Introduction
WordPress is best known as a blogging platform. That was its original purpose when it was released in 2003. But since its original release, it has evolved into a legitimate platform for hosting websites of all shapes and sizes and it’s not unusual to see a business website design on WordPress.
In this guide, I will help you understand why it is a good idea to use WordPress when building a new website for your business.
WordPress Website Designs Can Look Bespoke
I’ve heard people say that all WordPress websites look the same. Whilst many do indeed look similar, this does not have to be the case. WordPress itself does not restrict a designer in any way. Many websites have familiar layouts because established design principles are usually applied by the creator.
For example, it makes sense for a website to have a navigation bar along the top of the screen. After all, a visitor to the website needs to be able to find the information they are seeking. Why would you put the navigation menu anywhere else?
There may be small variations in this practice, such as using an expanding hamburger menu, but it still exists at the top of the page for easy access. The user interface must be designed with the best interests of the user experience in mind.
Too often I see creative websites showcase designers’ work that is exceedingly imaginative but completely baffling to the end-user. These designs are fine for a designer to illustrate their creative skills but add no value whatsoever to a business website.
Having a small, barely perceptible icon, at the bottom right of the screen that opens a menu, is not user friendly. Neither is huge chunky text, excessive animation or distracting colour schemes.
However, WordPress websites can still have individual styling to suit your business. It’s just a good idea to let someone with a good understanding of UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface) guide you in the web design and development process. A good business website design on WordPress is achievable with the correct approach.
WordPress Content Can Be Added by Non-Developers
A primary reason why people enquire about building their business website design on WordPress is that they would like to add their own content, without having to contact a web developer every time they want to do so. This is possible with WordPress, although there are some caveats.
WordPress started out life as a blogging platform. Its capabilities as a blogging platform are second to none. Having a blogging page on your website is easy with WordPress. But what about the other pages on your website? Can you add content to them?
The answer is ‘yes’ but views vary on whether this is a good idea. I firmly believe you should not be attempting to add content to non-blog pages, as editing standard pages isn’t as intuitive as it is on your blog page.
Usually non-blog pages on your website will have a greater degree of design, with more complex layouts, which is easy to break if you do not understand the languages of the web - HTML, CSS and Javascript. Whereas, a blog article is more like to be a single column of text with the occasional image thrown in. You can’t really go wrong editing a blog page.
I always recommend to clients that they should nail down the content on their standard pages, e.g. ‘About’, ‘Services’, etc, and let me design those pages based on that fixed content. They can add additional information themselves via a news or blog page.
Essentially, if you need to change the content on your standard pages, which should be happening rarely, you can always contact the developer to do this. Small, infrequent changes do not cost much and it’s a safer way to edit a business website on WordPress.
Blog functionality of WordPress
I’ve mentioned the blogging capabilities of WordPress. It really is great! You can create new posts in WordPress easily. Give your article a title, type your article using a WYSIWYG editor (that you’ll be familiar with if you’ve used any document processing software), upload an image that will appear as the title image of your article. Press the ‘Publish’ button and you are all done.
That is publishing on the WordPress blog at its simplest but you can be more expansive if you want to. You can add additional images, link to videos, schedule when your post will appear, etc.
It’s always a good idea to write your post in a style that compliments SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). There is a nack to writing a good blog post that ranks on Google Search. However, you cannot always guarantee a well-written post will rank as there is so much competition out there, but you can give yourself a good chance by writing the post properly. A good copy-editor with an understanding of SEO can help you here.
Conclusion
Getting a business website up-and-running can be confusing. Particularly, if you want to have blogging or editing capabilities baked-in to your design. A business website design on WordPress gives you the editing functionality you require.
It’s important to remember that any content management system will add a layer of complexity. WordPress, like many other platforms, is marketed as ’easy to use’ and it is to some extent. But it is always useful to lean on the expertise of designers and developers, instead of struggling for months trying to get a passable WordPress website built and hosted.
In the long run, getting a professionally developed website can make your business money and there are other tips you can follow to help your business increase profits.
