6 Things You Should Know Before Starting Your WordPress Website

Any small business looking to move into the online sphere would be wise to consider WordPress. The web design platform allows those unfamiliar with designing home pages, blogs or contact forms to set them up with ease, increasing trade, improving engagement and reaching out to new customers.

However, before beginning, there are six important considerations to bear in mind. From deciding whether to do it yourself or to hire a developer, to knowing about widgets, WordPress might be straightforward, but it should not be entered into blind.

1.   Choose your theme wisely

One of the wonders of WordPress are the many themes that come free with using it. Paying for premium subscriptions will unlock more, but even the ones that are given away are functional and good looking. Your theme should reflect your business, so browse through them before making a decision. If your website is aimed at children, using brighter colors with softer edges and less text boxes could be best, and you will have wasted your time if you spent hours creating a website on a theme that is harsh and word focused.

2.   You could hire a developer

Something else which is important to know before embarking on building a WordPress website is that you could hire a developer to do it for you. They may or may not choose to use WordPress — they might be a full website designer — but either way they will more than likely know more about it than yourself. Expert help should never be frowned upon.

3.   Themes can be optimized for smartphones

Recognize that smartphone use is absolutely vital to having a successful website. WordPress themes are usually optimized for smaller screens, moving objects and snapping images to the correct size for those browsing on their smartphone or tablet. Retail mobile commerce in the United States increased by over 100 billion dollars from 2018 to 2020, and this is an expanding market that you do not want to miss out on.

4.   You may need multiple drafts

Do not expect to get everything correct the first time. Consider soft launching your site once you believe you are happy with it to better gauge how it looks and how it operates. Once you have done this, assess whether it is truly what you wanted. There is no shame in altering or tweaking your website following a soft launch, just ensure it is as perfect as it can be before you fully advertise it to the world.

5.   You need an exceptional logo

To stand out online, you will need an exceptional logo. All of the best brand logos are stylish, timeless and work as effectively online as they do in person. You may need to alter your logo slightly if it is too large or out of date to suit the website. 

6.   Use widgets

Finally, learn about widgets. These can perform all sorts of tasks such as linking to social media accounts, showing a live feed of your tweets, allowing visitors to call or message you or embedding Google Maps.