More than 40% of websites are powered by WordPress! Are you surprised? This powerful platform allows users to create bespoke websites and content with unique solutions for any business. When it comes to building your site through WordPress, there are several factors that need to be considered to ensure your website succeeds online!
Hosting
Choosing the right hosting provider is essential as without one, your site will have no way of going live. The right hosting provider will also assist you with avoiding crashes and improving the speed and traffic of your site.
SEO
Installing an SEO plugin is important if you want your website to succeed. Search Engine Optimisation will allow your business to rank highly in search results, ensuring to improve the engagement and brand awareness of your company! When creating content that is SEO-friendly, it is important to consider including the following:
- Effective keyword usage
- Clear navigation and understanding of user experience
- Relevant use of visual content
- Link building
Theme
With thousands of themes available, you will be sure to find the perfect layout that allows you to best present your brand, products and services. Choosing a mobile-friendly theme will also help to build up your online ranking and generate a wider audience base.
Plugins
From contact forms to live chats, most websites will have plugins included on their pages. Adding these features can help to create more engagement and functionality to your website however, too many plugins can often slow down your website. Make sure to focus on only adding plugins that benefit your audience and website. There are a range of plugins that you can browse in this directory.
Analytics
Google Analytics and other tracking platforms are essential when it comes to creating an effective website for your business. Not only do they allow you to monitor the performance of your website, but analytics tools can also help you to gain insights into the engagement of your audience.
Connecting Google Analytics to your WordPress dashboard can give you a real-time understanding of how many people are visiting your website.
Alt Text
Images can often be the strength of a website as they can help to create a greater user experience by breaking up text and highlighting key points for readers to better understand. Feature images are also important as they appear as the thumbnail to your post. This can help to generate more engagement and click to your website.
When including visual content into your website, it is important to add alt text to each image. Alt text will not only help people who are visually impaired, but will also improve the performance of your website. Google doesn’t yet have the ability to recognise pictures so including alt text will provide it with enough understanding to choose how your website ranks.
Safety
Keeping your WordPress website secure should be one of your top priorities when it comes to protecting your business from bugs or hackers. We recommend doing the following:
- Regularly Backup Your Site- hosting providers will back up your site for free or you could use a backup plugin like UpdraftPlus
- Get an SSL Certificate- SSL certificates help to encrypt personal information such as payment details and logins
- Install Security Plugin- security plugins will help to protect your site with the use of firewalls, malware scanners, etc.
