For new small business owners, a website is a necessity. Tech startups get all the attention in the media, but the fact is that most small business startups don’t have a web technology expert among the founders. The plumbers, electricians, realtors, and consultants who form the largest contingent of new business owners usually don’t have the skill to create a cutting-edge site from scratch; nor do they have the many thousands of dollars to invest in hiring a developer or designer to do it for them.
Content management systems — including WordPress, Joomla, and MODX — are all less difficult to get to grips with than building a site from scratch, but content management systems are designed with different use-cases in mind. Some, such as MODX, are extremely flexible, but that flexibility brings along a level of complexity that makes them a challenge for the inexperienced.
In my experience, WordPress hits the sweet spot between flexibility and user-friendliness, which is a major cause of its massive popularity. Despite the multitude of available options in the CMS space, WordPress is still the best choice for a small business founder who is prepared to learn a little bit but doesn’t have the time or the inclination to dive deep into web technology.
Why Choose WordPress?
A content management system allows a site to be modified without needing to tangle with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Once configured and deployed, anyone who can handle a word processor shouldn’t have much problem managing a WordPress site. But, the main benefit of WordPress is that it is so easy to set up in the first place.
All good WordPress hosting companies provide one-click installation of WordPress, so there’s never any need to fiddle around with files and folders on the command line. After WordPress has been installed, creating a compelling site is usually just a matter of finding a suitable theme, installing it, and tweaking the settings until it’s ready for content to be added.
New functionality can be quickly and simply integrated using the thousands of available plugins. Need to backup your site? No problem; there are plenty of plugins that make it a breeze. The same is true of SEO, social sharing features, and caching. The learning curve is not nonexistent, but it is flat enough that anyone with moderate technical ability can figure it out.
That ease-of-use doesn’t mean that WordPress isn’t a full-featured and powerful content management system. Users can go as deep as they like and WordPress will go along with them, providing the access and functionality necessary to build sites of almost any level of complexity — WordPress is used by everyone from freelancers to the New York Times.
Additionally, if business owners do come across any problems they feel they can’t handle, the massive popularity of WordPress means there are plenty of WordPress professionals available to help out at a reasonable price.
If you’re considering setting up a new business site, the combination of WordPress and a decent hosting company will make the task much less daunting that it might seem.
