Your website may be the first – and only – place customers interact with your business. A professional-looking website lets customers know you can be trusted with their business.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a tech genius or have a fleet of IT staff to build a great website. WordPress has been making it easy for individuals and businesses to create well-designed web pages for over a decade with its free, open-source content management system (CMS).

Secure your own domain

Having a URL that sounds like your own business is key to sounding legitimate. Sending customers to yourbusiness.wordpress.com sounds like you’re running a small (and cheap) operation. You can register a web domain with WordPress, or if you’ve already secured one (see below), add your WordPress site to that domain. Be sure to set up your email through that site as well.

Host your website on a secure server

If your company doesn’t have its own servers, you’ll want to purchase secure web hosting. Web hosting services allow you to lease the host’s server space, thereby powering your website. Many web domain services like GoDaddy also offer hosting plans, so you can purchase a domain and hosting through that site then register your domain with WordPress. However, as soon as you can afford it, use a domain host with some oomph behind it – this will help your load speed for first-time visitors. Watch your bounce rate to determine if this is a factor for you.

Customize your theme

WordPress offers a number of excellent site themes for free, and there are many more premium themes available for purchase. Customization is key: you want your site to strongly represent your brand and match your other marketing materials. Consider hiring a web designer to help create a custom WordPress site. WP sites are image-heavy; this is another factor with your site loading slow for the first-time visitor. Having your WP designed professionally, rather than buying a cheap template, could be a wise alternative.

Make your site mobile-friendly

Mobile optimization boosts your web ranking and makes it easier for customers to access your site on their increasingly preferred platform of choice: smartphones and tablets. Look for themes that include responsive design, which will simply reformat your website for mobile screens, rather than create a separate mobile site. Almost all WP sites today are mobile-optimized – make sure your design morphs itself as you desire it to for the mobile user.

Let plugins do the work

There are several plugins that can help business websites:

• WordPress SEO by Yoast – helps you create SEO for your pages
• iThemes Security – WordPress’ recommended plugin to prevent hackers
• MailChimp – if you use MailChimp for newsletters, you can add an email sign up form on your page
• Contact Form 7 – use contact forms instead of listing your email to prevent spamming. Add a plugin like Really Simple CAPTCHA to further prevent bot spamming.
• Gravity Forms – a more advanced form that creates the workflows required to connect to sites like PayPal
• LeadPages – a way to create custom landing pages for special events on the fly
• WooCommerce – one of the best ecommerce platforms for WP

Contact us today at Viral Solutions for help in getting the most out of your digital presence!