Is WordPress Better Than A Static HTML Site
I get a lot of questions from people who don’t quite understand the basic difference between a typical HTML website and one run with WordPress. Then there are those that are so new to content management that they don’t know what they really want except to have some type of web presence. In an attempt not to beat the dead horse “is WordPress better than a static HTML site” argument, I will attempt to explain the pros and the few cons of using WordPress as a content management system to run your website.
One thing that I have explained, or more like complained about in the past are people that pay for or spend countless hours designing a static HTML site and then realize they would like a WordPress blog attached to it. They then want a WordPress theme to match their site except they don’t want to pay the average $200 for it. I try to explain that WordPress can run the entire website and act like a static website not just a blog. But a lot insist to hold onto the HTML template they labored over.
I know I have (somewhat) veered away from my intent on this site and that is to try to cater to the newest of newbies when it comes to WordPress. When I first started out with WordPress and tried to get answers on a certain forum or from the extensive WordPress.org Codex, I found the “Know It All” mentality some what abrasive. If you asked a question you would be chastised for being so stupid to even ask or pointed into a million different directions to get a simple answer. After some time and research thanks to Google and all the other WordPress hackers out there I started to learn the basics of WordPress, PHP and CSS and then light started to glow in my feeble brain. And Believe me I just scratched the surface!
This post is inspired by a recent client whom I converted a small static HTML site into a WordPress Powered site. When I do such a job or setup a new WordPress site for a client, I automatically think that the client knows the difference. The questions asked were how to SEO optimize the site’s meta title tags, description, keywords, and alt tags. As well as how to change the front page of the site, and add more content pages to the site. I thought that the instructions I send new clients were clear on this but lets get down to the very basics.
WordPress doesn’t hold the content like your posts, pages, the comments people make or the settings on any static files, instead it uses a database to hold those and other settings. The actual files that are uploaded to your hosting account simply tell the database what to display on the browser. Now that is an oversimplified explanation and lacks the proper terms but remember I still am Geek Impaired. The advantage here is that the database can be exported for backup very easily to save all the essential content. If the actual WordPress files on the hosting account are deleted or corrupted they are somewhat universal and can be easily downloaded and restored from WordPress.org. So as long as the database is safe you really can’t loose anything.
That brings us to WordPress themes (not templates) and is the most popular subject for newbies. The theme is what is displayed on the browser and is made up of multiple files. The look of the theme can be altered but if you know nothing about CSS or the code used on the themes it can very time consuming to learn on your own. Any customization to the theme is done to the actual themes files that reside on the hosting account so these changes are not saved in the database. So if you do have a custom theme made or you customized it make sure to back it up.
The theme has various sections on it starting with the header and some include a navigation bar on or near the header that usually has a link to the home page that automatically includes all the pages (not posts) in it. If you create a lot of pages the navigation bar can get cluttered and look terrible. There is a way to include or exclude specific pages from the navigation bar if this is something you encounter.
The content area of the theme is pretty self explanatory this is where you show the content of blog posts or pages. Adding new posts or pages or editing and changing them is done with an editor similar to ones used for composing emails or Word documents.
The sidebars on WordPress blogs are made up of individual widgets. WordPress comes with a set of sidebar widgets, like categories, recent posts, search, archives and a few others that you can choose to show. But there are also text widgets that are basically a blank slate that are used to add just about anything you want. You can add AdSense code, images, banner ads and just about anything you want in a text widget. You can not only choose what sidebar widgets to show on a WordPress blog but you can also arrange the placement of widgets.
The main advantage of WordPress over a static HTML site is that the look of a site run on WordPress is all managed in the dashboard, any changes to the theme or sidebar widgets only needs done once, unlike a static site that would require every page to be manually edited one-by-one.
WordPress was designed to be used as a blog, and typically a blog shows the latest blog posts on the main page in chronological order, this is called the “loop”. But you can also add pages that are not included in the loop. One of these pages can be set as the front of the blog or website to appear as a standard website instead of a blog. The actual blog posts can be shown on a different page of your choice. The advantage here brings us full circle to the beginning of this post and that is having a website with static content on the front with a WordPress blog that looks exactly the same. This is accomplished without the time constructing a static HTML site and trying to match a WordPress theme to it.
