Many clients will come to me requesting an update to their outdated website, many of which are unfortunately a collection of static HTML web pages. My suggestion to many of these clients is to upgrade their website to a popular content management system (also referred to as CMS) known as WordPress. Many people have heard of WordPress nowawdays, and seem to think it’s mainly used for blogging websites. But the truth of the matter is that now anyone can use WordPress, whether they use a blog or not. WordPress is highly customizable and allows you to create a custom website or choose from many free or paid themes which can give your website the look and feel you want it to have. Most themes make it easy to make the changes yourself, if you have the time to learn. Simple things like updating the content on pages can be easily done and many themes even offer other important changes that the user can do themselves. For more complex changes, you might still require the aid of a designer or developer, although simple changes like the text on the pages will be more accessible to the common user.

The problem with having a static HTML-based website can often be that in order to make one change, in reality you actually have to make changes to multiple if not all the pages within the website, which can be very tedious and time consuming to say the least. One example could be the website’s navigation menu. If you have to change the name of an item or add a new page, you may have to change all the pages! Some websites do make good use of including a page on each page (which could mean that the navigation menu is on its own page and is simply “included” on every single page, which makes updating much simpler), although most novice web designers do not use this feature. I cannot tell you the amount of websites I have come across that use static HTML pages and do not use an “include”. So then we’re back to my above mentioned problem: having to manually go into every single page and update the navigation menu.

So that’s where WordPress comes into play. It makes great use of includes for sidebars, headers, and footers, which can help a developer majority in completing a site more quickly and efficiently. Now maybe the modern user will not see the benefit as much from this feature, but if they have to pay a developer to make changes to their website, they will see that there can be a huge difference in the price it costs for a static HTML update versus one such as WordPress. A smart consumer will jump all over this and see the benefit right away.

Now, to discuss the idea of blogging. While I do recommend using the blogging feature, it’s not completely necessary. It is just one of the added bonuses that WordPress throws your way when you use it. But, if you do choose to start a blog, it can greatly help you start getting the higher rankings you want to establish on popular search engines, such as Google. One of the great things about blogging, other than the fact that you can write about anything and have everyone comment about it, is that the more often you publish or change content on your website, the better your chances are of getting a higher ranking on search engines. This being said, you don’t have to blog all the time, multiple times a week or day like some blogging addicts, although you can blog once in a while and still have the increased benefit it offers. I recommend at least blogging once a week to keep your web presence steady, but you can definitely do it more or less, depending on your situation and preferences.

I am not much of a blogger myself, although I have many things I want to write about and get the opinions of others on. I am trying to get myself to start becoming more active as a blogger, so we will see how that goes.

Another major thing that is very popular right now with the general public as well as small and large business owners alike is social media networking. This is a great idea because it helps you advertise your site and/or services for free through word of mouth. If you already have a social media networking account, such as Facebook, take a look at how many friends you have. I’m sure you have a lot! Just think of how many of them might pass along things they’ve read on your page to other fiends of theirs, and the cycle just continues. Using social media networking can be a great benefit, although many people just don’t have the time to constantly update their sites. The great advantage to using WordPress is the ability to use a plethora of plugins that can help aid you in this process.

One such plugin that is very useful is one that allows you to automatically publish any posts you create to any of your connected social media networking accounts. This means that you can publish a post on your blog, in only one place, and then all of your social media networking sites will be automatically updated for you. No more running to each site to add the same content over and over again. What a weight off your shoulders! Some of the sites will get an excerpt of your full post including a link back to your blog, which is great for getting more visitors to your site, and some will only include the title of the post (so name them accordingly!) and a link back to the original post on your website. Either way, it is getting the word out that you just wrote something that may be of interest to your friends and other viewers, and they can take the time to go read it in full at their convenience.

I cannot stress how important social media networking can be to upcoming businesses and well-established businesses alike. Just the amount of free advertising you’re getting there is enough to put forth the effort to update your content at least weekly if possible!

Another great built-in feature of WordPress is its search engine optimization. This means that before you even begin to set up any plugins or anything else for that matter on your website, WordPress has already been hard at work getting your website noticed in search engines. Now, don’t expect to rank at the top or even on the first page immediately just through using WordPress. This is a process that takes some time. But you can be sure that WordPress makes it easy for search engines, especially Google, to find your website more easily. And then there are the massive amounts of SEO plugins out there that you can use to help increase your search engine chances even more!

Another great idea is to allow viewers to comment on your website posts and/or pages. The major benefit of this is to allow for a constant flow of feedback from your viewers. This will help you to see where you need improvement and possibly just what others think about what you have written about. Most people want to know what others have to say about what they think and feel, or they probably wouldn’t have taken the time out to even write about it! So leave that comment box there and let your viewers communicate with you! WordPress has the built-in feature of allowing comments and you can make great use of that.

Another great plugin I have found that I use often is one that allows viewers to share your posts with their friends on their social media networks and even by e-mail. This is another great feature because here you are getting even more exposure for free, more free advertising through word of mouth, and who knows how many people that one little post will circulate through!

Another great plugin that WordPress offers is one that allows you to sell your products or services through your website. Some plugins make it super easy to just add a product in and start receiving orders for it. Some plugins offer many different ways to purchase the product or service, such as PayPal, money orders, checks, and credit cards, etc. This can be very useful if you need to be able to provide many different payment options for your visitors. Many of them are highly customizable, so making them look like the rest of your website is easy to do. Some plugins are also available to allow visitors to make donations as well as make simple PayPal payments to you for a product or service, without the need for an entire storefront idea and multiple payment options. Some people prefer this over the other because it seems much simpler and easier to maintain when there is only one payment source to worry about. The decision is totally up to you.

I strongly urge any website owners to use blogging, as suggested above, social media networking, and the sharing ability to increase their chances of free advertising and better rankings on search engines. If you are in need of web design and development services, please contact me for more details. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Hopefully this post will help you to understand the benefits of using a WordPress website as opposed to a static HTML-based website.