building a professional website for your business

Building a Professional Website for Your Business Dennis Hong Jack of Blog Trades dennis.blog

1.   What to consider when building a website 2.   Using a content management system 3.   Harnessing the open-source 4.   The power of WordPress 5.   WordPress.com versus WordPress.org 6.   So you’ve hired a developer

CHAPTER 1

What to consider when building a website

What are the exact features your website needs?

If you are looking to build a website for your business, or if your website is the business, there are two questions you have to ask yourself before you even get started. The first question is this:

For example, you may need …

Information only

Calendar of events

Audio & video

Galleries & portfolios

Social media connections

What are some additional features your website might need in the

future?

Once you have this list down, the second question you have to ask yourself is this:

For example …

Information only

Calendar of events

Appointments & reservations

Payment system

Members-only area

Private contact form

Audio & video Spam protection

Site backups Galleries & portfolios


Discussion forum

Site security

Tech support

Once you have this full wishlist down, that’s when reality strikes.

The more functionality you want, the more time and money it will inevitably take to build and maintain your site. That’s why it’s vital to separate your list into features you absolutely need now, and the features you’ll need or that would be nice to have in the future. Because most likely, you’re going to be on a budget in terms of both time and money.

Who will build your site?

Once you have your list, the next question is this:

The time and the ability to build the

site yourself

The budget to hire someone to build

the site for you or

Now, you have to find either …

As you’ll find out, the answer might be a combination of both. Now, obviously, if you’re a multi-million-dollar company, like say, Amazon.com …

... hiring someone is the obvious choice. If you have the budget, you can afford to hire a team of full-time developers whose job it is to build the website, and then keep these developers permanently on staff to maintain the website once it’s built.

The time and the ability to build the

site yourself

The budget to hire someone to build

the site for you or

When you’re a small business, #2 may simply not be a viable option. That means you may have to learn to build your site yourself.

And that takes us to …

CHAPTER 2

Using a content management system

A content management system – or CMS – is software that you can use to create a website.

Information only


Galleries & portfolios

Discussion forum

Audio & video


Calendar of events


Payment system

Members-only area

It’s what you might refer to as a site builder, and it gives you a bundled-together set of tools.

For instance, the ability to create individual pages using an interface that looks like a word processing program …

… the ability to upload photos and other types of media …

... the ability to arrange your content into a coherent layout – these are all standard features for CMS’s nowadays.

The benefit of a CMS is that you don’t need to know how to write or edit code. Therefore, you can build a site yourself, without having to hire a developer. This is ideal if your budget or know-how are limited.

If websites were furniture, then a CMS would be Ikea. The materials are prefabricated for you, but you still have to put everything together yourself. WordPress is a CMS, but it’s not the only one out there.

You may have heard of Squarespace, or Wix, or Weebly – these are all content management systems.

Ease of use Limited customization =

The benefit of a CMS is ease of use, because everything is already pre-installed. However, there is a drawback in that most CMS’s are limited in the customizations you can add.

If you’re using a typical site builder, there’s no way you could ever replicate a site like, say, Amazon.com.

Amazon’s website is just too complex for most commercial CMS’s.

No need to code Limited customization

No need to hire a developer

Retain agency over your site

To CMS ... or Not to CMS Let’s recap the pros and cons of using a CMS:

So can you live with the limited customization? If you cannot, but you still want to have these three things on the left, well …

... this takes us now to WordPress, because with WordPress, you can have your cake, and eat it, too. Metaphorically.

CHAPTER 3

Harnessing the open-source

First off, most of the site builders out there are proprietary. This means that you can use their software, but the source code is protected, so you can’t modify it in any way.

This creates a hard limit on what you can do with the software. So later on, if you realize that you need customizations they don’t offer, there’s no room to grow. Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t hire a developer to add customizations to your site, because they wouldn’t have access to the source code.

As such, your only option at that point would be to scrap your whole site and rebuild a new one from scratch on a different platform.

WordPress, on the other hand, is open-source. This means the source code is freely available.

You can add to or modify the source code as you see fit. As such, you can get WordPress to do literally anything you want. Well … within the confines of a website, of course.

You can’t get WordPress to go out and get you a pizza at 2:00 am. So no, it can’t do literally everything. And depending on how advanced the customization is that you’re after, you would need the knowledge, the time, and/or the budget to get it done, but it is doable. That’s the key here. And that’s why WordPress is such a powerful platform.

