Which of these choices would you prefer?

A basic site and design that can run you $3000 plus, requires that you are a computer programmer to make even simple updates to your site’s content, and would have to be completely redesigned if you decide it’s looking a bit outdated?

Or a website that is built on free software, allows you to easily update content yourself and you can select from thousands of clean, professional looking designs that can be added to the site in a matter of minutes?

No brainer, right?

If you aren’t familiar with it, an introduction to WordPress is in order.

WordPress, while orginally developed for blogging, is now an amazingly powerful Content Management System that you can use to a design highly functional and professional website for your small business.

Here are 7 reasons why using WordPress for your small business’ website is such an appealing option:

1. It costs nothing! Not one penny! WordPress is available for download at WordPress.org at no cost – you won’t even have to give up your email address. To host a WordPress site yourself, however, you will need to find a hosting company. That’s generally not free. But it’s not expensive either. For just $5 – $10 a month you can host your WordPress site at any number of quality web host providers. Many of them include Fantastico with your hosting plan which is software that lets you install WordPress in just a few clicks without even having to download the software.

2. Ease of Use. Besides being easy to install, WordPress is very easy to use. Sure, if you’re technically challenged, there will be a learning curve in using WordPress. But there are plenty of tutorials around on the web to help you. And once you get the hang of things it’s quite easy to add or update content – it’s basically like using a word processing program like Microsoft Word. You don’t need to have a programming bone in your body to successfully maintain a WordPress site.

3. Themes. Think of a theme as a template. It will change the look and feel of your WordPress site. It can also change the behind-the-scenes workings of your site to provide additional functionality. You can choose from thousands of different themes – some are free, some you have to pay for. And if you can’t find one that quite suits your requirements, you can hire a designer to create a custom theme for your WordPress site.

Themes make it easy to get a clean, professional looking site without having to pay for a lot of custom design work. And they’re easy to install and change. If you wake up one morning and decide your site needs a facelift – no problem! Find a theme you like better, activate it and you’ve got a brand new look to your site – without having to touch the content of your pages or blog posts.

4. Plugins. A plugin is a piece of software you can add to your WordPress site that enhances the functionality of WordPress. There are plugins that help with your site’s search engine optimization, improve site security, fight spam, design a contact form, add e-commerce functionality, etc. And the best part is most of these plugins are free!

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you want to get some major SEO-love from Google and the other search engines, WordPress is for you. The search engines simply love WordPress. If you add on a few of the available WordPress SEO plugins, then you’ll really be cooking!

6. Tech Support. While WordPress itself doesn’t have a tech support crew you can call or email, don’t worry. There’s no shortage of places to turn to for help with your questions. WordPress.org has a very active forum where you can search for answers to your questions or post questions to the community. There are also plenty of other sites, blogs, message boards where you can go for advice. Or, you can hire a WordPress expert to help. Bottom line, whatevery issue you have, an answer is not far away.

7. Control. Hosting your own WordPress website puts you in control of your web presence. Need to update your content, add new posts or pages? You can easily do it yourself. Want to update the appearance of your site? Find a new Theme, upload it, activate it and you’re done. Don’t like the hosting company you’re using? Find another and move your site – there are plenty of good hosting companies around.

There you have seven reasons to strongly consider WordPress to power your small business’ website. To be certain, there are definitely situations where having a custom programmed website created by a reputable, qualified professional is the way to go.

However, for the needs of most small businesses, WordPress provides a combination of functionality, flexibility and cost-effectiveness that is tough to beat.

Adam Kreitman is a Saint Louis online marketing consultant. While he is not a designer, he got tired of seeing small business clients with overpriced, poorly designed websites so he started helping clients develop sites using WordPress. To get the word out to a larger audience he started a website which provides tips, video tutorials and resources for using WordPress for business.

Tags: blogs, business, internet, marketing, plugins, Search Engine Optimization, small business, small business websites, themes, web design, websites, wordpress, WordPress for business

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 11:12 pm and is filed under wordpress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.