Did you know that WordPress powers over 27% of all websites on the Internet?

That’s more than any other platform.

And that’s a lot of the Internet.

It’s safe to say that WordPress is popular – and for many good reasons! But before we get into those reasons, let’s start with a quick refresher…

What exactly is WordPress?

If you’re new to the world of online marketing and business, WordPress might be a bit unfamiliar. And that’s okay!

In its simplest form, WordPress is a content management system – or CMS – where small business owners like you can create an amazing website for their company. It started out as a blogging platform, but over the years it has grown in leaps and bounds.

And LOTS of businesses are using it. In fact, it’s estimated that WordPress 4.6 – the latest version of WordPress – has been downloaded 21.7 million times.

But don’t just listen to the crazy stats. Here are 10 reasons why we here at JSL love to work with WordPress and why WordPress for small businesses is the best idea since sliced bread!

 

1. WordPress for Small Businesses – It’s Easy to Customize

WordPress can literally work for any business – and it has so many different features available thanks to a library full of plugins.

What are plugins?

Well, they’re essentially little add-ons that can be included in any WordPress site – and they can do extraordinary things. For example, some will add calendars, booking features, image galleries, videos, and more to your website – the possibilities are endless.

2. You Can Easily Maintain and Update as Needed

If you don’t want to touch anything on your website, that’s totally fine. But – if you like to get your hands dirty and be a part of the action, you totally can do just with ease.

WordPress is really quite simple to maintain and update, whether you want to add a blog post, edit the content on one of your pages or even add a new image.

There’s a little bit of a learning curve, but once you’ve mastered the necessary skills, it’s not so bad.

3. Blogging is Simple with WordPress

Blogging is a great way to boost page views and reader engagement, and it’s also an excellent way to establish yourself as a thought leader within your industry (not to mention the SEO benefits).

WordPress makes it incredibly simple to add a blog into your website – whether you’re just starting out or you’re thinking of adding one in down the road.

The feature comes built in, so you’re good to go whenever you choose to get started.

 

4. It is Both Safe and Secure for Everyone

Since it is so popular, some consider WordPress to be a primary target for hackers. However, the good people at WordPress take security very, very seriously.

Keeping your WordPress site regularly updated with the latest versions of plugins and WordPress itself is one great way to ensure your site is kept safe.

Plus, there are a lot of great security plugins that integrate well with the framework – so you can rest assured that your site is in good hands.

5. WordPress is Ideal for Small Business Growth

You might be able to build a basic site on drag-and-drop website builders like Wix and Squarespace, but you can really only take your website so far with those platforms.

WordPress on the other hand allows you to start small and build big as your business continues to grow. You can add features as you need them and make room for more and more visitors to your website.

WordPress is ideal for small businesses looking to expand and grow.

6. Mobile Friendly Websites Are Standard

As web designers, we work on all sorts of different websites in a variety of different industries. And there’s always one thing that’s the same across the board – all of our websites are mobile-friendly.

It’s a must in today’s world, with everyone constantly on their phones and tablets.

WordPress makes creating mobile-friendly websites simple – and the end result is always beautiful and clean. A real win-win!

7. WordPress has Excellent Support and Help Forums

Have a WordPress question? There’s probably a forum dedicated to that very topic with a host of different solutions for your problem.

That’s one really great thing about WordPress – the support is phenomenal since everyone is using it. As designers, we find this incredibly useful, but it’s also beneficial if you’re maintaining a WordPress website and run into a question.

Of course, we’re always available to answer our clients’ WordPress questions, but there are also literally thousands of forums out there filled to the brim with solutions.

 

8. It Integrates with Many Email Marketing Platforms

We’ve talked about the many benefits of email marketing in the past on the blog, but it’s incredibly important that your website has an area for people to sign up to be placed on your email list.

After all, you need to have emails to send marketing messages to in order for email marketing to be effective.

WordPress makes this very simple, as it has the functionality to integrate with many, many different email marketing platforms, including MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, and more.

9. E-commerce Friendly and Ready for Business

Looking to sell physical or digital products online? You guessed it – WordPress can do that too.

There are a lot of different platforms available for e-commerce, but the majority integrate with WordPress. Woocommerce in particular is one that works incredibly well with WordPress, but various outside platforms – such as Shopify – integrate with it as well.

And if you’re not currently selling products but thinking of doing so in the future, that’s totally fine! You can always add e-commerce into your WordPress site later down the road – it’s super simple.

10. WordPress is Always SEO Friendly

Last but certainly not least, WordPress is SEO friendly – meaning your WordPress website may just have a slight edge over the non-WordPress competition in your niche.

Why is this? Well for one, WordPress is easy for search engine bots to crawl. Plus, it’s easy to establish a good URL hierarchy, so everything on your site has a place and fits together in a way that makes sense – kind of like a well drawn road map for both search engines and people.

In conclusion, WordPress really is an amazing choice for small business owners – which is one of the many reasons why we here at JSL Marketing & Web Design specialize in it!

If you’re looking to build a new website or redesign an existing one and you’d like to use WordPress, get in touch with us today – we’d love to help you out!