Of all the blogging tools currently available, WordPress is by far the most well-known.  The popularity of this powerful Content Management System (CMS) stems from the fact that users are able to do far more than simply blogging.  WordPress enables you to build blogs, websites or both.

Web Content Management Systems (CMS)

Content management systems are tools which help to manage the creation and editing of pages on your website.  Since the 1990’s, countless CMS companies have sprouted up- you may have heard of Interwoven, Joomla!,Drupal and TextPattern just to name a few.  The CMS market has exploded as virtually every successful business desires some form of content management for their website, from Fortune 100 companies down to small businesses.  And back in the 1990’s these systems sold for thousands of dollars.

Using WordPress as a Website

Today, we have WordPress.  This amazingly powerful (and free) content management system provides ample advantages for small or medium-sized businesses looking for simple ways to manage their website.

Although WordPress was designed as a blogging platform, it isn’t limited to just that.  A few minor adjustments enable the system to run your website- even if you don’t have a blog.  Further, the fact that WordPress was created for blogs gives it some compelling benefits for your site.  It is geared for easy publishing and changing website content; this is especially important for receiving good search engine rankings which require fresh content.  It is a system that doesn’t impede you from adding new articles or other content to your site.

*Listed below are five reasons WordPress can enhance your small business website:

1) SEO– Ever crucial in today’s business world, WordPress provides solid search engine optimization (SEO) right from the beginning.  With only a few tweaks, you are able to reap the many free SEO benefits that WordPress provides.  According to Matt Cutts of Google, WordPress is “made to do SEO well”.

2) Content– A wide range of business owners dislike the idea of having to learn complex HTML code in order to make changes to their website.  In addition, having to “ask” your webmaster every time you make a small edit to your site can be a lengthy and annoying process.  However, once WordPress is set up, you can effortlessly create new pages and edit exiting ones using a simple text editor.

3) Extensions- Hiring web developers to create cool features on your website can be costly, but not with WordPress.  In fact, you can do all of it yourself.  The possibilities are vast- free design themes, website polls, contact forms and other features are all possible and facilitated with the use of the WordPress system.

4) Support- The popularity of WordPress has caused a wave of individuals to become masters at the art of custom web development.  If you do have problems, it is very easy to find support and developers who can help you.  Although using WordPress is pretty simple, more advanced actions may require additional help which is widely available to you.

5) One-Click Installation- Many hosting providers can provide quick WordPress installations.  Some popular choices are Bluehost, 1and1and GoDaddy.