WordPress is the best CMS (Content Management System) for business websites. There are many successful business websites that use WordPress, for example Ford, The Wall Street Journal and Sony. WordPress is usually chosen to power a company’s website because
- it creates websites that are well-structured for SEO and can rank highly in search engines
- it can be easily updated by multiple individuals with no knowledge of HTML
- it is the most popular CMS on the planet creating a community of users and developers that can help you out if ever in need
A business site should have a home page that explains the USP of the company in a few words. From this page users can easily navigate to other areas of the site to find out further information about products and services.
Every website should fulfil a purpose. The point of many business websites is to generate leads or get people to contact the business so that they might purchase something.
I try to get business owners to condense their pages in the top navigation down to 5 or 6. These will include, typically, a Home page, an About page, a Blog and a Contact page as you can see below on a site I designed recently for an IT company.
The static pages are the “shop window on the world” that should be endlessly tested, updated and improved. However, the more important pages are in the blog which should include compelling content that prospects will value. This will be the content that draws in traffic and converts visitors into clients.
Here are some tips and techniques that I’ve used for many company’s websites.
Put keywords in the site’s title
In the WordPress administration section go Settings > General and, instead of putting your company’s name (for example, “Harrison and Sons”), put some words about what the company does (for example, “Widget Manufacturers, Harrison and Sons”). This will increase your chances of being found in Google by people searching for “Widget Manufacturers”.
Create a static page for your home page and a separate section for your blog
Still in the WordPress back end, go to Pages > Add New and create a new page. With our example you would maybe entitle that page “Widget Manufacturers, Harrison and Sons” and create an eye-catching and succinct synopsis of what value you give to your clients with links to other pages in the site for further information.
Again, go to Pages > Add New and create a new page with the title “Blog” and publish it.
Then go to Settings > Reading and select your static page (as per our example “Widget Manufacturers, Harrison and Sons”) for the Front Page and select the “Blog” page for Posts Page.
This way visitors to the home page will see a well-presented business website. But the blog will eventually draw in new visitors as fresh content does better in search engines.
Contact page
If getting visitors to contact the company through the website is the main objective of the site, then you should have a clear call-to-action on the Contact page. Mention how contacting your business will result in a quick benefit for the visitor. You may wish to offer a 10 minute free consultation, this would increase the number of contacts.
Offer as many ways to contact you as possible:
- Phone (with international code)
- Mobile
- Contact Form
- Email address
With the email address, don’t just give out your email address or even present it in the mailto: tag. This will attract spam. Instead you can cloak it with this bit of JavaScript which will open your prospect’s email client and start an email with the word “Enquiry” as the subject. This will help you track the effectiveness of this page.
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var username = "rob";
var hostname = "robcubbon.com";
var linktext = username + "@" + hostname;
document.write("<a href=" + "mail" + "to:" + username +
"@" + hostname + "?subject=Enquiry" + ">" + linktext + "</a>")
//--></script>
Replace “rob” and “robcubbon.com” above with your email name and domain. Here is how the above JavaScript appears in the browser:
Always use an email address with the same domain as the company, never use a free email service like Gmail for a business website.
The best techniques to use in business websites
Company websites need to walk the line between being professional enough to attract big businesses and down-to-earth enough to build a community that will comment and promote the site. There are various things you can do to achieve this:
- Turn off comments on pages but keep them on the blog posts
- Have a call-to-action in the sidebar with further reasons for prospect to contact you. For example: “we can either help or be able to recommend other companies for you”
- Other “Hire Us” links in the top navigation bar or in a Hello Bar. These extra calls-to-action should be subtle, well thought out and continuously tested. You shouldn’t put them everywhere and look too desperate!
- Do not have any ads on the site! Particularly not on the home or static pages.
- Use WordPress page templates to get rid of the blog-like sidebar from the home or portfolio pages.
- Social proof. Create a testimonial page including quotes from other companies that have used your services and have positive thing to say.
What about you?
Do you WordPress as a straightforward blogging tool. Or do you get clients to contact you through your WordPress website?
Do you employ any tips or techniques to get prospects to contact you?
Hi Rob,
I was a bit lost when you said “Creating a website that works!” You mean a blogging that works. I have noticed people are getting confused with wording website and blogging, you know that they are different.
Hey, Simon, I can see I wasn’t clear. This is what I mean. Although WordPress was released in 2003 primarily as a blogging tool it can now be used very easily and successfully as a fully-fledged CMS capable of creating a variety of different types of website (eCommerce, membership, brochure, etc.)
