If you’re like most business owners, you fall into one of two groups:
A) You know you need a website, but you just haven’t had the time or money to make it happen, or
B) You have a website, but you know it’s not what it should be, and you’re always making excuses for it.
WordPress is the solution to your perennial website problem if you’re in either one of these groups.
Here are ten reasons why you should use WordPress to run your business website.
1. WordPress is easy to set up, manage, and update. You don’t need to be an Internet expert or an HTML coder to use WordPress. All you need is an internet connection and a web browser to create your website.
If you’re reading this article, you already have everything you need to get started. Head over to WordPress.com and signup for a free account. You’ll have your website online in about two minutes. For a small additional fee, you can even host your domain name there.
WordPress.com is the perfect starting point for any small business. When you’re ready to customize your website further, it’s easy to migrate your starter website to a web hosting account.
Need to learn the basics? Signup for our free WordPress Quick Start Course.
2. WordPress is suitable for both your blog and your website. It’s true that WordPress started as a blogging system, but that was ages ago. Over the years, WordPress has evolved into a full-featured web content management system. That means you can use WordPress to manage your whole website, not just your blog. Of course, if you want to blog, you can use WordPress that way too.
3. Thousands of professionally designed themes — many of them available for free. WordPress themes allow you to have a professionally designed website without the pain or expense of hiring a professional web designer.
There are over two thousand free themes available in the official WordPress Theme Directory. Even more are available for a fee at commercial sites like Theme Forest, StudioPress, and WooThemes.
4. WordPress plugins add complex business features to your website without having to hire a coder. Need some additional functionality on your site? There’s a plugin for that!
WordPress was designed to be extended, and that’s what programmers around the world have done. Thousands of WordPress plugins add functionality to the core system. So whether you need a simple contact form or a full-featured eCommerce system, there’s a plugin to meet your business needs.
5. WordPress is search engine friendly. As Google Engineer Matt Cutts says, “WordPress automatically solves a ton of SEO issues.” And with the free Yoast SEO plugin, your site will be even more search engine friendly.
6. WordPress is popular. Given the ease of use and availability of thousands of professional quality themes and plugins, it’s not surprising that WordPress is the most popular web publishing system on the planet. At last count, over 37% of all websites were powered by WordPress.
7. The WordPress community. With so many users, it’s only natural that a huge, active, and generous community has sprung up to provide support, exchange ideas, and make WordPress better for everyone. You can connect with the community on the official WordPress forum or in person at WordCamp events around the world.
8. WordPress is ready for the mobile web. If you assume your customers are visiting your website from a full-sized computer, think again. Mobile website usage is exploding. If your site doesn’t look great and works well on a smartphone or tablet, your customers will skip your site and go somewhere else.
Many WordPress themes are designed to be responsive (aka mobile-friendly), meaning your customers won’t be challenged to use your website on their smartphones. And the WordPress dashboard is designed to work on smartphones as well as full-sized PCs — so you can easily manage your website from anywhere.
9. WordPress is mature. WordPress is over seventeen years old. During the past decade, WordPress has been refined, tested, and enhanced. In the process, it has evolved into a world-class web publishing system.
10. WordPress is open-source., Unlike other website building tools, WordPress is open source and free from commercial restrictions and limitations. That means you can use the software any way you choose and host your website anywhere you choose. All without fear that changes in someone else’s business model will have an adverse impact on one of your most important business assets. A related benefit is that WordPress costs less than commercial alternatives.
When you choose WordPress, you have complete control over your website. As a business owner, that may be the ultimate reason to use WordPress.
19 thoughts on “10 Reasons Why You Should Use WordPress To Run Your Business Website”
WordPress is definitely great for business / corporate websites, and I actually noticed that many businesses are already using WordPress (regardless whether they have a blog attached to it).
The main reason why I choose WordPress because it is easy to setup, manage, and update. I myself not a programmer but I can update my website anytime. Plus the interface is so easy , writing and editing is so easy with WYSIWYG interface. Good share by the way Kirk.
Hi Kirk,
we have in common that we both favor WordPress.
But I think it’s also fair to mention that for the less tech-inclined clientele WordPress can be quite a challenge. In your 1st point you say WP is easy to setup, manage and update … well, yeah, somewhat. It depends on one’s skillset.
For setting up WordPress safely and securely, you certainly need to know what you’re doing.
Not everybody is able to make adjustments to an .htaccess file or setup the right preferences to ensure the website’s security.