Prepackaged features

Unlimited customization +

On the one hand, WordPress comes with a host of prepackaged features, like a typical site builder. And on the other hand, WordPress is scalable and offers unlimited customization. It gives you the best of both worlds, so to speak.

There is a caveat, though:

Some people do feel that WordPress has a higher learning curve than other proprietary site builders, like Weebly, or Squarespace, or Wix. Admittedly, the WordPress interface is a bit more complex. The reason is that it is designed to be scalable. So yes, it may be slightly harder to learn, because there’s just more you can do with it.

To be upfront, some of you may need just a simple website using only pre-installed features. Some people have a house full of Ikea furniture, and it’s lovely.

So it may be that a proprietary platform, even though it’s limited, is the right choice for your business.

Information only

Calendar of events


Payment system

Members-only area





Discussion forum

Site security

Tech support

That is something that you’ll have to research and figure out for yourself. And that’s why I suggest you make that double-list of features you need now and features you might need later.

CHAPTER 4

The power of WordPress – simple, yet scalable

27% of the web WordPress powers

As of today, WordPress powers 27% of the web, meaning that more than 1 in 4 websites on the internet use the WordPress software. I’d say that’s a clear indication of both the power and the appeal of WordPress. This also means that if you ever need help with a WordPress site, it’s pretty easy to find someone who’ll be able to help you.

Now, part of the reason WordPress is so versatile and scalable is that there are two versions of it: WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress, or what you might hear as WordPress.org.

WordPress.com is the pre-installed, cloud-based version of WordPress. To build a website at WordPress.com, you go to WordPress.com, sign up an account, and everything is all set up and ready to go.

Spam protection

Site backups

Site security

Tech support

Software installation & maintenance

Building your site

Meanwhile, we handle all the technical stuff. Whenever there’s an update to the software, or if we find any bugs in the system, we automatically take care of it. This means you can focus on creating your site. You don’t have to worry about maintaining it.

Ease of use Not fully customizable +

As you can see, WordPress.com offers ease of use, but the trade-off is that it's not fully customizable. Basically, you're limited to our pre-installed features. You can't just add your own custom code, as that poses a security risk. In this respect, WordPress.com is more similar to the close-ended site builders out there.

WordPress.org is where you download and install the WordPress software, and then set up your site on your own. Or, you might hire a developer to do this for you.

Self-hosting allows you to add just about any type of custom functionality, in the form of what we call plugins.

Spam protection

Site backups

Site security


Building your site

When you self-host, you are responsible for your own site maintenance and security. You have to keep the software updated, vet and test the plugins and customizations you add, and take precautions to protect your site from hackers and malicious software. As you can probably imagine, self-hosting takes considerably more effort and technical knowledge to keep your site running, and if something isn't working properly, you have to fix it yourself. Or you have to contact support at your host, and depending on the hosting plan you go with, that support may be limited.

Tech support?

More customization

More maintenance =

From my experience, this is something people either forget or just don’t realize upfront. They want all the customizations, but don’t consider the reality that these customizations will require increased maintenance. This is why many people do end up having to hire a developer when they self-host. Because it can get very technical, depending on the level of customization you’re looking for.

Ease of use, limited features

Full customization,

manage yourself vs

So basically, as far as WordPress.com versus WordPress.org, we’re looking at ease of use with limited features versus full customization that you have to manage yourself.

CHAPTER 5

WordPress.com versus WordPress.org

To help you compare the two versions of WordPress, I’m going to run through the process of signing up and building a site on WordPress.com versus WordPress.org.

Signing up ...

First step at WordPress.com: click the button to get started, and the interface walks you through the steps.

.com

First, you pick out a layout for your front page.

.com

And then you pick a theme, which determines the overall style and look of your site.

.com

You can register a custom domain or use one you already own.

.com

Then you select a plan, which gives you different levels of features and services.

.com

And then finally, you register an account …

.com

... and you’re ready to get started building your site.

.org

First step at WordPress.org: You have to find a hosting company (like Bluehost, HostGator, Pressable, and so on), There are a ton out there, so it’s important to shop around for a reliable host who has the right plan for you.

