If you’ve never used WordPress before, you’re missing out. And no, I’m not just saying that. I’ve been writing blog posts on WordPress for several years now, and every time I open the program,  I fall in love all over again. There are a few reasons why.

• It’s fast.
• It’s simple.
• There are tons of plugins and applications. (And they are user-friendly! Need I say more?)

The cool thing about WordPress is there isn’t much of a learning curve. There are tons of YouTube videos and resources out there if you don’t know where to start. Otherwise, it’s relatively simple to just enter the program and play around to find out what you need to do.

If you are like me, you want something that works and something that is consistent when setting up your website.

To make it easy for you, here are 3 extremely simple ways to use WordPress (and why you might want to if you don’t already):

You can blog.

Whether you’ve been blogging for years or you are setting up your site for the first time, WordPress is an easy way to write and schedule blog posts. You can track revisions, format them, categorize them, set tags, set featured images, and schedule posts to publish. A blog is a great way to provide supplemental material and information to your audience, and a helpful way for them to figure out who you are and what you stand for. It can also be a good sales conversion tool when done right. 92% of companies who blog several times daily have received at least one customer from their blog.

Why this is important: Blogs are published. They show expertise in a subject. This makes customers and readers more comfortable with your brand. It is also a great way to connect and network with like-minded people in the industry, and an affordable way to add to your content marketing plan. According to Writtent.com, 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.

Design your site to rank higher in Google.

With WordPress, you have the ability to edit your title, meta description, tags, and more. Graphic Paper Press has tons of tips to optimize your site the right way using WordPress including using permalinks, applying a search engine optimized website theme, and creating a sitemap in XML format.

Why this is important: SEO leads traffic to your website, which means more leads and hopefully a few customers. If you design your site to rank higher, more people are going to see your material. From there, social media works its magic. People share blog posts on their own sites and on social media if they feel it might be helpful. Designing your site to be more competitive is a fantastic way to generate traffic and improve your brand image.

Communicate with your viewers.

With WordPress, you can turn on and turn off commenting on every page of your site. You can also set it so that you have to approve comments before they post online. This is a great way for you to engage with your readers. Furthermore, you can integrate your social media onto your site using a free social media integration app or widget, so your readers are guided back to your Facebook and Twitter as well.

Why this is important: If you are trying to expand your readership, increase leads or build your business, you need people to see your stuff. You need customers to engage, and follow you on social media platforms. If someone has commented on your post or site, it may also show up in the search engine if their name or business is searched on Google. That can increase your ranking, and encourages others to connect with you. The fact that someone else has written to you publicly makes other people think you might be alright. This is a priceless opportunity to meet new people and leads.

Tell us, what program do you use to blog?