How Can You Tell if a Website is Built With WordPress?
WordPress is a popular choice for websites because it’s free, open source, and powerful. Unfortunately, not all WordPress websites are created equal, and there are a few telltale signs that can help you determine the quality of an online publication.
Catchy Theme
If you glance at a WordPress website, you’ll probably notice that the theme they have chosen is fairly unattractive. There are thousands of free and premium-looking themes that you can choose from, and the best part is that most of them are extremely easy to use. If you’re looking for a simple yet effective theme with which to build your website, then take a look at the Twenty Twelve theme. This theme is ideal for blogs and small businesses because of its emphasis on simplicity and content navigation.
In the past, we’ve seen some very unique, eye-catching themes emerge from the WordPress community. You can find some of the coolest websites crafted using this content management system, but you’ll have to look hard to find them. Most websites built on WordPress tend to lean more on the traditional side when it comes to their appearance.
Too Many Plugins
Plugins are little extensions that can enhance your website’s functionality. They can be used for anything from displaying videos on your site to analyzing web traffic to providing featured articles. While there’s nothing wrong with using plugins to enhance your website, too many can make it a bit cluttered. If you’re looking for a clean, minimalistic experience then you might want to avoid using too many plugins.
Some plugins can be quite useful and even necessary for certain types of websites and blogs. However, if you’re looking for something quick and easy to setup then you might not need to load up your site with tons of plugins. Consider what you need and don’t need, and find the right balance between the two. Once you do that, your site will run smoothly and you won’t have to worry about plugin conflicts.
No Off-Page Optimization
With every new release of WordPress comes a host of new features and tools. Although this can be really exciting, it also means that your site might not perform as well as it could. This is because there’s always at least a couple of months of cleanup that needs to happen after a new release. When this happens, hackers and spammers tend to hit the web, looking for sites that are still vulnerable. When they find one, they’ll typically try to optimize it for their own benefit, which can seriously damage your site’s rankings.
After the initial cleanup, you’ll want to continue making minor updates to keep your site free from malware and spam. While this is a hassle, it’s worth it in the end. Make sure you have a plan in place for regular updates and maintenance, or else you could find yourself in a bit of a pickle.
Overly Complicated SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of enhancing your site’s content and structure in order to boost its rankings on search engines (such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo). There are many aspects to SEO, and it can be a complicated process. If you’re looking to tackle this on your own or with the help of a freelancer, then you might want to avoid using overly complicated or heavyweight tools.
If you’ve used SEO for your blog or business website, then you’ll know exactly what we mean. There are a ton of tools out there that can make the process quite easy, but they also come with a price. Some SEO tools are extremely powerful and can completely overhaul your site’s structure. As a result, your site might temporarily break while it’s being optimized.
We wouldn’t recommend going this route, as it’s usually best to avoid using tools that are quite powerful and instead go with something more simplistic. It’s also important to keep in mind that SEO is a continually evolving process, and thus your choice of tool should be updated regularly to keep up with the times.
Few Inbound Marketing Principles
Inbound marketing is a relatively new approach to marketing that evolved out of the digital marketing world. Simply put, inbound marketing is about attracting, engaging, and delighting people to grow your business.
The most important thing to keep in mind when practicing inbound marketing is that you are not just selling a product or service. You are creating an experience (be it personal or business related) that will attract, engage, and delight your target audience, leading them to take a (or more) action. For example, if you want to create an inbound marketing campaign for your blog, you’ll want to make sure that the content is of high quality, the value is there, and the experience is consistent across all your marketing materials (i.e., blog posts, emails, websites, etc.).
If you want to build a serious business, then you’ll need to decide whether you want to go the self-employed route, business to business sales, or a mixture of both. Regardless of your chosen route, you’ll need to make sure that you have a clear grasp of the inbound marketing principles, or else you’ll find yourself in a bit of a pickle.