Most of my clients are solopreneurs (like myself), small companies or non-profits. As such, their website development and maintenance budgets are small – so  much consideration is given to “bang for the buck” – in terms of function vs. form with initial site development and ongoing maintenance.

It wasn’t too long ago that I did only custom designed websites – that they would have to have ongoing assistance to maintain (usually by me). However, the upside was that the client would have a truly unique site that reflects the company’s brand and allow for complete design freedom, plus they could rely on me to do quick content updates as they needed them.

In the past two years or so, the playing field has shifted entirely. With the current version of WordPress  and the low-cost availability of beautiful, sophisticated WordPress layout themes, I can offer a robust CMS (content management system) along with the huge search visibility advantages of  a blog - and a professional-looking design. Ironically, all these advantages actually reduce the cost of site development, because they are baked-in to WordPress itself.  So, for most clients,  the superior WordPress option is actually less time consuming  to develop AND will deliver better search visibility AND a much lower cost of ownership (most content maintenance can be done by the client).  The only downside of using WordPress for business websites is that it is, after all, a templated managed content system with a set layout – you can’t just slap anything anywhere on the screen.

People don’t shop for website services every day, so I usually have to educate clients as to what may be best for their needs and goals. Once clients get to know the options and their pros and cons,  they usually decide to forgo the design freedom of a custom website for the technical and cost advantages of a WordPress-based site. In almost all cases, that is the better decision for short term costs (development), marketing (search visibility) and long term services cost (maintenance).

So, what’s more important to you in a website? Form or function?