1. Benefits of Hiring a WordPress Website Designer
Time and Cost Efficiency: The biggest advantage of WordPress website design is the ease you can change things around on your website. If you are not happy with what is written or you would like to change an image, it's absolutely no problem as you won't need to be reliant on your web designer to do this update for you, all you need to do is log in and make the changes you want and then publish them. This can save you money in the long run, particularly if you need to do regular updates to your site.
Professional and Customized Design: Would you not like your website to look just stunning, professional, unique and something different to traditional websites? This can easily be done if your website is designed by WordPress. There are many useful designs available, but if these don't suit your needs, you can also get custom designed WordPress themes created around a site that is unique to your needs. Your site will look like nothing else out there, which can be quite important in today's competitive market.
There are lots of things that may attract you towards WordPress if you are thinking of having a website. Let's have a look at some of them:
WordPress started in 2003 and since then, there has been no looking back. It has become the most powerful tool which is preferred by most leading businesses and has been used to create more than 70 million websites across the globe. WordPress is the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system in today's time. It is also the most used CMS platform and hence it's quite evident why WordPress website design services are high in demand.
1.1. Professional and Customized Design
Professionalism is important for the first impression contact with any potential customer. Something unique will make the business to be remembered. (A WordPress website designer)(https://webcasa.com/) is able to create a high quality, professional and unique website. This will correspond to the product or service being marketed. A customized design built by a WordPress website designer will set a strong foundation for the business to prosper. It will give the site a competitive advantage over other similar sites on the internet. Every second counts when it comes to first impressions and so it's necessary to have a strong influential design. A common misconception is the cost of hiring a web designer. Custom websites can be expensive but with the right resources a WordPress website designer can provide an amazing service at a very low cost. An off-the-shelf template costs between $60 and $120. This will provide a basic and widely unoriginal site. Often this may be the same site as another business of similar nature. These templates are hard to manipulate so it could end up costing between $400 and $700 to have a developer tweak the template to resemble something unique. With a small additional allocation of resources, a custom site from a WordPress website designer will build a better foundation for a successful business. This can save a large amount of time and cost for the website owner.
1.2. Time and Cost Efficiency
Having someone who knows what they're doing can save a lot of time. It takes time to know what you're doing and in a world where time is money, it's important to get the most out of your business. As an entrepreneur or a business owner of any sort, you don't want to have to learn the process this involves because this isn't what your job entails. WordPress is user-friendly, but even setting up a good theme can take hours. If this process is taken on, let's say after six hours, half the time the result will not be any good because the average person does not have the eye for image that a designer has. Imagine that the theme isn't what you thought it would be. If you had a designer this would just be a "no big deal, get the theme I wanted with one-click". Now you have to search for other themes, preview them, and set them up to find another potential candidate. The rest of the site will also require a lot of tweaking to get it right because the site building platforms are only somewhat customizable. A whole lot more time would be wasted if these processes were taken and it still may not turn out how you want it. This takes us to the cost aspect. A business owner will be losing money if they could be doing something more productive to their actual business. If a college student wanted to do their site for cheap labor experience, they are in no position to create an efficient and quality site. This is where the phrase "time is money" is most relevant; it would be a money saver to have a good site up quickly and efficiently, than have a low quality site taking months to tweak when the progression could have been put into place.
1.3. Enhanced User Experience
2014 was the year when internet use on mobile devices exceeded PC use. This in mind, having a website that is mobile-friendly is a must. If your website is not mobile friendly, you are already missing out on 67% of potential clients/customers. WordPress website designers are able to make your website mobile-friendly. This means that the website will automatically adjust to the size of the device it is being viewed from. With mobile phones and tablet devices being heavily used for information, it is essential that your website caters to all clients. At Innovate Web Design, our WordPress websites are mobile-friendly. This means we probably just helped you gain a potential 67% increased revenue! Faster mobile development at lower costs- sounds good to me. It is important to rate products against one another to make a fully informed decision. Without comparing products, how do we truly know which one is better? As this is an internet vs print analogy, we will assess the available forms of internet advertising against one another, to show why more companies are turning to internet advertising. The costs between websites, SEO, email marketing and social media marketing can all be compared against advertising in newspapers, books, magazines and leaflets. The fact is that internet marketing is very cost effective when compared to the traditional methods. A newspaper advert can last only a day before the next edition is released, with a leaflet lasting only as long as the recipient decides to keep it before throwing it away. Email marketing is an easy and efficient way of reaching your customers. With over 50 percent of internet users checking or sending email on a typical day, the email medium is a very effective way of communicating. High quality websites can be very rewarding and act as a 24/7 sales rep. A pay per click campaign coupled with email marketing, an effective use of Twitter and Facebook can really make a small business competitive with larger companies. With WordPress being very easy to manage, this type of website can be designed at a lower cost.
