Let’s face it – it’s 2014, we are well into the digital age and technology is advancing faster than we can buy it. It’s also made the days of set-it-and-forget-it websites a thing of the past. Now, more than ever – websites aren’t the catchall for static information, they are the start of a conversation.
A website is a tool in your marketing arsenal that lets you focus on your target audience while giving you the ability to adapt and change right along with the times with the click of a few buttons. Although, just a few years ago, website changes were a tedious and sometimes costly task. Today, with the power and advancement of Content Management Systems (CMS), updating a website has never been easier.
Here at Ocreative we consumed large amounts of data and research and immersed ourselves in discussion after discussion, and we have chosen to use WordPress as our go-to CMS. WordPress, one of many tools in our arsenal of web development, is perfect for businesses that want solid functionality, and the ability to rank highly in search engines such as Google — all on top of giving businesses the opportunity to stay in front of, and engage with customers through blogs, video, as well as, good social media integration. It was incredibly important that we do all of that without compromising the user experience and design.
Below are a few reasons for our new and exciting change:
Plugins and Open Source Development – WordPress is an open source platform and programmers from around the world have created a plethora of plug-ins that allow us to add photo galleries, image sliders, shopping carts, forums, maps, and other great functionality in order to create the perfect website custom to your needs.
Flexible design options – In the right hands, WordPress has incredible flexibility and is an extremely powerful website tool. With our experienced designers, coders and marketing experts, the design possibilities are endless.
Google loves WordPress – From a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) standpoint, WordPress is powerful. Google loves a website that is clean, fast, organized, and is updated frequently. WordPress takes care of 80-90% of Google’s crawling issues simply though how it is set up, and this fact comes straight from Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s spam team.
Super easy to implement a content strategy – With content being king of the business right now, there are so many reasons for any sized business to use a blog or frequently asked questions area of the website. WordPress has a user-friendly backend that is similar to programs like Microsoft Word, making it simple to update text, photos and media content yourself.
Social Media Syncing – Viral content, sharing your expertise through articles, pictures, video and more. In today’s age, it’s important to tether together your website, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and all other social media outlets and with the right WordPress plug-ins it’s a painlessly seamless process.
Mobile Friendly – WordPress websites are set up to show up on iPhones, BlackBerry, Android, iPad, as well as alternative browsers such as text only browsers so there is no need to worry that your website might not show up on any browser or device.
In the hands of experienced designers and coders, WordPress can be extremely powerful. But it is still just a tool in the process of website development. Just installing WordPress on its own does not give you a magical wand you can then wave around to create a stunning and functional website that drives traffic and helps your business reach its goals. Those types of goals take expert planning, superior design for content delivery, development time, and marketing strategy.
Working with WordPress allows our company stand on the shoulders of giants in order to reach the goal of focusing on content and spending more time in the planning phases, understanding the story we are about to tell, the overall user experience, and functionality. Every story starts with a conversation, let’s begin with yours.
Sources:
www.wordpress.com
http://videos.videopress.com/lAZUouJF/matt-cutts-straight-from-google-wcsf09_std.mp4
