Website Development

Web development plays as important a role for any business. Your website is now such a crucial hub of information and business interaction. The list of functions is performs can be broad:

  • It is your online business listing, complete with contact information.
  • It is your brochure, showcasing your products and services.
  • It is your sales pitch, highlighting what makes your business unique.
  • It is your customer service portal, providing FAQs and information for current and prospective customers.
  • It is your voice, offering advice, news and opinion through your blog.
  • It is your means of attracting new visitors through search engine optimization.
  • It is your storefront, letting customers buy from you 24/7.

Although adding and editing content to your website can seem daunting, there are many popular CMS platforms available that are easy to use. Some of the most widely used platforms for small business sites are:

  • WordPress
  • Drupal
  • Joomla
  • Sitefinity
  • Concrete5
  • Prestashop

WordPress is an online, open-source website creation tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. Features include a plugin architecture and a template system. You can use WordPress to be a solid base for a beautiful website, blog, or app. It’s probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today. WordPress was used by more than 23.3% of the top 10 million websites as of January 2015.

Your web developer will likely advise you on what platform is best suited to your website. Ask them to explain the pros and cons of any recommendation they make. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, with some CMS lend themselves to specific types of businesses, such as Concrete5 for designers, while others, such as WordPress are strong all-round choices.

Larger, established CMS platforms such as WordPress also mean that there is plenty of training and support available to help you and your staff to learn how to manage the website.

Have a web development plan

Having a web development team you can rely on for support is great, but you will get more value out of your website if you can manage ongoing content updates in house.  This will give you more control over your costs and ensure that any money you invest in your website is spent on more technological issues. It will also let you make quick changes without depending on anyone else’s schedule.