Most of us browse the World Web on a daily basis and constantly come across websites we like the look of. Unfortunately, some of these sites are custom made and the budgets that were put into the web design team to create such a fantastic site are often way beyond our own.
Luckily that is where WordPress and websites that create custom industry-specific themes come into play. The latter is the most important point we are going to make here because it is no use using a theme ‘just because you like it’. The key to a successful website that converts is choosing a theme that suits the niche market you are targeting.
WordPress Themes
If you are not savvy to the ways of WordPress, then don’t worry. Luckily there are tons of people out there that have honed their WordPress design skills down to specific niche industries so you can purchase a theme that works for your business.
Now if you are working in the construction industry, the one thing you want to avoid is the biggest mistake many newbies tend to make. That takes the commonly touted name ‘WordPress Blog’ believing that this is the same thing as a website.
A blog is for people that want to write pages of information, stories, advice, and so on. As a business, you need to fork out a little bit more in order to create a website that shows off your services. For instance, if you work in the travel industry, you will need a website with a front-page that clearly shows all the different tours you have available on the front page. This way people know exactly what you have to offer.
If you just use a WordPress blog theme, then all you are going to get is a page full of articles with long text explain what your services are. Now try to think about this from your own point of view. Would you prefer easily clickable boxes to a page that explains the tours your business has to offer or to scroll down blog after blog and read walls of text about the tour?
For of you that are Ok with this or prefer the walls of text, that is fine, but the majority of people looking for a tour would prefer not to. So, here is the good news!
When you buy a WordPress business them it will not only come with the neat front page that will advertise your services, it will also come with the option to add a blog page. Therefore, you can have both. Take a look at this website that has examples of over 40 WordPress themes.
Despite the fact that WordPress is an excellent website solution that comes with a full central management system, it does come with some quirks. Firstly, you need lots of plugs in, secondly as the site grows it will slow down, which usually means more plugins. Plus, if you are not a WordPress expert, you will need an expert who will constantly have to pay on an ad-hoc basis when you need changes made or site improvements.
Business Specific Themes
An alternative solution to WordPress is to find a web development services company in your niche that already has tons of themes pre-designed with mobile responsive themes. Not only that, but these companies will also include all the tools you need to run your business – these tools are specific to tasks that your website needs to do for you, and those tasks are specific to your business.
A great example of a company that does exactly this is the Lodgify vacation home software platform. Like many other companies that target a specific niche, the Lodgify platform comes with all the tools you need to manage a vacation home short term rental business. This would be a fully integrated booking system and a channel manager that helps to sync booking calendars on other websites the vacation homes are listed on.
Now that’s just the inside of the website. What sets these industry-specific websites apart from WordPress is that the themes that they produce are extremely user-friendly. No plugins are required, the site doesn’t slow down, you get to choose from tons of themes, and the management of style and content makes use of drag and drop technology.
In short, the central management system is so easy to use that you could manage the entire site with your eyes closed so to speak. On top of this, you still get the blog and all the other service features a WordPress site would offer.
Then, the final advantage of using these sites is that you do not need to pay a WordPress developer to fix issues or change the code to suit the latest mobile smartphones and tablet technology because there is already a design team whose job is to spot these changes and apply them in the background without you even knowing it is happening, and without affecting your website – in the end, the site continues to look better, get faster, and its functionalities just keep on getting better.
In effect, you do not need to do anything, and if you do have an issue, then any decent company will offer you a 24/7 support team via telephone, email, or live chat. Something you certainly wouldn’t get from your WordPress developer.