I love WordPress for all the other reasons you mentioned here, and I agree it’s a hot candidate for any business website – if the owner feels confident and competent enough to make the leap.
Cheers 🙂
Katrin
Hi Katrin,
Thanks for the feedback! You raise some important points.
As far as setup goes, I encourage our members to signup for a WordPress optimized, managed web host like WP Engine or DreamHost’s DreamPress service. In my experience those services get the installation security right with a single click. And a casual business user should never have to touch an .htaccess file (or know what one is, for that matter). I’ll admit that’s not the case with some of the budget hosting services.
As for other aspects related to WordPress training, well…. that’s what WP Apprentice is for. We’re all about helping business owners feeling confident and competent to manage their own WordPress websites.
Thanks again for your comment!
kb
Hi Kirk… I agree. These 10 reasons are good enough for me and many bloggers as well.
It´s been a while since I started blogging (I am running two wp blogs), so I can tell I feel very comfortable using this platform.
Best for you and your audience!
Luis Cabrera, from Mexico.
we have purchased our business domain from wordpress for $99. somewhat confused?? do I still need to pay a monthly fee to another company to host our domain?
Hi Kathy,
The basic WordPress.com hosting is free. You pay an extra fee for various services that they offer. One of those services is domain name registration. $99 is quite a bit more than they charge for domain registration, so it sounds like you purchased some other services as well. At any rate, WordPress.com is now your web host. Nothing more to buy.
Hope this helps.
Hi,
Just curious as to why you need to re-register your domain name, for money? Once you’ve “bought” it, shouldn’t it just be yours?
Hi Carolyn,
You need to renew your registration because you don’t own your domain name in a traditional sense. You can think of it more as a lease. The global domain name system is managed by an organization called ICANN. Among other things ICANN mediates domain name disputes and has the power to revoke your “ownership” at any time. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN and here: https://www.futurehosting.com/blog/who-owns-your-domain-name/
kb
Thank you very much for this info. I have been wanting to start an informational blog type small business website for some time… I am still a little bit intimidated still.. I am not tech savvy, although I can surf the web, use social media, email, and use Windows 10 just fine, lol. I guess I will take the free WordPress Lessons… Thank you!
Thanks for such a good article. Your point that WordPress is good for websites and blogs on the same domain and dashboard is a key point. Just yesterday a client of mine went and purchased another domain and hosting package to set up a blog. I informed here that she could use her existing WordPress site by just adding a page where blog posts will be displayed. This is a little-known benefit that you rightly highlighted. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge online.
Great read guys! I am about to leave my Homestead.com account and make my business website on WordPress! So, it’s nice to see good things here.
Kirk
Came across your articles after finding the site was hacked, hosted by Hostgator. Spent a bit of time trying to fathom out how the files were being placed on the site. Turned out not to be a vulnerability in wordpress console or a plugin vulnerability. The hack was exactly as described in your article which includes a wp-confing.php Having cleared out the line from index.php and removed the files put there by the hacker, the next morning they had been re-created. No indication that anyone had logged in through CPanel to do this, so check the error logs having cleared files again.The error_log file says:Failed opening ‘wp-confing.php’ for inclusion (include_path=’.:/opt/php52/lib/php’)I’m not 100 but to me that line says there is a connection back to the root of the server which we do not have access to. I suspect a script is running on Hosgator servers and rewriting the hack back to web sites.
It’s possible. For what it’s worth I’ve seen similar attacks on static HTML websites. In that case, the hackers modified the .htasccess file with similar results.
This is a great article and your video lessons look like the cover everything for a beginner. Do make recommendations for page builders and other premium plugins?
Thanks, Lance.
Yes, the Website Blueprint course includes a module on Beaver Builder. I do occasionally recommend other commercial plugins as appropriate.
I’m using WordPress.com for my business website but considering getting a professional design now. The design agency says I need to switch to WordPress.org, so that means new hosting, etc. Do you think the switch is necessary for a professional-looking small business website?
Hi, yes, if your agency is designing a custom theme you will need to use a web hosting company. With WordPress.com you’re limited to the themes that are pre-installed. WordPress.com limits plugins too. It is possible to have a business website on WordPress.com, but you have limited control over what you’re able to do with your site. It really depends on your needs.
I totally agree. I’m currently using WordPress to run my site. Although it’s not really easy to build a landing page compared to Wix websites, I can expand the site features with various plugins which is amazing.
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