A question we often get from prospective clients looking for the best solution for both their website and their marketing activity is: “Can I use HubSpot alongside WordPress?”
When you appreciate the fact that HubSpot and WordPress are the leading platforms in their respective categories, the question isn’t at all surprising.
As it stands, HubSpot is ranked #1 out of 204 Marketing Automation technologies (with a market share of 18.80%), according to the leading technographic provider Datanyze. It’s also the top Marketing Automation platform according to G2 Crowd, a leading peer-to-peer business solutions review website.
WordPress, on the other hand, has been the “go-to” for bloggers and small businesses for more than a decade; its interface, tools and general accessibility have made it an attractive option for anyone looking to “get started” with blogging or to build a simple website. Originally conceived in 2003 as a blogging platform, WordPress has grown to become the leading Content Management System (CMS) on the web and is currently used by 30.5% of the top ten million websites.
So, to get the best results for your website and marketing, wouldn’t it be best to just combine the two?
But here’s the thing. While WordPress is a great, cost-effective solution for any business looking to build a simple website - it requires a lot of plugins in order to function as one, including (but not limited to):
- WPtouch
- WP MarketingSuite
- MaxButtons
- Yoast WordPress SEO
- Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps
- Integrity
- Google Analytics
- WPEngine
- WordFence
- Login Lockdown
- Akismet
- RapidSSL
It’s a lot of work - but that still doesn’t deter some people.
Some people love WordPress - that much is evident - and some businesses that have built their websites on the platform are very reluctant to move off it.
If that's you, you probably have a host of questions about how they can use their WordPress website alongside HubSpot.
While we would always recommend that you move your website into HubSpot for best results and use your WordPress site for your blog, you can 100% get the two to work effectively as a unit.
To make it easier for you to make an informed decision on how you can use HubSpot and WordPress together, we have highlighted the most pertinent questions in red.
Question #1
“I’m interested in HubSpot, but do I have to move my whole website into the tool?”
Again, we would recommend that you do, but you don’t have to.
When it comes to a standard HubSpot and WordPress setup, we usually see the following:
- Main Website Pages = WordPress
- Landing Pages = HubSpot
- Thank you pages = HubSpot
- Blog = HubSpot
With the above arrangement, the main website is hosted in WordPress while HubSpot is used to build all of the pages that are designed for lead generation and content marketing. In addition, you’ll be able to easily embed HubSpot call-to-actions and forms into your WordPress-hosted pages, allowing you to drive people to your HubSpot-hosted pages and to convert visitors into leads.
Question #2
“If I keep my website in WordPress, how do I ensure Google Analytics and HubSpot are communicating and tracking all website activity in one place?”
In order to ensure that your WordPress website’s activity is accurately tracked in HubSpot, you need to insert HubSpot’s tracking code into your WordPress web pages. When you purchase a HubSpot licence, you will be provided with a piece of tracking code. Simply insert the tracking code into the head of your WordPress HTML and HubSpot will be able to report on all the web pages as one.
With the HubSpot tracking code installed, when you look at your website statistics in HubSpot, your WordPress website is treated as a single site - giving you end-to-end analytics on your website’s performance - and HubSpot knows when leads arrive on it.
To make life easier, there is actually a HubSpot & WordPress plugin which does the tracking part for you. But trust me, inserting the tracking code is really easy - even for me to do :)
Find out more about HubSpot and WordPress by clicking here.
Question #3
“If I have my landing pages and blog in HubSpot, how do I make them look like my WordPress website?”
When you purchase a HubSpot licence, HubSpot will skin your current WordPress site to create new templates, including landing pages, thank you pages, blog post pages, blog listing pages and email templates, to match the look and feel of your WordPress site.
With your website’s design reflected across your new HubSpot templates, when a website visitor moves from your WordPress website to HubSpot-hosted pages, such as those listed above, it’s a seamless experience and there is no visible indication that they have made the jump between the two platforms as the web pages look incredibly similar.
Question #4
“What if I want to move my website into HubSpot in the future?”
Building a website in HubSpot is easy - and HubSpot has hundreds of pre-built templates that you can choose from in order to expedite your website build. These templates are not only easy to use but also incorporate more advanced functions that allow you to edit and modify them as you, please.
Alternatively, if you want a custom website design, you can enlist a HubSpot Developer and ask them to build a website to your specifications.
If you’re already using HubSpot, the website functionality is a simple add-on to your current portal. Adding the website feature to your portal will provide you with a ‘website’ drop-down on your content navigation. If you need help moving your website to HubSpot, we can assist you and manage the domain settings and any DNS changes that need to be updated!
If you have any other questions to do with having WordPress and HubSpot and using them together, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our HubSpot consultants. In addition, if you’d like to learn all about how to set up HubSpot, then check out our HubSpot Setup page as a guide.
