When it comes to creating a business site, one of the top platform options is WordPress and for good reason.

WordPress isn’t just a simple blogging platform. It’s capable of running some of the top websites in the world from major brands.

While it’s great for personal sites too, businesses are opting for WordPress too as a way to take their companies online in an easy, yet powerful way.

WordPress Popularity

WordPress is used by over 29% of websites worldwide and has a 60% market share among content management systems. While there are numerous personal sites and blogs out there, business websites make up a large portion of that 29%. If you’re curious about which brands are using WordPress, see:

• 8 Examples of Major Sites Using WordPress (by yours truly)
• 40+ Notable Big Name Brands That Are Using WordPress
• Notable WordPress Users

Tiny Learning Curve

So why choose WordPress when there are other options for your business site? The most obvious reason and the one you’ll notice the quickest is the tiny learning curve. Getting started takes minutes. The straight-forward dashboard gives you easy access to publish posts, add/update pages, add/change media, check out stats, optimise your site and much more.

While you may want a developer to help with creating a custom theme and ensuring plugins are implemented correctly, WordPress itself is incredibly easy to use and makes managing a site a stress-free process.

Update Content With Ease

You likely already know the importance of blogging. If not, take a quick look at these inspiring statistics from Writtent. Blogging helps businesses gain more customers and boosts conversion rates. WordPress has an easy to use content editor for creating and uploading content. Plus, SEO plugins and WordPress’s built-in SEO features help you to easily optimise every post for better traffic.

This means you spend less time on formatting and optimising and more time on what’s important – creating engaging content for your readers. Plus, you content is optimised to bring in more traffic, leading to more business.

Flexible For Any Use

In the past, I covered how WordPress goes far beyond blogging, which is what makes it ideal for any business website. Whether you want ecommerce or a membership style site or anything in between, WordPress has the features you need. For instance, a fashion retailer might need interactive product images and a stylish theme to match the personality of the retailer.

On the other hand, a B2B company may require a minimalist theme and a simple blog to effectively connect with customers. WordPress is flexible, plus it’s open source, which means you can customise it to your needs. For instance, if you can’t find a theme or plugin that fits your needs, a WordPress developer can work with you to create just what your business needs most.

Scales With The Business

Scalability is crucial with any business website. It might be tempting to use a free site builder, but stop and consider your limitations first. Your site will always be limited by the platform you use. With free site builder tools and even some other CMS platforms, you’re limited to only a small number of plugins (if any at all), basic themes, little to no customisation options and the amount of content you can upload.

This isn’t going to help you grow your business. This is why so many businesses choose WordPress for their business website. You download and own your installation of WordPress. All you need is a web host that offers the storage and bandwidth you need to continue growing your site. Whether you’re a business selling a few products a week or a giant like Amazon, WordPress scales as your needs change

Are you ready to use WordPress for your business website? Contact me today to find out how I can help.

Image: Anders Jildén

It’s a common misconception that WordPress is just a blogging platform. After all, that’s what the original purpose was for.

However, it’s all the other features that make WordPress more than a blogging platform. The possibilities for using WordPress are seemingly endless.

If you’ve ever wondered just what WordPress is capable of, it’s time to look beyond the blogging aspect and uncover some of the other powerful features.

Blogging Is Just One Feature

WordPress was initially developed as a personal publishing system, but it developed into something much more advanced. Since then, the blog portion has become just one of the many features. Now, WordPress includes features, such as:

• Develop and manage static pages
• Sell products
• Optimise for search engines
• Implement your own features (through open source coding and plugins)
• Create responsive sites
• Store and manage data for your business and consumers

While this list could easily fill this post, it’s just a sampling of what makes WordPress more than a blogging platform. With all these features, there’s no reason to limit yourself to just blogging.

Run An Entire Online Business

About this time last year, I covered the reasons why WordPress is ideal for small business websites. Yes, you can host your business’s blog, but you’re able to run your entire online business through WordPress. With ecommerce plugins and themes, you’re able to manage and sell inventory online. Interact with customers, build an email list, connect social media accounts and much more.

