Is WordPress my best option?

[Capple]

Hello,

First post here so apologise if this is the wrong place. I'll soon be jumping into the world of self employment and one of the many questions whirring around me head is, should I pay someone to build me a website? Or should I just use WordPress.com?

I only need a simple website that tells people about me and my services.

Or are there other ways I should consider?

 

[Annoying Donkey]

Depends on what you want it to do. If you want to be found on the search engines, then wordpress.com is a poor choice.
Get some hosting and install wordpress (wordpress.org). Cost you a fiver per month for the hosting and a tenner per year for the domain.
You don't need a fancy theme, just a good message.
Some hosts will even install wordpress for you, if you ask nicely...

 

[Dolphin-Design]

Whats the difference between .org and .com?

 

[ryedale]

As said above, don't use Wordpress.com

Most hosts offer a one click installer to allow you to easily install Wordpress or Joomla or will install it for you.

Customising a theme yourself isn't particularly difficult but using a design agency may help you have a more professional site that is more likely to convert visitors into customers

 

[Annoying Donkey]

.com is a multihost of the wordpress software. You can host your own website without buying separate hosting. Your site can be shutdown without warning...

.org allows you to download the software and host it yourself.
Most hosts have a one click install, so it's not hard to install on your own hosting.
Having your own host means you can optimise the site for search engines.

 

[ryedale]

.org is generally for organisations and charities

If you target audience is only going to be uk based , then use a .co.uk domain for your main address. You can always have the .com as well which redirects to the .co.uk

 

[Capple]

Thanks everyone, as I'm just starting out I just want something quite simple. The plan is to launch something a few months down the line when I see how cashflow is looking. I have a friend who is a designer so hopefully work with him on it.

What about Weebly? I was recommended that one too but not familiar with it.

 

[ryedale]

No, avoid that, you'll struggle badly with SEO and if you ever want to expand the site functionality to anything beyond a basic brochure site, you'll have to start again from scratch.

 

[Capple]

No, avoid that, you'll struggle badly with SEO and if you ever want to expand the site functionality to anything beyond a basic brochure site, you'll have to start again from scratch.

Ok. Makes sense! Who would you recommend for the hosting? I'm not the most technical of people so it needs to be really straight forward.

Thanks again

 

[ryedale]

Well I am a bit biased in that respect

But take the time to read reviews and avoid the big names like Go Daddy, 1+1 etc

 

[Ashley_Price]

Personally, I would suggest you at least look at Weebly.

I've used it for years, for two business sites (no longer active) and two personal sites, and have always been very happy with it and new stuff is being added all the time. Yes, I will admit that you may run into trouble if you're wanting to make a much more complex site later on, but it depends on what you need the site to do. But it does include the ability to build an e-commerce site as well.

It's at least worth a look, it might get you started for now, and then you can move on later.

The following two sites I did with Weebly (ignore the fact that both addresses have ".weebly.com" in them, it was only so the sites were free - you can of course have "proper" addresses):

Lewes Twinning Association
Wee Fat Englishman's Guide to Dublin

 

[Capple]

Personally, I would suggest you at least look at Weebly.

Thanks Ashley. I did have a look. Seems simple enough. Just aware that WordPress is huge! That's not to say it's right for me.

Got plenty other things to sort out first. Think I'm being distracted as the website makes it feel more real than the Facebook page is set up

 

[HK Communications]

Depending on your time and capabilities, you can build something on wordpress.org. I second all the above points regarding .com. I made the error of first setting up my site on wordpress.com, and found the functionality so limiting, you can't use plugins, modify, etc, that I moved over to wordpress.org and am all the better for it!

 

[emmabjones]

Get some hosting and install wordpress (wordpress.org). Cost you a fiver per month for the hosting and a tenner per year for the domain.You don't need a fancy theme, just a good message.
Some hosts will even install wordpress for you, if you ask nicely...

I totally agree! The investment is negligible and the OP should not hesitate. Wordpress.org is the perfect choice and with the proper plugins installed, the website can be just as fancy as if it was made by a professional web developer.

 

[Capple]

Thanks Emma

 

[Capple]

Been looking at WordPress.org and it sounds like the best option given all your feedback

Thank you

 

[Matthew Stibbe]

Would strongly recommend WordPress. We use it on our site and for all our clients. And for hosting, I would strongly recommend WPEngine.com. They're very good and they have excellent support.

 

[uk_biz]

You can build a decent website using Wordpress but as recommended by a few above, purchase a domain and hosting and setup your own word press site.

There are also thousands of free templates you can use to setup your site quickly.

You can pick up a hosting package from 25 quid a year