Plugins can be added to Wordpress for increased functionality, and with just a few plugins that will automatically add the SEO elements to each post there is no need to learn how to or waste your time doing SEO like you need to do on static HTML web pages. There are hundreds of other plugins that you can add to WordPress for even more functionality and chances are if you want your WordPress site to do something there is a plugin out there somewhere to do it.
So I said I will tell of the pros and cons and so far no cons. There can be some issues that come up with using WordPress and that is keeping up with the constant updates that come out. When new updates come out upgrading can be a hassle at times and some plugins may not work with new versions. My advice is to keep plugins to a minimum to reduce the chances of both they’re no longer working and also conflicting with other plugins.
This post just scratches the surface of how you can use WordPress. Once you learn some of the basics, and are not afraid to get into the WordPress dashboard and dig around, you can really see the power of WordPress.
Similar Posts:
- Create A Custom WordPress Static Front Page
- How To Use A Static Front Page With WordPress
- Change Static HTML Page Into A WordPress Page
- Add Stationary Content To Main WordPress Front Page
- Removing The Title of WordPress Pages
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Comments
as you said, whent on the subject of widgets, personally a normal website/website template is much better in my opinion.
However, for ease of use, and ease of updating (lots of webmasters don’t have dreamweaver) I would definitely go with WP
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Hi,
I like the flexibilty of Wordpress but it’s still important to know some html. Static pages are more difficult to change and update. I still have a lot to learn about modifying themes.
Thanks for your posts
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Really wonderful topic here, im fun with your post im keep on reading for this.. thanks by the way please do always good post thanks.
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I switched from Blogger To Wordpress and in the beginning I had some issues adjusting because Blogger is much simpler to manage…but the added incentives that Word Press offers has made the switch definitely worth it.
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I have already converted my mini sites in to a wordpress powered sites. It is far more better than a website.
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They usually contain only html files and images, though scripting languanges (asp, php, etc.) can be used for these pages as well. Templates
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I think the wordpress is much more convenient, but of course, it depends a lot on the particular use of the site in question. Wordpress seems to be more about continuously updating information and material.
-Jeff
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I started with static HTML but I much prefer wordpress for managing large sites. I run about 20 websites now and updating the older HTML sites by hand is seriously time consuming to say the least. I guess there are advantages to both methods but wordpress sites are much easier to maintain and easier to fix if something goes wrong. Updating footers, links etc on a 200+ page static HTML site is a pain in the A**. : )
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Wordpress is so much better than static sites, you can add anything just clicking a button. You don’t need to edit html codes or anything like that. I LOVE wordpress!
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Same as yours view mate … definitely WP is better that static sites .. you don’t have to be a tech-savvy at all to use it and easily you can make a pro-looking site ..
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Don’t forget Jeff that sites can also be coded with their own templating system which is often more lightweight compared to blogs that cater for everyone. Not only that but can be very targeted to the client needs. You can set most CMS to show a static version for caching purposes
You cannot beat WP for its features, benefits related to cost though and I think that is what separates it the most.
However, when you look at a lot of businesses they are all based on different CMS and we are still no nearer getting the web better with regards higher standards
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I guess the biggest advantage of wordpress for a semi-webby person is the ability it offers to update it regularly without using FTP mediums. ALso the whole blogging features that it offers far outruns static HTML pages in terms of testing patience.
However I’ve had some issues in uploading a wordpress blog onto a windows hosting platform . Any detailed guides on that?
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Jeff Replied:
March 10th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Windows Server is not very friendly to WordPress. I have spent some time messing with the two and have come to the conclusion that I will no longer bother with Windows Server and WordPress. It is possible but too geek involved for me, especially when WP runs flawlessly on Linux.
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I have found that wordpress is much better and easier to use and update rather than the old html sites. Updating a site is just one click away in word press unlike the html sites.
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I love finding new widgets. Thanks frot eh information.