If you want to see examples of major brands doing just this, check out my post 8 Examples Of Major Sites Using WordPress. WordPress.com and WordPress.org also list some of the most notable users and sites. Between these three links, it’s difficult to imagine using WordPress just as blog, though that’s still an option, especially for personal blogs.

Create Full Applications

The ability to create full applications makes WordPress more than a blogging platform. One company actually used WordPress to create a SaaS application (software as a service). In fact, they did it in just one month. This shows the versatility of what started as a user-friendly blogging system. While most businesses probably won’t think of WordPress for this use, it is an option for creating your own in-house SaaS apps.

Plugins And Themes Go Beyond Blogging

Take a quick look at the most popular themes and plugins on WordPress.org. How many of those seem exclusive to blogging? While some of the SEO plugins definitely cater to blogs, they also work for static web pages. After all, if a page has content on it, it’s available for Google to index. You want to optimise every single page on your website.

The themes listed are what truly show the difference between a simple blogging platform and a complete content and website management system. Most look like professional business sites, which is kind of the idea. They’re designed not just to showcase your personal thoughts on whatever crosses your mind, but to impress potential customers and clients.

If WordPress was just a blogging platform, you’d see much simpler themes that just focus on organising posts and categories. In fact, it’d probably look more like the early days of Blogger versus the highly used WordPress.

Powerful Database Features

One feature that’s often overlooked when it comes to WordPress is databases. You probably already know about the databases tied specifically to your site’s content and files. These are just the basics. These are the databases used to organise your site’s content and users.

However, when you’re using WordPress for a business, you’re able to create databases to store and organise customer data. For instance, certain plugins provide detailed analytics based on customer data on your site. This data is stored in databases within WordPress for you to use to provide better experiences for your customers.

Ready to see what WordPress could do for you? Learn more and find out how to start your own WordPress site by contacting me today.

Image: Corinne Kutz

You’ll find no shortage of ecommerce options for your website, but one you might want to consider is WordPress.

WordPress offers the best ecommerce solutions, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the popularity of WordPress as a whole. Still, some think of WordPress only for blogging and not for an online business.

Once you realise all that WordPress has to offer, it’s easy to see that it’s far more than a CMS and works well as a full ecommerce solution.

Integrates Well

One of the things that make WordPress so popular is how well the platform integrates with other services. For instance, take a look at WooCommerce, which powers 28% of all ecommerce sites. Hundreds of extensions are available for accepting payments, scheduling package deliveries and managing an email list. All it takes is a few clicks to integrate with most popular ecommerce solutions.

When you’re able to use the services you already know and love, it’s easier to manage your site the way you want.

Simple Installation

WordPress easily offers the best ecommerce solutions simply due to ease of installation. Most web hosts have a one-click WordPress installation feature and ecommerce themes install easily as well. You’ll get online faster versus spending weeks just trying to get started. Of course, between WordPress developers and the WordPress community, you always have support whenever you need it.

Customise Both Appearance And Function

WordPress offers thousands of themes and plugins to let you fully customise the appearance and function of your ecommerce site. With other solutions, you might find yourself limited. For instance, if you want to ensure your site is available for mobile visitors, you can choose a responsive theme that automatically adjusts based on your visitors’ screens.

Many plugins are designed specifically for ecommerce and make it easier than ever to customise your store. Some of the best ecommerce solutions for WordPress to include:

• WooCommerce
• Ecwid
• Easy Digital Downloads
• WP Ecommerce

No matter which solution you choose, you’re able to customise it completely along with your theme to ensure you site is unique to your business.

Includes Regular Security And Feature Updates

While this doesn’t just apply to ecommerce sites, it is something that sets WordPress apart when choosing the best ecommerce solutions. WordPress is often a target for hackers since it’s so widely used, but to combat that threat, WordPress releases regular security updates. Of course, you have to make sure you install them in order to keep your site safer. Remember to take extra security precautions too, such as changing admin passwords and using a security plugin.

