Owning a WordPress website requires time management and proper planning for what you want to develop, change, or edit. This helps you save a lot of time.
This week, we will touch on the possibilities that WordPress websites have to offer and the key steps on how you or anyone can handle a WordPress website.
Dedicated Time in Your Schedule
The frequency of creating, changing, editing, or maintaining a WordPress website does not really matter, as long as you are on it at least once a month.
Having a website, not just with WordPress but with other platforms/CMS too, is never a one-time done-deal thing. Here are three reasons why this is particularly true for WordPress websites:
- Software or Plug-ins: These will always receive frequent updates to fix issues, bugs, or even add features. Think of it like an app on your mobile phone; whether it’s automatically updated or manually, it regularly receives updates. Website plug-ins or software require special attention. You need to go through the change logs to see what might have changed, been added, or worst, removed. Doing this will help you identify improvements in the features you want and avoid extra plug-ins or software just to achieve a simple feature.
- Layout Shifts: Sometimes updates may cause layout shifts that break your website’s design. By dedicating time to maintenance, regardless of how often, your visitors are more likely to stay and continue surfing your website. Navigating a broken design is definitely not pleasing.
- More Features Require More Time: This is just the nature of having a website, particularly WordPress websites. The features are nice and provide an outstanding user experience for your visitors. However, the more plug-ins you have, the more time you need to take note of updates and change logs.
This brings us to our next section about the features of a WordPress website.
Too Many Features
WordPress has millions if not billions of plug-ins. This opens up unlimited features you can have on your website. You can mix and match, do your own trial and error, and see if the plug-in works with other plug-ins without conflicts.
However, this abundance of features comes with another problem: some plug-ins have the exact same features as others, which could break your website at a developer level—not your web developer, but the plug-in developer.
There are a few best practices to avoid software or plug-in conflicts that you really don’t want to face, which could end up costing you a fortune to fix or worst, trapping you in an ecosystem:
- List down at least 10 features you want to offer your visitors.
- Choose the top 3 core features you want.
- Choose another 2 features that are nice to offer but not as important.
Owning a website is exciting at the beginning but can become overwhelming and daunting as you grow your traffic and sales.
By following these steps, you will save your future self from headaches and unwanted time-consuming issues that don’t help at all. Trust me; I have been down this road and it is not a good ride.
Make a Simple Website
From the design aspect of your website—copywriting, designing, and everything that makes up a website—simplicity is key.
I have seen people trying to cram every single detail about their business into one website. The experience of visiting such a site is like opening your wardrobe and having everything fall out while you’re searching for what you need.
Websites are meant to display what visitors want to know, not what you want them to know. Instead of making them navigating by themselves within your site, display things that directly impact their intent. For example, if you sell cars, you don’t show the tires first; you show the whole car.
You are selling a car that includes tires—not tires that include a car! 😂
When visitors see the car first, they then start looking for details like what the seats are like. Some websites display details that do not impact viewers at all. For example: “The headlights are made of Swarovski crystals crafted by renowned Italian artisans…” Who cares what the headlights are made of? What matters is that it’s a Mercedes!
In conclusion, make your website simple to navigate and visually appealing. Provide an X-factor in what you offer so that visitors’ next step is to click “Buy Now!”