If your business has an online presence, you probably have a website. And unless you are supremely fortunate, I imagine you probably have a horror story (if not several) attempting to get your site up and running.
Don’t be embarrassed… I have one too!
The biggest website mistake I ever made was believing the baloney from web developers who happened to prefer other platforms.
Long story short, the site cost a small fortune to have custom-developed and ended up clunky, hard to update content, and cost a fortune to modify (the developers saw to that). And because it was a bespoke platform, I couldn’t take it to another more reasonably priced hosting provider or developer.
Nightmare!
In the end, I took down the site and was forced to start again. Now, I use WordPress and I have never looked back.
There are several platforms you can use to build your site, but without a doubt the most ubiquitous is WordPress. WordPress has a lot going for it. It’s a free (sort of), easy-to-use CMS (Content Management System) that gives you a lot of flexibility and adds creative elements to your website.
This article is about busting WordPress myths (the baloney I spoke of earlier) so that you don’t have to miss out on the features and functionality of this awesome website builder!
#1: WordPress isn’t a secure site
WordPress has been hacked in the past, but not because it has security vulnerabilities. It’s because it is a software system. NO site or system is immune to security breaches and WordPress is no different.
The developers of WordPress recognised this and created multiple Security Tutorials and plugins to fight security breaches.
To keep your own site safe, there are also a few crucial things you must do:
- Keep the WordPress site up to date. Back up your site first, and then install upgrades as soon as they become available
- Only download plugins from well-known sources
- Create strong passwords that you change often and change your file permissions.
If you follow these rules you should have no problem maintaining the security on your WordPress site!
#2: WordPress is only good for blogging
While WordPress started primarily as a site for blogging that is certainly no longer the case. It has evolved exponentially over the last 10 years; so much so that if you are only using it for blogging you are missing out!
Companies like Time, CNN, Microsoft, Sony and eBay (to name a few) use it for what I’m sure we’d all agree is a bit more than ‘just blogging’. It can be used as a membership site, a portfolio or image gallery, a link directory, a forum, and so much more.
But where it really comes into its own is as an e-Commerce site. Why? Because it’s a multi-purpose platform. While you operate your online shop, you can ALSO be running a blog, portfolio, or anything else to your heart’s content. If done right, this will drive traffic to your site, hopefully straight to your shop! There are thousands of plugins, tools and themes which can make your shop stand out. WordPress is also compatible with just about everything on the web, so you have unlimited potential.
Lastly, you just can’t run a multi-purpose site like that with Magento or Shopify.
#3: WordPress only works for small business
Like most things, the limitations within WordPress are those of the user. If you take the time to learn about the platform and understand how powerful it can be, there really is no limit to what you can create and achieve. To drive my point home, some other WordPress users include The New York Times, Ford, Harvard Law School, Princes’ Charities Australia, Dow Jones, UPS, TED (the list goes on) – none of these are small businesses.
WordPress provides you with total control over your site, so you can modify and distribute its code without any additional licensing fees. You don’t have to be a tech-head to insert photos, videos with text, all of which is proven to engage your target audience.
The other valuable factor is that it is scalable. As your business grows, your website can grow as well! It’s easy to make improvements and it integrates with social media seamlessly; features that are perfect for a business of ANY size.
#4: WordPress does not provide good technical support
WordPress don’t do phone or email support. Why? Because they care about their customers and phone and email support is NOT the most practical way to reach their millions of customers.
They want you to find the assistance you need, and to do that, they have one of the largest community forums in the world for tackling any topic or problem you might stumble across. It’s easy to use, the articles are comprehensive and you can also obtain help from your hosting provider, should you have any issues.
There are thousands of developers out there who specialise in all things WordPress, so help is never far away. And given how popular WordPress has become, it is actually sheer genius (and only logical) that the support community is enormous as well.
#5: WordPress is hard to understand and use
Seriously… nothing could be further from the truth! You can even customise your site YOURSELF without any tech skills. You don’t have to change lines of code (unless you want to) thanks to thousands of plugins and themes that WordPress developers offer. Though if you are a tech-head and you love to code, you have that option available too.
There are an absolute truck load of video tutorials that will show you how to build your site, and the main WordPress dashboard is user-friendly, making creating your site, updating your content, and posting blog pages ridiculously easy!
Need help with setting up your website and blog? We are more than happy to have a chat and get you up and running.
Till next time…
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