In addition to security updates, feature updates are also released. This means you get to take advantage of the latest WordPress has to offer and it’s all offered for free.

The popular WordPress ecommerce solutions also release regular updates to put security first. For instance, a single outdated plugin could compromise your site. Keep your theme and plugins updated for a more secure site for your visitors.

Easy To Learn And Manage

WordPress is designed to make it easy for anyone to manage their own website. The intuitive backend helps you upload content in minutes. As a result, it offers the best ecommerce solutions because the learning curve is so small. You’re not going to spend forever trying to figure out how to upload product images and descriptions. It’s not difficult to master setting up a shopping cart and checkout process.

The less time you have to spend learning how to use your ecommerce solution, the more time you can spend on what matters most – getting your products/services in front of potential customers.

Start your search for an ecommerce solution with WordPress and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what the platform has to offer.

Want to set up your own ecommerce site with WordPress? Make the process even easier by contacting Darren today to get started.

Image: Jens Kreuter

Businesses create websites for one reason – to work as a business tool 24/7. When your website is this important, you have to make sure it’s managed properly.

Odds are, you already have the content part taken care of, but what about regular maintenance or changing features? You could try to do it alone, but it’s time consuming and if you make a mistake, your website could be offline for hours or even days.

To get the most from your WordPress, you need experts to help you manage it. Think of it as a way to keep one of your most valuable business tools in optimal condition without you needing to worry.

Keep It Secure

As the most widely used CMS, WordPress is a popular target for hackers. That’s also why WordPress releases regular security and core updates to keep your site as secure as possible. If you’re handling WordPress security yourself, you’ll have several regular tasks to keep track of, such as:

• Updating WordPress and ensuring your theme and plugins are compatible
• Maintaining security software, such as anti-virus and firewall (your host may handle this for you)
• Locking down all accounts
• Monitoring for potential problems, such as files that shouldn’t exist or logins that happen during odd hours

You may think no one would want to hack your site, but hackers don’t care about the size of your website, they just want it for things, such as:

• Steal your bandwidth
• Storing and sharing malicious files
• Using your website to hack other sites

If you’re not diligent, it’s the same as leaving the front door of a brick-and-mortar business wide open 24/7, even after closing. Having experts manage your security means you don’t have to worry about leaving the door open to your site.

Stay On Top Of Trends

Think back five years ago and only a few people were really talking about responsive design. Jump forward to today and it’s vital for your website’s success. However, staying on top of web design trends and knowing what’s best for your specific business is difficult. After all, you’re busy running the actual business.

WordPress experts understand the latest trends and can help you decide which new features might be best to help your site stay competitive and current. After all, using an outdated business tool isn’t going to be helpful for building your business.

Maintain Current Backups

You’ve likely heard that every business needs a disaster and recovery plan. A crucial part of this plan is having current website backups. If something was to happen to your site right now, are you certain you have a recent backup that works? Even when you have the best of intentions, it’s easy to forget to back up your site after a major change.

Experts manage your backups and help you get back online when the worst happens. They even ensure the backup is viable and doesn’t cause you more problems, such as putting a backup online that still contains malware.

Handle Theme & Plugin Installation

Themes and plugins are two of the best things about WordPress. They also help you highly customise your business tool to your needs. The problem is they’re not always easy to install and maintain. For instance, they’re just as vulnerable to security issues as WordPress itself. Take January 2017’s vulnerability roundup as proof.

You need someone who not only knows how to install a new theme or plugin without it crashing your site, but also keeps it updated and ensures your site isn’t using malicious plugins or themes.

Review Your Site For Issues

Unless you’re using your website yourself, you might not notice any suddenly speed problems or downtime. You might not realise that a page isn’t loading correctly. WordPress experts keep an eye on your website and watch for issues that can drastically damage your site’s reputation and rank.

An Expertly Managed Business Tool

The best business tool is one that’s expertly managed. Trying to wear all the hats in your business just makes you tired. Leave your website in the hands of someone whose business is WordPress and never let WordPress woes get you down again.