2. Technical Expertise and Support
WordPress is an outstanding platform which provides a lot of flexibility concerning website design, development, add-ons, and ongoing maintenance, which numerous CMS's fail to match. Though WordPress is incredibly simple to use and understand, it still requires some expertise to build and maintain a website. A WordPress designer possesses skills in a lot of areas related to WordPress. Specialized knowledge undoubtedly comes with the usage of WordPress themes, from installation and modification to customization. A good understanding of the best plugins and which ones are used to aid site optimization is very important. Though some WordPress users do their best to keep up with the latest releases, updates, and fixes, a professional developer would be knowledgeable in most of the issues regarding your site and can offer you far greater peace of mind with reliable troubleshooting and maintenance. A typical understanding of website development will not do. If the developer is not aware of how to build and optimize the WordPress theme, plugins, and full site structure, then you are likely to get an inadequately developed website. A site that is not developed to standards will result in problems, will not function as expected, and could function poorly. This is often an issue of customization. Many WordPress users stick with a theme even if it doesn't function or look right. This is usually because of a lack of knowledge about the theme itself or not wanting to pay to have the theme customized.
2.1. Knowledge of WordPress Platform
So, if you're in the process of constructing a new website, it could be an awfully wise move to invest a bit more and get a skilled developer on board. How many times have you tried to fix problems with your current website, only to unconsciously cause other problems? Excessive damage to the point where you can't reverse out of it? Maybe it's because you're too embarrassed to send it back to the original developer to fix, or just feel like saving money and doing it yourself. This is possibly the worst-case scenario you can encounter. WordPress is an amazing platform to work with, but unless you have the right skill set, you can easily do more damage than good, mostly through a lack of knowledge. A professional WordPress developer has experience in dealing with a variety of websites, and more importantly, the experience to diagnose the problem and know exactly how to fix it. Furthermore, the WordPress platform, while generally user-friendly, can be a little daunting for the complete novice to get their head around. In saying that, there are a lot of features within WordPress that are often underutilized and could greatly benefit one's website, or save precious time when editing. A skilled developer should be well educated across all of WordPress's features and will be able to teach you the best way of doing things. This way you will begin to feel more confident in running your website and get the most out of your time spent on it.
2.2. Troubleshooting and Maintenance
Plugins are a powerful tool for adding and extending functionality to WordPress. Often times, users download and install plugins without realizing the effect it will have on their website. Although these plugins were designed to work with WordPress, some are not coded well, or there may be a conflict with other plugins installed. The plugin may work a few times and then suddenly stop working altogether. This will cause the website to malfunction and can even produce a fatal error causing the website to be "down". Step in the WordPress designer; this can be a nightmare scenario for any website owner if they have no clue how to rectify the issue. The WordPress designer will firstly pinpoint where the problem is originating and then take action. Much of the time, the designer will be able to edit the plugin and get it working properly, or they may have to add functionality to the plugin with some coding. If the plugin is not salvageable, they will have to find an alternative and then do the same process of installing and modifying it. In any case, the goal here is to resolve the problem without the website owner having to worry about a thing.
WordPress websites are designed using quite complex codes and programming. In most cases, users are having no knowledge of coding and the engine behind WordPress, making them feel frustrated when something goes wrong. Having a WordPress designer to cater for troubleshooting and maintenance can be quite relieving because much of the time the professional can identify and resolve the issue without the website owner having to concern themselves with it. The process is akin to taking your car to a mechanic; it's a lot easier for them to check and resolve the problem.
3. SEO Optimization and Digital Marketing
Integration of social media and analytics is a modern way to promote your website and build a strong relationship with your website visitors. The main goal is to act on the information provided. An informed decision is always better than a shot in the dark. Today, information revolves around the statistical data collected from activities. This information is stored and processed as long as there is a need to improve a given situation. Usually, the gathered information is used to either disprove or approve a theory and make changes to current practices based on that information. Social media is primarily a marketing platform. The concept here is to utilize various social media tools to target the right audience. Your chances of capturing viewer interest and reaching your target customers are higher compared to other marketing methods. This is a relatively cheaper and long-term way to market your site.
