Some have been building websites and web pages since the 1990s. My hats off to those folks!
Others have gone it a different route – finding “free” websites. You sign up, easily create your page from a few attractive enough templates, and you thought you were on your way.
They didn’t tell ya that every time you log in to make an adjustment, it might be tedious or time-consuming. Or that you’re adding to their “Google love”…not necessarily your own. It ends up being a nifty online brochure that only those you tell can find.
So, “free,” doesn’t necessarily mean free.
WWW
Still others of us have purchased our own domain and hosting, and created our own static websites with semi easy-to-use page-builder programs. The Do-It-Yourself route with maybe some success.
For the layperson, this was technologically and phonetically sexy! With a website, you could say, “We’re online at www…”
That was me. Back in 2006.
Five years ago!
The web is not even the same as it was six months ago. Let alone five years ago. Social media and our social graphs have changed everything.
And this will continue to be the trend.
So, shouldn’t we be equipping ourselves with the tools that will bring us the greatest success with the least amount of effort?
The Definition Of Insanity
I live in an area of Ohio that was dubbed “Ground Zero of Unemployement,” after DHL pulled out of their American Headquarters operations here in 2008. Every family that I know was affected with at least one parent out of work. Some even still.
Business owners have had it rough trying to survive! In turn, many once-employed have tapped their entrepreneurial spirit, and bootstrapped their way into business. Budgets have been very tight.
I’m often asked about social media strategy and online presence. And I immediately pipe up, bright-eyed, with information that I’ve learned over the past couple of years.
In those conversations, I highly recommend small business owners, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs set their website up in WordPress format. I discuss the ease in starting up, that it’s highly customizable, and very easy to maintain. I’ll go on to describe how Google loves WordPress, as content is continually indexed, favoring higher ranks in the search engines.
We talk about blogging as a way to establish credibility and attract customers or followers. The blog can be right at the website – pretty simple. WordPress plugins make sharing to social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter realllly easy.
I’ve even given WordPress tours online to show people – hands-on – what WordPress is all about and how it works.
Some look at me like I have three heads. This “WordPress stuff” surely isn’t same ‘ole, same ‘ole.
And they go back to their free and static websites, and get their high school-aged nephew, or poker buddy that thinks they know what they’re doing, to set it up and/or maintain.
These are the same people that I see in the grocery store a few months later, shaking their head, telling me that social media isn’t giving them what they hoped for, and that their website isn’t getting any traffic. Also the folks that can’t log in to their website because Poker Buddy “screwed things up.”
Meanwhile, I’m growing leaps and bounds and my WordPress motor’s runnin’!
Yet they still won’t re-consider that a WordPress formatted website and blog might give them better results. Even change their business.
Isn’t this a tad like asking the same question, expecting a different answer?
WordPress Mechanics
I had a designer help me set up the first version of my WordPress site. She kept talking about my theme’s architecture “under the hood.” So I started to think of my website as this cool, groovy car that I took for a drive every time I published a blog entry! Fun, eh?
Not very long ago, I gave my site a new look, keeping the WordPress format. It was only a few hours after I published the updates when I got a very interesting call from someone that found me via Google search. I was stunned!
This led me to recall an article written by my Facebook Friend and Twitter Tweep, Kim Garst, Why Oh Why Should I Use WordPress?
Kim had this to say, “One of my first experiences with WordPress…I installed a WordPress theme for a client on a Tuesday morning. I simply installed the theme, no content or anything was up yet and on Thursday, my client called me and said that their domain was pulling up in Google’s organic rankings under their primary keyword! #4 on GOOGLE!”
I’d say they ran a pretty good race there!
Leather ‘n Lace
It could be that I have not made WordPress appear attractive enough; Bodaciously showroom new.
Quite possible my approach has lacked the “new car smell,” and frilly phrasings.
Maybe my words………..
………..haven’t revved the right turbos.
In my neck of the woods, men are most often the decision-makers. But more and more, ladies hold the master keys.
Playing no favorites, lets make it more exciting!
Your WordPress Website: Bringing Sexy Back
- WordPress is free at WordPress.org.
- Themes (design/paint job) are also free.
- Premium themes are available for a nominal fee to take your SEO from 0-60!
- Plugins make your site efficient and socially savvy.
- Google LOVES WordPress – Don’t even have to buy it dinner.
Note my social share options to the left and at the bottom of this post — those are plugins.
If you want your theme customized, a designer can help you do that. I know a few good ones, I’ll put you in touch.
So…Ya ready for a WordPress test drive??
Are there super-savvy web developers that can share anything that I left out above?
Original Image credits: Yellow – new.drive.com.au; Mini Cooper – flexicar.wordpress.com