Looking for someone to help manage your site’s design and keep it current? Contact Darren today to see just how WordPress experts can help you.

Image: Carl Heyerdahl

Small business websites aren’t nearly as plentiful as small businesses, but websites are a crucial part of running any business.

Whether it’s just you or you have a dozen employees, your business needs a website. It’s not optional anymore if you want to stay competitive.

Think of a website as a partner that helps you to build and grow your business. When you look at it that way, it’s easy to see that investing in a website is a smart business move.

1. Works For You 24/7

Is your business open 24/7? Do you stay up 24/7? Of course not! Small business websites are open 24/7 and they continue to drive business to your door even while you’re sleeping or spending time with your family and friends. You never know when someone might be searching for the products you’re selling at three in the morning. If you have a website, they may see you as a result, check out your products and be waiting at the door when you open the next day.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a tool that works for your all the time? You could even sell your products online as well and make money while you sleep.

2. Aids With Branding

Every business needs a brand, including small businesses. Your brand is your reputation and a strong brand helps build customer loyalty. Part of branding means having a website. It gives you a platform to tell your customers and potential customers more about what your business is all about. You’re able to share your own unique message and create a voice that’s uniquely yours.

3. Helps Customers Research You

More and more customers are choosing to do a little research online before making a purchase in a physical store. They could even be inside your store, but prefer to research you a little more before buying. Customers love webrooming now, which means they check out your products or your business before making a purchase. If they can’t find you online, they might not see you as a reputable business. With 69% of customers webrooming, you need an online presence to help customers find you and choose you to make their final purchase.

4. Works As A Marketing Tool

You might see your website as just a few pages of contact information, details on the company and pictures of your products. Take a deeper look and you’ll see that small business websites are powerful marketing tools. For instance, word-of-mouth advertising is valuable, but once that advertising goes online, it spreads further and faster.

A website gives your customers something to share with others. If they loved the experience, they might share a link to your site with all their friends. If you’re blogging, a post could be shared among thousands of people, leading to new customers. All of this is because you have a website.

5. Stand Out From Competitors

Is there any business out there that doesn’t want to stand out from the competition? No. The question is – how? Small business websites not only set you apart, but they help you look like a bigger business. A study by GoDaddy shows that 60% of UK micro-businesses (5 employees or less) didn’t have a website. Of those businesses, 54% were afraid of experiencing no growth within the next 3-5 years.

If the majority of your competition isn’t online then that’s where you need to be. The same study found that 60% of small businesses with a website were expecting as much as a 50% increase in revenue. The growth is even better if you sell at least some of your products online or offer special discounts or promotions for services.

6. Stay In Contact

Even when you have customers, it’s sometimes hard to keep them coming back. Don’t always be so quick to blame yourself. Outside of bad service, one of the top reasons customers don’t come back is they just forget to. For instance,  a hair salon might remind customers to come back in for a trim every 6-8 weeks. With a website, customers can sign up for reminders, special offers or a weekly/monthly newsletter. Better engagement with your customers helps keep your business on their mind.

Small business websites also allow you to stay in contact by providing contact details. Providing a contact form, an address and phone number makes it easy for customers to ask questions or find out more about when you’re open.

Small Business Websites Help You Grow

Small businesses websites help your business grow. By having a website and updating it regularly, you’re showing the world you’re just as important as the big businesses out there. Go ahead and get online, build your brand and boost revenue.

Are you ready to introduce your small business to the world? Contact Darren today to get started. 

Image: Rob Sarmiento

There are numerous reasons why using a WordPress website for your small business is a smart move.

You’ve already worked hard to start your business, so you want a platform that works just as hard for you. This is where WordPress comes in.

It’s the most popular content management system available and for good reason. If you’re ready to take your small business online, here are eight reasons to pick WordPress for your site.

