There are many studies on the shift in consumer behaviour over the years. The recent ones suggest that people no longer prefer buying goods from the local markets. Instead, they first compare their options on the internet and then make a purchase.
A 2020 Statista report shows around 2 billion people shopped for goods and services online.
The internet is fast proving to be a game-changer in the way businesses operate. It has forced them to go digital. The trend was especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, many business owners are hesitant to make the leap. They feel they lack the resources to move from an onsite store to the digital market. Yet, research by Forbes shows that a robust online presence is crucial to both retain and win new consumers.
In fact, research proves that businesses could lose up to 80% of potential customers without a website.
That’s where a content management system (CMS) steps in.
It is an all-in-one solution that makes the creation and management of website content effortless. A CMS doesn’t require developers to be well-versed in a coding language like HTML or CSS. Using certain in-built features, they can upload, edit, and delete content easily.
Creating your site on a CMS is vital. WordPress is by far the most popular CMS. In this post, we take you through four features that make WordPress a perfect choice for building business websites.
Let’s begin!
A report by Kinsta reveals that WordPress powers over two-thirds of the web. Heck, Elementor, a mere WordPress website builder, powers more than 7% of all the world's websites.
This popularity is owing to the fact that WordPress is a free and open-source CMS. It means WordPress allows developers to alter its source code to create custom websites.
WordPress is easy to use. It offers numerous themes and plugins to customise a site. Check out some of their options below.
WordPress goes a long way in taking care of its users’ needs. It provides them an active support community to discuss any problem they may face with the system. In addition, it offers handy guides to manage websites.
55.4% of internet users shop on their mobile phones.
It helps business owners to build responsive, mobile-friendly sites that drive traffic. With little knowledge of coding, businesses can create impressive websites that take them closer to success.
Often, small business owners are strapped for resources and juggle multiple responsibilities, making it difficult to set aside time for website development. (If that’s the case with you, you could consider outsourcing this work to a WordPress development agency or building an internal team of developers.)
Getting an expert involved has many benefits. Not only will it save time but also ensure that your website is ready for competition in the online market.
Many small businesses think that SEO is not relevant for them. However, it is not true. The internet is a competitive space. Thus, they need to put in the extra effort to win the audience.
Startups often compete with big brands for visibility.
SEO is one of the most effective ways of driving website traffic. It captures leads and pushes them through the sales funnel to turn them into loyal customers. Without SEO, the businesses would simply be wasting their resources on content that brings no revenue.
WordPress comes with specific features that manage SEO. It allows the users to organise content on their websites using tags and categories. These are WordPress ‘taxonomies’ that boost user experience and enhance a site’s accessibility.
Don’t underestimate the significance of tags and categories for SEO.
John Hughes makes it clear in the above article (follow link) that tags and categories may not directly affect a site’s visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs). But, they are crucial to the overall digital marketing strategy.
Tags and categories make it easier for netizens to find what they need quickly. They help search engines to crawl and index pages and posts. Thus, a navigable site automatically ranks higher on the SERPs.
But, that’s not all.
In a HubSpot study, 49% of marketers shared that visual content is central to their marketing strategy.
Visual marketing is the use of images, videos, and gifs for brand positioning. Marketers know visual content is a foolproof tactic to engage leads.
Audience engagement signals to search engines that a site posts value-adding content. Thus, it is a valuable metric to assess the rank a site deserves on the SERPs.
As WordPress understands the relevance of visual content for SEO, it supports multimedia to help businesses hone a solid marketing strategy. Besides, its blog feature is practically unbeatable for content marketing purposes.
Before being a full-fledged CMS, WordPress was a blogging platform. Though it has grown remarkably over time, the blog remains its most well-known feature. Research establishes that blogging is a sure-shot way to drive traffic to websites.
As the above image shows, 59% of B2B marketing professionals regard blogs to be the most valuable asset. They know that a blog is responsible for 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links.
A survey by HubSpot reveals that around 90% of businesses leverage blogs for building brand identity. In fact, blogging is the third most common content marketing strategy. A blog is an excellent medium for business owners to share their brand values and vision.
Providing this background enables them to establish a bond with the audience. Additionally, they can share evidence-backed insights to position themselves as thought leaders in the market.
In other words, a blog opens up endless avenues for audience engagement.
With WordPress, marketers can set up an impactful blog in no time. Its blog editor, formatting, and media tools are simply matchless. Since WordPress allows integration with social media channels, marketers can easily promote their content on Instagram and Facebook.
But, businesses often overlook a critical aspect when it comes to driving traffic. While they implement the right tactics to keep visitors on the site, they miss out on guest blogging.
Guest blogging offers two clear benefits:
But, managing guest post submissions and backlinks can be quite overwhelming for those who are new to guest blogging. If that’s the case, you can count on a guest post submission plugin for WordPress. It can streamline the process and improve the speed of submissions.
Using too many plugins can indeed pose security risks. However, rest assured, WordPress has protocols to secure your site against malware.
WordPress understands that security is a priority for every business. While no CMS is 100% secure, WordPress offers features like SSL encryption to protect sensitive information. It boasts of a competent community of developers and has a top-notch security system.
Its security team releases regular updates that not only keep the sites safe but also running at all times. Routine WordPress updates do an excellent job of detecting and fixing all known bugs. To maintain transparency, the team also makes the security issues public knowledge.
Unfortunately, sites on WordPress are not immune to hacking.
But, research shows that most hacks do not occur due to WordPress core software. Rather, they are the result of weak passwords or plugins. The image below breaks down the share of each factor that leads to the hacking of WordPress sites.
Clearly, a lot depends on external factors that influence website security. Businesses need to stay up to date with best practices to keep their websites protected. While WordPress does its best to guard sites, actions like enabling SSL encryption will further enhance their security.
WordPress is a powerful content management system. It comes packed with tools and plugins, making it suitable for developing an impressive business website. Be it scaling, brand building, or online image, it is the go-to solution for achieving every business goal.
We hope this post will encourage you to choose WordPress to power your business website.
Lucy is a creative content writer and strategist at Marketing Digest. She specializes in writing about digital marketing, technology, entrepreneurship, and education. When she is not writing or editing, she spends time reading books, cooking and traveling.
© 2021 Hi5, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy, Terms of use, Security Overview.
