WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) used by millions of people around the world to create and manage websites. It’s known for its ease of use and flexibility, making it a great choice for both beginners and experienced web developers alike.

WordPress at its Core

At its core, WordPress is built on a framework of PHP and MySQL, which allows it to be easily extended and customized through the use of plugins and themes. This means that you can add new features and functionality to your website without having to write any code, or you can create your own custom plugins and themes to give your site a unique look and feel.

Key Advantages of WordPress

One of the key advantages of WordPress is its user-friendly interface. The admin panel is intuitive and easy to navigate, allowing you to quickly and easily manage all aspects of your website, including adding and editing content, managing users and comments, and configuring settings.

Another advantage of WordPress is its strong community of users and developers. With millions of people using WordPress, there is a wealth of knowledge and support available online, whether you need help with a specific issue or are just looking for general advice and guidance. Additionally, there are thousands of plugins and themes available for WordPress, so you can easily find solutions to common problems or add new features to your site.

WordPress SEO

In terms of SEO, WordPress is also a great choice. It’s built with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind, and comes with built-in features such as customizable permalinks and support for custom title tags and meta descriptions. This means that your website will be more easily found by search engines, resulting in more traffic and potential customers.

WordPress Overall

Overall, WordPress is a versatile and powerful platform that can be used to create almost any type of website, from a simple blog to a complex e-commerce store. Its ease of use and extensive support make it a great choice for those looking to create and manage their own website, and its flexibility means that it can be customized to meet the specific needs of your business or personal project.

WordPress remains one of the most versatile and popular website builders online. Unlike some other creation tools that make use of a drag-and-drop design to adding features, WordPress makes use of plugins, which give website owners a lot more freedom when building their website.

Additionally, you can also add plugins to add more functionality or new features to your website too.

Best Plugins in the Market

Plugins are crucial to any WordPress developer because they allow you to add important features to your website. These can include contact forms, etc. Here are some that can be game-changers.

1.      Hubspot

Marketing is an important aspect of business development and Hubspot is a WordPress plugin that will make your website a lot more intuitive.

This plugin has an extensive list of features, including conversion tracking, contact management, analytics, and the ability to keep track of your leads.

2.      WooCommerce

The WooCommerce plugin has the ability to transform your website into a fully functional selling platform.

With a wide variety of customization options, like the ability to view product ratings and reviews, set a subscription-based model, and add filtering options, this plugin makes ecommerce website design much more convenient.

Additionally, another very important feature is that by using the WooCommerce Plugin you do not have to limit yourself to selling only physical products. This plugin gives you the ability to sell digital files as well.

3.      WP Forms Pro

When creating a website, you have to make sure that your plugins offer convenience as well as accessibility. This is just one of the reasons the WP Forms Pro plugin is a favourite among so many WordPress Developers.

With its drag-and-drop feature, you can easily add forms to your website, and the pro version offers much more accessibility, making it the perfect form builder for your website.

With WP Forms Pro, you can choose from hundreds of form templates. This plugin allows you to build forms to increase sales, build marketing campaigns, collect feedback, or even create surveys that can be of additional help when looking for feedback for your website.

4.      SEO Press Pro

An SEO plugin is essential for every WordPress developer, as it helps increase web traffic, and the SEO Press Pro plugin is the best of the best. Compared to the SEO Press plugin, it offers much more robust features and improved functionality.

With a reasonable subscription-based pricing model, the SEO Press Pro plugin offers many features, including seamless social media integration and image SEO.

Additionally, this plugin offers users accessibility as well, allowing you to view detailed Google analytics from your WordPress dashboard.

5.      JetPack

If you are looking for a versatile, all-rounder plugin, then JetPack is the perfect place to start. Developed by the same team behind WordPress, this plugin is a multipurpose addition to your plugin library.

This plugin offers features like user engagement optimization; social media share button addition and the ability to add contact forms, making it a very efficient all-in-one plugin.