1. Room To Grow And Change

A surprising 60% of small businesses in the UK don’t have a website with a third of them saying they’re too small to need a site. The truth is, you’re never too small. The sooner you have a website, the sooner you introduce your business to a worldwide audience. The great think about using a WordPress website for your small business is it’s easy to scale it to the size of your business.

With numerous plugins and themes available, you’re able to easily change your site to grow with you. Start now and learn the ropes of using WordPress. As you grow, your site grows too and you’ll have already starting building an online audience.

2. Easy To Manage Content

The same study on UK small businesses found that a fifth of participants thought building a website took too much time. The initial setup for a basic WordPress site takes only minutes on most web hosts. Of course, it’s easier to hire someone to handle the initial setup and design, but after that, it’s easy to upload and manage your own content. Want to publish a blog post or change images on your homepage? All it takes is a few clicks and you’re done.

The ease of use is why 59.6% of all content management systems worldwide are WordPress. Everyone has the few minutes necessary to learn to use and manage their content on WordPress.

3. Powers Over A Quarter Of The Web

Yes, you read that headline correctly. WordPress now powers over a quarter of the web. As of June 2016, WordPress powers 26% of all websites. As a small business, you don’t want the hassle of trying something unproven. WordPress has proven itself time and time again and even powers some of the top websites in the world, such as Forbes and eBay.

4. Security Is A Priority

Using a WordPress website for your small business means you value security as much as your visitors. While WordPress offers security plugins for additional protection, updates are released to keep your core WordPress installation as secure as possible. This is without installing any additional software. WordPress developers are serious about security and do everything possible to keep sites safer.

5. SEO Friendly For Everyone

Trying to figure out SEO is sometimes more complicated than trying to develop a website with zero experience. Don’t let this stop you from taking your small business online. WordPress understands the struggle and has developed the platform with SEO in mind. Many themes are even responsive, making your site mobile friendly without any special coding. By adding plugins, such as Yoast SEO, you’re guided through optimisation step by step.

6. Integrates Well With Other Services

WordPress plays well with other services. If you want to accept payments, WordPress integrates with payment services, such as PayPal, easily. Want to send out newsletters? Integrate WordPress with MailChimp. Usually all you have to do is install a plugin to start using another service with WordPress. If the service you want to use isn’t available for WordPress yet, it probably will be soon.

7. Ideal For Local And Ecommerce Stores

Whether you’re a local business or selling products online, using a WordPress website for your small business is the ideal choice. It’s simple to set up a few static pages to provide more details to consumers about your business. Want to sell online? Many themes and plugins are designed specifically for ecommerce stores. Whether you need a simple information only site to drive more foot traffic through your doors or a full-fledged online store, WordPress has you covered.

8. Easy To Find Support

The vast popularity of WordPress means you’ll never find yourself without support. If you’re trying to do something on your own, the WordPress forums are filled with helpful people. Need technical support? You’ll find no shortage of experienced developers, like yours truly, to help you make changes or perform regular maintenance.

Using WordPress Yourself

A website is a must for any business and using a WordPress website for your small business is the perfect choice. Managing your site couldn’t be easier, no matter what your experience level. Give it a try and you may just see your business grow as a result.

Ready to give WordPress a try for your website? Contact Darren today to get started.

Image: Remy Baudouin

No one likes feeling stuck and lost.

I often get approached by people who have tried to build their own website to save time or money, but now they’re lost.

Either they’re not sure what went wrong when adding a new feature or they can’t get their site to look the way they want. In the end, they’ve spent hours, days and weeks struggling to become an overnight web development expert, but they’re suddenly overwhelmed.

Attempting to build a website when you don’t know what you’re doing is commendable, but I’ve discovered from experience that it’s usually a bad idea. In most cases, you end up still hiring a professional developer to fix or finish the site.

No Support When You Get Stuck

The biggest issue people come to me with is they’re stuck. I hear how they researched how to change this piece of code or customise their theme, but didn’t get the expected results. Each change they make only makes the situation worse.

When you’re doing it all on your own, you don’t have any type of support to help you out when you do get stuck. Developers have years of experience to fall back on. At the very least, it’s a good idea to have a professional developer you can call to help fix problems when they arise.

