“I can’t update my website!”
“I’ve got to get my webmaster to do that, but it’s going to cost me…”
“Nooooo, I just hosed my website!”
If you talk to enough small business owners, or friends that want to have a website but don’t spend evenings and weekends tinkering around on the web, you’ll hear frustrations like this a lot.
And that’s from the ones who have figured out how to get a website up and running in the first place. There are many who are still trying to figure out where to start. But wait, there is hope!
WordPress to the Rescue
WordPress is one of the most popular blogging tools available. But what many people don’t know is that it is a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that can be used for more than just blogging. With WordPress you can build a blog, a website, or both. This is the first article in a series where we’ll explore why WordPress is a good choice for small business websites, and how to install, configure and use it for your small business.
Web Content Management Systems
A content management system is a tool that helps you manage the creation and updates to web pages on your web site. In 1998 I was one of the early members of a Silicon Valley start-up called Interwoven. Interwoven provided Web Content Management solutions for large enterprises like Ford Motor, FedEx, Cisco and eventually thousands of others large and small companies. I learned a lot about web content management by meeting with hundreds of companies – ranging from the Fortune 100 to smaller companies - and digging into their web site architectures. The web was exploding at that time, and there was a tremendous demand for managing the ever expanding amount and types of content. During that period, our software sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
WordPress as a CMS
Fast forward to today, and now we have WordPress – an amazingly powerful content management system that is FREE. And it has a lot of power under the hood for a small or medium business looking for an easy way to manage their web site.
WordPress was designed as a platform for blogging, but you don’t have to use it as a blogging tool. With a few tweaks it can be used to run your website, with or without a “blog.” The fact that WordPress was designed as a blogging platform gives it some compelling advantages. It is optimized for easily publishing and changing content. And getting good search engine rankings requires fresh, unique content. You need a system that does not get in your way when you want to update your website with a new article or newsletter.
So why is WordPress a good choice?
Top Five Reasons to Use WordPress for Your Small Business Website
- SEO – WordPress provides good search engine optimization (SEO) right out of the box. There are a few tweaks you need to make, but there are many seo benefits that WordPress provides for free. In fact Google’s own Matt Cutts says WordPress is “made to do SEO well” in this video: Matt Cutts gives tips to small business owners.
- Content – it is easy to update content on your website without knowing HTML. Do you hate the idea of having to learn to use a complex HTML editor tool like Dreamweaver? Do you have to “ask” your webmaster every time you want to make a small change to your website? Well no longer – once WordPress is set up for you, you can easily create new pages or edit existing pages using a simple rich text editor.
- Extensions – There is a thriving ecosystem of developers creating themes and plug-ins – imagine free design themes, or the ability to extend your website with polls, contact forms, ratings or hundreds of other cool features without having to hire a web developer.
- Support – If you do have problems, or want to add very custom features, it is easy to find support and developers who can help you. There are literally thousands of WordPress developers out there. And there are so many people writing about WordPress that help is only a Google search away!
- One-click-installation – Quick installs are provided by many hosting providers, including Bluehost, 1and1 and GoDaddy.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing tips and tricks we’ve learned by using WordPress for a bunch of small business websites.
More WordPress Articles:
See my WordPress for Small Business Series websites for links to more WordPress articles on topics like: How to install WordPress, should I use WordPress.org or WordPress.com, How to make WordPress look like a Website, and more.
![]()
Check out a complete small business website theme for WordPress – The Expand2Web SmallBiz WordPress Theme
Are you using WordPress for your Website, or stuck with something that isn’t working for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Want more WordPress & Local SEO Tips?
Subscribe to my WordPress and Local SEO newsletter to get weekly tips and tricks delivered directly to your inbox!






{ 10 trackbacks }
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article, and I couldn’t agree with you more. We now use Wordpress for our small business website, and it has greatly improved our search engine rankings. We went from page 15 to page 2 within a week of going online with our new site in Wordpress. And now my content is SO much easier to maintain.
I would recommend Wordpress to most small businesses!
Thanks for sharing your experiences Brian!
Great article, not many people realise the capabilities of Wordpress as a Content Management System. It’s easy for the end-user (typically a small business owner in the case of our clients) and doesn’t take much time to manage and get to grips with.
Very useful and helpful information. Bookmarked for future reference as I have created my personal blog/website w/ WordPress and now am researching the best method to updated my business website (www.LECME.com) to WordPress.
Even though WordPress is easy to use I find that many customers still get confused by simple tasks. In order to help the clients I have written a small tutorial showing what is WordPress and how to use it.
@Jon – hey nice tutorial! Thanks for including here for my readers.
Hi there, Thank for sharing your experience!
An interesting article.
You’ve certainly got me interested.
I’ll start reading the rest of your series.
Thanks
Zafar
Interesting article. Here are a few more reasons to use Wordpress for a site as well.
http://www.delphicsage.com/home/blog.aspx/d=476/title=Reasons_to_Consider_Wordpress_as_a_CMS_for_Simple_Sitesjump
I’ve been looking ar Wordpress for some time…
Your articles might just persuade me to set up a site using Worpress.
Thanks
Hillers 54
Good article. We use wordpress too and managed to integrate a shopping cart into it. Its flexibility makes it a no-brainer for any new website, regardless of business size. With a little tinkering, you’ve got a customized CMS with limitless options.
Great info! I agree that transitioning from blogger to wordpress is hard but it’s so worth it!
In business there are many ways to make wordpress work for you. It is possible to make it ecommerce and to attach aforum to it.