7 Reasons You Should Switch to WordPress

Question of the Week: Why should I switch my website to WordPress?

 

QUESTION:

Dear Stephanie,

I want to get a better understanding of why I would want to change my Website to WordPress? What does it have to offer me that I don’t have on my site? My website is with Vistaprint and just wanted to know if it would be advantageous for me to which or not? I have tried to Google and research it, but it mostly talks about setting up blogs, so could you help explain to me if it’s better to have WordPress over Vistaprint and why? I pay a lot for Vistaprint and so was wanting to switch, but it would be a hassle and so I want to know that I would not be jumping out the Frying Pan and into the fire.

Thanks so much for your help…

Melinda

ANSWER:

The short answer to your question about is it better to have a WordPress site vs. Vistaprint: YES.

Template setups like Vistaprint really limit what you can do with the website.  You’ll probably discover this (if you haven’t already) when you want to add features and make changes. Your site in particular could really benefit from a move to WordPress.

Here are some of the improvements WordPress would give to your site:

• More flexibility: literally hundreds of plugins to add pretty much any feature you want, from photo galleries and review listings to e-commerce and more.
• Easily add new content to your site as either a page or a blog post.
• Better SEO: Vistaprint isn’t set up well for SEO (despite what I’m sure they’ll tell you.) WordPress is very well optimized for SEO right off the bat, which means its easier for searchers to find you. You’ll get more targeted traffic.
• Ease of hiring programming help. Because of the popularity of WordPress it’s relatively easy and cheap to hire someone to design it for you.
• Integration with other applications. WordPress is the #1 choice of third party software and websites when it comes to creating easy to integrate website solutions. For example, we use an email service that has special integration features for WordPress, but we can’t use them on our Joomla site.
• Cost savings. WordPress is FREE, so your only cost there is hosting. Its popularity also lends to less expensive help and there are many powerful free plugins available. It ends up being a lot less expensive and more effective than most alternatives.
• Design: Both free and premium WP themes will give you a more sophisticated look and feel to your website.

My recommendation would be to migrate to a WordPress based website. However, is now the best time for that? Ask yourself these questions:

• Does your website have ALL the features your clients want?
• Does it function the way it should?
• Are you getting as many website visitors as you’d like?
• Are those visitors turning into booked weddings for you?

If your answer to any of these questions is NO, it’s time to seriously consider moving to WordPress.

Would that be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire? Well, WordPress is extremely popular and well-established with an amazing amount of support and programmers available. That means it’s here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future, so your site will be able to grow as technology changes.

That does NOT mean that you won’t have to reinvest in your website. Expect that you’ll need to make changes every year or so as a regular cost of doing business. WordPress is a great platform to build on as your business and website grows, but like any other aspect of your business you need to improve and update over time.

I’m not sure what you consider expensive when it comes to hosting and programming costs, but your website is a business investment that really pays off if you do it right. Go too cheap and you’ll lose business without even knowing it. Since over 85% of brides plan their weddings using the internet, the importance of your website is only increasing.

To sum it all up: is your website really working to get you new leads, collect them and turn them into booked weddings? If not, it’s time to invest in improving your website. WordPress can be a powerful part of that.

Got a wedding business question you want answered? Email Stephanie & Jeff and you could be the next Question of the Week! All personal details about your identity will be removed unless you specify otherwise.

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