best features about WordPress is the ease of creating, editing and managing content. No matter what level of technical skills you possess, you can easily create and edit a page for your website in WordPress.
You never have to depend on any developer or designer just to make that simple change to the address on your website.
And as your business grows, WordPress can also be extended to fit you needs.
Reason 2: Extensibility
WordPress is free and is Open Source (the source code of the software is openly available). This provides for a thriving ecosystem of developers that create thousands of themes and plugins for WordPress. Plugins extend the core functionality of WordPress.
So lets’s say your business has grown. And you now wish to provide a membership program on your website. Guess what! With WordPress, there are tons of membership plugins to choose from.
The WordPress community keeps growing and everyday more plugins are developed.
Reason 3: Community and support
There is a large community that supports WordPress. This means that there are people continuously contributing to the WordPress core. Which leads to WordPress always keeping up with the latest technology.
And there is a vibrant free forum on WordPress.org/suport. Anytime you are in need of help you can always post your questions there. This huge community means that there are always people around who will have the answers to your problems. There are also loads of blogs and tutorials (just like here at StressLessWeb.com/tutorials), that will help you to learn about WordPress. All this just a Google search away.
Are you convinced?
Do the three reasons make you feel that you can use WordPress to power your small business website? Are you ready to stop being panic stricken every time you need to make a small change to your website.
Remember with WordPress:
1. You don’t have to worry about editing your content
2. Your website functionality can be extended as your business grows
3. There is a huge community to support you when needed
Also, read my article on choosing a good CMS for you website.
Do you still feel unsure how to proceed, don’t hesitate to contact me. I will be more than happy to help.
Announcing new Products & Services from StressLessWeb
We recently started offering website maintenance services to our existing clients. If you are not an existing client but are interested in availing of this service, contact us to see how we can help you.
Do you use Simple:Press? We have a new e-book out to help your Simple:Press members get started.