You might be asking yourself, “Should I use WordPress for my life coaching website?”
You’ve heard a lot about WordPress from different sources, but you want to weigh the pros and the cons before you commit to it.
In this post, I’m going to tell you the top four reasons why I always recommend WordPress to my life coaching clients.
There are also a couple of downsides to using WordPress, but don’t worry. I’ll tell you how to overcome them.
The Question – Should I Use WordPress for my Life Coach Website?
When you’re just starting your life coaching business, names like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and Kajabi might be entering your vocabulary because they’re all platforms available for website building.
What you need to understand is that each of these platforms has its pros and cons and, with different levels of technical knowledge required to use them.
My opinion is that for a basic life coaching business website, WordPress makes the most sense.
Here’s why:
1. WordPress is very popular
WordPress is the #1 content management tool on the internet. What that means is that if you’re using it, you will get access to the newest and best tools first.
Imagine you’re a software developer building a new piece of code to make online scheduling easier for life coaches. What’s the platform you’re going to build for first? You got it. WordPress. Because it has the biggest audience.
Because WordPress is so popular, it also has the best design options. There are literally thousands of design options to choose from so you can completely customize the look of your website.
Its popularity also makes WordPress very affordable. The platform itself is free. The only bit you pay for is hosting.
To explain: if WordPress is like buying a free house, then hosting is just the little plot of land that you get to put your free house on. Read this post to learn who I recommend for website hosting.
2. With WordPress, you own your own content and can export it without issue
This is huge, my friends. With other website platforms like Wix or Squarespace, it isn’t possible to export your website entirely if you ever decide to switch to a different builder.
They either don’t allow it at all, or it’s only possible to take out the content (i.e. the words) and not the design.
Your words are your own, and your design should be yours, too. From a developer’s perspective, I can’t in good faith suggest that my clients give up autonomy in this area.
3. WordPress is easy to use (with a caveat)
The third reason I recommend WordPress is because it’s pretty easy to use.
If you know how to get around typical software like Microsoft Word and Excel, then you’ll be just fine to figure out how to use WordPress.
There is a little bit of a caveat to this, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
4. WordPress has the most functionality
WordPress has a ton of adaptability and functionality.
It makes integrating social sharing super easy so you can quickly share your blog posts to your Facebook and other social accounts.
WordPress is also great for search engines because SEO always comes first (read: Google loves WordPress).
In addition to social sharing and SEO, WordPress also scales well with your business.
Say that you set up your website with a blog. Then after you consistently blog for a while you decide you also want to start a podcast.
Great! WordPress makes that simple to do.
The downsides
Now I do have two downsides to using WordPress for your life coaching website.
But don’t worry, I’ll tell you how to overcome them.
1. WordPress can be a pain to set up
It takes a bit of effort to get WordPress initially set up on your website.
Buying a domain, picking a host, installing, and setting up the design can take a lot of time.
Because you want to know you’re making the right choice with host and that your design looks decent.
Which is related to the second downside…
2. WordPress has SO many options
This is a plus that I listed above, but it can also be a downside to WordPress.
It’s easy to get caught up in shiny object syndrome when you’re setting up your life coaching website.
You’re a highly motivated person, and you crave new and interesting developments, and that’s great.
It’s part of what’s got you into life coaching!
But it can also lead to a lot of distraction with all the bells and whistles WordPress comes with.
My recommendations
Keep it simple at first.
Only create the content you need and that will bring you to your ultimate goal: connecting with your target client market.
Don’t waste your time with additions that you don’t need. (Though do be sure to include a great headshot!)
You can always come back later and add on once you’ve got yourself a basic website that’s working for you.
The best way to combat the time and effort suck that WordPress can be is to partner with a specialized developer (like me!) to take that job off your hands.
Because spending all of your time trying to figure out WordPress is not the best use of your time.
You have better things to do with your time than building a website, setting up an email list, and debugging all the errors that come up in-between. You can get in touch with me here if you want to work together.
If you’re thinking about DIYing your life coaching website (or perhaps you’re in the muck of it right now), then you should definitely check out my 5 tips for a sleek coaching website right here. You’ll learn my 5 tips tips for creating a professional website that appeals to your audience.
Hope this post was helpful!
Jennie
P.S. WordPress is the website builder for your life coaching website. Here’s why:
- It’s massively popular which means more choices and better process.
- It’s easy to use and has the best functionality to scale with your growing business.
- On WordPress, your content is your own and you can export it at any time.
