Using WordPress for business has become an established practice. All web agencies use this CMS to create corporate blogs, websites, small portals and sometimes e-commerce. The reason is simple: with this base it is easy to work. WordPress is versatile, simple to use.

At the same time, however, there are several details to explore, it is not enough to be there to have control of resources. Just install WordPress on any hosting and start publishing? No, working with a professional blog is a different activity from writing an article in your personal diary.

There are structural differences, worthy of note. In this article I want to address the essentials. Using WordPress for companies is possible, indeed it is desirable. There is no better platform to host a blog or a website, especially if you want to maximize revenue. But there are steps that can’t be ignored What are they? Here is the list of topics.

The limits of WordPress 

I want to start with a clear concept: WordPress is not for everyone.  There are a thousand reasons to choose this CMS, and I want to emphasize the versatility is simplicity.  It is a platform for creating blogs, but also corporate websites and single-page.  With some plugins you can think of a small online shop.  All this, moreover, becomes intuitive in the eyes of those who do not have great skills.

Why use WordPress for business?  You can create a blog and deliver it to employees who, with a minimum of training, can create content and articles to update the blog.  But that’s the point: it’s not for all needs.  You can’t use WordPress to do everything.

There are projects that need more.  For example, a CMS designed for e-commerce like Magento or Prestashop.  Or a reality to create real portals.  In these cases the choice falls on other names, like Joomla or Drupal.  In any case, this is the starting point: carefully evaluate the needs and prefer WordPress with full knowledge of the facts.

Choose hosting and domain with care

First technical point to address if you want to use WordPress for business: you have to define a stable base to create your website. This means, first of all, finding a suitable domain.

The website address must be a point of reference to define its identity: customers will remember you through the domain, and will recognize your results in the snake, on social networks, in shares via email or in chat. Here are the points to buy the domain:

• It must be easy to remember.
• It must be easy to write and pronounce.
• Choose an extension (.it, .com) appropriate to your work.
• It should not lend itself to puns.
• It must create a link with the company’s brand.

A clear point: organise a company meeting and take the time to arrive at a shared decision.
Going back and changing domain names is a complex undertaking when the blog is online. But now it’s time to choose the hosting, the home of your work.

• Make sure there is daily backup.
• Don’t skimp on resources, your site must be prepared for peak visits.
• Test your support: assistance must be present.
• Speed is important: choose servers with SSD disks.

What is the best hosting for WordPress? Difficult to answer because there are many solutions for your purposes. What I can tell you is that you can’t do otherwise: you have to create an independent site, you can’t be satisfied with a free WordPress blog, created with a free service.

WordPress themes for companies

Finding a good WordPress theme is a necessary step to give identity to the project. The CMS is a basis for publishing content, then you decide what form to give to your name and your online presence. By choosing a good theme you can welcome the audience in an environment in your image and likeness.

There are free themes, others for a fee and others created to measure. The price changes according to the needs but one point is clear: using WordPress for companies means building a safe, reliable, fast site. And qualitatively superior. To do this you need a good template.

Plugin for a corporate blog

What are the indispensable plugins for a large corporate blog? Those that allow you to get the best possible result to earn traffic, good readers, potential contacts. I want to be precise in my list of useful extensions when you decide to use WordPress for the corporate site:

• Cresta – A plugin to add social share buttons to articles.
• WP Rocket – Speed up your blog, people don’t want to wait: they prefer to read.
• Q2W3 Fixed Widget – Highlight content, keep banners scrolling the page.
• Newsletter – That’s what it’s called. And it’s a perfect plugin to get new contacts.

Obviously there are the classic Contact Form 7 to get the contact box and Akismet to protect you from spam. Each reality has different needs, you load the plugins you need but don’t exaggerate. Use only what you need, sometimes you just need a string of code (and a good webmaster) to get good results.

Organize the editorial plan for your blog

The editorial plan is at the heart of the company’s blog. With WordPress you can create static sites, landing pages or showcase sites. But when you decide to do blogging you can get the most out of this reality. In this way you can take advantage of inbound marketing logic and use the content to find potential customers. You’re interested, aren’t you? You have to deal with these points:

• Identify corporate values.
• Study the competition
• Learn more about the target group
• Create a content map
• Establish a calendar of publications

Working without a compass means trying your luck. Having an editorial plan is a decisive step to move towards concreteness, to give a stable basis to a blog that can become decisive for finding contacts. All this, however, must be accompanied by the famous landing pages.

There can be many pages on a company website. “Who we are” and “contacts” become the basis to give security to the reader, but if you want to monetize you have to create landing pages. Resources that allow the owner of the site to turn a reader into a lead to be transformed into a customer.