Content creation and strategy is the second most important aspect in the world of SEO and digital marketing. Search engines rely on content. The content is created to appeal to both search engines and visitors. How you choose to share your content with your target audience is up to you. It's all about keyword optimization tactics and using the right words in the right places. Search engines prioritize providing optimal results. This means that the search engine compares the results it gathers with the requirements of the visitors, and the satisfaction of the visitors affects the quality of their next search. Gradually, your quality content will build trust and rapport with customers. It's easy to understand that the more trust and relationship you have with your customers, the more likely they are to buy your products or seek your services.
Keyword research and optimization is one of the most important elements for improving a website's position on primary search engines. A keyword is a single word or phrase used to describe the content of a web page. It is the words that people type into search engine boxes that determine which websites are shown. Imagine your website is the offer of the century. In terms of sales, no matter how good your product is, if you can't reach the people who need it, how can you spread the word? Your main objective is to target the right customers. What will those customers be typing into the search engine? What are they looking for? If you optimize your website with keywords that relate to their needs, your site will have a higher chance of getting more traffic.
3.1. Keyword Research and Optimization
What a mouthful. Many people don't have the time or energy to put into researching keywords and then optimizing to them. Fortunately, WordPress has quite a few plugins that can do this for you. One of the most popular SEO related plugins is Yoast. Yoast has a variety of features, but its best features include an analysis of the content you're writing and a snippet preview of what your page will look like in search engines. Both of the analysis and the snippet features are directly related to keyword research and optimization. During the content analysis phase, Yoast will check to make sure you're using your keyword the right amount of times in the right places, and it will check for things that are detrimental to your search engine ranking such as too little text or, more specifically to local businesses, lack of location specific content. This feature alone can save a considerable amount of time. The snippet preview will show you what your meta title and meta description will look like in search engine results. This is how people decide whether or not to click on your link, so this is extremely important to optimize. Overall, Yoast is a great tool for keyword research and optimization, and it's just one of the many SEO plugins that WordPress has to offer.
In any business, or any organization, for that matter, you must have a clear understanding of where your traffic is coming from and how you can maximize your brand exposure. That's where keyword research and optimization comes in. Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing precise words and terms that people enter into search engines. A key to a successful website is knowing what words or phrases your potential customers will use to find your product. If you already have a keyword list, you'll want to optimize to those keywords. Optimization is the act of altering or creating something to make it more effective or suitable. In this case, optimizing is the act of altering your meta tags and your content to better suit your keyword.
3.2. Content Creation and Strategy
The content you use on your website is often the first impression you can make on someone. Since this is your digital sales representative, the content must draw people in and keep them engaged. To do this, you need to have a website that is well thought out and prepared. A WordPress site allows you to create a significant amount of content in a well-organized manner through different categories, archives, tags, and more, to help build more content in an easily accessible way. The more quality content you create on your WordPress site, the more likely you will generate more traffic from search engines. This is due to the fact that you are providing answers and solutions to people's searches. Remember, it's important to have compelling content. This will encourage your readers to return and increase the chances of them buying/sharing your product. A WordPress site allows you to easily edit content. This will entice you to continually edit and add content, which can lead to more return visitors.
3.3. Integration of Social Media and Analytics
As a website owner, you can keep and maintain a separate web audience with the help of users' email IDs. Many web users prefer subscribing to newsletters for the latest trends. There are many WordPress plugins available to install a subscription box. However, as qualified designers, it's better to go for professional email marketing services like MailChimp or AWeber. This is because you can keep track of your subscribers and, in today's new era, you have to fulfill GDPR compliance, where analytics are a crucial part. Now you can relate email marketing services with analytics, which is a wise idea. By using a specified URL, we can track how users are converted to leads. There are specific plugins that can be used from email marketing services. However, using a web URL and pasting it into the page with hidden content to fetch subscribers is a more optimized way. Email marketing services provide tracking of email open rates, users' locations, and users' activity. This is very good and reliable data with high credibility. With all the data in hand, we can set custom audiences and retarget these users by showing relevant ads on social media. This is the way to increase and maintain interaction with new and old web users.
Social media and analytics are integral parts in order to get connected with more customers/audience. Most people are using social media platforms to share their views and upload different kinds of photos and videos. All WordPress designers are fully aware of how they can integrate social media using WordPress plugins. This will be the strategy and procedure to get it done effectively. It is a cost-effective and simple way to let web users share your content with others. When content is shared and people talk about it, it will definitely increase interaction among your web users. There are numerous social media plugins available online that can be used for free. However, many WordPress designers prefer to integrate plugins provided by Facebook and Twitter, as these plugins provide many features along with simple content sharing.
