What is WordPress, How Does it Work?
It is widely accepted that to improve and maintain a presence online your website must be relevant, updated and popular. The only historical problem with this is that a Financial Adviser or any company website would need to employ the services of a web designer to do this, coding and editing websites has not been a talent we’ve all had time to learn. But here is an option which we recommend that can allow you, the business, to update and amend at will at no cost
WordPress
Before we consider how WordPress can help, which it massively can, hence the guide, let’s explore what it is and how it works.
WordPress in simple terms is a bit of software that can be installed onto a web space / domain that allows you to create and edit a website online in a wizard/template format.The best thing about WordPress is that its free and allows lots of different users to add and update web content.
How it’s installed
Don’t get me wrong not everyone may find installing WordPress on their web space easy, however those who have some experience will probably find it simply enough to do, WordPress have a 5 minute install guide which shows you how to upload to a webspace typically via FTP (a type of server access) and how to setup a database MYSQL and link the two together.
For further help about setting up WordPress, I suggest Searching for it on google and read the endless supply of help guides, alternatively you could pay for a web designer to initially set it up, which is not a bad idea, once WordPress is setup you can then just log on and make changes at will, just remember when your asking a designer to setup the site, ensure you tell them you want full admin access, otherwise your back to square one if you need to make changes.
Once WordPress in installed.
Once WordPress is installed its really easy to follow, you can download and change themes, themes are essentially different looks and styles which allow you to change how the websites looks and feels. You can add pages, pages are used for static information, things you won’t change a lot such as “About Us” and “Contact Us”. You also have posts, now posts are a major tool in allowing you, rather than a web designer to make regular updates, using posts you can add new content and also create a blog, allowing visitors to know what your upto and what’s new, this is what the likes of Google love, they like original content that is new and constantly changing. This is what can make your website stand out from your peers, and just like an investment your want your proposition to be top quartile!
Remember: more visits = potentially new clients! And to get more visits you need to ensure your website stand out!
Using WordPress also enables you to insert and upload pictures within content and if you change office location or contact details etc you can quickly make the changes yourself and not relay on a web designer to do it, with a lovely invoice at the end of it.
Plugins and Widgets
Probably new terms for most, but again in plain language plugins and widgets are essentially small programmes which can be installed on your WordPress site to do a variety of things, such as;
- Social buttons, so each of your pages can be liked and recommended on the likes of Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn
- Contact forms, you can select to ask for name, number, subject and comments etc
- Newsletters, this is a great way to let users know of new things, such a new posts, and their are plenty of newsletter plugins which will automatically send subscribers an email each week with your latest news, encouraging people to come back to your site, plus keep your services in their minds
- Maps, just as Adviser Index users a map interface you can install a map on your site to allow people to know exactly where you are.
This is a very short list and from the top of my head I’m guessing their most be 100,000s of different plugins! The main point of these is to let you have features which you can control and edit easily without again employing someone to do it at a cost. They take seconds to install and they can be activated and deactivated at will.
Users
I mentioned before that different users can provide different content. Within WordPress you can have different levels of users, for example if you wanted visitors to signup to your website so they can leave comments on articles or subscribe to your newsletter, then you would assign this users to “subscribers” this allows them to make comments and follow you but not make any changes to your site, which obviously you wouldn’t want. Another level of user could be for a staff member who your wanted to be able to add new posts such as your latest company news, you would assign these users as “editors” so they can add and delete posts but no make any structural changes to your site. The greatest level of user access is “admin” this users can changes themes, add and delete pages, change your menu and anything in between.
This help guide is designed to give you a flavour of WordPress and to give you an idea of essentially what it is, as no doubt more and more people are using this kind of platform to update sites themselves.
As part of a listing with Adviser Index we have an adviser zone which provides more help guides like this, and also access to an email where we have web developers and designers that can provide further free support. We don’t offer a complete web design service but we are keen to support our advisers and provide new ways to help your market your services better and more efficiently, and most improbably with the cost of insurance rising save you money!
