Starting an online business isn’t cheap. I hope I’m not bursting any bubbles.
Sure you don’t pay for office space, insurance or a water cooler, but there are other costs involved. One of them is your website.
Lucky you! There are so many free website platforms out there! It’s a no-brainer to choose one of the free options to start, right?
Wrong.
Here’s the thing: I’m frugal. I’m incredibly frugal. I will move heaven and earth to find a low cost or free option for just about everything. If there’s an inexpensive way to do something, I will let you know what it is. One of the few places I make an exception is with your website.
If you’re serious about your new online business, there are plenty of places to make expensive mistakes. There are plenty of places to use up your valuable time. You’re going to avoid all of those rookie mistakes.
Don’t start with a free website builder.
#1 Reason:
With free sites, like Weebly or Blogger, or even WordPress.com, you don’t technically own the site. Your content is at the mercy of the site you’re using. If something happens to that site, your content is gone. If the site doesn’t like something you’re doing, they can shut you down and – again – your content is gone. Both of those may seem drastic now, but if they happen to you, it’s going to hurt.
#2 Reason:
They aren’t nearly as customizable as their paid counterparts. If you want to add a podcast player, a photo gallery or make sure your site is optimized to get the most sales, you can’t do that with most free blogger sites.
#3 Reason:
It looks unprofessional. If you’re going to be using your site to make money, you need a site that looks trustworthy. When you don’t have a customized URL, you look less legitimate as a business and customers are less likely to trust you.
If you want the best website for your buck, use WordPress.org. Note. I said WordPress.org. NOT WordPress.com. There is a difference.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
Contrary to popular belief, the main difference between the two types of WordPress sites is NOT that one is free. Both are free in and of themselves. The biggest difference? For for someone who really hates technology, WordPress.com seems like the best option because so much of it is set up for you.
Here’s the problem. WordPress.com has the same drawbacks as other free blogging sites, except with WordPress.com you have the option of paying to upgrade to add customization, get rid of ads, have more memory, etc.
Those add-ons add up.
After paying for all of the ads ons, you’ll pay more than if you just start with a WordPress.org site.
So why would people choose WordPress.com? For most people it’s because they are intimidated by the idea of having to buy a domain and find a hosting service. When you set up a new WordPress.org site, you need to pay for a domain and host. You also need to know how to set up the domain and host.
But WordHerd can help with this.
As your business grows and you want to expand your site, many of the things you’ll want to add are actually WordPress plug-ins. Plug-ins are the bits of code designed to offer special features like podcast players, shopping carts or social media widgets – the things that make your website unique, personal and fun (not to mention useful!). The vast majority of those are only available on WordPress.org. In fact, WordPress.org has more plug ins available than any other website building platform in the world.
WordHerd is here to help
If you have an existing website on a different platform WordHerd specializes in migrating content from other CMS to WordPress. We will consult and partner with you through every step of the migration process.
WordHerd provides the following services:
- WordHerd will create a project plan that includes dates, time frames and milestones for the migration and theme creation.
- Content migration occurs in the background, while your current site continues to operate. Working closely with you, we will ensure that all of the data from your current site is thoroughly exported to the new system.
- We relink content, media and images to the new WordPress website. Media and document and images are migrated to the media WordPress library.
- After the migration process is complete, our Quality Assurance department will test your new site to ensure that it is operating as expected.
- At the specified date and time, we will seamlessly cut over to the new site and ensure that you experience no downtime for your business.
- Where required, 301 redirects are implemented to ensure SEO equity is retained.
- Post go-live we can maintain and manage WordPress websites for optimization and security.
Conclusion
If you are considering a migration from your current CMS to WordPress, please reach out to one of our Migration Specialists for a FREE consultation by calling 602-402-9035 or submitting an inquiry for a free quote.
Start planning today, for a smooth transition tomorrow.