WordPress To Run Your Website

Posted by Jeff

on May 3, 2008

Too often I get contacted by people who just spent a lot of either time and money to get a static HTML website setup who then want a WordPress blog theme to match their nice new website. Or those that want to start a website and then add a blog that will match. My question is always why? Why bother with both when WordPress can do it all?

Here is a list of things WordPress can do that you may want to know before you dump all that time and money into a static website with a blog added onto it.

You can use a static front page with WordPress. With this option and WordPress setup on the root of your domain, your main website page will look just like the blog.
You can create a different page template for the main or front page of your site that looks completely different than the blog. For example you can create a page template without the sidebar or a sidebar different than the blog.
You can add static pages just as easily as adding a blog post
You can use the WordPress Links menu or what was called the Blogroll as your site navigation. Instead of showing the Pages of your site keep them off the sidebar and add links to your static pages in the Links menu under the category of your choice.
Changing the look or theme of your WordPress Powered Site is very easily done with a few mouse clicks. No need to manually change every page because the content of your site is held within a database. Your WordPress theme isn’t tied to the pages or posts.
Additional functionality can be added using plugins. If there is something you want your WordPress site to do, chances are a plugin is available for it. For example a forum can be added by uploading the plugin and activating it.

The advantages of using WordPress to power a website are obvious once you understand the workings of WordPress and the power it has. If you are willing to learn how to customize WordPress to fit your needs all it takes is some time searching online. If it seems a bit intimidating to you there are many freelancers online that can set it up. Either way there are not many reasons to pay to have someone create a static HTML template and then another to match a WordPress theme to it. That in my opinion is spending money twice on the same thing and really putting the cart before the horse.

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Comments

Comment by Bengt - Key Coaching on May 3, 2008 @ 1:23 pm

I have four WordPress blogs and when it was time to create a new website for my business I decided to use WordPress behind the scene. As you point out, having data and layout separated makes things easy. And there are loads of useful plugins to choose from.

Comment by Web Tasarım on May 4, 2008 @ 11:15 am

Thanks for the article…

Comment by Jermayn on May 6, 2008 @ 10:13 pm

and you can modify the back end quite easy for clients etc

Comment by malcolm coles on June 13, 2008 @ 4:42 pm

The one thing escaping me is how to make your category pages contain a unique intro – ie a relevant bit of copy and picture that’s different on each category page. All the methods I’ve come across seem a bit clumsy (eg having a different template for each category page). Any thoughts? (And ditto re tag pages …).

Comment by Jeff on June 13, 2008 @ 6:39 pm

Malcolm, that’s about it. making a specific page template for each category page. If you want that much control there are other CMS are out there like Joomla.

I guess it depends on how picky you are about the look of a site. I doubt your visitors are that concerned and just want to get the info they were looking for.

Comment by malcolm coles on June 14, 2008 @ 2:12 am

True, but I thought some unique text would help them understand the category and would be good from an SEO point of view. The problem with specific templates is that it’s a pain changing them later. Perhaps if they added custom fields to categories as well as posts …

Comment by Estetik on October 11, 2008 @ 3:13 am

Thanks i liked your writings.

Comment by The Cart Guy on September 7, 2009 @ 12:44 pm

I haven’t used WordPress yet, but I think I will for my next website- I need something more cost effective.

Thanks for the article!!

Drive-By comments will be deleted! Like "Thanks for sharing", "Nice post", or any other text that doesn't contribute to the discussion. If you ask a very specific question about your particular WordPress theme, it will probably be deleted. I can fix your WordPress site but for a price. If you ask a question like "Why don't my blog work right", it will be deleted. If you ask a question about your WordPress site without a leaving a link to it, it will be deleted. The point is to ask questions and or comment on the the actual content of the post, and to please use some common sense. All comments are moderated and will appear when approved. Thank you.