We get asked all the time why “we should be using WordPress for our web sites?” Many people want to get started but don’t know how, and others are tired of trying to learn HTML but want an easy way to manage their online presence.

We decided to write this short post to give you an overview.

Using WordPress to create your small business web site is a virtually guaranteed way to:

* Increase your presence in search engines
* Cut the cost of time and labor to build and maintain your web site
* Enable you or your staff to easily maintain and add to your web site with less time or hassle than Dreamweaver or FrontPage
* Add countless functionality to turn your site into a powerhouse: Sell your product, book appointments, display portfolios, increase newsletter subscribers, enable visitors to share your information on social networks, and more.

Real estate agents use WordPress to display their listings and home tours, photographers display their galleries, mom-and-pop shoppes sell their widgets with WordPress.

Over the last year, we have taken hundreds of students who chose to invest in their success from having no web site or a cheap, canned template site, or were struggling with Dreamweaver, to a full-blown, functional, Google-recognized site from the very first class. The question is, why are we teaching them to do this with WordPress rather than say, Dreamweaver, or the GoDaddy ‘website tonight’ templates?

WordPress can really put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to building and managing your web site. Currently, over 55 million people are using WordPress for their blogs and web sites, and thousands more sign up every day. Brands like People.com, Kim Kardashian, Wall Street Journal, and many more use WordPress to power their blogs and web sites. Local people are using it to, including us (Martin’s site and Michelle’s site use it). So why can’t you?

WordPress is loved by Google, and contains built-in search engine optimization to help you rank higher in the search engines. No longer do you have to create a blog at a separate provider and ‘link’ your static site to it – now the blog and site run in the same area. In fact, your WordPress web site will tell you what to blog about to capture new visitors, when it’s time to update your software, new add-ons that are available to make your site really pop — all from within an online dashboard. The software is web-based and free to use, and so versatile that you can blog or update your web site from your email or iPhone!

Use WordPress to run a job board, promote your healthcare practice, sell your latest book, book consulting appointments online, add a classified ads section, sell real estate, live stream your seminars, display your landscaping projects in easy-to-make portfolios, and more. Log in online to update and optimize it – no more calling the firm downtown to wait two weeks for a simple change, and no more having to call someone to add a new page or update old team bios on the Contact Us page. You can now do it yourself in just a few clicks. What can you do with WordPress? There is almost nothing you can’t do with it. It’s why we teach “How to Build a WordPress Website” to hundreds of students each year.

Martin & Michelle