Arguably not since Johannes Gutenburg invented movable type and the printing press has there been a more significant advance in publishing than the WordPress publishing platform.
While the printing press allowed the dissemination of ideas, firstly in Europe and then the world, the WordPress blogging software has allowed individuals and businesses to publish what they like almost instantaneously on the internet.
The opportunities that flow to small businesses, start ups and entrepreneurs who use WordPress to build their online presence and conduct their internet marketing are enormous.
Small businesses and WordPress
The benefits offered by WordPress software, which is open source and free, are obvious and stunningly effective:
1. the opportunity to tell the world about your business, your goods and services;
2. the opportunity to build your brand and reach an audience you would never have expected possible;
3. the reduction in advertising costs associated with advertising in local or national newspapers or radio/tv.
Any small business owner knows all about the prohibitive cost and difficult to measure return from advertising in
1. local newspapers
2. national papers such as the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Daily Star and so on
3. radio stations and television such as RTE, TV3, Newstalk and local radio
4. magazines etc.
WordPress features
The most significant feature of WordPress by far is the ease of use-even for non technical users.
If you can use a WISYWIG (what you see is what you get editor), point and click your computer mouse then you can publish with WordPress. Not too long ago, small business who owners who wished to have a website for their business were reliant, totally reliant, on “tech people”-people who understood technical stuff like html, css and other obscure terms.
This, thankfully, is no longer the case.
Themes and plugins
Along with the ease of use is the ability to change the look and feel of your site with a couple of clicks by simply changing the theme of your WordPress site. And because WordPress is free and open source there are a literally hundreds of thousands of WordPress themes to choose from.
Plugins, pieces of script, which are also free can be added freely with a couple of clicks and will allow you to add some great features to your site such as
1. social media sharing buttons
2. contact forms
3. Google analytics
4. and more.
Relying on the “tech guy”
Relying completely on the “tech guy” in 2012 to promote your business on the internet is a missed opportunity for you and your business. Many smart, astute business owners are taking greater control of their internet marketing and online branding.
Many of the biggest sites online such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and others have easy to use interfaces and loads of free videos online showing you how to use them.
And the easy to use WordPress publishing platform should be at the hub of your online marketing efforts for your business and building your brand on the web, reaching new markets and customers.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Filed under How To Build a Website, Small Business Web Design 
Search engine optimisation Ireland will involve the same principles of seo which apply across the internet.
There are two principal areas of search engine optimisation when seeking to ensure that your website ranks very well in the search engines, particularly Google.
On Page SEO
On page seo is basically how your site is set up and created in the first instance and then critical areas such as internal linking, proper meta tags and descriptions, proper categorization of your content, good keyword heavy titles and h1, h2, h3 tags and so on.
WordPress CMS
WordPress CMS (content management system) is what we use and recommend for the creation of seo optimized websites.
There might be some debate between users of Dreamweaver and similar programs and WordPress fans.
If you want to make fancy websites with stunning design features and all kinds of fancy bells and whistles this might be a debate worth having.
But when you want to develop your business and build an online presence for your business or brand there is no contest-we use and recommend WordPress.
WordPress allows the building of websites quickly and which are very easy to use, update and add all kinds of content to such as video, pictures and so on.
And with the range of plug ins and themes available WordPress is the perfect platform on which to build your website and which allows a huge range of themes to enhance the look and feel of your site.
WordPress Plug Ins
Here are some plug ins that are absolutely essential for maximum search engine optimization and Google juice.
Recommended Plug Ins
1. Akismet (anti spam)
2. All in One seo pack
3. Contact form 7 (or similar)
4. Dagon Design Site map generator (or other site map generator)
5. Google Analyticator (or similar Google Analytics plug in)
6. Google XML site maps
7. Privacy policy
8. Yet Another Related Posts Plug in (optional)
Themes
You can choose any theme you like provided it has some common characteristics including
1. It should be fast loading
2. Simple design
If your site contains lots of content in either post or page format you will need to ensure ease of navigation for your visitors and this is easily achieved with WordPress built sites.
If you need only a 1 page site to communicate your essential details such as your contact details and primary areas of business then ease of navigation will not be an issue.
But you may wish to capture leads with a submittable form on your site and these leads can be followed up with an autoresponder series which will ultimately lead to more business for you.
The range of options that WordPress built sites make these types of website ideal for businesses and groups of any size because the range of options as to how you interact with your visitors is endless.
Professional themes
In addition to the free WordPress themes that you can pick up there are some top class paid themes.
Two of the top paid themes in use on the internet are the StudioPress range of themes built for the Genesis framework and a theme called Thesis.
We not only recommend the Studio Press themes and the Genesis framework, we are switching our top, non niche sites over to one of these themes.
We will do a full review of the Genesis framework for WordPress once we make the switch; you can check out StudioPress Themes for WordPress yourself in the meantime.
Filed under Search Engine Optimisaton Ireland
