An Introduction to Using WordPress as a CMS
6th Jul 2012 | Posted by Eko S. | 4 CommentsWordPress is a popular blogging platform that was introduced 2003, but soon developers found multiple ways to transform WordPress as a fully functional and full-featured Content Management System. WP is based on PHP scripting language and MySQL. Its structure allows plugin customization and a template architecture so any developer with little experience can even tame and transform WP to their requirements. Though it was not meant to be a CMS platform, WP is used by around 15% of all the top sites and 22% of the newer websites. It competes with other fully functional CMS tools like Joomla and Drupal, but still it is considered as the most popularly used CMS on the Internet now.
Benefits of using WordPress as a CMS
- User Friendly interface and already popular amongst developers and bloggers
- It’s still free!
- Very search engine friendly which is a must for all CMS based websites
- Large Online Community and awesome support from community members
- Huge Web Library of themes, templates and plugins
- Limited or no PHP coding required to setup
- WP is evolving rapidly
Quick Steps for using WordPress as a CMS
Here are some of the basic steps required to convert the out-of-box WordPress installation into a CMS:
- Use a ‘static’ page for the home page
- Customize the Navigation bar with tiered menus and breadcrumbs using plugins
- Make your Pages unbreakable by disabling comments, trackbacks, etc
- Use widgets in your theme, footer, page menus on right and left side
- Use custom post and page templates to suit your Website UI
- This is very important – use Permalink Structure for nice URLs and remove the ‘category’ suffix in the permalinks using plugins
- Create a sitemap for Google and other Search engines for the entire website
- If you are confident about all your admin and developers, use PHP in your pages and posts
Technical Bottlenecks before switching on to a WordPress CMS
WordPress platform is quite solid in its performance and features but like any other technical system, WordPress has its limitations too and it can get you grounded if you don’t handle it with care. Transforming WordPress as a CMS system is not for the novices, you need experience in WordPress customization and also be clear about your website, its static and dynamic content and other CMS requirements. Extensive customizations and multiple plugins can change the original code beyond simple maintainability. Since most of the CMS features comes through plugins and hacks that may or may not be compatible with future WordPress versions, there is a risk of being outdated when ever you update WordPress. But with all these issues, it is really worthwhile to invest in WordPress as CMS because it is quick, easy and free.
WordPress provides a platform which is relatively easy to maintain, that actually works without bugs and fatal error messages and easily adapts to growing needs. There are a huge range of free and professional themes. A massive range of plugins which add to your sites functionality. WordPress is commonly used by bands, Real Estate agents, for wedding sites, as a portfolio, by politicians, as an online magazine, for restaurants and for many more purposes. That is the reason why WordPress is the most popular CMS on the market today.
Author: Simon Ward from Pingable. Pingable is a blog about everything WordPress. Follow pingable on Twitter and Facebook.
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3 Comments to “An Introduction to Using WordPress as a CMS”
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priteshdesai says: I’ve used Joomla, Drupal and WordPress extensively. In my opinion, Joomla has been lagging behind for some time, in terms of features. Drupal is a bit more intimidating for new users. WordPress has the best looking themes and is very extensible with a huge array of plugins.
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Great post, be careful with those plugins, there are good and bad ones! You might be interested to read this also <a href=”http://www.squareonemd.co.uk/what-you-really-should-know-about-wordpress/”>what you really should know about wordpress</a>
awesome introduction