When creating a website for your business, it is important to be familiar with the platform you are working on. Those who already use WordPress know that putting together and publishing a website is a fairly straightforward process. However, optimizing it might take a bit more work. Cybersecurity concerns, improving the user experience, and social media integration can take some time to figure out — but doing so is crucial to attracting site visitors.
Of course, WordPress websites look and function great, but the platform works differently than other content management systems. There are different features, plugins, and social media integrations that make it a leading choice for businesses.There are a number of features on WordPress that can streamline (or outright eliminate) the work you’ll need to do.
Obviously, a great website will grab people’s attention and keep them coming back. So what about WordPress can really help you boost your marketability? We’ll get into that below!
Web Security
Faulty cybersecurity can lead to a number of tough issues to address. Malware, file inclusion exploits, cross-site scripting, brute-force attacks — any of these can put your site to a screeching halt. Seeing as cybersecurity is crucially important, it’s not something that can be ignored. Primarily, cybersecurity on WordPress can be best achieved using some of the many cybersecurity plugins that are available.
Here are a few of the best WordPress web security plugins that you should be aware of:
- Sucuri Security: Incorporates a firewall and uses blacklists to check your website for suspicious tampering. It logs all activity and stores it in the Sucuri cloud.
- WordFence: A plugin that scrapes your site for malware. It can also protect your site from brute-force attacks by limiting login attempts.
- Bulletproof Security: Does a great job with login security, such as login protection and idle session logout. Utilizes data backups and offers information to help users understand how it works as well.
There are other measures you need to take outside of plugins, of course. For instance, encrypting your posts before publishing them may make WordPress harder to use but is important. And backing up your site is a necessary precaution in case you get hacked. Two-factor verification is also worth investing in. Web security is especially important for protecting legal and financial information.
User-Friendly
Right now the conversation of user-friendly web design is being had all across the blogosphere, and for good reason. Running a website is a highly competitive task in the digital age and if visitors have trouble using your site, you may not be able to convert them into customers. Thus, we come to the topic of user-friendly design.
One of the ways user-friendly design positively impacts a business is that the site functions well for the purposes people use it for. It’s what will ensure people spend more time on your website and are hopefully inclined to make a purchase or engage with your content. Some aspects of user-friendly design are:
- Well-organized site navigation
- No broken pages
- No broken features
- Easy conversion and social links
- Attractive site design
Additionally, there is something to be said for responsive design — or mobile compatibility — in the age of smartphone usage. Luckily, WordPress has mobile-friendly themes that are available for those who wish to use it. Additionally, they have stayed consistent in updating their publishing with current technological trends to including Blockchain and two-factor verification. As these trends become more common within mobile development, we will hopefully see their increased use in WordPress applications as well.
Social Connectedness
In the past, social media integration has been stressful — it required relying on a third party to perfectly cater their apps to WordPress and social platforms, which can present some serious obstacles. Fortunately, you no longer have to set aside time to work through this tedious process. Today, WordPress is really easy to connect to social media platforms with the right plugins.
This is because WordPress 5.0 has now brought its own social media plugins to the fold, like Shared Counts, AddToAny, and WordPress Social Login. The best part about these plugins and their connectedness is that you can distribute your content across multiple platforms from a single source. In short, you won’t have to rely on third-party plugins.
Because it’s necessary to use social media in digital marketing, it can be easy to spend a lot of time and not see the most efficient results. But thanks to these plugins, now you can. Social media integration plugins streamline sharing content across social media platforms.
This all comes back to WordPress’s desire to help you have the best quality website you can. These plugins and features are easy to use and will cater your website best to users in ways that continue to bring people in and generate conversions. What WordPress features are you using right now? Let us know in the comments below.