Building A Site Takes Time

I realise many people think they can build a quick site without hiring anyone. After all, why spend time consulting with a developer, testing features and going through the development process if you could do it in a few days or weeks yourself?

The reason it takes developers longer than you might expect is because a professionally designed site takes time. Would you want a mechanic to quickly repair your car and have parts left over or let the mechanic spend a little longer and do it right? When you try to do it yourself without knowing what you’re doing, you actually spend more time than if you’d hired someone to begin with.

Customisation Takes Know How

The thing I love about WordPress is how easy it is to customise. The problem is I hear from people who installed a theme or a few plugins, but now don’t know what to do next. I’m happy they have a good foundation, but many customisation options that make a site look and feel unique require changing code.

These are the types of changes that showcase your individual brand and make the difference between a simple personal blog and a professional site that impresses visitors. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, you could potentially edit the wrong section of code and cause your site to not work at all.

Google Might Not Like It

One major purpose of a website is to gain organic traffic through search engines like Google. For professional developers, designing around Google’s requirements is simple. When you’re completely new to web development, you might end up with things like messy code, poor site structure, broken links and images that Google can’t understand. I see people everyday who can’t understand why their site isn’t ranking well and this is why.

Fast Builders Aren’t Always Better

A common starter solution I see is people using quick site builders. These are the places that promise you can have a site up and running in 30 minutes. While you technically can do this, you get a generic looking site with very few customisation options. The pricing usually starts off cheap, but with each new change, you’re charged more just to manage your own website. While they’re a good idea, they’re not always better, even for beginners.

Security Falls To The Wayside

A vital element I find missing from many sites developed by people who don’t quite know what they’re doing is security. They usually have a security plugin installed, but their code or settings might still leave them highly vulnerable to an attack. Security is important and without it, even the best looking sites fail.

Conclusion

I love to see people wanting to learn more about developing and managing their sites. But sometimes, it’s not the best idea if you don’t have any experience. This is especially true if you need a high quality site developed within a certain time frame. Spending the extra to hire someone often costs you less and gets your site up faster so your business gets online quicker.

Stuck after trying to do it yourself? No problem. Contact StuartMedia today to turn your web project into the site you first envisioned. 

Image: CWCS Managed Hosting

All WordPress hosts aren’t created equal and you can’t base your choice on price alone.

The numerous hosts all offer a different feature set. What you need will vary based on the type of site you own.

From deciding between shared and dedicated hosting to looking at processing speed, you have quite a few things to consider before choosing your site host.

Price Isn’t Everything

Beware the temptation of extremely cheap web hosting. Those cheaper packages often have fewer features and leave you with unreliable shared hosting. You also don’t have to pay exorbitant fees either. Look at the features included with each price point. It is possible to find affordable hosting without skimping on features.

Faster Is Better

As you likely already know, one of Google’s ranking criteria is page loading speed. If your WordPress host isn’t able to process requests to your site in a timely manner, your site could drop in the rankings. In fact, most visitors expect pages to load in under two seconds. There are four items to look at to determine how fast your host is.

• RAM
• CPU
• Allocated disk space (especially important with shared hosting)
• Server location

Yes, server location does matter. The closer a server is to your visitor, the faster the page loads. Choosing a host with servers located in various locations often helps as your site loads from the closest server location.

Get Timely Support

If you have a problem, how quickly will it be resolved? You don’t want to watch your site to go down and have to wait until business hours to get help. Having 24/7/365 support, especially if there are both phone and live chat options, helps improve your site’s uptime and gives you the technical assistance you need while managing your site.

Another thing to keep in mind is managed hosting. If you don’t know how to keep software updated, manage network settings and perform regular maintenance to optimize your site, a managed hosting package might be best. While the host usually handles all server side maintenance, managed hosting means the host also takes care of much of the software side of things.