4. Future Scalability and Growth
Today, a business can't afford to disregard mobile clients. As of June 2013, 91% of American adults had a cell phone and 34% of those cell phone owners simply use their cell phone to browse online. In April 2015, Google made changes to search engine ranking algorithm that give preference to sites that are mobile optimized: the mobile friendly ranking algorithm boost the ranking of mobile friendly pages on mobile search results. And starting on November 1, 2015, the mobile friendly status can significantly improve search results for mobile users. A business' online presence is not future proof without a responsive design; it is important that a site is developed with the ease of mobile access in mind at the design stage. Many older WP or custom site designs are built fixed position and have separate mobile sites. Most of the time, these separate mobile sites are actually maintained separately, essentially undermining the goal of making mobile access more convenient now that the content is no longer relevant. Also, separate mobile sites and mobile plugins are often designed as a stopgap measure adding mobility to an existing site that does not have any. The best approach is a design that is fluid and can automatically reshape itself for optimal display on any device, whether it be a laptop, desktop, PDA or cell phone. For WordPress sites, some theme vendors are creating mobile responsive designs that offer style variations from desktop to small mobile screens for a single content site to avoid duplicating multiple mobile and desktop content. This means the same content will automatically adapt to display appropriately on your device. If your business runs an online store, the significance of a mobile friendly ecommerce store is even more critical considering it's a customer facing application. In January 2014, 74% of online adult cell phone owners were making a purchasing decision using their cell phone and this year; mobile shopping is likely to surpass PC shopping during the holiday season. It would be disappointing for a person buying an item to be unable to reach the shopping cart on his or her cell phone with an unresponsive design, or worse, accidentally purchase the item due to a dodgy interface. A great example of a WP site that needs website. How to introduce mobile responsive design is the Stock Photo. This WP site has been using the same WP theme for years and although the creators had a go at mobile plugin implementation, their site lost usability and gained little functionality on non-desktop devices. The entire site has been completely dependent on the use of the lightbox javascript type photo preview. The developer had attempted to create a mobile solution by using a lightbox plugin that superseded the static link to provide an innovative mobile interface. Unfortunately, javascript lightbox and mobile don't mix: the proprietary interface did not work properly on many mobile devices and the code was simply too rough for the task. If the actual site content had remained consistent, a switch to a mobile friendly theme and simple native WP gallery functionality could have avoided mobile user issues altogether and in regards to this showed a decrease in future design maintenance costs. The Stock Photo will be followed up in a future article in a series specifically focused on WP ecommerce designing.
4.1. Responsive and Mobile-Friendly Design
Responsive web design is a process of designing and building a website that works on any device or screen size. Having a responsive website will be the way your site is laid out, text copy, images and navigational elements resize, hide, shrink and stack depending on the device that it's being viewed on. Now more than ever, your site needs to be mobile friendly as Google announced in April 2015 that they have now released an algorithm that will favor mobile friendly sites in the search results. With more people using mobile devices to make purchases, having a mobile friendly site is integral and will impact your search engine rankings. Using WordPress will ensure that mobile friendly capabilities can be built into your site at the beginning, saving money on a separate mobile site design and the added expense of site maintenance. Why is responsive design so important? Because Google says so! In an attempt to make the web a more mobile friendly place, Google has started to factor in the mobile friendliness of a site to determine its search engine rankings. With more and more searches taking place on mobile devices, it is important to have a site that will deliver a great user experience for those users. Google's latest change means that sites with mobile capabilities will end up ranking higher than those without. This means that if your site is not mobile friendly, you are going to be losing out on potential customers as your site will be pushed to the bottom of the search results. With the plugin WP Touch, your WordPress site can be made mobile friendly with just a few clicks.
4.2. Integration of E-commerce Functionality
WordPress excels as an all-encompassing solution for small-to-medium businesses looking to make the transition to e-commerce. The content management system is a cost-effective solution with e-commerce software built-in to help owners create their online store. Best of all, the administrative areas for these shopping carts are also e-commerce software based, meaning the owner can effectively manage their store from any internet connection. Furthermore, all software is incorporated within the WordPress site, meaning that the user won't have to navigate to an external site to make any changes. This is particularly significant for usability and efficiency. With the power of plugins, users looking to implement more complex, feature-rich stores can convert their site into a powerful e-commerce site using software such as WooCommerce. Digital downloads, merchandise, subscriptions or appointments; WordPress is capable of managing and selling just about anything. From the practical to the outlandish, with WordPress you're never limited by other e-commerce solutions that cater to a set list of products. With the right configuration, varied products can be managed in effective, user-friendly and unique ways. No matter what it is you want to sell, WordPress has you covered.
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