When asked what I do for small businesses, I often open by asking the question:
“Do you want your website to be more than an online business card?” This usually triggers a resounding “Yeah, baby!”
What I hear between the lines of his “yeah baby” 9 times out of 10 is frustration. Why? Because most of us are on the eternal quest to get more traffic to our website, which leads to more conversions from that traffic. Not many of us, barring a few “Traffic Gurus”, are satisfied with the amount of traffic to their website or blog, which is often explained when compared to traffic noise like this:
rrrribbit… rrrribbit… rrrribbit…
Without getting too technical and risking the old click, basically what has happened in recent years is that Google, in an effort to ensure a quality search engine browsing experience for its users, has been slow at first, more recently much more often. , rewarding websites and blogs whose content is continually updated and changing, and “punishing” those sites whose content hasn’t been altered since the day they launched their websites.
We talked about the importance of having great content last time, and now I’m here to tell you that Sites with “new” content get indexed more often and increase organic search page rankings, and those that haven’t changed much don’t get as much CRED, or search “juice.”
Why? Because by updating, adding and changing content, Google assumes (on Google’s part) that THIS business, represented online by THIS website, is doing everything possible to provide its visitors with a quality experience on its site.
The reasoning makes sense. They think that websites with “outdated” static page content represent the same thing in their business, rightly or wrongly.
So, knowing this information, you may have heard of WordPress, but if not, let me talk about it a bit. WordPress “is a free and open source blogging tool and content management system (CMS),” according to Wikipedia. And then Wiki gives a lot more information about its benefits.
I talk about it here because I feel that using it to build your website or blog is advantageous for many reasons, one of which is that Google loves WordPress.
Why would Google care what framework your website is based on?
Google cares and favors WordPress frameworks because WordPress was originally created in 2003 as a blogging platform.
How is a blogging platform different from a regular old website platform?
Well, a blogging platform is designed to make it simple for laymen like you and me to be able to post regularly and easily. CMS platforms do not require HTML coding like most website developers used to do a few years ago. It is designed to offer a way for anyone to update their “weblog” without having to be particularly tech-savvy.
Since its inception, WordPress has gotten a bit more sophisticated, of course, and savvy business owners use it as their website or blog, interchangeably, which is a beautiful thing. You can now choose from hundreds of “themes” from a variety of open source providers. Personally, I love the ease and great options that Studio Press offers, and design most of my clients’ sites around their themes. Some simple themes are still free, others you’ll pay a bit for, depending on plugin widgets, layout, and simple coding options (most under $100), but the bottom line is that with a WordPress platform , updating the content and keeping it “fresh” is a no-brainer. Its coding is compatible with search engines.
By adding your content to publications instead of pages You’re also driving engagement on your site, which is a good thing! Remember when I discussed the importance of commenting on the first post in this traffic series? With the blog format, you are opening up your site to comments (newer content), interacting with your fans, and building relationships. Your site becomes more of a 2-way street, rather than a 1-way street.
If the thought of this scares you, know that the commenting features can be disabled, and you always have the options to filter and approve, or not, the comments that come in. I ALWAYS filter my comments.
I only work with WordPress for my clients and my own blog, integrated into my site is also WordPress. (Keep your eyes open for the start of my own new site this summer…it’s in the works.) With WordPress, I can teach my clients how to go into their back-end, update content, and navigate their dashboards themselves. It’s enriching, it’s fun, and I encourage you to do it as often as possible so it becomes second nature.
At the very least, if you’re not ready for the big step yet, make sure your blog is embedded on your existing site, not as a separate URL, so that when you publish a new post, it will give credit to your search engines. they will recognize the website as a whole and new content, as long as you tag it and use keywords.
The days of being a slave to your Webmaster are OVER, people! If you’re still paying your website developer to make minor changes to your site, I recommend taking a deep breath and switching to WordPress. Once you learn it, it’s not difficult. Trust me. If I can do it, you can too.
Not only will you save money by not having to shell out money every time you want to put a point, but your website, once you start “working” it (we’ll be “working” it more specifically in the next post) will be recognized by Google and Rank higher on all search engines as a whole, be easier to find, and drive traffic directly to you.
After all, if they can’t FIND YOU, how can they hire you?