This is what my friend, whom I mentioned in an earlier post, recently told me as I’m coaching him through getting his site setup web strategy together. Here’s what he said about my suggestion that he use WordPress.
For the cost I agree it’s a good method for creating a website –
I think because of what I’m selling it doesn’t work though. They
all have a blog look to them. I’d shell out some money for a
custom website if I had to. I’ll send you some links for what
I’m talking about…
So I wrote that then went looking, and it seems most people
doing video work at my level are using wordpress. Hmmm.
I’d assign the money for a site like this one: { obscured}
This happens to be a guy in RI who does voice
over work, I know he paid something like $500-$1,000 for this site. I think if your in the business of presentation, like video work, your site should pop out. WordPress looks professional, but doesn’t seem to have stand out from the crowd capabilities.
My response:
That site is lame. The only way that it is getting any traffic at all is through traditional advertising or PPC. There is absolutely zero searchability, seriously it has NO search value. There is no text, no regular updates. His is a pretty billboard in the Appalachians it is practically worthless. Take his site to alexa.com or compete.com, he doesn’t even exist.
Just in case you don’t believe me or beg to differ I took it to the street. I’m a huge fan (though not presently a user) of Hubspot, their philosophy and technology. Their Website Grader is very cool. It analyzes sites for web marketing effectiveness, grades go from 0-100. Here’s what WebsiteGrader had to say about the site:
A website grade of 4/100 for [obscured].com means that means that of the millions of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 4% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data , website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.
So what about a WordPress site used as a CMS? The frontend of distressedpro.com runs on wordpress (BankProspector does not) and with ZERO advertising, using exclusively content marketing and social media we’ve grown to over 100 members since December 20th, 2009 (that’s a month and a half). The site has only been live since late September. I think the number of users (and the caliber, though I’m not going to get into that right now) speaks for itself but what does WebsiteGrader have to say about my WordPress presentation?
The website www.distressedpro.com ranks 283,052 of the 2,050,623 websites that have been ranked so far.
A website grade of 86/100 for www.distressedpro.com means that means that of the millions of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 86% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data , website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.
A. Traffic Rank : Top 3.438 %
Alexa is an online service that measures traffic for millions of sites on the Internet in a similar way to Nielsen television show ratings.
Your website has an Alexa rank of 1,069,222 which is in the top 3.438 % of all websites.
Can you make WordPress look professional? I don’t know it but its good enough for The NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox, Yahoo, Harvard, CNET, and the list just goes on.
There are a number of Content Management Systems that you could use. But you need to be able to regularly update your site with posts. The only way that guy is getting any traffic is by traditional advertising or PPC. If you build custom you will be rebuilding every 24 months. WP can look like almost anything you want. Other CMS’s that you can checkout that I can help you with (this is an open letter to my friend remember) are Expression Engine, Joomla, Drupal, and Squarespace.
If you are thinking about your website as a placard you are thinking about it incorrectly. You need to think about it as your broadcast station from which you disseminate information. Information through which potential customers find you, visit your site and engage. A CMS will help you to do that and you’d be hard pressed to find one that is as flexible and affordable as WordPress.
Thanks for the kind words, and for spreading the inbound marketing wisdom. I did a webinar on the topic of “website redesign” recently that talked a lot about how design is only somewhat important and great content is more important.
You can watch the website redesign webinar here:
http://www.hubspot.com/webinar-website-redesign-strategy-for-2010-archive
For what it’s worth, nothing about the WordPress CMS limits the presentation layer. Like any good content management system, the one in question divorces content from presentation. If your man has money to spend on a custom look and feel, have him spend it with someone who knows the WordPress templating system. That way he can get whatever look-and-feel kicks he’s after while WordPress quietly manages things behind the scenes.