WordPress Website Management

WordPress Website Management Services

10 Reasons Why WordPress Is the Best CMS Out There

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Since its creation 13 years ago, WordPress has become one of the most favored content managing systems. Hailed as a go-to platform for bloggers, startups, small businesses and even large corporations, WordPress has cemented its popularity due to cost efficiency and ease of use. At this moment, it’s being used by over 74 million websites worldwide, and that number is projected to rise to a 100 million in the next year or two. If you wish to find out more about what makes it so special, we’ve prepaid 10 reasons why WordPress is the best content management system out there.

1.      It’s free and open source

One of the main reasons why startups and small businesses choose WordPress is that it’s very cost effective. The CMS itself is completely free and the only things that can cost you are the hosting package and the domain name. Not to mention that it’s open-source, which means that every part of its source code is open for developers to work on, improve and provide the users with the latest updates in functionality, as well as performance and security.

2.      It’s easy to use

Another reason why WordPress has become so popular is due to its user-friendliness. The learning curve is very short, even for complete beginners, as it only requires a few clicks to install it. Even the manual installation is simple, all you need to do is extract it on your server and you’re ready to go. Creating and editing content is straightforward, even on smartphones. This is because using WordPress does not require any special coding skills and gives off the feeling of using a word processing program than it does anything else.

3.      It offers a lot of functionality

As a content management system, WordPress easily handles all the behind-the-scenes work, such as indexing content, generating navigation links and making both the links and the content searchable. User management has always been tricky for webmasters. However, WordPress automates the user management tasks such as keeping track of specific permissions and keeping their data secure. There are also a number of different plugins available, which you can install literally with only a couple of clicks. Most of them are free, but there’s also many premium, paid plugins.

4.      It’s SEO-friendly

Getting at the top of the search engine results page has become important now more than ever.  Straight out of the box, WordPress offers numerous options used for search engine optimization. It can generate specific categories and tags for each post, allowing them to be cataloged by search engines more easily. Each page and each post can be given a specific meta tag and a keyword, allowing for a more precise optimization. Furthermore, there are tons of plugins developed specifically for search engine optimization, including the two most popular choices, WordPress SEO by Yoast and All In One SEO.

5.      It’s easy to customize

WordPress offers a number of different customization options, ranging from fonts, colors, design and even some core theme features. This can be done either by applying a specific theme, using the dashboard that provides the users with a simple interface they can use to change most of the website elements or customizing directly by editing the code. There are a number of cheap premade themes available, but you can also hire a web designer to make a custom theme from scratch if you need to.

6.      Excellent community and support

WordPress has an outstanding community of web developers and active users ready to help you with any problem or issue you might experience while using it. The support forum is well-maintained and contains over a million different queries you can search for solutions and troubleshoot any problems that may occur. Frequent updates allow for any bugs and issues to quickly be resolved so make sure you’re using the latest versions of both the plugins and themes and WordPress itself.

7.      It’s flexible and versatile

Although it started as a blogging platform, WordPress has grown into a complete solution for any website requirements you might have. It can be fully customized and used to create almost any type of website you could image. Currently, it’s being used for:

  • Blogging
  • E-commerce
  • Appointment and service booking
  • Photography and Video
  • Hosting directories
  • Classified ad listings
  • Membership-oriented websites
  • Question and answer forums
  • Information repository

Almost all of these come as a part of a theme and as such require little-to-no work to set them up. All you have to do is fill it with content and it’s ready to use.

8.      It’s very secure

You might think that because it’s open source, WordPress is more likely to be vulnerable to attacks, as hackers have a full access to its code. But this is simply not true, as security holes get quickly patched up with regular updates. One of the best ways a hacker could exploit your website is if it’s not updated to the latest version, so regular update checks can prove themselves to be a real life saver. Just make sure your themes and plugins are also up to date, as they are they pose the biggest security risk.

9.      It’s mobile-friendly

More than half of all internet traffic is coming from a mobile device. Having a website that can be viewed on a host of different devices is slowly becoming a norm and WordPress is certainly not lagging behind this trend. Most of the available themes, if not all, are required to be mobile and tablet friendly, which means that WordPress organizes and resizes your content based on the size of the screen you’re viewing it from. This is especially important for optimization, as mobile-friendliness is one of the major keys of good SEO practices.

