Businesses are switching to WordPress CMS to create and maintain their company website!

WordPress is a free, open source CMS, online content management system.
Used by over 2% of the 10,000 biggest websites, WordPress is the most popular blog software and website content management system in use today!

WordPress provides a higher site ranking with search engines like Google than a regular HTML or CSS website offers!
This alone is a reason to switch! If your business has many competitors online, then you should consider the SEO advantages of having your website built using WordPress.

There are over 22+ million WordPress CMS websites as of Jan. 2011!

WordPress is browser compliant and mobile ready!

WordPress has a templating system, which includes widgets that can be rearranged without editing PHP or HTML code, as well as themes that can be installed and switched between. The PHP and HTML code in themes can also be edited for more advanced customizations. WordPress also features integrated link management; a search engine-friendly, clean permalink structure; the ability to assign nested, multiple categories to articles; and support for tagging of posts and articles. Automatic filters that provide for proper formatting and styling of text in articles (for example, converting regular quotes to smart quotes) are also included.

7 Reasons To Use WordPress For Your Small Business Website

When it comes to your small business’ website, which would you choose?

• A basic website requires that you are a computer programmer to make even simple updates to your site’s content, and would have to be completely redesigned if you decide it’s looking a bit outdated?
• Or one that is created using software that costs you nothing, has content in a structure that lets you easily update it yourself and has hundreds of professional templates available so if you think the look is outdated you can replace it with a new one in less than 5 minutes?

Meet WordPress CMS

WordPress, originally used solely for blogs, has morphed into an incredibly powerful Content Management System you can use to easily and inexpensively create a very professional and functional website for your small business.

Here are 7 benefits to using WordPress for your small business’ website:

1. 1. It costs nothing! Not one penny! Most web hosts offer WordPress as a free, one-click add-on to your hosting account. Quick and easy to setup!
   2. Ease of Use. Using WordPress is really quite simple. Yes, especially for the technically-challenged among us, there will be a little bit of a learning curve. However, there’s no shortage of quality WordPress tutorials online to help you get up to speed quickly. Once you get the hang of things, adding content is a snap. It’s no more difficult than using a word processing program. And you don’t have to know how to write code or do anything vaguely technical in nature to maintain your site.
   3. Themes. Think of a theme as a template. It will change the look and feel of your WordPress site. It can also change the behind-the-scenes workings of your site to provide additional functionality. You can choose from thousands of different themes – some are free, some you have to pay for. And if you can’t find one that quite suits your requirements, you can hire a designer to create a custom theme for your WordPress site. With themes, it’s easy to get a clean, professional looking site without paying a lot for custom design work. And if one day you decide you don’t like the look of your site – no problem. Find a theme you like better, activate it in WordPress and you instantly have a new look and feel to your site – all without having to change the posts or pages on your website.
   4. Plug-ins. A WordPress plug-in is software that extends the out-of-the-box capabilities of WordPress. Plug-ins, which are extremely easy to install and update, can do things like improve site security, fight spam, let you track visits to your website, automatically backup your site, improve search engine optimization, and much more. And the vast majority of plug-ins won’t cost you a penny!
   5. Search Engine Love WordPress! Google (and the other search engines) love WordPress. Using WordPress can give your search engine optimization efforts a big boost. And if you take advantage of some of the SEO-related plugins available for WordPress, the search engines will really think your site is #1!
   6. Tech Support. While WordPress itself doesn’t have a tech support crew you can call or email, don’t worry. There’s no shortage of places to turn to for help with your questions. WordPress.org has a very active forum where you can search for answers to your questions or post questions to the community. There are also plenty of other sites, blogs, message boards where you can go for advice. Or, you can hire a WordPress expert to help. Bottom line, whatevery issue you have, an answer is not far away.
   7. Control. When you host your own WordPress website, you are in the driver’s seat. You can easily update content, add new pages or posts, give the site a facelift and much more without being at the mercy of a web programmer. And if you did want to hire someone to assist you in updating your website, there are plenty of qualified people around who can help.

So there are 7 strong benefits to using WordPress for your small business’ website or blog. Without a doubt there are reasons why you may WordPress may not work for your situation and hiring a programmer to develop a custom site is the best option.

However, for the needs of most small businesses, WordPress provides a combination of functionality, flexibility and cost-effectiveness that is tough to beat.

Before the production of your new website begins, consider the following questions. This will help your web designer target your customers online and reinforce your brand. Hiring a web designer with professional experience is the best choice – not an amateur or a college student lacking real-world marketing experience.

• What kind of visitors are you expecting on your website (income, interests, gender or age)?
  This question helps you to understand better the potential visitors and plan the website design and development.
• Please list the names of two or more of your competitors and describe how are you differ from them?
  Your new website will be compared to a lot of other sites. Your new website should be memorable and stand up from the crowd.
• What actions do you want visitors to take on the site?
  A new website can sell products, provide information, ask a visitor to make a phone call or fill out the form.
• What is your deadline for completing the site and your budget?
  Many clients have unrealistic expectations. You should have a clear realistic schedule and budget.
• What features should be used on your website (contact form, pictures, video, etc.)?
• Please list the names of three sites that you like and what do you like about them?
• Do you have any color preferences, look and feel for the website?
  Websites generally coordinate or match the colors of your branding, in your logo.
• Who will be the contact person for this project and what will be the turnaround time?
• What do you NOT want on your site in terms of text, content, color, graphic elements?
• Who will be responsible for maintaining the website and how much time he or she would have for it?