Stay Secure And Backed Up

Even if you’re keeping your core WordPress files up to date, your site could still be hacked if your host’s server doesn’t offer firewall and virus protection. After all, every layer of security is another wall against hackers. Look at all the security features your host offers. If you’re using managed hosting, your host should be taking care of ensuring your WordPress installation along with plugins and themes are updated.

Backups are also extremely important. Always choose a host that provides full backups. Read all the fine print to ensure all files are being backed up. Also check that backups are kept offsite for optimal security.

Growing Your Site

Your site might be small now, but you’re obviously hoping to watch it grow. As your audience grows, you’ll need better performance from your site to handle the extra traffic. To avoid having to move your entire site to a new host which can be time consuming, start by choosing a scalable host. Many hosts offer custom hosting plans in addition to their advertised packages.

Whether you need more processing power, more storage space or dedicated hosting, your web host should be able to accommodate you as your site grows. Think of choosing a host as choosing a long term partner for your website.

Staying Online

Most WordPress hosts promise 98%-99.9% uptime. Beware any host that promises 100% uptime because problems happen with every host. The best hosts have fail safes in place to minimise downtime. In most cases, no one may ever know your site was down for a few minutes over the course of a year. Reading reviews from customers is a good indication of what a host’s actual uptime is.

Conclusion

Give your site the best chance by starting with a reliable WordPress host. It’s worth paying a little more for a faster, more secure website. Choosing the right host now will make your visitors happier. With the right host, all you have to worry about is keeping your site updated with fresh content and providing great customer service to your visitors.

Ready to create a WordPress site that draws in visitors and helps grow your business? Contact Darren at StuartMedia to get started today.

Image: Ian Dick

Many people still think WordPress is just for blogs and standard websites, but it’s for so much more.

With all of the customisation features, many are now using WordPress for ecommerce. With the right plugins and setup, it’s easy to build your business using the WordPress platform.

From selling ebooks to running a membership site, WordPress has the tools you need to get setup so you can focus on running your business.

Ecommerce Features

WordPress is more powerful than many realise. It can handle both small and large ecommerce sites. Plus, it’s compatible with all major browsers. What really makes WordPress stand out is how customisable it is. You’re not forced to choose a single layout or one or two payment methods. You choose the layout, payment options, site access and much more.

Depending on the plugins and themes you choose, you get the benefits of numerous payment options such as PayPal, Stripe and manual payments. You also have integrated tax calculators to make selling digital goods as easy as possible.

One final feature that makes WordPress for ecommerce a good choice is how the platform works with databases. Simply create a new database for user account and transaction data along with the graphical interface and you’re done. WordPress is well known for it’s powerful database functionality and it’s yet another benefit when it comes to ecommerce.

Types Of Sites

WordPress is often used to power digital ecommerce and membership sites. For digital sites, files are stored and accessed as soon as payment is processed. Since you’re able to accept multiple payment options, it’s easy to sell products to nearly any customer.

Membership based sites are just as easy to work with. Once the customer pays for access, they’re able to view specific areas of a site, such as a course or premium posts. All relevant data for what they’re able to access and when they must renew their membership is all stored in a WordPress database.

Recommended Plugins

While the platform on it’s own is powerful, the true ecommerce features come from plugins. These plugins provide features such as payment processing, shopping carts, analytics, secure data entry and more.

The most popular WordPress ecommerce plugin is WooCommerce. It’s currently used on over 78% of all WordPress ecommerce sites. According to the developer’s site, the WooCommerce toolkit powers 29% of all online stores. It’s designed to allow you to sell anything while keeping customer data secure. There are also extensions and even themes created specifically for this plugin.

Gravity Forms helps you create simple and complex contact forms so it’s easy for customers to contact you. Every reputable ecommerce site needs contact forms. Once the plugin is installed, forms are created through a drag and drop approach, so it’s easy to create forms without being a programmer. Plus, it integrates well with major services such as PayPal, AWeber and MailChimp along with many major theme providers such as WooThemes and Organic Themes.

