This is why real webmasters don't like using WordPress...

Let's start with the obvious in saying that, the phrase professional WordPress designer is an oxymoron. Of course, we have nothing against those who use WordPress to create websites... a personal site, a blog or portfolio, or a self designed website for their small business. We actually applaud that. The problem, however, rests not with them.

The people we're talking about are those who usually spend the bulk of their time conceiving get rich quick ploys and scams. Eventually, many of these degenerates decide to jump on the SEO train, under the false assumption that there's nothing to it. And because they can talk a good game and know how to use a CMS designed for grade school aged children, many business owners end up falling for it.

Again, I need to stress that this is in no way a shot at WordPress. It's risen to such massive popularity because of its ease of use, and functionality, and diverse layout options. It's a cool little setup, library of thousands of plugins for personal sites, organizations, small to medium companies and more. We're simply saying that if the person you've hired is talking about building you a from scratch website, and ends up doing it in a template based program, you should be concerned about every word this person has told you.

Why True Webmasters Avoid WordPress

If SEO and search engine visibility didn't matter, I can bet at least 95% of web designer in America would be using WordPress or some similar template based CMS for small business. You see, in the time it would take a truly experienced and successful webmaster to open a WordPress file, adjust all the settings, find functions, doing any outside the box customization that a prebuild plugin didn't already do, etc., they could have designed a completely original foundation for your new site. The reason webmasters design sites from scratch is because of the control, comfort and boundless flexibility it offers, not to mention you can follow several Google Guidelines that WordPress does not follow.

And regardless of how good the template site builder is; each one in their own way has limitations capable of hindering the technological creativity of highly skilled website developers. It simply does not make any sense that they would go out of their way, to spend more time working in an unfamiliar template environment, using tools and functions designed for novice and intermediates. After all, what is the point of having a pretty website that nobody can find?

The Only Real Custom Websites Are Built From Scratch

We could get into the schematics of how major search engines supposedly devalue page rank among poorly optimized template websites, or how having a plugin does not make your SEO program complete (or even effective), or even how easy it is to visually spot a website that has been whipped together simply for cosmetic purposes. The point to be made is this: The only way to ensure that your website is 100% customized for your business, is to have it built from a blank page, by an established and proven webmaster.

Did you get burned on the big promises of someone posing as a webmaster? Don't worry, all hope is not lost. Give us a call today and let us know what happened. We'll take a look at your site and let you know what issues need the most urgent attention, to ensure the visibility and rank you thought you were paying for initially.

IES is one of the leading website developers in Plymouth, MA, and has been creating completely customized websites throughout MA and the US since 2009.

Contact IES today to schedule your company's complementary website review. Mention this blog and get 10% off any project!

Your website is one of your biggest marketing opportunities. Don't let it fall victim to these 5 home page missteps.

It's all too common for small business owners who build their own websites to make a handful of rookie mistakes. Luckily, the professionals at IES know how to effectively design and code websites. If you need a website designed, give us a call at 781-816-9437 or email contactus@iesadvisors.com.

Your website is one of your most important marketing tools, so whether you're taking on the creation and design of it yourself or you're hiring someone else to do it for you, make sure you avoid these all too common home page mistakes:

1. Too Many Choices
People won't actually read your home page. They'll scan it, looking for the information that's most immediately relevant to them. If they can't find it quickly and with minimal effort, they'll visit a site where they can.

Your site should be designed to guide new eyes exactly where you want them to go, even if they don't know for sure what they're looking for....especially if they're not sure what they're looking for. Simple navigation with clean lines is the way to go. If your business requires that you offer robust, complex choices, do that on a deeper page. Your home page should be simple and easy to navigate.

2. Wall Of Text
A few years ago, a multimillion dollar ad campaign from five major magazine publishers who were touting the power of print stated "We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines." To do that surfing, people will interact with, share and return to websites that have pages with:

• Short paragraphs

• Bullet and numbered lists

• Lots of white space

• Images and other graphics

• Sections with subheadings

Anything that breaks up the information you're presenting means people will read more about your company, your products and services, and why they want to do business with you.

3. No Blog
Blogging for your business doesn't mean you have to post something every day, but it does give your website dynamic, rather than static, content. Dynamic content means something on your site changes often enough that people will come back to see what's new. More important, it engages Google in a way that unchanging pages don't.

Even one post per week will be enough to get the attention of Google and other search engines. To attract the attention of human readers, be sure to announce the newest blog updates on your social media platforms and encourage subscribers to sign up for your blog.

4. No Optimization
Yes, there's a lot of luck to search engine optimization (SEO). No, this doesn't mean you shouldn't build your site without sound SEO practices in place.

A full discussion of SEO could fill several books, which would then need new editions fairly quickly because of how rapidly Google changes its algorithms. A short list of essentials includes:

• Identifying three to five keyword phrases for your site to aggressively pursue

• Including keywords in metadata, URLs and similar "behind the curtain" aspects of your home page

• Avoiding "black hat" SEO methods like keyword stuffing and courting unrelated links

• Using smart, natural instances of your keywords in your blog and on the static pages of your site

5. Neglecting The Obvious
Google gives bonus points for including a handful of simple page components on your website, which will help your site perform better in searches. Including "Privacy Policy" and "Contact" pages with specific data about your company, information about how to reach you and what you'll do with customer information takes no more than 30 minutes per page, but it's been shown to give sites preferential ranking over similar sites that lack those pages.