January 2018 marked our eighth year anniversary in business and we celebrated by building a new bizeez communications website. This will be our fourth website in eight years!
The first few websites really didn’t help our business grow, but things changed in 2012 when we found WordPress.
We fell in love with WordPress straight away and started building websites because we realised it was the best solution for our hospitality clients.
So why a new bizeez communications website?
Just because we can!
OK – that’s not true….
Much has changed in our business since our last website update three years ago, so we wanted to add new marketing services plus add new imagery and redesign the user experience.
In truth, we didn’t build a whole new website, we just redesigned the website to fit the content we already had and meet the ever evolving technology and user experience expectations.
AND THAT is why we love WordPress!
It is easy to make changes to grow with our brand and online user requirements.
So why would we recommend Hospitality businesses i.e. Hotels, Clubs, Bars, Pubs, Restaurants, Cafes, Wineries etc. build their most valuable online asset with WordPress? Good question! Here are a few reasons why we believe WordPress is a must for Hospitality websites.
It’s open source
WordPress is Open Source software which basically means its source code is freely available to its users.
And if that doesn’t mean anything to you – let me put it this way…
- It’s not proprietary, so you are not locked into using the same platform, hosting provider or website developer. You can move your website between hosting and website maintenance support if things go South!
- You get much more functionality as many people are building new plugins to enhance the user experience.
It’s easy to use
Being user-friendly is what so many people love about WordPress. And it’s getting even easier by the day with new drag and drop WordPress themes now available.
While they’re not linked, the easiest way to explain it is that “if you can use Word, you can use WordPress”.
You don’t have to be a web developer to update content such as imagery and copy, or even add pages via the WP Dashboard.
The WP Dashboard is easy to navigate, and it’s easy to add more content to your website, without having to know anything about HTML or code.
Which is fabulous for you because you’re not going to want to throw your computer out the window when you want to change the image of your seasonal dish, update a menu or add a new product…
And that leads me to – it’s good for search engine optimisation (SEO) because you’re adding new content often! (Read our 10 key tips on how to improve website rankings).
Search engines love WordPress
WordPress comes with some great built-in features that sees Google and other search engines lapping it up, and making your website easy to find.
- SEO plug-ins mean you can create great on-page SEO, without needing to be an SEO guru!
- By being able to add content quickly and easily, your website won’t become static – remember Google loves websites that have new and fresh content.
- The backend code of WordPress is nice and clean so it makes it easier for Google to see your content.
- Sharing is easy, so when others share your content they build the best type of links to your site.
Themes by the thousand
The style, design and navigation of your site are controlled by what’s called a ‘theme’ in WordPress talk.
There’s plenty of free ones available and you can also buy others (termed “premium themes”).
If you’re running a restaurant, for instance and are in need a great multipurpose with elegant design for your restaurant website – then there are hundreds of themes available. The same goes for wine brands, food producers and tourism operators. There is a theme out there that will suit your business needs many come with online store options also.
The best part – not only can you change the entire theme, but when you do, it won’t affect your content or functionality as that’s independent to the theme. Phew!
Get more functionality whenever you want
The sky really is the limit when it comes to functionality on a WordPress site.
Right across the web there’s literally thousands of developers who have created a variety of plugins – from photo galleries to shopping carts to polls to contact forms to SEO, to design tweaks, and much much more.
Social networking is well and truly covered too. Thanks to some great plug-ins, you can easily integrate your website with your Facebook and other social media platforms.
Integrate with your systems
And did you know, WordPress can integrate with many of the leading Point of Sale and Accounting systems. It also can integrate your online store with your email marketing provider.
So there is not double handling!
Embedded content
Adding a Booking or Reservation button is simple. So is adding an image gallery, videos and interactive content.
This is perfect of restaurants who change their menus regularly or wineries changing bottle shots.
Blog it up
When WordPress was first launched almost 15 years ago, it was built purely as a blogging platform.
Fast forward to today and while it’s now a comprehensive Content Management System (CMS), it’s still the best platform to use for blogging.
And remember, a regular blog’s a great way to improve your online presence and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Keeping your website secure
Security is probably the biggest concern that gets raised with WordPress, however there are simple ways to keep your site hack-free. This includes:
- Keep your WordPress version up-to-date
- Download plug-ins from trusted developers and keep them updated
- Change your password regularly and make your password strong
- Install an anti spam prevention plugin such as Akismet
Your website can change and grow with your hospitality business
Rebranding? Easy, you can change your theme. Going to start selling online? Great – add an e-commerce plugin. Starting a company blog? Done!
Oh and in case you think that it’s only small businesses who are taking advantage of WordPress …think again. WordPress is also well supported and used by thousands of companies – it is the platform over 25% of businesses run their website on in 2018 and that number continues to grow
Considering building a new hospitality website?
So if you are considering building a new website in 2018 – think seriously about using WordPress and if you want a little help developing your new website – you can always reach out to us.
Read about our WordPress Design and Development Services here
Until Next Time…