Reliability & uptime

Bandwidth

Tech support

Server space .org

Things to consider when shopping for a host and a plan:

.org

Quick sidenote about bandwidth: If you go with a cheaper plan, most hosts will put a hard cap on your bandwidth, which kicks in if you ever get a spike in traffic. So, for instance, if you write a blog post that goes viral, and all of a sudden, your site goes from hundreds of views per day to hundreds of views per second, your host may throttle your traffic, meaning that it will restrict the number of people who can view your site at any time. As you can imagine, this is a disaster if you’re in the middle of going viral. So if this aspect of hosting concerns you, click here, and you’ll find a short talk I gave on what I learned when my blog post went viral. You may find it worth checking out.

For the record, at WordPress.com, we never throttle. We host over 60 million sites, with about 81 million new posts and 45 million new comments each month, so our servers are already equipped to handle a huge amount of traffic, and they virtually never go down [knock on wood]. Point being, we don’t have to throttle our sites, because we’re equipped to handle traffic.

Getting started ...

.com

Once you’ve signed up on WordPress.com, you can dive right in and start building your site. You’ll see My Site at the top-left of your screen. Click that, and that will take you to …

.com

… your site’s dashboard (also known as the editor), which is where you manage everything.

.com

You can create new posts, edit, and publish them.

.com

And then you can click over to the front end of your site to see what the finished product looks like.

If you self-host, the first thing you have to do is install the WordPress software. Many hosts do have an installation flow that guides you through the process, so this part generally isn’t too painful. Once WordPress is installed, then you have to set up a WordPress account.

.org

This login is separate from your hosting account. For instance, if you have hosting with Bluehost, you sign up a Bluehost account. And when you log in to that, you can manage your hosting services …

.org

… look at how much memory and disk space you’re using ...

.org

... access the actual files that make up the WordPress software, and so on.

.org

But then, you also set up a WordPress account specific to your site.

.org

And that allows you to access the dashboard for your specific WordPress site, and then, you’re ready to start building your site. So it’s an added layer of management here. A quick heads-up regarding tech support: Most hosts will help you with your hosting account, but they’re not willing to go into your WordPress account itself. If you get stuck on something there, that’s where you would probably have to hire someone to help you with it.

Adding features ...

.com

On WordPress.com, everything is pre-installed – features like Stats, SEO, Analytics, Social Media, and so on. What we do on an ongoing basis is we look at the most commonly used or requested features for websites, and we’ll decide which ones to add. We’ll audit the code for these features, make sure it’s secure and not vulnerable to malicious attacks, and then we’ll integrate that functionality directly into our interface.

.com

Basically, we act as the curators for new features, filtering through the sea of third-party functionality out there, and safely adding the ones that our users will get the most use out of. Granted, this is where we find the main limitation of WordPress.com.

Can WordPress.com bring me a pizza?

If you have a random, esoteric piece of functionality that you’re hoping to add, it may not be available, and in that case, we would go over your options for migrating your site to self-hosted WordPress.

.org

Compare this to a self-hosted site, where every piece of non-core functionality you want, you have to add a plugin for. For instance, let’s say you want to connect to Instagram. You go to Plugins, search for “Instagram,” and you get …

.org

... 564 results, meaning there are 564 different plugins that allow you to connect your WordPress site to your Instagram. To be clear, many of these plugins will do pretty much the same exact thing, because anyone can write a plugin and submit it to the WordPress.org directory, and then anyone else can find it and use it.

.org

Unlike on WordPress.com, plugins on WordPress.org are not curated, so that means there are awesome plugins, and there are not-so-awesome plugins.

In this respect, searching for plugins on WordPress.org is kind of like buying something off of eBay. There is a rating and review system, but it is an unregulated market. So, if you’re not careful with the plugins you install, you might end up with one that, at best, just doesn’t work very well, or at worst, breaks your site completely. As such, you have to be diligent with plugins and only activate ones built by reputable developers.

As an example, compare these two ecommerce plugins. One has over a million active installs, 2,100 reviews with almost a five-star rating, and was updated three weeks ago. This other one has less than 10 active installs, no ratings, and hasn’t been updated in a year. Which do you think is better?

Curated, but limited

Unlimited and uncurated vs

So, that’s the main difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org when it comes to adding new features.

Ongoing maintenance...

Spam protection

Site backups

Site security

Tech support


Building your site

.com

As we looked at previously, at WordPress.com, we take care of all of these things for you.

Spam protection

Site backups

Site security

Tech support?


Building your site

.org

On a self-hosted site, you’re responsible for handling these on your own. But there is a product that may help …

If you decide to self-host, I highly recommend that you install the Jetpack plugin.

