10 Reasons Why We Chose WordPress
to Build The Integris Marketing Website

And why we recommend WordPress
for many small businesses as their website platform…

In a nutshell…it’s a solid A+ Website Creation Tool and Content Management System with an easy learning curve and powerful SEO capabilities all built into a single package. Yes there are some things it doesn’t do as well as other systems, but if your online website needs can be satisfied by WordPress, then you can take advantage of some of the most powerful and easy to use web software on the planet for building and maintaining a website. Not only that but you can keep a lot more of your web development budget in the bank (more to spend on Google Ads!).

Success while we weren’t even trying… or looking

During our own on-again-off-again development cycle for this website, we noticed something quite by chance while we were doing some manual testing for local keywords—we were actually starting to rank higher and higher in Google’s organic search results! We were flabbergasted because we hadn’t really even tried to promote the site yet! (Gulp, because the internal website links were going to change when we launched.) Undaunted by this little blip in our development logic we pressed on and now the rest is history. Our site is live and because it is so easy to update and keep fresh and current with our whims, as well as the evolving web technologies, we are scratching our heads and wondering why we didn’t do this years ago.

That said, here are the top 10 reasons we chose WordPress to build and maintain our website:

1. Pure selfishness. In addition to WordPress (WP) we have experience with Drupal, Xoops, Joomla, Interspire, Expression Engine, Contribute, Perch and a couple of other Content Management Systems. I must admit I have had the most consistent and positive experience with WP when used either as a blog platform or as a website CMS. I am not saying one is “better” than another because it really depends on needs, budget and the business culture. But with our unique needs and our familiarity with WP, and the myriad levels of skill for everyone who edits this website, this was an easy choice for us. With WP it’s a cinch for anyone on our team to add content, make blog posts, add and delete pages, make text and image changes, and tweak the SEO. For us, WP won hands down for our web needs.
2. Easy to Develop, Easy to Learn. In the most basic development cycle we can get a web site up in about 15 minutes, including setting up the hosting account. Of course there is customization, branding, content generation, and copywriting that needs to happen, and all the additional technologies one might want to integrate. But heck…A basic website that is ready for you to add content via a powerful content management system in 15 minutes isn’t half bad considering the other options out there.
3. The Price is Right. Can you say “Open Source”? What that means is the core WP system is free. Yes, you have to have web hosting (we recommend our 100% Solar-Powered Web Hosting of course) and you have to be able to utilize the available “WP How-To’s” (or get some training, which we offer). Also, there are seemingly countless free themes out there to choose from (be careful with the free ones, though, as some are less than reputable and can get you into hot water). We prefer to use premium professional WP Themes as our starting point for customization. Better support and follow-up, cleaner code, and less chance of spamming software hidden in the code (voice of experience here).
4. Yahoo and The New York Times Can’t Both be Wrong. Yes, even Yahoo and The New York Times use WP!
5. Built-in Blog(s). WP gives you the SEO Super-Powers, partly because of the built-in blogging components and partly because of how it manages the content, including Header tags and a great and customizable Permalink structure to make sure keywords get into your page titles. Plus there is WordPress MU (Multi-User) which allows the owner to have an infinite number of blogs all under one domain. So if you want an online blog empire on a budget, get started with WPMU and wow your friends (assuming you have any, after spending all your waking hours learning everything there is to know about WP!). Sure, you can sit around with a basic website with 4 or 5 pages, but if you are serious about climbing the Organic Search Results then you need to either have a blog, or add a blog to your website, and use it! And when you do, we recommend WP…enough said. Now this SEO talk brings me to the next winning reason we chose WP for ourselves, as well as for many of our clients…
6. SEO, SEO. SEO. Yes, SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If you have a website you want people to find you. One of the best ways to do this is with good search engine results. One way to get these is to optimize your site for your keywords and that means putting those keywords into Header tags, page titles, post titles, text, links and captions. And guess what…WP makes that really easy. Plus, if you add a couple of SEO plug-ins, get ready for some serious results… (I kid you not!)
7. Content Still Reigns Supreme. WP makes content so easy to add…pages, posts, downloads, photos, music… you name it and you can easily put it into a WP website or blog. Then, make it relevant, well-written, and optimized content, lots of it, and you will get to the top of the organic search results faster than any other “trick” (Note: You still need in-bound links to really shine!).
8. Turnover. The worst enemy of business is the high degree of employee or vendor turnover. On average, staff members are employed for two years, so with a traditional Content Management System, heavy documentation is needed for the new folks. Enter WP…with this CMS I can have someone making web edits with only an hour’s worth of training (teach them how to login, show them the area that they need to edit, show them the basics, do some test changes and voila! they are up and running). Then, as time and resources allow, you can continue their education so they can manage the more technical aspects as time goes on. We feel that someone with absolutely no knowledge of the system could literally become a power-user in 4 one-hour training sessions. Using CMS systems like Joomla, Drupal or Xoops, it always feels like the learning curve is very steep…too steep for most novices.
9. Flexibility.  As I was building the site, several team members came to me and asked if we could do X, Y or Z.  99% of the time there was a plug-in that did what they were asking for. This is amazing because most plug-ins are free, or simply request a donation (please support these developers when you get, and then rely on, these plug-ins). This allows our WP CMS to grow and evolve as the technologies and needs change. It doesn’t hurt that WP is open source. And one more bit on the flexibility…WP is always evolving and responding to security issues, technology evolution and needs of users. If you have WP you are always riding the wave of some of the best technology that is available today for web content systems.
10. The support.  This is true of Drupal as well, but I feel like the WP community goes above and beyond the call of duty. And if instant answers are needed, there are several paid WP support services (unlike some of the other content management systems out there).

I hope this clearly illustrates why we chose WP. We could have developed sites on any number of platforms, but we chose this one and are glad we did. Plus, as we evolve we already have plans for updates and new plug-ins that will take our site to ever more advanced levels.

If you are a business owner with a small budget (or even a large one!) who wants a truly powerful website with built-in SEO performance, don’t be surprised when we tell you all about WP and what it can do for you.

Feel free to give us a call (775.322.3663 / 800.322.0239). And if you’re a local here in the Reno, Truckee Meadows or Tahoe area, we would love  to meet you for coffee or tea (or some other tasty treat)!

To your Online Success!