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I am setting up a website for my business. I am not going to be selling products on this website but I will have to have an "embedded link" for a file transfer service and I would like to have banners and/or the ability to link to affiliate sites.
I have decided not to include a "shopping cart" on the website because the work I do is a service and I will be contacting customers to have them sign engagement letters before the work is started and will be billing directly by e-mail and my merchant card service.
Is there any "downside" to using wordpress over some of the other website designers?
As long as WP will do everything you need, I can't think of any reason not to use it.
I use WP for a number of sites related to my business, and know many others that do as well. There are plugins to do pretty much anything you want.
I would self host it though, not use the hosted version at WordPress.com. You'll get better control over the site and which plugins you are allowed to use that way.
Thanks Skunk Workz,
I am not going to host the site at this time however the host service I am using seems to be wordpress friendly. I guess I will try with them and if they limit what I need I will consider self hosting later.
I am going to research it some more but from what I have seen it is more seo friendly than some other software.
Thanks Skunk Workz,
I am not going to host the site at this time however the host service I am using seems to be wordpress friendly. I guess I will try with them and if they limit what I need I will consider self hosting later.
I am going to research it some more but from what I have seen it is more seo friendly than some other software.
Sorry I should have been a bit more specific; By self hosting I meant that you would use a hosting service of some sort, and not use a free wordpress.com account. Worpress.com uses a multi-user version of WP, and limits what you can do to some degree. As long as you are hosting WP somewhere else you won't have any issues with what you can use.
If you can figure it out, I would strongly suggest not using an auto installer on the hosting site, but instead doing the install by hand. It takes a few minutes longer, but isn't very hard at all, and may give you a cleaner installation (some auto installers do a good job, but others can be pretty bad).
Do you have any opinions on "Themes"? I notice they have many free themes available but also commercial (paid) themes. There are some of the paid themes claiming an "Seo advantage" but since I am a complete idiot I can't tell if that is just marketing talk of true.
Both free and premium themes will work, but you have to watch where you get the free themes from. Some places that just hawk free themes will add their own links, and even strip some of the original theme author's info out of the theme. Getting themes from within the WP backend is usually safe, but you won't necessarily see every theme that's available.
Personally I've purchased a few different themes for my sites, and have been happy with most of them. The aren't completely unique but are seen less often than the free ones.
Theme Forrest is a marketplace for independent designers, so the quality of the themes vary from theme to theme, but there are reviews / comments on each theme so you can get an idea of how well the author takes care of issues.
Woo Themes is a theme company, with their own framework so all of the themes are consistent in content and quality, and they regularly update their themes. I think you have to buy a couple at a time, but even then the prices are pretty good for the quality of the themes.
There are a bunch of other places that sell really good themes, but those are the two that I've specifically dealt with.
Not sure about SEO; it doesn't have much bearing on my sites so I don't don't pay a lot of attention to it. There are a bunch of SEO related plugins that should be able to help with it though.
I really appreciate the advice. This is all new to me, I am trying to expand my business beyond the local area and the website I have now through the trade organization I work with is really limited. They have an upgrade available but want 25 dollars a month for it and from what I hear it isn't even CLOSE to being worthwhile for SEO.
I am LOVING this wordpress idea as opposed to the "website builder" I was thinking about. I am selling a "service" but wanted to include a "tips and tricks" section to keep my content fresh and for SEO purposes. Wordpress is PERFECT for what I need to do.
I started using to blog about the trips we are taking. I like it, but the help sections aren't as helpful as they could be. Excellent tool though. You picked a good place to use for your business.
You might also want to investigate the Thesis framework for WordPress - I'm using it and after an initial learning curve it's been probably the cleanest "theme" I've ever used.
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