One final plugin you’ll likely want is Easy Digital Downloads. It’s perfect for managing any digital products such as music, videos, ebooks and more. Easily track earnings with graphical statistics and even add in discounted pricing whenever you want. It also supports multiple payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe and WorldPay.

While other plugins are available, these three have made their way to the top due their ease of use and powerful ecommerce features. It’s ideal to hire a developer to set them up for you and ensure they’re properly integrated on your site. Once everything’s set up, all you have to do is add in your products, choose your payment options and start marketing your site.

Conclusion

If you want a platform that scales with your ecommerce business, look no further than WordPress. Get a unique storefront with all the features you need by working with an experienced WordPress developer. The end result is a store you’re proud of and one your customers will love.

Ready to experience how well WordPress works with ecommerce? Contact StuartMedia today to get started on your own site.

Image: Serge Kij

Many businesses still think of WordPress as a personal blogging platform.

It’s far more than that and numerous major brands have realised it. They’re now benefiting from the flexibility and customisation options.

With major sites using WordPress, the simple CMS has grown from a personal blogging tool to a well respected platform for any type of website and business.

Marks And Spencer For Business

The popular and well known brand chooses WordPress for one it’s most profitable divisions. Marks And Spencer For Business showcases a professional, yet friendly example of how businesses can use WordPress themselves. Multiple sliders, visually stimulating menus and well placed calls to action are just a few of the highlights. It’s the ideal business layout that no one would believe was WordPress by just looking at it.

Enterprise Magazine

The car rental giant uses WordPress to run their online magazine. Menus, sidebars, sliders and layout changes throughout the home page are just the start. The site accomplishes a visually pleasing site that encourages visitors to explore not just the content, but the world itself.

Facebook Newsroom

While Facebook doesn’t use WordPress for their main social network, the company has chosen WordPress for it’s Newsroom blog. The site itself is simple and elegant, putting content front and center. It’s a prime example of less is more. It proves you don’t have to go overboard to have an effective WordPress design. While WordPress has ample features, choosing the right ones for your site’s needs are what’s most important.

Metro

As the UK’s third largest daily newspaper, Metro is the perfect example of major sites using WordPress. The responsive design shows how adaptive WordPress can be. The magazine style layout is colorful and focuses on grabbing visitors’ attention immediately. It also features how easy it is to incorporate social sharing into a WordPress design.

Reuters Blogs

The international news source, Reuters, trusts WordPress to power its blogs. While color isn’t a major player, white space creates a professional news feel. A sidebar complete with major stories and the latest tweets keep visitors updated on what’s most important to them. The entire site is meant to give visitors the content they need as quickly as possible and their theme and layout does it perfectly.

Gizmodo

Tech news meets WordPress with Gizmodo. The header and footer stand out most. It showcases how easy it is to customise these areas to provide easier navigation. They layout varies slightly throughout with constantly updated stories in each category. The site is a shining example of how simple it is to update content at any time with WordPress.

The Rolling Stones

Classic rockers, The Rolling Stones, keep their fans updated with a WordPress powered site. The showcases the media rich features, such as integrated videos, a complete discography, iTunes integration and a photo gallery. Navigation is simple, yet effective with the real emphasis placed on what fans want most – media and band related news updates. The site shows WordPress is powerful enough to partner with one of the world’s most popular bands.

TechCrunch

As one of the most popular tech news sites, TechCrunch proves sites both large and small benefit from the seemingly endless benefits of WordPress. White space with a blog style layout makes the site seem professional, which you’d expect from a respected news source. The large header and footer encourage social sharing, site searching and email signups. It’s a good example of a WordPress being able to deliver everything a successful business needs to engage with visitors online.

Conclusion

There are no limits to the types of sites using WordPress. The platform is easily customised to fit any brand, business and purpose. These aren’t the only major sites using WordPress either. With the right developer, the site looks like your brand, not like a basic WordPress blog.

Ready to give WordPress a try for your own business’s site? Contact StuartMedia today for the guidance and skills you need to make the most of WordPress.

Image: Sean MacEntee