WordPress is one of the world’s leading content management systems, and it’s one that the team at Webcentral highly recommend for Australian small and medium businesses. With an easy to use backend, easy customisation, and a Swiss-Army-Knife-like flexibility, WordPress websites can be built for everything from standard websites and e-commerce sites, to membership and food ordering sites. The benefits of WordPress don’t end there, consider the below points when you’re planning your web development project.

 

Open source software

If you’ve been considering web development platforms, you may have come across the term “open source”. Basically, all the term means is that the source code of the platform can be edited. Why does this matter? Well, the source code of a program is the basis all customisation is built on, and when a developer has access to it they can do a whole lot more than if they don’t.

There are quite a few closed source web development platforms out there, like Shopify and Wix, that can be useful web development tools, but they come well short of the customisable options an open source software, like WordPress, gives you. It’s not just customisation that makes open source web development platforms so popular.

Open source means web development free for all. Open source platforms are almost always accompanied by hundreds if not thousands of purpose-built plugins. These plugins are programmed by independent web developers to do anything from create booking systems, to complex membership areas and a whole lot more. And on top of this, they’re easy to use. All your own web developer needs to do is purchase the plug in, customise it your exact needs, and like magic your basic five-page website now has a secure membership functionality.

Being on open source software gives your website also has another major benefit. You really own it. When you build your website on Shopify, Wix or another closed source program, if you decide to move your website to another provider (no matter the reason) you’ll have to start your build all over again. This is because these providers don’t let you move any of your data or designs off their platform, and because you don’t have access to the source code, it’s impossible to copy anything over. We’ve often encountered businesses that are looking to move onto more responsive and customisable web development platforms, but hold onto their data and design in the process, only to have to tell them they need to start from scratch. This is a particular issue to consider if you envision your site growing beyond its initial small size, and it’s one of the main reasons we recommend WordPress for Australian small and medium businesses.

 

WordPress and SEO

SEO is an essential element of any web development project. While it’s easy to get focused on creating the perfect site, if you’re not thinking of how future customers will find that site, all your work may be for nought.

WordPress is constantly being updated, not just by the team working at WordPress, but by the hundreds of developers who create their own plugins. This means that WordPress is always up-to-date with the latest add-ons and security updates. It’s also always at the cutting edge of SEO. Not only is WordPress easy for SEO techs to work on, but it’s easy for Google to read, and this leads to better rankings for your site, more visitors, more enquires and more sales (as long as your making use of SEO best practice of course).

Our SEO team find it far easier to work their magic on WordPress websites and we highly recommend that you consider how your web development platform will affect SEO performance before committing to a build.

 

WordPress and e-commerce

WordPress isn’t always the first content management system mentioned when it comes to e-commerce, and we think this is a bit of a mistake. While WordPress did begin as an information website platform, it has grown to be one of the easiest to use and most customisable e-commerce development option.

WordPress’s e-commerce plugin, Woo-commerce, is a constantly evolving tool that has become a go-to for thousands of Australian businesses small and large. From our own experience, we can tell you that this plugin can work in almost all industries, with the only problem being when versions of the one product exceed fifty (i.e. 51 colours of the same pants). Other than this one limitation, we think you should certainly consider WordPress for your e-commerce site, it’s incredibly easy to manage your inventory and upload new products, as well as track sales and create invoices and sales reports.

 

Affordable web development with WordPress

At Webcentral, we’re strong believers in open source software (one of the reasons we so regularly build sites on WordPress), but we’re also believers in building the right website for the right business. Web development can become a costly process, and having dealt with so many small and medium Australian businesses, we know that cost is something they are often worried about. This is one of the reasons why we think WordPress is such a good solution.

While our team of developers can build a website on almost any platform, we know (from experience) that some platforms take longer to work with. And the more time we spend building a client’s site, the more it’s going to cost. This is one of the reasons we love using WordPress. With the ease of programming involved, as well as the minimal time needed for styling, we can create a stunning website in far less time, and that means we can charge a whole lot less.

It’s not just us either, WordPress web developers will generally have lower rates than those working on other platforms – jobs just take less time.

 

Do it yourself with WordPress

While we wouldn’t necessarily recommend building your own website if you don’t have some web development background, WordPress is a platform that makes doing just that fairly simple. With a little knowledge and a few YouTube tutorials you can create a passable website. Though if you’re looking for something a little better than passable you may need to come to a web development agency like us.

The do it yourself side of WordPress doesn’t end with the actual web development. Loading content and products is made super easy with an intuitive backend that even the least tech savvy amongst us can learn to use. This is particularly useful in lowering your ongoing costs. In general, most web developers will charge an hourly fee to upload content or make changes to your site, and if you can do that yourself you can save hundreds in the long run.

 

Google Analytics and WordPress tracking

WordPress has its own built in tracking stats and is easily integrated with a Google Analytics account (we highly recommend getting one of these to track how people interact with your site). But WordPress sites also have an inbuilt cookie creator and tracker. When used properly, this allows you to tag guests and from there do a whole lot more.

Cookies or pixels allow you to track and advertise to people who visit your website. By doing this, you can show your business’s ads on Google platforms or social media to anyone who has been on your website, and this is a very powerful way of capturing return views and more business.

 

Plug and play with WordPress

As a full suite digital agency, there’s a lot we do with our client’s websites, from integrating email marketing, social media remarketing and lead capture, we turn client’s websites into complete digital marketing platforms. Unfortunately, we occasionally run into issues when clients have websites built on outdated or sub-par development platforms. When this happens, all the things we may have in mind for a client can go out the window, or become quite ineffective.

We love working on WordPress because all the third-party platforms we use can easily sync with websites built on it. This makes our lives easier and means we can do more for clients.

 

Whether you’re looking to redesign your website or create a brand new one, consider the functionality that WordPress provides. Remember, you can always give our team a call if you want to discuss how we can help build you a brand-new site.