Businesses benefit from utilizing the online space and modern technologies more than ever.
With the evolving and increasing online platforms that companies can use to grow their brand and attain more customers, profit, and brand awareness, there is no question about whether it is worth using the online space to grow your business.
One media platform that can reach the most customers, give you a dedicated space on the internet, and establish your business is a blog.
In particular, WordPress blogs are among the most popular for businesses developing their brand, building a solid web presence, and a reliable customer base.
With that in mind, here is how to make the best WordPress blog for your business.
Should Businesses Use WordPress All-In-One Hosting?
With a business blog, you will need hosting. Hosting enhances the blog’s reliability, speed, performance, and security.
As a business, it is essential that your blog works around the clock for customers and that your data is secure. This is what hosting can provide, peace of mind for you and your customers.
Why use WordPress hosting over other web hosting companies?
Using the WordPress dedicated all-in-one hosting feature will emphasize the platform’s feature. It will also offer businesses automatic plugin updates and provide the blog with the latest software features.
You can, of course, use other hosting providers, but these may not offer the same benefits or cost-effective price. For example, you can use Bluehost that offers increased uptime, speed, and customer support.
With it, plugins update automatically to reduce your admin time. Or, there is Siteground. Again, these offer enhanced uptime and speed but cannot compare pricing affordability.
Using other hosting providers will work for your business blog but may not help it reach its fullest potential, be a good deal for your business finances, or offer the same support.
If you question whether you need hosting, you do if you want a more efficient and secure blog.
For those businesses who wish to enhance their brand and make their blog running to its fullest potential, all-in-one WordPress hosting is an excellent option.
For businesses with multiple sub-domains under one domain, you may want to utilize MultiSite, a WordPress feature that allows users to manage multiple blogs from one dashboard.
Again, this enhances the business’s performance and helps the user manage their blogs efficiently.
WordPress hosting’s starting price won’t hinder their finances for most businesses. The starting price is $3.95, and the more you pay for the hosting service, the more advanced features you will receive, which will enhance your blog and make your WordPress management a lot more accessible.
WordPress vs. Ghost For Business Blogs
Of course, there are other blogging platforms that businesses can use. They might not offer the same benefits in terms of:
- Reliability
- Speed
- Client potential
- Cost
- Security
- Support
WordPress receives more than 46% organic traffic in terms of client potential and blog reach, critical for businesses that sell and promote their products/services through their blog.
With WordPress evolving so much since its beginning in 2003, numerous plugins can offer more benefits than newer blogging platforms.
WordPress would offer more reliable and instant support if a business wanted help with their blog. Ghost offers members a Premium feature, yet there are fewer tips and a smaller community.
WordPress also offers more plugins features, which update automatically to pressure off the business and their admin.
For instance, WordPress allows users to drag and drop plugins for accessible blog/website building. Companies can upload portfolios, create landing pages, e-commerce shop tabs, and more.
WordPress aims to be more than a blog. It picks up on the latest website design trends, allowing its users to always stay on top.
But the central aspect of a business. It allows business owners to take their ideas to a new level through endless functionalities.
At the same time, Ghost deems itself more of a straightforward version of WordPress. Thus, Ghost offers fewer features and plugins.
In comparison, Ghost is a faster candidate for the speed at which the blog loads, yet, more businesses still edge towards WordPress for its security and client potential.
Some companies have used Ghost for their blog and had achieved great success. Yet, most business owners opt for WordPress to offer more benefits and value.
Business Blogging On WordPress vs. Squarespace
Another popular blogging site that individuals and companies use is Squarespace. Squarespace is a SaaS website/blog builder, which users have to pay monthly to use it.
Unlike WordPress, it is not free.
Squarespace offers users templates, hosting, e-commerce features, a management system, and hosting as part of the fee. Fees vary depending on what package you want.
Squarespace also offers an all-in-one service, like WordPress, with all necessary features included. A new feature recently added to complete this all-in-one service for Squarespace is the email campaign feature.
In terms of pricing when comparing the two, WordPress is free. However, this does mean there will be ads on your blog.
As a business, you most likely will not want that. Thus, you will have to pay a fee to host and remove ads. For Squarespace, ads will not occur as users have to pay a fee, including hosting.
Similarly, WordPress requests that you pay for extra apps and features, such as plugins for e-commerce tabs like Shopify.
Yet, this allows businesses to make their site more flexible.
WordPress appears to be more e-commerce friendly, with optional plugins and shopping features. Squarespace is limited in this area, which may not be ideal for selling products or services through their blog.
Squarespace offers a building block style feature for users and businesses that prefer an easy-to-use platform to build a blog.
This allows users to drag and drop elements instead of installing plugins and coding the blog yourself. Although, WordPress’s drag and drop features are getting there.
Both offer good support, hosting features, and visual editing software similar to management and maintenance. Whether you need or prefer easy-to-use e-commerce features or block building, this will decide which you choose.
Built-In Editor Or 3rd Party?
To build a blog, you need to edit the template, add plugins and features. Through editing software, businesses can add shopping pages, landing pages, contact pages, about us pages and any other page you might need. You can add text, images, video content, graphics, and more.