In addition to optimization and contact form services, this plugin also offers you security-enhancing capabilities as well, making JetPack a very effective addition to your website.

6.      Smush

Smush is an image optimization plugin that has the ability to compress all the image files across your site as soon as you upload them.

Compressed images have a significantly reduced file size, and this in turn results in a website with much faster load times.

7.      Elementor

Elementor is a very convenient WordPress plugin that makes page building as easy as dragging and dropping elements on your site.

It is a very beginner-friendly and simple plugin to use, plus its compatibility with a number of WordPress themes lands it a place on the list.

Wrap-up

Using even a fraction of these plugins, you can successfully create a sufficiently functioning website with buttons, as well as forms.

WordPress contains thousands and hundreds of thousands of plugins, which might make a beginner WordPress developer feel overwhelmed. However, this list of some of the trending plugins might provide them with a solid place to start at.

Google Fonts is a library of over 800 different typefaces, completely ready to be used in your web projects. The great thing about Google Fonts is that they are free to use, and easy to integrate into your website.

One of the key benefits of using Google Fonts is that they are served from Google’s own servers, which means that they will load quickly, even on slow connections. This is especially important for user experience, as slow loading times can lead to frustrated users and high bounce rates.

Another benefit of using Google Fonts is that they are extremely easy to integrate into your website. All you need to do is add a few lines of code to your website’s stylesheet, and you’re good to go. Google Fonts also has a library of pre-designed pairings that you can use to quickly find the perfect font combination for your site.

One of the key features of Google Fonts is the ability to preview fonts on your own website before you decide to use them. This is especially useful if you’re not sure which font will look best on your site, or if you want to see how a font will look with your existing design. You can even adjust the font size, line height, and other styling options to get a better idea of how the font will look on your site.

One of the things that sets Google Fonts apart from other font libraries is the sheer number of fonts that are available. There are over 800 different fonts to choose from, ranging from modern sans-serifs to more traditional serifs, and everything in between. This means that you’re sure to find a font that fits the aesthetic of your site, no matter what you’re looking for.

One of the other great things about Google Fonts is that they are constantly adding new fonts to their library. This means that you’ll never run out of options, and you’ll always be able to find the perfect font for your site. Additionally, because Google Fonts are free to use, you can experiment with different fonts without having to worry about the cost.

Overall, Google Fonts is a fantastic resource for anyone looking to add beautiful, high-quality fonts to their website. With a vast library of fonts to choose from, easy integration, and the ability to preview fonts on your own site, Google Fonts is the perfect choice for any web project.

Managing a small business means overseeing all operations while managing day-to-day tasks. You’re everything from a customer service representative to a webmaster.

All that work requires incredible amounts of time. If you don’t want to be a workaholic, you have to find efficient ways of doing things.

Maintaining your website is one area where you don’t want to cut corners, but you also can’t spend several hours per week keeping it secure, updating content and responding to customer inquiries.

You can put more time back into your busy workdays with these 6 time-saving small business website tips.

1. Work with a Website Designer
2. Integrate Automation Software
3. Find a Quality SEO Consultant
4. Build a Reasonable Content Strategy
5. Prioritize Preventative Maintenance to Avoid Issues
6. Activate a Chatbot

1. Work with a Website Designer

Trends are always shifting when it comes to website design, integrations, tools, hosting requirements, and more. If you want your website to remain modern and compete for SEO, you probably need a good partner.

There are plenty of DIY tools for creating your own website. The trouble is, these come with templates that don’t match your brand perfectly and have excess code that slows them down. Slow site speeds lead to high bounce rates. And you’ll struggle to get a slow website to rank for SEO.

You need a firm website foundation along with the resources to guide you in updating aspects of your website design so you don’t have to do a complete overhaul every few years. Complete redesign projects will lead to large time requirements, which small business owners generally like to avoid.

