When it comes to creating a website for your business, the internet is saturated with options of CMS platforms and quick and easy website builders. We’re almost drowning in choice but is WordPress the one for you?
Yes, WordPress is an undisputed dominator of the market, but with so many competitors bouncing around SERPs trying to win pique your curiosity, it’s easy to get sucked into the chaos.
Wix, SquareSpace, Shopify and Weebly?! I want to try them all!
I can pretty much promise you that your time would’ve been saved if you’d just listened to your gut and opted for the almighty WordPress to begin with.
Affording you flexibility and agility, WordPress has secured its place as one of the most competitive website builders out there. And with ample availability of plugins, themes, and maintenance packages, WordPress can be easily aligned with your business goals, no matter how big or small your business is.
Ok, so why settle for WordPress?
At Nettonic we’ve experienced the platform first hand, we’ve lived and breathed it. Not just for our own business goals, but on behalf of our clients. We’ve witnessed is immense capacity, impressive functionality, adaptability and unwavering ability to consistently stay ahead of its competitors. So let’s jump straight into it, here are 11 really cool things you can achieve with WordPress.
Sell physical and digital goods
WordPress has evolved throughout its lifespan and what was a platform once used predominantly for blogging can now be used as a fully functional e-commerce platform. Users now have the capacity to build a WP plugin, with the choice of many, into their site. And, no need for complex coding (phew). Plugins such as WooCommerce and Shopify are completely compatible with Wordpress.
Yes, Shopify is a standalone platform in its own right, but they now offer a WP integration tool. It’s almost like adding a mini shop to your site, with endless customisation opportunities, and of course its all fully secure and supports a variety of payment methods. Pretty cool!
Build a community
There’s a reason sites like Reddit and Quora sustain such impressive and sustainable rates of traffic, even after the dawn of social media. It’s because people still like to talk. They like to gossip, converse, and engage in long, meaningful threads. Especially when it pertains to a common interest.
People use forums to express opinions, thoughts, ask questions and offer advice. This fosters a community which you can harness as a part of your business. WP now allows users to create a forum for discussions amongst your users, prospects and customers to help you facilitate that community environment.
Invoice a customer
Praise the lord! The once laborious and let’s face it, pretty tedious task of raising, populating and sending invoices can now be facilitated by your WP site. WP plugin Sprout Invoices provides a number of customisable templates that support a variety of payment methods.
Sliced invoices is another excellent invoicing plugin which can be integrated with WordPress which includes Paypal Express Checkout and the ability to invoice in any currency, and export to CSV. Nice! Isn’t this how easy it should be?
Install Live Chat
Do not fear the live chat plugin. A lot of WP users shy away from live chat because they think it will require constant monitoring and no time off, but in actual fact, the live chat tool can take a lot of the stress away from running a business.
With assigned individuals or even a bot, this needn’t rely on one person. Plus, live chat helps you secure more sales, provide outstanding and real time customer service, and arguable, stay ahead of your competitors.
WP Live chat support is simple to implement and comes with a drag and drop tool so you can place it anywhere within your site. You can also add translation functionalities and Integrate with Google analytics.
WP Multisite
While this feature was first introduced in 2010, many users are yet to learn of the functionality. WP multisite allows you to create a network of websites from your original site. This could be a network of online shops, brochure sites and forums, for example. You then have the ability to assign an employee as a ‘super administrator’, who will have complete control over every page within your network. Pretty cool right?
Improve your security
Okay, security is never going to be sexy or cool. But do you know what’s really not cool? A cyber attack!
Security threats are abundant and growing by the day, and when your site isn’t secure, your business could be hanging by a thread. Not to mention, customers rarely want to exchange payment details or in fact any information with a website that isn’t secure.
Thankfully, a better WP security plugin – now known as iThemes Security provides you with over 30 ways to improve your site’s security including 2-factor authentication and user action login, and the ability to protect multiple sites, among many, many more.
So, I think we’ve established WP is pretty much the coolest kid on the block, offering a number of modernised, customisable and relevant plugins that are conducive to the modern-day business.
Enabling us to better serve customers, improve functionalities within our sites, protect our data and keep on learning – WordPress, we applaud you!
