Why WordPress is an Excellent Choice for Your CMS
WordPress is an open source content management system (CMS) that has become one of the most used platforms on the web. It has become the CMS of choice for businesses, bloggers, designers, and online marketers for a variety of reasons that I’ll discuss in this article. As a marketing company in Saint John, New Brunswick, my business uses WordPress extensively and we’ve been getting great results.
WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org
For business owners who are not so tech savvy, a distinction has to be made between WordPress.com and wWordpress.org. WordPress.com is a free blogging platform much like Blogger or Tumblr or Posterous. It is hosted and controlled by WordPress. It’s great for someone who wants to write an interest blog in their spare time or post a few stories and pictures of their kids for their extended family and friends. It is not the best option for serious businesspeople and bloggers who want to monetize their site.
That’s where WordPress.org comes in. It is a free content management system that can be loaded on your own servers at your own hosting account and controlled by you or your developer. When I ask “Why Use WordPress” I’m talking about WordPress.org.
Why Use WordPress?
- Google likes WordPress. As a marketer, I need a platform that is structured in such a way that the search engines can read it and rank it as quickly and efficiently as possible. WordPress is structured for on page optimization so Google and other search engine crawlers can see what is important to the site and to the page and put it in the right category to get ranked more easily.
- The structure is not only optimized for Google, but it is naturally set up for an intuitive user experience. Information can attractively presented in a logical and easily consumed manner.
- It loads fast, which is also great for both search engine optimization and user experience.
- We already mentioned that you can use WordPress as a self-hosted CMS so you can maintain control of your site and its content.
- WordPress is easy to use. The dashboard in the admin area is clear and easy to follow. Small changes to text and features can be handled by people with little to no coding experience.
- WordPress is flexible. It can be a simple blog with a few simple and easy to use features…or a full blown site with multiple pages and plugins.
- There are plugins for everything. You (or your developer) can install plugins to control the code and inner workings of the site, or insert ads or coordinate with social media sites like facebook and Twitter to enhance the user experience on your site.
Like any platform, there are pros and cons. Some people complain that the structure is too familiar with so many people using WordPress, but companies like Dream Driven Designs in Tampa can create very different sites on the platform…and some degree of familiarity makes people more comfortable on your site. Familiarity can breed trust and make them more willing to pull out their credit card.
Why Use WordPress for your website? I believe it is the best options available for businesses and organizations to get their message out to prospective clients, improve their online image, and most importantly, increase their bottom line.
Roderick MacKenzie
Freedom Ability Marketing
Our goal w
as to create a simple but professional blogging theme that would be easy to manage, quick to understand and easy for visitors to navigate. It has a professional layout with built in social media profiles, feed-burner email subscription form, featured article slide, custom background images & colors, custom header images, sidebar, three footer areas, six different post formats and featured image support. WordPress 3.0+.
Download: Business Pro Blogger
Demo: Preview Theme
I have tested the theme for the following browsers:
- Internet Explorer:
- 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 – All features work as designed.
- Firefox:
- 3.0, 3.5 – All features work as designed.
- Safari:
- 4.0+ – All features work as designed on both Windows and Mac
- Opera:
- 8+ – Works as designed, except for rounded borders and shadows
- Chrome:
- 2.0 – All features work as designed.
The theme is XHTML 1.0 compliant. Please feel free to pitch in with comments and bug reports.
Welcome to our Free WordPress Theme SimpleBlogger.
SimpleBlogger is an easy to use, lightweight yet advance WordPress theme that can be easily customized to make your own. You can choose your background color, background image and custom logo. It comes equipped with Facebook, Twitter, a built in email subscription form, multilevel drop down menu, threaded comments, etc.
It has 3 footer widgets, sidebar widgets and a featured posts slideshow. All features can be easily updated from the theme settings page without any complications, hence the name SimpleBlogger, it’s designed to be used by anyone out the box. WordPress version 3.0+.
Download: SimpleBlogger
Demo: Theme Preview
I have tested the theme for the following browsers:
- Internet Explorer:
- 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 – All features work as designed.
- Firefox:
- 3.0, 3.5 – All features work as designed.
- Safari:
- 4.0+ – All features work as designed on both Windows and Mac
- Opera:
- 8+ – Works as designed, except for rounded borders and shadows
- Chrome:
- 2.0 – All features work as designed.
The theme is XHTML 1.0 compliant. Please feel free to pitch in with comments and bug reports.
Understanding Google’s Webmaster’s Guideline
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines instructs you on everything you need to know about what they expect from the design of your website. Everything basically breaks down to keeping your website simple, easy to use and content relevant to your visitors.
- Make your site easy to navigate by creating a consistent navigational structure across your site and by making that navigational structure obvious to visitors.
- Include relevant links to other websites.
- Use a site map and submit it to Google.
- Include clear and relevant content.
- Make sure the HTML that makes up your site is written correctly.
- Repair broken links as soon as they’re noticed.
- Allow crawlers access to your Website by including a robot.txt on your sever
- Design your pages for users and not the search engine.
- Avoid any kid of underhanded Website design, for example hidden pages, hidden text.
- Use only relevant keywords in the titles, headings and text of your website.
Link to Google’s Webmaster’s Guideline.
Common Questions about AdSense
The following are some common questions that are usually asked about AdSense.
How much money can I make with AdSense?
There is no easy answer to this question, it really depends, your daily revenue is calculated using several measurements:
- Unique visits: A visitor is considered unique visitor when he or she visits your website once during a giving period of time.
- Average click-through-rate (CTR): The CTR is the actual number of visitors who click through an ad on your website.
- Average cost-per-click (CPC): The CPC is the amount that advertisers pay each time someone clicks one of their ads. The number varies and is dependent on the cost of the keyword.
Using these measurements you can estimate how much you could make. Let’s say that your website gets around 1,000 unique visits per day and the average ad CPC is $0.25 – assuming that about 2 percent of your 1,000 unique visitors click through the ads, then you will have a potential revenue of $5. (1,000 x .02) x $0.25 = $5
How much does AdSense cost?
AdSense is free, you just need to get approved by Google and sometimes it takes time. For beginners it normally takes a while to get approved but if you have an established website and traffic they normally reply within a few days.
What kind of Ads will show on my site?
The ads shown on your site is determined by the content on your website. Google ads are contextual ads therefore the ads are related to content. You can read What is adsense for details.
Can I use AdSense on more than one Website?
Yes you can.
Can you have more than one AdSense Account?
No, when you’re running multiple sites, you might want to have different accounts, unfortunately Google doesn’t allow it, you are limited to a single AdSense account per payee.
What’s the difference between AdWords and AdSense?
Google AdWords is for advertisers while Google AdSense is used to distribute the ads.