Users can either use the built-in WordPress editor or a 3rd party app.
The built-in WYSIWYG WordPress editor functions at the highest standard available, meaning it is easy to use, and there is plenty of support available as a WordPress user.
Then, there are 3rd party apps like Elementor or Divi. For instance, Elementor is a 3rd party app that is designed specifically for WordPress business blogs.
Through Elementor, you can visually edit your blog and install plugins. It works in a similar way to the built-in software but offers less support. However, the drag and drop functions are easier to use.
WordPress once did not offer users the drag and drop feature, but with recent updates, things have changed.
Gutenberg is the name of WordPress’s block editor. As the name suggests, users work in blocks to edit their web pages and blog instead of the entire page at once.
The use of editing individual blocks has been improved to give the users more flexibility.
Now, businesses can add features in their blocks such as:
- Better navigation (to sub-pages)
- Video subtitles
- Single columns instead of an entire block
- Predefined page layouts
These new updates to the WordPress built-in editor make it easier to use and manage. Thus, making it a close competition to 3rd party editors who thought they were one step ahead of the game.
Why SEO Plugins Are Critical For Business
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plugins are a feature that is very easy to install on WordPress sites. Search engines are a crucial source of traffic for web pages and blogs. They increase organic reach and optimize your site to rank higher on search pages, like Google.
With over 3.5 billion searches on Google alone every day, you will want to ensure your site is high up on the search engine ranks.
Plugins for SEO include page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO which is one the most important SEO ranking factors. Page SEO involves keyword tools, which will add high-ranking keywords to your pages that internet users search for, which will increase the chances of them discovering your blog.
To help with this, businesses should write more exciting and authentic content. Google loves unique content and will increase your blog’s chances of being pushed up the search ranks.
Off-page SEO plugins add links within your blog that signal to search engines that your blog is reliable and trustworthy.
Then, technical SEO plugins work with the structure of your blog. This is more behind the scenes and is taken care of by the plugin. A technical SEO blog plugin will enhance your blog’s speed and user-friendly features.
Some plugins are free; others are not. An essential SEO plugin for WordPress is Yoast. This plugin offers free features, but the premium features will be helpful for a better chance of making your business more visible.
It will help you optimize your blog and boost its structure. Thus, it works on the page, off-page, and technical SEO aspects all in one.
Plugins allow blogs to increase their SEO and therefore reach more customers and build brand awareness. Without plugins, your blog may rank low on the search pages, basically almost invisible.
WordPress Themes Dos And Dont’s
Every business blog will want its theme. This will help you tell your brand’s story and cater to your niche.
Themes are changeable, but you will want to get it right the first time for ease and reduced maintenance. You will want to decide what you want your blog to look like before choosing a theme.
Visually appealing blogs are more attractive for users, especially those with easy navigation.
There are some simple do’s, and dont’s for choosing and using WordPress themes.
- Firstly, you will want to choose a simple, user-friendly theme across all devices and browsers.
- You will also want to ensure that your WordPress theme supports various aspects, including plugins, languages, and SEO optimization.
- Support of plugins and SEO optimization will allow you to add other features to your blog, making it more functional and visually attractive.
- The support of other languages will also make your blog more engaging, as people from all over the world can use it.
Some simple don’ts of WordPress theme reflect the dos. In that, it is essential to avoid bloated or loud themes.
- Those with bold fonts, lots of non-purposeful features, and loud colors will distract the users and slow down the site. A slower site will be displeasing for customers and may lose their service.
- A few high-performing WordPress themes that many businesses can utilize include Wpshopmart, Ocelot, WP Sierra, and BlogFeedly, and Visialmodo.
These all provide multi-purpose features and support plugins, SEO, and other elements that can help grow a business.
These themes offer clean and easy-to-use interfaces, which is ideal for attracting customers and building a clear vision for your business.
- After choosing a theme, you will want to keep your branding consistent throughout the blog. This will heighten the visual appeal and make your brand noticeable.
You can use graphic design software such as Vectornator to create logos, lettering, illustration, and more. Customizing your business and its blog will help you stand out and be on-brand at all times.
Setup Must-Haves For WordPress Business Users
When you are setting up your business blog, there are a few things to make sure you include.
All businesses will benefit from using WordPress email plugins and other action-based plugins to optimize your blog’s functionality. If your business depends on quick customer service, adding a WordPress plugin for live chat software such as Acquire is also a no-brainer.
To monitor your blog, Google Analytics is useful. The Google tool will analyze your viewership, audience infographics, and more for you to measure.
This will help you gather information on visitors and maximize your best posts, clicked features, and more.
To conclude, WordPress is an excellent option for business blogs.
Not only does it offer businesses a reliable, secure, attractive, and easy-to-use platform to showcase and promote their services, but it also optimizes brand awareness. It can help to grow your customer base.
Remember to always utilize plugins, host your blog, and use SEO tools to increase your business’s visibility and attractiveness.
Disclaimer: This article contains sponsored marketing content. It is intended for promotional purposes and should not be considered as an endorsement or recommendation by our website. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and exercise their own judgment before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article.
