As a consultant and developer of websites for businesses in various industries, I talk to people often about their website who are in dire need of an upgrade or complete redo. One of the many things they almost always have in common is the puzzled look on their face when I suggest WordPress to power the site.
These people generally fall in one of two camps.
- They’ve heard of WordPress and think its just for blogging. Their kid might use it. Their friend might use it. Their own company might use it, but just for the company blog (after they finally upgraded from blogger).
- They have no idea what WordPress is, but it doesn’t sound like something a high-profile business might use. There’s no MS in front of the name, and it sounds very uncomplicated… not something for the corporate environment. Their own marketing and computer guy suggested some custom-programmed-whatchamacallit.
The response to both camps is the same. Yes, WordPress is predominantly thought of as blogging software. Yes, you can have a free or cheap personal WordPress website at WordPress.com. Yes millions of people use it, mostly for personal journals and small-traffic sites. But most businesses don’t use WordPress. Smaller companies often deploy a static html site that makes updates a chore. Larger businesses usually opt for some custom programmed alternative or industrial CMS that requires months and months (maybe years and years) of development time and requires someone with specialized training to alter and maintain.
But none of those things are negative. That low barrier of entry and mass appeal is exactly what should make a business consider using WordPress for the backend. And the fact that your competitors may be using something less capable, more complex (and more expensive) should also grab your attention. If it takes them longer and costs them more, doesn’t that give YOU a competitive advantage, at least in regards to your online marketing?
The fact is that WordPress is a VERY CAPABLE platform. While most of the typical WordPress blogging sites look the same, they don’t have to. The power behind WordPress is both its simplicity and mass appeal. With millions of people using it, and thousands of people developing for it, you have the benefit of the collective experience when troubleshooting problems or finding a way to implement new features. There are off-the-shelf solutions for virtually every task in WordPress… off-the-shelf solutions that will reduce development time and costs. And even if there isn’t a ready-made solution that works for you, the sheer number of WordPress developers means you can generally find someone to code your custom project that is both experienced and inexpensive. Imagine that your “web guru” or “marekting guru” could spend their time customizing the look and functionality of something to fit your business and brand instead of spending weeks just getting it to work.
The other huge benefit to WordPress is something many web designers would never suggest and why many web development firms steer away from using it. With millions of other WordPress users out there, if your current web developer leaves you behind, you have a large pool of competent people to choose from to take over the reigns. No longer are you locked into one company for post-launch site management because the CMS they used is uncommon or even worse, proprietary. No longer are you stuck with some guy who won’t call you back or has a bad attitude, because he is the only one who can make it work. Yes, you should hire a professional with a designer’s eye, a teacher’s heart, a business man’s mind and the experience to put them all together… but you would never buy a car that only one person in your town could fix, so why would you pay for a website that only one company could maintain?
We strive to keep our customers for life… to not just be their “web team” but their “marketing consultant” and the “design firm”. We want to develop your sites, maintain your sites, and tweak them along the way to make your website and your market share grow. Using an “open” platform that so many other individuals use keeps us and our prices honest. No, we don’t believe your high school nephew could (or should) develop your website, nor do we believe the firm down the street is just as capable as we are. But knowing your site is accessible and adaptable both now and in the future should give you, the client, peace of mind.
WordPress isn’t the only platform we deploy, but for most sites it is what we recommend. Contact us today and find out if WordPress can work for your business.
NOTE: We suggest downloading a running a local version of WordPress on your own server from WordPress.org. WordPress.com sites are great for personal sites you need to get running fast but don’t offer the same customization potential or professional development that a localized version of WordPress offers.
