Wordpress as a CMS?
With the growing popularity of Blogs around the web, people have come up with creative ways of using their framework to support entire websites and provide ease of use for not only administrators but also users.
After browsing countless forums and PHP tutorials trying to find a decent idea for a CMS framework I finally succumbed to the idea that you really can use WordPress as a CMS, but the potential of it never really is fully explored by most webmasters. I am here to change that.
SEO
For SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to be most effective, most people believe that you need to have a constant front page, which you use for primary ranking purposes, tweaking text and other factors. Most people think of “blogs” as being a page with sometimes up to 50 posts all in one go, half the time each post being about a different subject. The best way that I’ve found to combat this is to use WordPress’ built in “Static Front Page” feature (available in the “Options” tab). This allows you the flexibility and control of having a home page which is always the same, with the ability to add content literally with the click of a few mouse and keystrokes.
Layouts
By far, the best thing about WordPress however is that there is an entire community of people who spent the time creating layouts for people to use. You can literally upload a few files to your server and have an entirely new layout and look in a matter of minutes, with minimal changes required. Unlike with a custom system, layouts that do not cover a static framework tend to be coded vastly different and can require sometimes hours of butchering and manipulating to get everything to line up properly. For efficiency, a CMS should be easily customizable not only on the coding level, but also on the visual level. WordPress gives you the chance of changing things quickly, without having to modify countless articles and blogs to make them stay compatible.
Security
The greatest problem that I have come across with writing a custom CMS (Which I have done before) is worrying about security and if your data is safe from people who may wish to do harm. In contrast, WordPress has not only an entire community of people constantly reporting, fixing, and scouting out bugs and security flaws, but there is also an incredibly fast turn around time in security. As long as you keep up to date with the security releases published by WordPress, there is less of a chance that something catastrophic will happen to your website, and if it does…
Backups!
I tell nearly everyone who is starting out in the web industry to make sure they have everything properly backed up in multiple places. After all, we are dealing almost entirely with technology here, and unfounded accidents tend to happen on a frequent basis. WordPress offers an entire backup of all of your post, pages, comment, and user data with the click of a mouse, and you can download it to your computer, burn it to a CD — or if you’re feeling particularly snarky, you can bury the newly burned data in your backyard!
Ad Integration
I would be kidding myself if I expected that everyone online created websites and blogs for the sheer sake of helping people and providing information. The real fact of the matter is that people want to make money. WordPress’ template system makes implimenting and integrating ads into your entire website entirely easy. I would just caution overly invasive ad techniques (IE: Putting 2 giant blocks in the middle of a post) as it mayput-off visitors to your site, but never-the-less - making a bit of money off your hard work and time really isn’t difficult with WordPress.
Conclusion
In conclusion; not only does wordpress provide the functionality, interactivity, and ease of use that is necessary for any website to be successful, it also provides it at no cost. Having once been a doubter of the “out-of-the-box” systems that people kept talking about, I am now an avid encourager and promoter of these methods for the stated reasons.
What are you waiting for? Download WordPress today and get started!
http://wordpress.org/