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Definitely WordPress is simpler and easy to manage but knowledge of basic HTML is always an advantage. Few simple things gets so complicated some times and can not be fixed without basic knowledge of html.
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Thanks for writing this, i have a client that needs this explained in an easy to read format. He is struggling to see the difference between a WP site and HTML. This will do the trick!
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I love the colors and lay out of your blog,I really want to get hold of this theme, what are you using?
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Jeff Replied:
May 29th, 2009 at 7:34 am
The theme is called WP Premium but the original colors look nothing like mine. You can get it here:
http://cssace.com/free-wp-premium-theme-is-here/
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To my opinion – and that is most so – it depends what you want to do. Well i think for wordpress you must know html, it is a must have.
Regards
Marci
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WP is way better than a static website! Yes, you might need to learn a couple of things, but you will have to learn a lot more if you want the same code quality from your static html website.
I have many sites, some on Drupal, others on Wordpress, and WP is really easy to use, for a newbie, Wordpress is the best choice out there, no questions!
Great blog! Bookmarked! Cheers!
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I haven’t built a static html site in years. Wordpress really speeds the process along. But you have to understand design and seo to really make it work, just like with static html. How many bad Wordpress blogs have you seen? Probably lots.
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I would say that depends on the goal of your website. If you need a simple presentation website, you don’t need Wordpress and a database. If you know that you will add content regularly on your website, is better to use a CMS like Wordpress.
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There are lots of posts out there showing how to use Wordpress as a CMS.
With the ability to add static pages plus a blog… or even without a blog, it looks to me like a perfect CMS.
Add the “all in one SEO” plugin and you’ve got a great site.
To set up and tweak the Wordpress site, you may have to understand a little HTML, CSS and php includes, but the user only needs to know how to use the Dashboard.
Sounds good to me.
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I’ve been using wordpress for some time. It is definitely better than normal static html site. It makes the job a lot easier. Widgets and customizable themes make it more user friendly. I’d recommend wordpress to anyone. Thanks for sharing the information.
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I believe the biggest advantage that Wordpress themes have over static HTML is the great customization they can have by the use of widgets and plugins. Tweaking CSS is not so easy to learn though.
Wordpress is n.1 choice right now, no other system can come close yet.
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Wordpress sites are absolutely better than static. Google loves seeing updated sites. Keeping fresh content on your site is just as important as any other part of an SEO strategy.
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Detailed and comprehensive post.
With static sites, it would be very hard to integrate rss feeds, trackbacks, comments etc… I have always had those major setbacks on my html sites. Wordpress makes everything so easy with its incredible source of plugins, user friendly interface, and most of all, you don’t need to have an extensive knowledge on how to hand code your sites. Just pick up a theme and you are all set to go.. If you do know little bit about html and php, it is beneficial but not absolutely necessary. You just need to make yourself familiar with the dashboard and settings, and you are all good… Wordpress is simply a blessing when it comes to saving time; and the time you save can be utilized in creating more seo friendly content.
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Wordpress is far superior to creating a static site for many reasons as mentioned above, and above all we know that Google preferrs to index blog sites more frequently than sites which are not blogs. The RSS feed by now, Google may be crawling and using such as another contributing factor to their SERPS.
Make no mistake in underestimating the power of wordpress used as a CMS and blogging platform-need I mention the all-in-one-SEO pack and the SEO smartlinks plugin which are worth thier weight in gold for the site.
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I think wordpress is by far the best cms. You can create a wonderful site in mins.
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I think the most important thing to decide before any design is undertaken is what exactly the site is going to be used for. If its a basic information site then like you said a site can be contained within the blog itself. If on the other hand the site is more specialised such as an e-commerce site then a number of platforms allow for the integration of a blog into the software. This means that rather than have two skins one for the site and another for the blog, all can be contained from the one design. So the most important thing is planning both the short and long term goal.
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In my opinion Wordpress is way better than a static HTML website! I mean, why would someone still build a complete static website when Wordpress, or other popular CMS are so well made and easily accessible!
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Me too, i prefer wordpress to static HTML. The code in wordpress are better than normal HTML sites for SEO.
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I think the wordpress is much more better, but it depends a lot on the particular.
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