Small Business WordPress Websites

September 14, 2015 / Business / 2 Comments / Author: Rick D'Haene
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Small businesses have unique needs when it comes to their websites. The most obvious of these needs are performance in the form of sales or conversions, affordability, and scalability. WordPress is perfectly suited to fill these needs.

Small Business Sales / Conversions with WordPress

Unless other accommodations are being made, a website development plan which does not include a search engine optimization and conversion strategy is inherently flawed. Every website should have goals: create sales, deliver lead form submissions, newsletter signups, or simply page views. Establishing a list of goals allows for proper micro- and macro-analytic tracking which will allow conversion rate optimization to be applied.

Conversion rate optimization is the process of reviewing conversion analytic data in order to ascertain specific reasons behind a successful, or unsuccessful, conversion strategy.

Example: Consider a website which sells packages of gourmet peanuts. The website also features a newsletter and a blog with posts being made on a bi-weekly basis. A specific goal, or macro conversion, would be a sale.

Without proper analytic tracking in place we’re left with a list of sales and no clear manner by which to determine how they were obtained. By installing proper analytic tracking we may be able to see that the newsletter, which is sent out to subscribed members monthly, contributes to 60% of total monthly sales, while a specific blog post titled: “The History of Gourmet Peanuts” is delivering an additional 25%, while the remaining 15% is spread out among all other blog posts and organic visitors.

Example Conversion Rate Optimization

Having this information allows us to make some assumptions on how we may be able to improve conversions.

Newsletter Conversion Rate Optimization: We could increase our efforts to get signups to the newsletter by featuring it more prominently on the website, or by offering an order discount coupon for becoming a newsletter subscriber. We would then be able to track these efforts specifically by measuring 1) new subscriber acquisition, 2) order submissions which utilize the coupon, and 3) returning customers whom used the coupon initially. All of these metrics will allow us to further optimize the newsletter as additional data comes in.

Blog Post conversion Rate Optimization: We know that 25% of our orders have come from a specific blog post, whereas all other blog posts combined (along with other potentially non-tracked sources) equates to around 15%. Now we have the opportunity to ask why this is the case. Is this specific blog post ranking well in the search engines? Is it linked to by industry professionals which is leading to traffic and conversions? Once we have identified a few potential reasons we can take steps to attempt to discern the true cause. Perhaps the topic of the blog post is great and that is leading to increased performance. We can then write additional blog posts which also speak to the same topic as a Part 2, or Continued. Doing this will allow us to link to the Part 2 page from the bottom of our most effective blog post, potentially increasing conversions, page views, on-site time, and more. Or, perhaps the benefit is in the timing. If the blog post titled “The History of Gourmet Peanuts” were posted at a specific time, such as during the National Peanut Festival (not making this up: http://nationalpeanutfestival.com/) it might have received increased exposure and better social sharing. Great. Now we work to find ways to exploit this finding perhaps by releasing additional blog posts on other industry related information during the festival next year. Or by seeking advertising opportunities at the festival itself.

Click For an Example of Conversion Rate Optimization

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Analytic tracking is very important and allows for a small business to maximize their conversion rates. This leads to business growth. But tracking the information that needs to be tracked isn’t always easy. This is where WordPress comes in. WordPress’ has a plethora of plugins which extend its base functionality. Not surprisingly there are numerous plugins which make the process of installing analytic tracking data relatively simple.

Affordable Small Business Website Design

Small businesses come in all shapes, sizes, and industries. Although small businesses are comprised of a diverse group with wildly varying needs, WordPress is the answer for the job. WordPress is open source, which means it is free to own and use. Many WordPress website owners manage their website’s themselves while relying on a developer or a designer to take care of specific as-needed tasks. Most small business WordPress websites start at around $500, depending on whom you decide to work with and the complexity of your needs.

WordPress has an active community of development professionals whom produce high-quality WordPress plugins which fill a range of needs. Some are free, while others are premium and require a one-time fee or a yearly / monthly fee. Typically these plugins are sold with support packages as well. This wealth of advanced functionality means that your website can benefit for free, or by simply paying a licensing fee. This allows a WordPress website owner to avoid the high costs of custom development.

What about support and upkeep? As mentioned above, quite a few WordPress website owners manage their website’s themselves. Keeping them up to date is not as difficult as some developer would have you believe. That being said, Bellingham WP offers hosting and website management options which should not be overlooked as a solution.

What if I end up unhappy with the website’s design and layout? Don’t fret. WordPress uses WordPress Themes to control the design, layout, and display of the website’s content. What does this mean? It means that the website can stay in place while a new skin is applied on a development server. Otherwise, the current WordPress theme can be modified in any number of ways to meet your liking. Once approved, the new WordPress theme can be seamlessly applied to your live website, creating a situation of minimal downtime. This can also be performed either after-hours or at other non-peak times so as to not interfere with your customers browsing experience.

WordPress Scalability

WordPress is a perfect website solution for small businesses, but not to the exclusion of large businesses. WordPress easily scales to the enterprise level. This means that your WordPress website can grow with your business. Did your website start as a simple lead generation machine, but now you want to sell products? No problem, we can add eCommerce functionality on the fly. What about adding a blog? The blogging functionality is inherent to WordPress and simply needs to be enabled and implemented.

Check out the WordPress Showcase to view some of the larger businesses and organizations which make use of WordPress.

Conclusions

WordPress is a great option for small business websites because it’s easy to use, affordable, and scalable. Add to this the fact that it represents a great starting point for search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization.

Get in touch if you have questions.

About Rick D'Haene

Rick D'Haene is a web developer, specializing in WordPress, with a degree in graphic and website design. Rick has extensive knowledge of internet marketing and organic search engine optimization (SEO). He and his lovely wife Melissa reside in Bellingham, Washington, and have a few fun pets to keep them company.

Find me here: Twitter /Facebook /Google+ /

2 comments

Darren Bryson • September 22, 2015 • Reply

I’m a plumber and i need a place for people to find me. Can you set it up for people to schedule appointments and pay online? What would that cost?
- Rick D'Haene • September 22, 2015 • Reply
  
  Hi Darren,
  I can definitely help you out. We can set your website up to allow visitors to schedule appointments for multiple different services and pay for them via your merchant account or PayPal. We can also integrate the appointment scheduling into a Google Calendar which you and your employees can utilize while in the field.
  
  The cost will be dependent on several factors which are still to be determined. I will contact you by email to setup a time to discuss your needs either in person or over the phone.
  
  Thank you Darren!
  – Rick