For a long time, web design was something which most businesses (other than web design firms of course) left to the professionals. Building an attractive, functional website which offered a smooth user experience took specialized knowledge and skill to pull off, especially when capabilities like e-commerce functionality were required. It’s not that HTML can’t be learned by the average person given time and a willingness to learn, but few business owners had the time or inclination to take it upon themselves to become their own web designers.

That’s the way it used to be, but things have changed in the last several years as WordPress and other content management systems have become readily available and increasingly user friendly. Once primarily a platform for bloggers (as in people maintaining online diaries rather than the broader sense of someone who has a WordPress or other CMS based website), individuals and businesses alike have become aware of the possibilities opened up by this easy to use, almost endlessly customizable and powerful content management system.

Just because your website uses WordPress as a framework doesn’t mean that your site has to be – or even look like a blog. You can use WordPress to create static websites just as easily as you can a dynamic, frequently updated site like a blog. Of course, the Web 2.0 friendly features built into this popular CMS from the ground up allow for much more flexible web design. Designers can create static websites which offer some of the most important features of blogs, such as allowing easier two-way communication between site visitors and administrators, RSS integration and more.

A WordPress based site also offers an enormous range of customization options to users. There are a great many themes available for WordPress, both free and commercial. The software itself includes an easy theme installation feature as well as a theme browser for free themes. You can also find free themes from many websites and there are many web design firms which now sell prebuilt themes. With a such a wide range of themes to choose from, it’s relatively easy to find one which provides the look and feel you want for your site. Different themes also offer different features, with some providing extended functionality for the site.

If there are no premade themes which quite match your criteria, you can also take an existing theme and customize it to meet your needs. The layout of WordPress sites is generally handled through CSS style sheets, which are actually pretty easy to work with. There is a wealth of resources available online if you need guidance on how to edit CSS code to fine tune your site design.

Another advantage of WordPress based web design is that their structure makes them inherently search engine friendly. Even if you plan to use your site as a largely static site, many of the built in features of the content management system make these sites highly attractive to the major search engines.

For instance, WordPress can be set to automatically ping all of the important blog and RSS feed directories. This can help a new website to start bringing in visitors almost immediately as well as begin building valuable back links. Compared to building a traditional HTML based site, waiting for search engines to come along and index your content and starting the slow process of building back links to your site, it’s an enormous time saver.

There is also the Categories feature of WordPress which organizes content in a way which makes sense both to your visitors as well as the search engines. Organizing your content by category builds internal links which help improve your site’s ranking in the search engines.

Finally, there is another advantage which isn’t inherent to the WordPress software itself, but is an important part of WordPress based web design; the large number of free plugins available, including SEO plugins to easily add meta tags, search engine friendly listings including keywords and other features which help your website get noticed.

WordPress isn’t the right choice for every business or individual who wants to build a website, but in many cases, this widely used CMS can offer visitors the best features of both static HTML based sites and Web 2.0 interactivity. Along with its search engine friendly nature, it’s an option which many may want to carefully consider when it’s time to create a new site with chicago web design.

Most of the world is on the internet nowadays, at least 80 percent of our country is anyway. Despite that, some businesses still can’t see the value in having an online presence. It’s sometimes a surprisingly hard sell convincing them that they could benefit by having a website designed by us.

Even if the business has a strong local bias, a loyal customer base, and no plans to expand, it’s still worth having a web presence.Convincing a business that it needs a website can be a tough undertaking. The fact they still don’t have one demonstrates that these clients are either small, new, or behind the times. Cash is often an issue too, with startup costs and limited clientele until the business gains a foothold.

We tend to use a few selling points to sell web design to these kinds of clients. Let’s discuss them here.

Availability

Even the hardest working business owner can’t operate 24/7. They have to sleep, have family time, and rest so they can function properly. A website doesn’t need rest. It can be selling, answering questions, and gaining customers while you sleep. The world is full of time zones, when it’s midnight here, its midday somewhere else. Business is a 24-hour activity, and if you aren’t in it, you’re out.

A great website design is a storefront to the world, open all day, every day.

Reach

Some businesses are purely local, with a local clientele and a narrow focus. That’s fine in those cases, but for everyone else reaching new markets is a must. Widening a customer base ensures security, stability and enables expansion. Resources in a given area are finite. Expanding that area allows a business to exploit resources further afield. The wider the reach, the wider the customer base.

A website is open to the world. If you sell products and can ship them internationally, the world is literally open for business.

Exposure

Oscar Wilde once said “The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about.” Never a truer word said when it comes to making money. If people don’t know your business exists, they can’t spend their money with you.

A website ensures exposure, and a coherent SEO strategy ensures word gets around about what you offer.

ROI

Return on Investment is more important to some businesses than others. It can often very quick to realize. For the relatively modest amount we charge to design it, the website has the potential of making the client many times more than that. Hosting costs very little, and once the site is live, it can be left alone. A regular update process will improve search results, but apart from that, maintenance is minimal.

Convincing companies to have a business website is occasionally harder than it should be. However, illustrating the company’s main competitors and how they approach the internet is a great way of convincing them.