10. Excellent community

You will find an outstanding community of developers and active users who support WordPress as an open-source platform. There are many different aspects of WordPress web design handled by dedicated and talented coders, developers and testers from around the world. You can use the community forum to ask for help for all sorts of problems and issues that might occur, or search through millions of available queries and answered requests. No matter what issue you might have, there’s always someone there to help you resolve it in no time.

WordPress isn’t the only content management system available at this moment. There’s Drupal, loved for its high levels of security and Joomla, which can be customized like no other. However, neither of them is as simple or as easy-to-use as WordPress is. Not to mention that both of them combined don’t have nearly as many themes and plugins WordPress does. On top of that, the community behind it is one of the best and the friendliest community online, ready to answer any question or help you resolve any issue you might have.

Author bio: John Stone is a web entrepreneur and SEO Consultant. Through years of experience, he became a devout believer in the notion that form should always follow function and that developing the ability to think outside of the box is a prerequisite of being a successful entrepreneur. He currently advises companies about Web Design in Sydney. You can find him on Twitter.

 

5 Easy Ways to Integrate Social Media with your WordPress Site

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You can have a phenomenal WordPress site, but if you’re trying to monetize, or if you’re using it as an advertising platform, it’s not going to do you much good unless you can manage to get it in front of more people.

find the right social media role model
find the right social media role model

Today we have the added benefit of social media and sharing capabilities, but how do you go about setting it up so that it works flawlessly together, without eating your budget or your time? Social Media plugins work by giving readers the ability to instantly share your site with their own social network with just the click of a button. Some of them are free, and some of them come with a price tag. We’ve put together a selection of the best social media plugins to help get your followers to do some of the work for you.

Buttons

There are many available button plugins for WordPress to help you get your message out on social media that will allow your users to share your posts effortlessly. There are options available that show up at the bottom of the article, the top of the article, and now, there are even scrolling panels that allow the “share” function to be available at the side of the page no matter where in the post your reader happens to be.

Comments

Adding a comments section to your blog allows for the social media user to interact with your blog, giving you much needed traffic, as they return and return again to follow the conversation. They are also more likely to share your post on their own social media page if they are invested in it by being a part of the discussion. Many of the available comments plug-ins will also allow readers to sign in directly from their Facebook or Google+ accounts. By engaging your readers in a discussion, you’ll be able to tailor future posts to the topics that generate the most interest, and gauge the reactions to any controversial opinions you may have stated. Many readers may even ask questions that allow you to expand on your work, and this may even generate ideas for future topics.

Tracking

Social media tracking is just what it sounds like, but that’s actually a good thing. This isn’t necessarily about finding out what other people are doing, but about finding out how well your site is doing. Social media tracking programs allow you to see which of your posts are doing well, and where they are doing the best. They will count the number of shares, as well as the number of comments, allowing you to understand which of your posts are generating the most interest or the most discussion. These programs can track your metrics across a variety of social platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, as well as many others. Knowing where your posts are finding the greatest audience is your ticket to knowing how to move forward in the future.

Broadcasting

No we’re not talking about radio or television ads, we’re talking about sending your posts out automatically among various sites. You can start the social media sharing by sharing it to your own Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+ account. By sending it out on multiple platforms, you can again increase the readership among your followers, and increase the sharing potential within each site.

Content Locking

While many people find the idea of having to pay to finish reading an article upsetting, there is something to be said for locking content in a way that costs nothing, and takes just a second of their time. You can now offer to unlock content if your reader will simply hit “Like” or “Share” for your post, allowing them to continue reading while getting your work in front of more sets of eyes. Content locking should be used sparingly, and preferably on only the most engaging and powerful posts. If readers run into it too much, they’ll simply stop reading your posts altogether, which is not what you want. Content locking can be a fantastic way to grow your base, but if not done well, can also lose subscribers if they feel you’re just using them.

While each of these methods of integrating Social Media with your WordPress site can help you out by themselves, combining one or more of these tools can exponentially increase your views. Add your sharing buttons to your emails, to get your posts shared, and grow your email list by asking for readers to sign up in order to have content unlocked! Finding ways to uses these services will help you get the most out of your site, for the least amount of work. It may take a while to get everything in place, but once you do, maintaining your site and your readership becomes effortless.

David Grover
David Grover is a Communications Manager at Timeo, a useful tool for businesses in the UK. He’s also a freelance career coach, who’s always eager to share his experience. In his free time he enjoys travelling.