Launching a small business as a full-time endeavor or as a side hustle takes a lot of planning. That’s especially true because you’re joining over 30 million other small businesses in the US alone. Thankfully, you won’t compete directly with all 30 million of them.
You will, however, compete with a lot of them in one of the most brutal arenas of all: the Internet. For those blessed with some programming chops, you can likely build your own site. If programming isn’t your bag, your best bet is WordPress.
Even there, though, you’ll likely want a professional WordPress website design. Not sure what WordPress is or what benefits it offers. Keep reading for what you need to know.
What is WordPress?
In its earliest incarnations, WordPress was blogging software. Since then, it evolved into a content management system that makes up over a third of all websites worldwide, including many very large name brands.
A content management system, in its simplest form, is a software suite that helps you create websites and manage documents. In the case of WordPress, it helps you build web pages like an About Us or Contact Us page, for example. In terms of document management, its native approach is structuring content as blog posts and allowing you to upload images, video, and other media assets to the included media library.
These two capabilities allow even novices to at least build a basic website and get some content up.
What Are the WordPress Benefits?
Like most software suites, WordPress comes with a lot of benefits. Some of those benefits apply to all users. Other benefits become clear for more advanced users or those willing to put in the time to learn its features.
User-Friendly
One of the biggest benefits of WordPress, once you get it installed, is that the interface is very user-friendly, especially if you’re used to a custom-coded website or an older CMS. The menu offers clear labeling, so you don’t waste a lot of time looking for what you need.
User Management
WordPress also comes equipped with user management tools that let you provide different levels of access and control to people who use the site, such as employees, editors, subscribers, and more.
Security
Security is an ongoing problem for websites the world over. You only need to look as far as the latest data breach info to see that in action. Unlike custom sites, the WordPress software gets security updates from the WordPress team on a regular basis.
On the contrary, with WordPress making up so much of the internet as a whole, it is a target for some hackers. However, with proper knowledge, attentiveness, and security measures, you should be able to sleep soundly at night.
Adaptability
One of the biggest advantages of WordPress is that you can adapt it to your needs, whatever they may be, at any scale. When it comes to WordPress, you are more or less only limited by your imagination and skillset. The theme you select defines the overall structure of any given WordPress site. That means you can pick a theme that favors written content, images, or even products, depending on your needs and then customize it to your desire.
Plugins
WordPress also benefits from an extremely well-stocked (tens of thousands) offering of plugins. A plugin essentially gives your site extra or expanded functionality and truly making both the look and functionality limitless. While it’s user beware with many plugins, a few common examples of plugins include:
- eCommerce functionality
- SEO
- Security
- Form builders
- Analytics
If you have a specific need for your website, odds are very good that someone offers a plugin to solve that problem for you.
Mobile Responsive
These days, the chances that someone visiting your site is probably on their phone are very high. Sites built for a desktop experience don’t fare well on phones. A mobile responsive site deals with that problem by reorganizing the content on your site so it displays well on the screen size of the device.
WordPress allows those who know what they’re doing to be able to build in responsive designs and functionality so visitors to your website have a great experience regardless of the device they’re using.
What is WordPress Website Design?
Of course, all of the benefits listed above also make WordPress an extremely popular choice for people launching their first site. That means that the available free themes for WordPress sites lead to a lot of lookalike sites floating around on the Internet. While a free theme may help get your side hustle or new business off the ground, it won’t set you apart and likely won’t help you scale.
To truly create a custom and unique design with deep functionality, integrations, stellar user experience, responsiveness, dynamic content, and more, you’ll need to invest 100’s of hours into learning and building, or hire a pro. At BrandDad Digital, we handle all matters WordPress and not only use it as our CMS of choice, but have built countless high-performing, custom websites for businesses of all types.
What Are the WordPress Website Design Benefits?
Why would you select WordPress website design when WordPress offers you free themes? What benefits do you get?
When you pick a custom WordPress design, you gain substantial control over the site. Let’s say you want scrolling images, interactive videos or icons, or dynamic, animated content. You can’t do that with the standard theme options, but a custom design can provide it.
Just as importantly, you get help with the user flow of your site and integrations with your other software. Good navigation is core to the user experience. If your site lacks good organization, the navigation will leave the user frustrated.
A pro design team can help you work out the best way to organize your content and pages to lead visitors to your desired outcome.
What Is the WordPress Website Design Cost?
Like any custom website design, WordPress website design costs vary based on countless factors. A simple, static site with a few pages and limited functionality will come in on the low end of the pricing scale while a highly complicated e-commerce site with hundreds of products will cost significantly more.
Custom WordPress Sites can be seen ranging anywhere from $500 for a one-page site to $100K+ for large enterprise sites. As a general rule though, you should expect WordPress website design to start around $2000 for a custom local business site and strategy.
Is WordPress Website Design Right for You?
Custom WordPress Website Design isn’t the right choice for everyone. If you’re just starting your side hustle as a way to bring in an extra few hundred a month, the cost of a custom design makes it financially unwise.
If you’re launching your site to support a full-time business and looking to grow, then a custom design for your WordPress site does make sense.
BrandDad Digital specializes in WordPress websites and growth strategies for a variety of industries. For more information on our services, contact BrandDad Digital today.