SEO Tools

Sharing & Publicize

Shortcode Embeds

Contact Form

Tiled Galleries & Carousel

Google Analytics Monitor

Protect Ads

Site Stats

Photon

Security Scanning

Akismet

Site Backups

Jetpack is an all-in-one plugin that bundles more than 30 different features. These features are all pre-installed at WordPress.com, but if you self-host, instead of having to install each one as a separate plugin, you can just activate Jetpack.

jetpack.com

You can get more information on Jetpack if you go to Jetpack.com. Or you can just search for and install the plugin directly from your dashboard.

Weighing it out ...

Find host

Sign up

Install WordPress

Build your site

Manage security

Maintain software

Add code & plugins

Sign up

Build your site

.org .com

Ease of use, limited features

Full customization,

manage yourself vs

As far as deciding which version to go with, many first-time users believe that WordPress.org is just a no-brainer, because you get all the customizations. But as you can see, there are benefits and drawbacks for both. Most new businesses don't need a ton of custom functionality, especially for the first iteration of their website, so WordPress.com should work just fine for them.

If you've never built a website before, my recommendation is to start at WordPress.com, learn the ins and outs of WordPress, and if you decide you do need more customization later on, you can migrate to self-hosted WordPress at that point. That is the scalability of WordPress – you can move from .com to .org without having to rebuild everything from scratch.

CHAPTER 6

So you’ve hired a developer

Expenses Involvement =

At WordPress.com, the point is for you to build your site without a developer. With self-hosted WordPress, even if you do hire a developer, my suggestion is to manage as much of your site as you can, so that you’re not completely reliant on your developer. By maximizing your involvement in your own site, you can minimize your expenses.

Information only

Calendar of events


Payment system

Members-only area





Discussion forum

Site security

Tech support

Having said that, if you do decide to hire a developer, the main thing you have to consider …

Going back to our hypothetical list, I absolutely believe there are items on here that you should be able to handle yourself, with some time spent learning WordPress.

Single project Ongoing contract vs

… is whether you want to hire them for a one-time project, or set up an ongoing contract. With an ongoing contract, you’ll generally pay them a monthly retainer, and they agree to devote a certain number of hours to your site per month. It really depends on how experienced with WordPress you personally are, and how complex your site is.

.org

If you have a decent familiarity with the WordPress infrastructure (and this is why I recommend starting with WordPress.com), you may very well be able to handle the ongoing maintenance after your developer builds something for you. Or if you have an intern, stick them with the job. The more tasks you can handle yourself, the less you’ll end up spending.

On multiple occasions now, I’ve had a friend ask me for help with a WordPress site that they had hired someone to build for them. I take a look, and I realize the site has an overall level of complexity they don’t really need for the type of business they have. Or there are features my friend could easily learn to handle. To be clear, though, I’m not implying that their developers are being shady. The problem is that many people, especially if they know nothing about building websites, 1) want more customizations than they actually need, or 2) they focus on minutiae that won’t really affect the functionality of their site, but can be expensive to build, or 3) they just don’t realize there are some things they could learn to do on their own with a bit of work on their part. I would never fault a developer for not saying to a potential client, “You know what? You don’t need this. What you need is just a simple website. And if you’re willing to do some of the legwork yourself, you wouldn’t need to hire me at all.” If anything, it might actually sound a bit condescending if you went to a developer with a list of features for your business website, and the developer just dismissed them all and sent you on your way. So, it’s not a matter of developers being shady (though there can be shady developers). It’s a question of you understanding the intricacies of building a website. And how do you do that?

A precaution ...

Educate yourself

Speaking of which, at some point, you may end up Googling the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. And that’s great -- you should do that. But this is where I’m going to defend WordPress.com a bit. The problem is, there are countless WordPress developers out there who make a living building WordPress sites for people. Meanwhile, the point of WordPress.com is to not have to hire a developer. There is, unfortunately, an abundance of misinformation on the internet (which, really, is just a general statement about the internet these days) – misinformation written by WordPress developers, whether due to ignorance or bias, saying how WordPress.com will never be adequate, and you simply have to go with WordPress.org. And that, as you can hopefully see by now, isn’t necessarily true. That’s why it is important to gain a basic understanding of WordPress -- or just building websites -- in general. Because it will allow you to make educated judgments on what you actually need or don’t need.