This article is about creating a site for your business or a company website – a site with the purpose of attracting leads and business to the company. If you wish to do this I think it’s best (as I explain in the Create a static page for your home page and a separate section for your blog section above) it’s best for you to stop WordPress from making your business site from looking like a blog.
However, this does not mean that your business site shouldn’t have a blog. I would advise everyone very strongly to incorporate a blog into their business sites as it’s the best way to attract interest in what your doing.
I hope this helps.
Hi Rob,
Excellent article. I have been a website developer for many years, creating mostly static sites because I had not found a CMS that I thought was user-friendly enough for my clients to use. But all that has changed in the last couple years. I mostly use WordPress now. It makes a lot of my work easier, like the search engine and social networking piece. I finally even made my own site in WP 🙂
Thanks for the good advice. And you are a good role model for those of use who should be blogging about our knowledge – if only we had the time!
the Webgoddess
Hello Irene, thanks for the message. Yes, WordPress definitely provides a user-friendly editing system that clients can use. Thank you for saying I’m a “good role model”. 🙂
Great post ,Thanks wordpress is a great CMS
Thank you, Amit
Wow you said everything I wanted to hear. Social proof, calls to action … it’s like you’re reading my mind. I’ve focused most of my time helping businesses get the most out of WordPress with custom theme development and by creating public plugins that help with things like social proof and calls to action.
I think it’s also important businesses change their permalink structure to something other than the page id. I also like to recommend Gravity Forms as a form plugin and Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin to help with some basic SEO stuff.
Ultimately I think it’s important a business selects a theme that makes good use of widgets, page templates and shortcodes to help them create and mange their content moving forward without sacrificing the look and feel of the site.
Hey, Jon, you’re absolutely right it’s all a matter of finding or developing the right themes and plugins for the client. You’ve got to get the functionality right but you’ve also got to keep it simple so the client can get it to work going forward.
I’m a big fan of Yoast’s SEO plugin. I haven’t used Gravity Forms yet but I’m dying to get a chance to do so.
These are some excellent tips!
I now use WordPress for creating all of my client websites. I have a website devoted to helping folks with WordPress, and I’ve written an eBook for small businesses wanting to create and maintain a website on the WordPress platform.
Thanks for a great intro to building a business website with WordPress!
Thanks for the heads up, Paul.
Expression Engine is the best and most user friendly CMS I have used
Hey Tony, I’ve never used EE, but I hear it’s really good. However, WordPress is free 😉
Hey.. I run my own website/blog and it is all run under WordPress. I agree that many businesses should use WordPress because it’s so easy to use, and I use it to promote my gigs and my own tips to connect more with my DJ audience. Cheers, DJ Unitas
I agree, DJ, it is easy to use.
Hi Rob,
Let me first congratulate you for your full site. I am amazed for all the knowledge you share here.
Regarding your tips, they agree with my own thoughts, but you so well explain them!
Thanks al lot.
Thank you, Vicente!
Hi,
I like this article. plus thanks for the javascript 🙂 .
regards
vinodh
Hi, glad you liked the article, vinodh. I use that JavaScript email cloaking code quite a lot!
Thank you very much for taking the time to set this site up – it has been very useful.
However I don’t think I have got the bit about changing the site title to key words right. Because now what happens is that on the site the key words come out as opposed to just the company name – have I missed something somewhere?
Hello Tayo, not sure what you mean by “come out”. You can have your keywords followed by the company name, for example: “Web Design & Marketing Acme Associates”.
Hi Rob,
I have since changed the site title back to just Rych Works, probably why you don’t understand what I’m saying. Previously, when I put in the keywords I had all the keywords show up where just the site title is right now ie Videographer, Events, Rych Works.
Rob,
Thank you for this helpful article. I used just about everything here as I built my art website. Your article has helped me put structure behind it. It’s a work in progress. I need to add social media. I will look for another article on your blog about that. Thank you for your generous and tireless sharing of information.
No problem, Mary, I’m really glad I helped you create a website. Creating my first website was “life changing” for me so I’m happy to share information to assist others in this pursuit. 🙂
Hi dear,
I am also using wordpress for my personal blogsite. But I am going to create a small business website using this great CMS. But I am afraid of the theme. Because I’d like to use a free theme but am not sure the performance about the theme. Could you help me by any way…!
I would certainly recommend Genesis or failing that I would use one of the default themes, Twenty Ten, Twenty Eleven or Twenty Twelve. Let me know if you have any more questions, Masud.