Getting started

5 Reasons WordPress is perfect for SMEs

by WPointer Erin Lin

WordPress is an open source content management system (CMS). Since its development in 2003, more than 750 million websites have been created on WordPress around the world, accounting for 40% of all websites, and the number of users is still growing.

Global CMS usage statistics W3Techs

The biggest reason why WordPress is so popular is that it can be easily created, edited, and managed by non-programmers. Since WordPress is not only suitable for personal blogs, but also for corporate websites, Disney Company, Sony Music, Facebook NewsRoom in 2009, and even the Biden government in 2021 all used WordPress to make their own professional websites. 

So, what’s so special about WordPress? Today, the WPointer Erin Lin shares 5 reasons why SMEs all over the world love to use WordPress to build their websites, and helps you understand what WordPress is and how to get started with it.

1. WordPress has more than 60,000 plugins, which can help users expand their website functions at any time

One of the reasons for WordPress’s popularity is that you can use the “one-click installation plugin” to expand the functions of the website, such as shopping carts, contact forms, membership management, etc. In the official WordPress plugin database, they provide users more than 50,000 free plugins to download and use, plus some paid advanced discovery plugins provided by third parties, you can find more than 60,000 plugins there. For SMEs, it’s like that they have thousands of engineers working for them, but they don’t actually need to hire them, which can save them considerable personnel costs. 

WordPress official plugin category

2. WordPress has more than 10,000 themes, which can help business get a new look on their professional site

Another feature which people like about WordPress is that you can “apply themes with just one click.” You can also add certain modifications as per your needs, and completely change the appearance of your site. 

As opposed to traditional website development, you don’t need to hire web designers or engineers to modify the design for your WordPress website. Modifying a traditional website is time-consuming, laborious and costly, and sometimes the design is not even that good.

WordPress’s themes are designed by top develop teams from all over the world. There are more than 10,000 themes on the market, and all of these themes look professional, international, modern, and suitable for browsing on various mobile phones, tablets and computers.

WordPress official theme category

3. Using WordPress can reduce personnel costs for SMEs

WordPress websites usually have a visual page editor. Anyone can easily edit the content and layout of the page, which makes your online marketing more efficient. 

Between 2007 to 2010, I worked in the United States, when my company still built their website the old-fashioned way. Every time we had to make a new webpage, we had to follow a long and complicated process:

  1. The marketing team lists the needs;
  2. The copywriter proposes the context;
  3. A web designer makes static pictures and waits for feedback from the boss;
  4. Once approved by the boss, the web designer cuts the version and includes it in the static HTML file;
  5. The engineer executes according to the final file;
  6. Whenever you need to modify any content, even just a very small part of your copywriting, we have to repeat this process over and over again.

A company needs at least 1 to 2 marketing agents, 1 web designer, and 1 to 2 engineers to complete the process above. 

In 2011, my company started using WordPress to build the site, and our design process has changed accordingly: 

  1. The marketing team lists the needs;
  2. A web designer uses WordPress content editor to make interactive web pages and adds temporary suggested content
  3. The copywriter puts up the final proposal according to the web designer’s design suggestion;
  4. The boss checks the interactive web page and provides feedback;
  5. The web designer fine-tunes it according to feedback from the boss, and then puts the new pages online;
  6. When the copy needs to be revised, the copywriter or boss can log in to the back office and make changes by themselves, without the help of a web designer.

The company can reduce their personnel needs through this new process: 1 marketing agent and 1 WordPress web designer.

You can see the difference between a traditional website and a WordPress website. Using WordPress can indeed make your website marketing more efficient and save labor costs for SMEs.

4. Using WordPress can enhance the ranking of your site in Google

In addition to the content, brand awareness and community volume of website will affect your ranking in Google, and the coding structure of the website will also affect the content understanding by Google robots. Traditional websites are usually developed by small domestic companies and the quality of their development teams varies.

WordPress, a content management system, was jointly developed by more than 70 top volunteer engineers around the world. Its code has been continuously updated for more than ten years, which makes the website very easy for Google bots to read, and as such, it’s very advantageous for website ranking on Google.

Besides that, your company can also help your marketers get Google ranking recommandations by installing SEO-related plugins, such as content and webiste changes. Marketers can then directly set the configuration through the website backend interface. Unlike in the past, you don’t need to ask for help from engineers to implement these changes. In the long run, changes in the SEO process will greatly improve the company’s website ranking in Google. 

5. You don’t need to start over when you change service providers

Many websites established in the early internet era were mostly developed by domestic outsourcing providers. Whether it was an outsourcing provider, an engineer, or a design company, these websites usually didn’t have a website backend (management interface), and even when they did, their interfaces were very basic and difficult to use. You had to rely on engineers to modify website content when you needed to update it. And you might have had to completely rebuild your site when you changed outsourcing provider. The worst thing is that sometimes some outsourcing providers didn’t allow their customers to copy their website content.

You don’t need to worry about these issues if you use WordPress to build your website. Regardless of whether you need to change outsourcing provider for any reason, there’s no need to rebuild your website. Since everyone uses the same CMS, any outsourcing provider can understand the structure of your site and upgrade it in a no time.

This last point is very important for SMEs since it allows them to save a lot of costs and time.

How to get started with WordPress at Gandi!

There are many ways to get started with WordPress. However, there is a wide range of hosting providers that are more or less expensive and more or less reliable. It always confuses beginners and makes them unsure how to choose and where to start. 

Gandi’s philosophy, No Bullshit, means our services are clear and transparent. Gandi offers complete and secure WordPress hosting. WordPress hosting at Gandi starts at $10.00 (USD) per month (size M recommended), including a minimum 50 GB of storage, a free SSL certificate, and extensive documentation. Users who purchase this service for the first time can enjoy a welcome offer: 50% OFF the first year!

Our service also has 100% flexibility. Users can adjust their WordPress hosting plans according to their needs at any time. 

If you want to find a reliable provider with all-in-one services, then try Gandi!

Get the coolest domain for your site and start your first WordPress site at Gandi

Bio:

WPointer Erin Lin has her own WordPress learning group. Whether you are an entrepreneur or an employee, you can join her Facebook group to learn more about WordPress and share your ideas with others SMEs using WordPress to build their sites.

Check out her website: https://en.wpointer.com/?fbclid=IwAR2nr7kMuB-LOGGac2TuIAnK36jwcNi426TEYhjcug17OJsLwUHnreHU5Ss