7 Benefits of Hosting Your Small Business Site on WordPress
When you need a virtual home for your startup, the array of available options may seem overwhelming.
Time and again, self-hosted WordPress sites have been the choice of business owners who want to increase visibility, build a community, and heighten brand awareness. If you’re wondering why, below are seven key reasons that WordPress gets chosen over its competition.
1. Freedom to grow
Launching a website with WordPress means you can start small and grow bigger as your needs change. From simple blogs and product pages to complex brand-centered communities and e-commerce capabilities, WordPress performs optimally regardless of audience size or industry.
When your company begins to expand, the price for WordPress doesn’t. As an open-source platform, WordPress is an all-in-one website and content manager.
2. Heightened security
Featuring built-in and optional layers of security, WordPress is one of the most secure platforms available for hosting a business website. When combined with security offered by your web-hosting provider, WordPress websites effectively thwart malicious cyber-attacks.
Both front-end and back-end security offer safeguards for your site from the latest threats.
3. No coding required
Unless your industry is IT or web design, coding is probably a foreign language to you. With WordPress, building a website is fast and simple.
Between drag-and-drop features, an intuitive user interface, and code-free customization options, a WordPress site can be tailored to reflect your brand accurately without any need for extensive coding knowledge.
4. Make it your own
Extending the functionality of your site is hassle-free, given the myriad of widget and plug-in options designed exclusively for WordPress. With both free and paid versions available, widgets and plug-ins allow you to do great things with your site with a few simple clicks — from adding surveys and contact forms to designing a fully-functioning e-commerce site.
5. Manage your content
WordPress was built to be a complete content-management system capable of displaying a variety of content, from images and video to blogs and articles. With the addition of plug-ins, WordPress websites can be customized to manage product-related content, such as descriptions, reviews, and ratings.
All of this ensures maximum control of your brand’s digital presence. As the brand grows, WordPress is powerful enough to keep pace.
6. Play well with search engines
Between Google, Yahoo, and Bing, WordPress sites receive a lot of love from the search engines. Simple code, combined with a site map and solid internal linking structure, helps businesses gain greater visibility on the Internet.
Featuring built-in SEO tools and optional plug-ins, the WordPress platform puts companies on the fast track to results.
7. Collaborate with your team
Within the WordPress dashboard, you can invite writers, editors, and designers to participate in projects and collaborate with one another. Setting up Google+ authorship for your site’s authors will boost placement in SERPs, because verified authors receive ranking priority.
Setting up administrators, editors, and other roles, and allowing permission-based access to features, is easy.
How to get started with WordPress
One of the most valued benefits of working with a self-hosted WordPress site is the fast and headache-free setup. With or without tech expertise, you can set up a WordPress website in three simple steps:
- Get hosted. Whether or not you have a domain name registered, signing up for a hosting plan should be your first move. Many hosting companies offer free and low-cost domain registration options, which saves you money on the essentials.
- Buy a domain. Search for a domain name that accurately reflects your brand. From your company name to the type of services you provide, a domain name should be memorable and on-brand. Choose the name carefully, because it’s likely to become a hallmark of your brand.
- Install WordPress and relevant plugins. Setting up WordPress on your domain is quick and easy. Options include signing up at wordpress.org, or installing WordPress from your hosting provider’s user dashboard. Plugins can be installed from within the WordPress backend.
While getting started with WordPress is fairly simple, mastering it may take some time. Start with a clear vision of what you want your website to become before you tinker with the available widgets and plug-ins.
Power your site with WordPress hosting
Once you’ve chosen WordPress for your site platform, pair it with hosting that’s designed to enhance site functionality, maintain security, and deliver a memorable user experience. Hosting companies that specialize in the provision of WordPress-specific hosting are a clear asset for business owners, because they’re already designed to support and display your website to optimal effect
