Why Your First Small Business Website Should Be on WordPress

The Numbers Tell the Story

WordPress runs 529 million websites. That’s 43% of all sites online. In the CMS market, WordPress holds between 61% and 63% of the share. Shopify sits at 4.8% to 6.7%. Wix has 3.7% to 5.4%. These numbers come from May 2025 data tracking actual website deployments.

Small businesses create over 500 new WordPress sites every day. The platform gets 2.5 million searches monthly from people looking to build websites. Among the top one million traffic sites worldwide, 26.3% use WordPress. These aren’t random statistics. They show what actual businesses choose when they need results.

Real Costs for Real Businesses

WordPress itself costs nothing. It’s open source software. You pay for hosting, which runs $39 to $120 yearly for managed plans in 2025. Add a premium theme at $69 per year. Include some plugins for extra features. Your total yearly cost stays between $250 and $400 for a professional site.

Wix charges $192 to $468 yearly for basic plans. Shopify starts at $348 and goes up to $1,200 for basic commerce features. These prices don’t include premium themes or add-ons. WordPress saves small businesses hundreds of dollars annually while providing more features.

The math is simple. A bakery launching its first website saves $300 yearly by choosing WordPress over Wix. That money buys ingredients, pays for advertising, or goes straight to profit. When budgets are tight, every dollar matters.

Server Resources and Site Speed Matter More Than You Think

Most small business owners pick a website platform first and hosting second. That’s backwards. Your hosting determines how fast pages load and how many visitors you can handle at once. A WordPress site on slow shared hosting will frustrate customers. The same site on powerful WordPress hosting loads in under a second. Speed affects everything from Google rankings to conversion rates.

WordPress gives you a hosting choice that locked platforms don’t. You can start on a $5 monthly plan and upgrade when traffic grows. Compare that to Wix Pro at $23 monthly or Squarespace Business at $18 monthly. Those platforms control your server resources. With WordPress, you pick from hundreds of hosts. Some specialize in speed. Others focus on support. Many offer both. Your business needs to change over time. WordPress lets you switch hosts without rebuilding your entire website.

Building Without Code

Full site editing arrived in WordPress during 2024 and 2025. You drag blocks to build pages. Change headers, footers, and layouts visually. No coding required. The Block Editor works like a word processor. Type text. Add images. Arrange content. Preview changes. Publish when ready.

New AI tools ship with WordPress core. They suggest content improvements. They optimize images automatically. They check SEO basics. These aren’t paid add-ons. They come standard. WordPress.com reports 84% of small businesses found the platform as easy to use as other builders. Most launched their first site in under two days.

Elementor, Spectra, and other builders add more options. But you don’t need them to start. The basic WordPress tools handle most business needs. A restaurant can build menus, photo galleries, and contact pages using standard blocks. No special training needed.

Growing When You Need To

Small businesses change. A consultant might start with five pages. Two years later, they need client portals, payment processing, and appointment booking. WordPress handles this growth.

The plugin directory contains 59,000 free and paid options. WooCommerce powers over 25% of online stores globally. You add it with one click. Need email marketing? Mailchimp integrates directly. Want online bookings? Multiple plugins handle that. CRM features? They’re available too.

This isn’t theoretical flexibility. DesignRush tracked businesses that switched from Wix, Shopify, or Squarespace to WordPress between 2024 and 2025. Customer engagement increased 17.8% after migration. Time on site went up. Contact forms got more submissions. Sales conversions improved.

Search Engines Find You Faster

WordPress sites rank well in Google. The platform includes proper HTML markup. Mobile responsiveness comes standard. Site health tools identify problems before they hurt rankings.

RankMath and Yoast SEO plugins add advanced features. Both use AI enhancements in 2025. They check content quality, suggest improvements, and handle technical SEO automatically. Google Site Kit connects directly to show traffic data inside WordPress.

Studies show 68% of small businesses see measurable SEO improvements within three months of launching WordPress sites. Local searches find them. Organic traffic grows. Customers discover them without paid ads.

Security That Makes Sense

WordPress updates automatically. Security patches install themselves. The core software stays protected. Problems come from outdated plugins, not WordPress itself. In 2025, 96% of successful attacks target old third-party code.

Managed hosting adds extra protection. They scan for malware. They block suspicious traffic. They back up sites daily. Small business owners don’t become security experts. They rely on proven systems that work.

The plugin marketplace vets submissions. Bad code gets removed quickly. Updates happen regularly. Compare this transparency to closed platforms where you can’t see what’s happening behind the scenes.

Proof From Actual Businesses

Barber shops report site visits doubling year-over-year on WordPress. Yoga studios see 40% more leads within six months. Local retailers track real increases in foot traffic from their WordPress sites. These results come from case studies published by inboundblogging.com in 2025.

The platform works because it solves real problems. Business owners update content themselves. They add new services without calling developers. They connect payment systems when ready to sell online. Each step happens when the business needs it, not before.

WordPress fits how small businesses actually operate. Start small. Add features as customers demand them. Keep costs low while testing ideas. Scale up when growth happens. Switch directions if markets change. The platform adapts to business reality, not the other way around.