Plus, your website partner can manage maintaining your website, including:

• Hosting
• Security checks
• Regular backups
• Updating software and plugins
• Engaging in regular speed tests to look for opportunities

You’ll have a partner for all technical aspects of your website so you can focus on other areas of your business and ensuring your website speaks to the needs of your customer.

2. Integrate Automation Software

Automation works wonders for helping small business owners save time. Thankfully, there are automation tools available for just about every aspect of a small business. While you might not be able to afford it for every little thing, you should consider which automation types would provide the most time savings and business improvements.

Automation software can help with managing the following website tasks:

• Creating content marketing ideas to build your content calendar
• Reducing the work of repetitive marketing or website tasks
• Generating media ideas
• Following important analytics and website metrics
• Automating follow-up emails or customer journeys

Some examples of software that can help with automating these tasks include Semrush, RankBuddy and SE Ranking. These software options have tiers based on your needs and the tools you want to subscribe to. As you evaluate the cost, consider the time this software provides you and whether you might hire a specialist who has access to this software already.

3. Find a Quality SEO Consultant

Building an SEO strategy and monitoring opportunities for your website will work wonders for bringing in new customers and growing your business. It doesn’t matter whether your manage an e-commerce store or you provide services to your customers, you need a constant flow of website traffic to reach new people and expand your customer base.

Learning the basics of SEO takes time and you’ll need to purchase tools. On your way to becoming an expert, you can actually harm your SEO with poor tactics. And with one algorithm change, you might need to reevaluate your strategy and update various aspects of your website. 

The work and rework required to stay at the top of search engines is enormous, which is why having a good partner can make all the difference. You’ll find that you have options to meet your budgetary needs when evaluating SEO consultants. Some do all the website work for you, while others provide recommendations on changes you should make and allow you to do it yourself to save some money. Depending on where you’re at with your small business, you might need these various service levels.

4. Build a Reasonable Content Strategy

Content is essential to inbound marketing strategies – that is, bringing in customers through online activity. Blogs can help answer questions that customers have long before they consider products or services that solve those problems. That positions you as an expert and brings interested potential customers to your website when they’re poised to purchase the service you’re offering.

For small businesses, the key is creating a content strategy you can stay consistent with. You can’t publish a blog and then ignore that area of your website for six months. Social media content should target the best times of day for your target audience and post at least a couple of times per week.

Email marketing should be no less than a monthly newsletter to your customers and prospects who’ve shown an interest in your products or services.

But ultimately, you have to create a content strategy that fits your time constraints and resources. Consistency is just as important as developing quality content.

5. Prioritize Preventative Maintenance to Avoid Issues

Broken images, links leading to 404 error pages, faulty call-to-action buttons and slow page speeds can all lead to a poor user experience. Your website visitors might leave your site before you ever get a chance to demonstrate what makes your product or service unique and valuable.

Before you try to get fancy with integrating additional services or functionality, focus on preventative maintenance. Some software services provide error notifications that help you avoid these issues that impact your user experience.

Your website must offer a good user experience if you want to attract potential customers and get them to stay long enough to learn why you matter. So when you dedicate time to your website, start by focusing on fixing broken or poor website elements. Continuous improvement can come after you’ve fixed any errors.

6. Activate a Chatbot

Chatbots have transformed customer service in impactful ways. You can automate responses to common inquiries and enjoy time savings from the need to handle an influx of calls or emails about an issue.

Depending on the content management system (CMS) your website operates on and the software available to you, some chatbots could be free or included with existing services.

And the user experience improvements can have a big impact. No longer will your customers have to search FAQs or wait for a response, they can get answers simply by typing their questions into the chatbox.

While managing a small business website is time-consuming work, it’s also essential in today’s online-driven marketplace. If you’re looking for a website partner to free up some time in your business day, contact Kelly Website Design. We offer many helpful website services so small businesses can create and maintain stunning online experiences.