What Website Platform Should I Use?

March 23, 2021

Before you can decide which website platform is the right fit for your small business, here are three initial factors to consider that may help narrow down your search:

Type of Business You Own 

Restaurants, hotels, law firms, medical clinics, eCommerce stores, real estate, or landscaping services—every business has its own set of unique needs, services, and industry standards that require a particular type of content management system (CMS). 

If you sell custom jewelry, for example, you’re going to have less “legal” requirements to build a company website than if you are a manufacturer of a medical device that is clinically proven to improve patient hearing. However, if your jewelry business is allowing customers to buy your products online, meaning you’re collecting credit card information, you probably want to invest in a platform that offers more security features so that customers feel confident buying from your online store. 

Goals of Website

Aside from brand exposure, what are some other goals for your new website? Is it to sell products, schedule appointments or book rooms, or learn helpful tips and information? 

Thinking long term, what do you want to do with your site? Do you want to be able to add a blog, create new landing pages, change a photo, or add a URL to your YouTube video channel?

Before you start searching for the best website platforms, create a list of the goals you hope to achieve with it. This will help narrow down your options, as the type of features available on individual platforms will either limit or widen your ability to customize your content with greater ease, especially if you’re not a part-time developer. 

Website Development & Management

Are you building your website independently? Or do you have an in-house web developer or designer who will manage the platform on your behalf? Maybe you’re considering hiring a professional web development agency to streamline the building and managing of your site? The decision is entirely up to you, but make sure you have a plan in place before you choose a platform.

If you’re going at website building alone, for instance, there are plenty of easy-to-use platforms that allow you to manage your content freely. However, if you work in a complex industry that requires you to store private client data, you might decide that some of the easier-to-use platforms won’t provide the type of security features you need to protect your business from hacking and other online vulnerabilities. 

Our Pick for Best Website Platform in 2021

When it comes to helping our clients choose the best website platform for their small businesses, we always lean toward WordPress. Why? Well, we have three reasons for this:

Perfect for Virtually Every Business

Whether you’re a physician, eCommerce store, or Apple care technician, WordPress makes it simple to set up shop and create a truly custom experience for your users that keeps you in compliance with your industry’s requirements and best practices. 

We also like WordPress’s version updates that work hard to keep your site and information safe, as well as fix bugs and keep plugins working properly. 

Of course, if security issues are a top concern for your company website, our team can help! Contact us to learn more about our Guardography services. 

Better Functionality 

WordPress makes it easier to customize and manage your website on your own. That means if you’re looking to update your website with new articles, blogs, or case studies, you can do this independently, without waiting on your developer to make updates. 

At Brandography, we offer helpful “how to” sessions for all our clients after we’ve built their custom WordPress website. We do this so you feel in control and confident when managing your website independently. Of course, we can also help you manage your site, too. 

Complements Your On-Going SEO Strategy

Though security, functionality, and ease of use are all essential, another reason why we like WordPress is because it helps enhance your SEO efforts. 

Many of WordPress’s plugins and themes make it simple to create quality content that is optimized using SEO best practices, including meta titles and descriptions, headers, alt tags, and quality permalinks!

Certain plugins like Yoast SEO or All-in-One SEO provide you with a helpful guide to ensure your content is grammatically correct, scannable for readers, and SEO-friendly for all users! 

Is WordPress Right for Your Business?

Though WordPress tends to be our top pick for most businesses, we understand that it might not be right for everyone. That’s why we also specialize in Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, Magento, and many other popular CMS platforms. 

When you hire our website development team to help you build a custom website, we’ll review your goals and business needs first, so we can help you find the best platform that will support your company long-term.

To learn more about how we can help, contact us today for a consultation! 

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