WordPress is an amazing tool for creating and managing websites for marketing, since it’s pretty much the ultimate website building tool. With seventy-four million websites on the internet powered by WordPress, it also gains the popular vote – but how do you upgrade your marketing with WordPress?
Why Should You Use WordPress?
First of all, just in case you aren’t quite sold with the idea of WordPress yet, here are just a few reasons to use it.
It’s free! This point is really the highlight, since a base- level website requires no funds whatsoever to set up. WordPress websites update easily, without wrecking themselves with every major update, and it also has many brilliant design options for you to pick from.
Excellent Web-Hosting Options
WordPress is also a really good website builder for compatibility with web-hosting servers. We have curated a list of Affordable WordPress hosting providers.
Just in case you don’t want to host with WordPress – although it is a valid option and does work well, for a suitable price – its websites are all built with open- source coding, which works with almost every web-hosting option out there.
1. Show Off What You’ve Got
When you’re creating content for your website, make sure that you’re not filling the home page with waffle and stock images that don’t mean anything.
Your home page should immediately show off your best content, to keep a viewer’s interest, and extra information should be scattered throughout the website. WordPress can help you to make a website, but you are in charge of its quality here.
2. Understand Themes & How To Use Them
There’s an incredible amount of features available to you when you start up your WordPress website, and it can get a little baffling.
Try to get one with a lot of presets included for different pages and page layouts, to make your job a little easier, and make sure that the themes you use are fully responsive and relate to the purpose of your website.
Most importantly, make sure you like looking at the one you choose and find it aesthetically pleasing – if you don’t, it’s likely that no one else will either.
3. Utilizing Images
Your written content might be amazing, but it’ll also be boring for a viewer if there’s just pages and pages of long, intimidating paragraphs. Break up the text with relevant and high-quality images, because nothing ruins the validity of your website like a horribly pixelated image.
Relevant images can be found for free at royalty-free image-sharing websites, and you can always invest in a good-quality camera to supply your own images if you’re feeling brave or artsy.
4. Including A Site-Map
Creating a site-map is important if you want to get noticed properly by search engines.
It won’t increase your traffic on its own, but a site-map will allow a search engine to crawl through your website and see which links are more important, and which pages get updated more, etc.
This makes people searching for your website get a smarter, more stream-lined experience.
5. Keywords In Text
For your written content, try to use keywords and common phrases which your audience are searching for.
This will boost your website to the top of the search results, increasing traffic and making sure that the right people are finding your website.
6. Banish Broken Links
Within your website, you’ll have links to different pages and websites on the internet, and, through advertising, you’ll be giving out your link to many other websites.
Make sure these links work before you give them out – just copy and paste into your web browser – or you’ll be turning off customers left, right and centre.
7. Creating A Community
Although the base WordPress doesn’t lend itself to memberships, you can build up a community around your brand and website with the plugin iMIS (and other similar plugins) which lets you basically create a fanbase.
By customizing your website just a little, you can sell merchandise, manage members and schedule events, creating fans who will dutifully visit your website for updates and become brand loyalists.
8. Keeping Up With The… Social Media?
WordPress have made it simple to connect your social media accounts to your website, so take advantage of this and be active on your social media!
Take part in social media challenges and trends, and share pages from your website on your social media and vice versa. Just being active can increase traffic and reach by a lot
9. Mobile Optimization
Alienating an entire community of potential visitors to your website would be a terrible idea, right?
Of course it would! Well, if you don’t make sure that your WordPress website is optimized for the mobile phone screen, then that is exactly what you’re doing. Don’t fall into that trap and make sure that your website looks good on a smartphone and a laptop screen.