Are you an entrepreneur looking to build a website that will grow with your business? WordPress may be the solution you’re looking for.
In this post, we will go through the advantages of using WordPress to create your business website and give you the essential tips for ensuring your site is scalable.
Reasons to Consider Using WordPress for Your Business Website:
WordPress is Cost-effective:
Every additional expense reduces your bottom line. One of the most significant advantages of using WordPress to build a scalable website is that it can accommodate almost any budget. WordPress is free to use and comes with various free themes and plugins.
You can launch a WordPress website for only the costs of buying a domain and paying for a hosting provider. The WordPress hosting market is highly competitive, so hosting providers offer affordable plans.
If you choose WordPress, you can launch your business website with minimal costs. Later, as your business scales, invest in a more expensive hosting plan.
WordPress Enables Effective Search Engine Optimization and Marketing
Enabling clients to find you through organic search is essential for any business. Designed as a blogging platform, WordPress emphasizes using SEO-optimized solutions, provides clean HTML code by default, and enables convenient text content formatting.
Apart from that, WordPress offers a variety of SEO and performance optimization tools. For example, Yoast allows advanced search engine optimization, while plugins like WP Rocket and Smush help you increase performance, leading to better user experience and SERP ranking.
WordPress Enables You to Sell Your Products/Services
If your business sells products or services, WordPress is an excellent choice. Many themes come with integrated eCommerce features, while WooCommerce turns your WordPress website into a feature-rich online store.
With convenient SEO and tracking tools, WordPress allows entrepreneurs to promote and sell their products or services effectively.
WordPress Enables You to Scale Business
A common misconception about WordPress scalability is that it cannot support large traffic spikes. Multiple sites disprove this claim. For example, The New York Times uses WordPress, handling 260 million monthly visitors in 2021.
However, it is worth noting that WordPress is not necessarily scalable out of the box. You should consider factors such as hosting provider and adequate choice of plugins and themes to ensure your business website scales well.
There is also an option of creating a custom WordPress website built with your business needs in mind. It could be easily scalable and also have features designed according to your requirements.
How to Build a Scalable WordPress Business Site:
When building a scalable business website using WordPress, go through the following steps:
Choose a Good Hosting Provider
Choosing reliable hosting will ensure your website can handle the increase in traffic as your business scales.
When selecting a hosting provider, confirm that they have servers near your target demographic’s location. Consider using a content delivery network(CDN) if your potential clients are across multiple locations. Delivering content from servers close to your target audience will ensure optimal performance and affect user experience and search engine ranking.
Ensure that the hosting provider has an uptime guarantee to avoid losing clients due to your website being down.
Finally, if you decide to use shared hosting, inquire about server specifications and the number of websites per server to evaluate how it will affect your site’s performance.
Select the Right WordPress Theme
When choosing a WordPress theme with scalability in mind, evaluate its following aspects:
a. Design and Functionality
As your website will serve as the face of your brand, carefully choose a theme that aligns with your vision.
The theme should convey your brand’s message and provide the functionalities necessary for your business. For example, if your business needs a blog, eCommerce features, or membership plans, focus on themes that offer those functionalities to save costs on future migration or development.
b. Code and Performance
When selecting a theme, look for those that provide well-structured code that adheres to WordPress standards.
To maximize performance, look for themes that do not include many features your business won’t utilize.
To test a theme’s performance, apply it and assess the website’s performance using tools like PageSpeed Insights.
Flexibility
Evaluate how customizable a theme and its compatibility with popular page builders (Elementator, Gutenberg, etc.). Choosing a theme with extensive customization options may help you reduce costs by providing a no-code solution for designing your website.
Install Essential plugins
WordPress offers an extensive list of plugins. However, it’s important to keep scalability in mind when installing plugins, as having more than ten installed may negatively impact your website’s performance.
Although plugins may vary depending on your industry, some of the plugins that can benefit most businesses include:
- Login Attempts Limit. WordPress does not have brute-force hacking protection by default, so limiting the number of login attempts per IP address is essential.
- Yoast will help you optimize your business website for search engines, enabling more clients to find you through organic search.
- MonsterInsight will enable you to integrate Google Analytics into your WordPress Admin Dashboard.
Plan for the Future Growth
Ensure that your website keeps pace with your business growth and increased traffic by consistently monitoring its key performance indicators (KPIs) and evaluating how the increased traffic affects performance.
You should plan for an eventual hosting provider change, regular maintenance, keeping your plugins lean, and relying on website development services.
If you rely on shared hosting, plan for an eventual switch to dedicated hosting as your website traffic increases.
To keep your website up-to-date and avoid plugin incompatibilities and security risks, you should do regular website maintenance and consider hiring a website maintenance services provider as your business grows.
You should constantly evaluate whether a specific plugin is needed and how it affects your site’s performance. To ensure optimal performance, plan on using custom development solutions in the future.
Conclusions
WordPress is an excellent platform for entrepreneurs who want to build a website with scalability in mind. It allows entrepreneurs to launch sites with minimal initial costs. On the other hand, its scalability will enable them to add features and optimize the site as their business grows.
