By cyndie shaffstall

Web sites are so passé. In a world of immediate gratification, unless you have a fairly extensive skill set that includes Dreamweaver®, HTML, CSS, and enough JavaScript®, and Flash® to get by, a traditional web site can leave you feeling frustrated. Being held hostage by an expensive or absent webmaster only compounds the issue as your noteworthy company announcements slip away without ever being posted to your most-visible and constant company marketing campaign.

According to the book, The New Rules of PR and Marketing, many companies these days have replaced or augmented their traditional web site with a blog site — and with good reason.

Blog sites, unlike their proprietary counterparts, are simple to update, even by the novice. Sometimes set up can be challenging, especially if you’re looking at a content-management system such as Joomla® or Drupal®, but once the structure is built, you can easily update and add stories, images, and even multimedia — all without ever launching a bulky, proprietary application. Just grab your favorite browser and off you go.

Mike Booth, president, Sir Speedy Centennial, is convinced. According to Booth, “Our company was being held back by having a HTML-based web site that could only be updated by someone familiar with HTML code and the design of our site. Since converting our site to WordPress® we now have control of the content. This not only saves expense and time, but allows us to update and add articles immediately and as needed, and apply SEO principals to maximize our web presence. Our experience was so successful that we decided to add this as a core company service available to our customers.”

Figure 2a Sir Speedy Centennial struggled with a traditional HTML-based web site that kept them from making their own updates.

Figure 2b In this after shot, Sir Speedy Centennial has converted their traditional web site to an easy-to-contribute-and-update WordPress blog site using a template from Template Monster.

The frequent updates that Booth references are a critical component to any good search-engine optimization campaign. After all, who would argue that Google® or Bing® would rather list an outdated, staid site in favor of a site that has updated, fresh content?

While Sir Speedy Centennial may have the skill set on staff to manage a traditional web site, someone running a fly-in bed and breakfast, probably does not. The Runaway Inn felt caught up by the short hairs, too. They had a site that did not enable them to post their daily menu or seasonal pricing. By converting to a WordPress blog, and with less than two hours’ training, they are now well on their way to being in complete control.

Figure 3 The Runaway Inn had no one on staff that could update a web site, let alone create one. Using WordPress, they are now feeling empowered.

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