The COVID-19 pandemic has irrevocably shifted the business landscape and hammered home the point that businesses need an online presence to boost their growth, sustainability, and risk management efforts.
One of the first things that you can do to jumpstart your online marketing efforts is to set up a website for your business. There are various ways you can do this, but today we’ll focus on how you can build a website using WordPress.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an online tool you can use to build your website. Since its founding in 2003, it’s become the most popular website builders worldwide, taking over 59% of the market share. WordPress is so big, it now powers over 30% of the internet.
One of the reasons for this popularity is that WordPress is largely free, with only a few small fees for hosting services, premium themes, and other services. You can choose from over 11,000 themes and templates and control every site element, from buttons, media, font style, size, colors, etc. You can even optimize your website’s functionality by choosing plugins and widgets to incorporate into your site. You can turn your site into an eCommerce store, a blog site, or anything you need.
WordPress website design boasts an intuitive interface and leads to professional-looking websites. This means that with WordPress, anyone can make their website, even if they have no web development or coding skills.
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Here are a few easy tips for designing a great website using WordPress.
- Pick the right theme
It’s easy to be overwhelmed when there are thousands of themes to choose from, but instead of choosing the most popular or the prettiest theme, go with one that suits your purpose.
Themes come with reviews, and you can read those to gather insight on the theme before selecting it. Sometimes users point out issues with the theme and that saves you from wasting time trying it out only to find a few bugs. Ensure that the theme is mobile-friendly so you can cater to mobile users and boost your SEO. Don’t limit yourself to the free themes. Usually, premium themes aren’t even that expensive, and yet they have superior designs and features.
- Use appropriate plugins (but don’t go overboard)
Plugins are great for adding functionality to your website. There’s a plugin for every feature your site may need, like contact forms, checkout, product catalogs, image carousels, etc.
As exciting as it may seem to install as many plugins as you can, having too many of them can slow your website down. Install only what you need. Read the reviews before installing them on your site to ensure quality performance. Sometimes there are multiple plugin options for the same purpose, so choose the one that is best suited for you.
- Compress large images
Large images are one of the major causes of slow loading speed. This is a problem because studies show that 40% of users will abandon a site if it loads too slowly. If an image doesn’t need to be high-resolution, don’t upload an unnecessarily large version of the file. Take advantage of online tools to help compress images to optimize them for your website.
- Prioritize security
WordPress website design isn’t just about ensuring your site looks pretty. It’s also about optimizing the backend of your site. One of the things you should focus on when building your site is security. Users value data privacy, and many browsers and search engines automatically warn users if they’re about to enter a non-secure site and might even block them from entering. If you don’t stay updated on your site’s security features, your site traffic will decrease as a result.
Here are a few ways you can guarantee site security:
- Get an SSL certificate. SSL certificates encrypt site visitor information, ensuring that your user’s data is kept private. Most hosting providers already have SSL security included, but you can also install SSL yourself. This is free, but if your site requires users to input delicate information (i.e. credit card details), you may need to pay for more advanced SSL certificates and additional security features.
- Keep your site updated. Every month or so, WordPress updates its site to fix any bugs or add special features. Check these updates to ensure your plugins and themes are compatible with them. Otherwise, your site can become buggy and vulnerable. If there’s an update available, your dashboard should have an Update Now button available.
- Maintain a neat layout
It’s easy to get carried away with colors, plugins, multimedia content, ads, and widgets, but having too much on a single page can overwhelm your users and lead to poor readability. Don’t hesitate to add negative space to your site to give people space to rest their eyes. Don’t overstuff the site with features just to seem trendy or unique. Most of the time these will only clutter up your site and distract from your main point.
- Manage your comments/reviews
Enabling comments and reviews on your blog posts or product listings are good for encouraging user engagement and conversion. Try to respond to as many of these as you can to show your users that you listen to and care about what they have to say. Responding to reviews, positive or negative, is also a sign of good customer service.
However, you may also want to moderate these just to remove any spammy or irrelevant content. Sometimes troll accounts post links on the comments section of various blogs and it could lead to dangerous websites. To protect your users, delete these types of comments as soon as possible.
WordPress website design is perfect for small businesses or entrepreneurs who can’t afford to hire web design agencies to make a functional and stylish website for them. Try it for yourself to see how easy it is to start a website of your own. Because it’s such a popular platform, there are also countless resources online, and of course, website design agencies, you can consult to design the perfect website for your business.
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