WordPress is amazing, because it enables you to have a website done in a single day, but having a site, and having an effective site, can be very different. Effective WordPress sites will have the following 5 keys:

1.) Credibility – Building Trust With Your Audience  The first step to a good WordPress Website is establishing credibility through using testimonials, social proof, or videos. If you have a  shopping cart or e-commerce on your WordPress site it is a good idea to have an SSL Certificate. This will make people feel comfortable making transactions on your website.

2.) Usability – Don’t make people think Is your site easy to use? If you are using flash, chances are that a lot of people will never be able to use your site. Make sure that your Menu is easy to see, and use. Having a clean WordPress theme, and doing your updates should take care of that.

3.) Sell-ability – Are you asking for the sale and making it easy? If your customer can’t find the “Order” button, and if your call to action is not SPECIFIC and CLEAR, you will lose sales! Focus on the product or service you are offering, and ask for the sale, WordPress has many plug-ins and themes, use them to highlight your offer or service.

4.) Visibility  – SEO and social media shares raise brand awareness Make your site visible to people and Search Engines, make sure you use an SEO plug-in like the All In One SEO Pack, Platinum SEO pack, or any other SEO Plugin.  Also make sure your permalinks are set to %postname% or category, whatever is best for your service.

5.) Share-ability  – Make it super simple for them to tell their friends  Make sure website content is EASY to share, and share-worthy. Do your research and come up with good content that people will want to share with others. Ask people what they want to read about, and provide useful content.  Using a Plugin like share-this, is a good practice. Also share different kinds of content, use blog posts, videos, audio, PDF’s, and come up with creative ways to engage your readers, so that they share your content and keep coming back for more.