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Small Business owners frequently struggle with the right way to set up a web presence for their business. How much should a professional looking website cost? How do I make sure it gets noticed by the search engines? Where do I start?
Questions like these make many of them put this critical marketing decision off for another day. The tragedy is that they are missing out on harnessing the Internet as an amazing new way to promote their business.
One excellent way to put your business online is with a free, open source tool called WordPress. WordPress is known by the tech elite as one of the most popular blogging tools on the Internet. But what some people don’t know, is that WordPress is a powerful website content management system that can be used for websites as well as blogs.
Why Use WordPress? Here are Some of the Benefits:
1) It’s cost effective.
A decent looking website designed by a professional can cost you $2,000 and up. WordPress is a free tool, built and tested by Internet experts. All you will have to pay for is a domain name and hosting, which you can get for $10/month or less.
2) Professional designs are available for free.
There are literally thousands of WordPress “Themes” available , many of them created by professional website designers. A WordPress Theme is essentially a website design template that you can use once you install WordPress. Many of these themes are free, and many “premium” themes that come with documentation and support are available for under $100.
3) It’s easy to add functionality to your website.
There are thousands of WordPress “Plugins” available, which allow you to add all kinds of features to your website. Most of these plugins are free, and allow you to add features like photo slideshows, maps and directions, contact forms, click-to-call buttons, announcements, or just about anything you can imagine to your website in minutes.
4) Search Engine Optimization is built in. WordPress was designed with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. It is super easy to update your website and publish new content without having to know HTML. Whenever you publish a new web page or article to your website, WordPress automatically ‘pings’ the search engines, alerting them about your new page. And with WordPress it is easy to post audio and video content as well as traditional text and images.
5) It’s easy to get support. WordPress is prevalent on the web, and discussed on hundreds or even thousands of blogs and forums. Support is literally a Google search away. And there are plenty of experts available if you want to hire someone for some specific customizations or hand holding.
A Small Business Website Example:
To see an example of what a small business website built on WordPress looks like, take a look at this chiropractic website template. This website is powered by WordPress, using a custom theme for chiropractic websites. The theme is available as a free download if you want to try it out on your own website. And there are thousands more themes available on the web.
How To Get Started:
To get started, you’ll want to select a “hosting provider” that supports WordPress. Many of these hosting providers have a 1-click install for WordPress that makes it super easy - you can literally Install WordPress in Five Minutes or less.
Another option is to sign up for a service called WordPress.com, which you can sign up with for free. This is a good approach for individuals or hobbyists who want to get started quickly. However, I don’t recommend it for small business websites, because there are some restrictions. For example, you cannot place Google AdSense on your site hosted there, and you must select from their list of pre-approved themes and plugins, which limit your ability to customize your site.
Once you are up and running with WordPress, you’ll just need to name your website, pick a theme (which you can always change later) and publish your first article!
For more information on how to set up WordPress to power your small business website, visit this WordPress for Small Business Websites series.
About the Author:
Don Campbell is the publisher of www.Expand2Web.com - a website that helps small business owners automate their business websites using WordPress, and get a steady stream of new customers from Google and Yahoo.
This article is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which means you are free to redistribute as long as you link back to the original author.
Questions like these make many of them put this critical marketing decision off for another day. The tragedy is that they are missing out on harnessing the Internet as an amazing new way to promote their business.
One excellent way to put your business online is with a free, open source tool called WordPress. WordPress is known by the tech elite as one of the most popular blogging tools on the Internet. But what some people don’t know, is that WordPress is a powerful website content management system that can be used for websites as well as blogs.
Why Use WordPress? Here are Some of the Benefits:
1) It’s cost effective.
A decent looking website designed by a professional can cost you $2,000 and up. WordPress is a free tool, built and tested by Internet experts. All you will have to pay for is a domain name and hosting, which you can get for $10/month or less.
2) Professional designs are available for free.
There are literally thousands of WordPress “Themes” available , many of them created by professional website designers. A WordPress Theme is essentially a website design template that you can use once you install WordPress. Many of these themes are free, and many “premium” themes that come with documentation and support are available for under $100.
3) It’s easy to add functionality to your website.
There are thousands of WordPress “Plugins” available, which allow you to add all kinds of features to your website. Most of these plugins are free, and allow you to add features like photo slideshows, maps and directions, contact forms, click-to-call buttons, announcements, or just about anything you can imagine to your website in minutes.
4) Search Engine Optimization is built in. WordPress was designed with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. It is super easy to update your website and publish new content without having to know HTML. Whenever you publish a new web page or article to your website, WordPress automatically ‘pings’ the search engines, alerting them about your new page. And with WordPress it is easy to post audio and video content as well as traditional text and images.
5) It’s easy to get support. WordPress is prevalent on the web, and discussed on hundreds or even thousands of blogs and forums. Support is literally a Google search away. And there are plenty of experts available if you want to hire someone for some specific customizations or hand holding.
A Small Business Website Example:
To see an example of what a small business website built on WordPress looks like, take a look at this chiropractic website template. This website is powered by WordPress, using a custom theme for chiropractic websites. The theme is available as a free download if you want to try it out on your own website. And there are thousands more themes available on the web.
How To Get Started:
To get started, you’ll want to select a “hosting provider” that supports WordPress. Many of these hosting providers have a 1-click install for WordPress that makes it super easy - you can literally Install WordPress in Five Minutes or less.
Another option is to sign up for a service called WordPress.com, which you can sign up with for free. This is a good approach for individuals or hobbyists who want to get started quickly. However, I don’t recommend it for small business websites, because there are some restrictions. For example, you cannot place Google AdSense on your site hosted there, and you must select from their list of pre-approved themes and plugins, which limit your ability to customize your site.
Once you are up and running with WordPress, you’ll just need to name your website, pick a theme (which you can always change later) and publish your first article!
For more information on how to set up WordPress to power your small business website, visit this WordPress for Small Business Websites series.
About the Author:
Don Campbell is the publisher of www.Expand2Web.com - a website that helps small business owners automate their business websites using WordPress, and get a steady stream of new customers from Google and Yahoo.
This article is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which means you are free to redistribute as long as you link back to the original author.