When it comes to WordPress, there could be a variety of different reasons for you to use one, but before opening up your site, you should consider these points for both knowledge and inspiration.
Reasons To Use WordPress
Commonly, WordPress was only associated with blogging use, but it has far more uses than you’d think. This year, WordPress will turn 18, and it’s undergone a lot of changes since then. More recently, WordPress has been used for new businesses as a shop.
This saw a rise during the coronavirus pandemic, as many businesses set up to trade locally online without much running costs. This allowed many WordPress users who perhaps were originally using the site for a blog about their hobby, to start earning money from their creations that readers enjoyed.
In a similar story, WordPress even has functions for booking and appointments. Again, very useful for new businesses who are looking to organize their customers when they may not have the understanding to make it happen.
Essentially, there’s no limit to what you can achieve with WordPress, from creating real estate listings, to creating a live chat support feature.
Customization Options
Aside from all the plugins and extensions you can add to improve the features of your website, there are actually many different tools and ways to customize the site, without having to learn code and tech.
That’s what appeals to many users, as most will come to the site with no previous experience or knowledge on designing websites. What they offer, are thousands of free website templates, known as themes, that can be used as a base.
Each of these themes can be customized further, with each panel drop down allowing you to change colors, upload your logo or other images, change the background and customize it fully without any complication.
It’s incredibly user-friendly, allowing you creative freedom to execute your vision. However, you could look for a Denver WordPress designer if you want to stand apart from the competition with a high-quality, professionally designed website. They can guide you to color schemes and set-ups that draw in more traffic to your page. Aside from visual customization, you can also add custom functionality to your site by using plugins.
Useful Plugins
The bonus with using WordPress, is that they offer a variety of different useful plugins that you can utilize. In fact, they have over 52,000 through their directory as of March 2021 alone.
Plugins are essentially like apps. Instead of apps on your phone, these are apps for your WordPress website. They can be used to add features such as contact forms, membership areas, data and email links.
You could even use these plugins to make an online store, if you so wished. One of the ways new businesses and websites is utilizing an email subscription plugin. A WordPress email subscription allows you to get visitors to your site signed up, helping you contact them regarding any deals which ultimately leads to a loyal customer base.
An email list will also allow you to build up interest with your customers through targeted campaigns, either through a newsletter or general emails. Bloggers may use it to let readers know about new content they’ve released, whereas companies will them for promotional content.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, in fact, there are many more useful plugins for any occasion. If you’re wanting a portfolio, there are hundreds of helpful plugins available, as there are for more professional work uses. Even if you wished to start your own podcast, there’s a plugin for that.
Security
Whereas some sites leave you to your own devices upon creation, WordPress gives you comfort with built in security measures.
The core software is secure itself, and is audited regularly by developers, but there are points for you to consider to help boost the security yourself.
A hacked website can cause issues with your business brand, reputation and ultimately revenue. Not only can they change what is listed on your website, but if you’re not careful, they can actually steal user information, passwords and put in virus software that can spread.
Often, hackers will demand a payment to return your site, so it’s best to stop them early. Ensure at all times that you are updating WordPress at all times, if you’re running a site that’s a few versions down, you may find yourself vulnerable to hacks as the core security won’t be covering you.
You should have a unique password associated with logging into your site. Over the last few years, many passwords were hacked with associated emails, this means that hackers have access to old passwords linked to your account. Consider using a password manager that can create unique passwords that are difficult to guess and secure.
Multilingual Translation
The good news is that WordPress is accessible for the entire world. There is a team at WordPress dedicated to translating, and so far, has over 170 different languages.
As well as using tools from WordPress, there are also many different plugins that are designed for translation, and actually allows you to create your own translation site.
