It is extremely important to have a well-functioning and professional website in order to have a successful business. It can sometimes seem like a lot of work to create a website and run it, but it will pay off if you give it the attention it deserves. Thankfully, there is an amazing content management system that is completely free and can help you set up a professional business website in just a few minutes. It is none other than WordPress. Originally marketed as blogging software, WordPress is so much more with the capability to easily (and often freely) be expanded to meet the needs of almost any business.
It is also very user friendly making it easy to update webpages even for those with little technical know-how. Furthermore, it is pretty good for SEO in terms of site structure right out of the box. There are also a number of easy-to-use plugins to expand your control over SEO elements if you are inclined to do so. One of the more popular SEO plugins is Yoast, which also includes a premium version with added functionality (although the free version will suit most people’s needs and is quite powerful all on its own). The user community is extremely large and active, providing for a great free support system for any business owner looking to take their website to the next level.
But even right out of the box, WordPress has tons of features and all of the essentials for a good business site. It is mobile friendly, includes an intuitive backend, and is easy to add content to (including multimedia such as images and videos). Pretty much anyone who can use Microsoft Word will be able to use WordPress once they are logged in to the backend.
For more advanced users, the sky is really the limit with this software. It can easily be turned into an ecommerce platform for businesses which may want to make sales online. There are many great plugins to add this functionality and what is right for your website really depends on your individual needs. It is important to read the plugin descriptions and reviews when it comes to selecting the right ones because options are aplenty when it comes to ecommerce solutions or really any type of popular plugin on WordPress.
WordPress has a strong history of providing quality solutions to webmasters who are new to the game as well as those who are market leaders and have been making websites for a very long time. It is easy to start as a beginner and to continue using it even as you become a master just because it is so customizable and powerful. If you haven’t checked it out yet, go give it a try- you may just surprise yourself with what you find. It is no wonder that so many professional sites and companies from CNN to TechCrunch have used WordPress on their websites over the years. The WordPress community is millions large and continues to grow.