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9 Great Reasons to Use WordPress as a CMS

January 12, 2011 10 Comments

Maybe you’ve heard that WordPress is a great tool to use as a CMS (Content Management System).  Well, that’s right. Developed as a blogging tool, more and more users started to use WordPress as a Content Management System for their website.  Today, WordPress is released as a publishing platform, which means it’s even better to use as a CMS. In this article I want to explain why WordPress is such a good choice to use as a CMS.

1) User friendly CMS

With a little help of a couple plugins, WordPress is a very simple CMS to use. Editing content is not the point, that’s an easy step in all the available content management systems. But where WordPress really blinks out, is the way of adding new pages and to order them. Even for people who are not that IT minded, this is an easy task to accomplish.

2) Fast installation and configuration

As I already showed, WordPress is very easy to install and to configure. Some web hosting companies even sell web space with WordPress installed on it, or with a 1 click install. The point is that everyone can start a WordPress site.

3) A lot of theming options

There are thousands and thousands of themes available on the internet. Some of them are free, and some of them are commercial. But even the commercial themes are not that expensive. For a commercial theme, you pay between 50 and 100 dollar.

Another great choice is Artisteer. This programs costs less then 100 dollar and you can create your own themes with it. The themes created with Artisteer are a bit more “standard”, but with a little creativity you can produce nice things. Now and then, I also use Artisteer if I have to create a website with a basic design.

It’s also possible to let a designer create a lay out. There are a lot of companies on the web who are specialized in converting a PSD (the Photoshop file you get from your designer) into a WordPress theme. In this case you’re sure that your theme will be unique, but this option is also the most expensive option.

4) Easy to extend (plugins)

When you need extra functionality for your website, just search the plugin database and you’ll probably find where you are looking for. There are plugins for:

  • E-commerce
  • Google ads
  • Integrating social media
  • Securing your website
  • …

The beauty of this all is that most of this plugins are free, easy to install and simple to set up!

5) Good indexing in search engines

It is a fact that a site running on WordPress indexes very good  in Google. This is because WordPress is developed as a tool to create (a lot of) content. And content is what search engines like.

6) Great tool to start with…

When you need to build a website for a company or an organization, and you don’t know enough about building dynamic websites, then WordPress might be the perfect tool for you to start with. Just install and configure it, add the right plugins, install a theme, write your content and you’re done. Ok, this is a very simple description, but convince yourself and give it a try. By the way, you’ll find all the information you need on this website!

7) … and to extend when you know more about it!

If you want something more than just a basic installation with a default theme, then it’s time to extend WordPress yourself. There is plenty of information on the internet about creating your own theme or your own plugin. If you have experience with PHP and MySQL, you’ll see that WordPress is not that difficult to change the way you want it.

So WordPress isn’t only there for the beginners among us. Also experienced users will have a lot of fun with WordPress!

8) A large community

The WordPress platform is used worldwide by thousands and thousands of sites and blogs. There are several resources where you can find information about WordPress: there are dozens of forums where you can ask questions and there are a lot of blogs and websites where you can find tutorials and tips for free. This large community results in a lot of information about WordPress, what makes it easyer to learn it or to find solutions.

9) It’s free!

I didn’t mentioned it in this post yet, but WordPress is open source and free to use. So you don’t have to pay for any license costs !

 

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About Nico Julius

Nico is a teacher, developer and likes to share his ideas and vision on WordPressNinja.Com
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  • http://www.simplywebdesign.net Ed Hughes

    I remember when I made my first site using WordPress I was unsure how to make it ‘look’ like a website rather than a blog. I would echo the point about the online tutorials and tips, and sites like this make life much easier. Now I am a total WordPress convert, I love it.

  • http://www.findw3.com findw3

    nice tutorial…

  • http://www.brazilfifaworldcup2014.net Jerry Maestro

    WordPress is an awesome CMS. My favorite feature is the easy to use API that allows for a huge amount of plug-ins. As far as being easy to use I partially agree with this. Although, I find that my customers often have trouble trying to figure how to use the program.

  • http://www.winterolympics2014.org/ Benly Denver

    I have moved from using WordPress purely for blogging over to using some CMS themes, and I find it meets all my needs.

    Great post and some key info here for people weighing up their options.

  • http://www.electroniccigaretteonline.org/ Acer Lee

    WordPress is completely free of charge, and will not harm your budget in the slightest. We cannot stress this enough: If you want to give WordPress a test-drive, there’s no monetary reason not to. And as an open source piece of equipment, you can even download the source code yourself to modify and mangle the script lines, producing a custom and whacked-out variation of the CMS that meets your specific, kinky needs. That is, if you’re into that kind of thing.

  • http://www.wordpressninja.com Nico Julius

    I’ve been building websites for over 10 years. I’ve tried different CMS-systems and WordPress is still my favorite for what I need.

  • http://www.wordpressninja.com Nico Julius

    Since a couple of months, I use White Label CMS. It’s easy to brand WordPress and also to create a simple and user-friendly dashboard.

  • http://www.wordpressninja.com Nico Julius

    Hi Benly, thanx for your comment! When I first checked out WordPress, it was really a blogging tool, and at that moment it wasn’t something for me. It took years to come back to WordPress… I’m glad I gave it a second try because now it’s really the tool I use most!

  • Denise

    WordPress can be used as CMS right now, it only needs well thought site architecture.
    it is already pretty easy to use WordPress as a lightweight CMS–In fact, the minority of the cases I’ve done are set up as a classic blog. Some are blogs. Some have just static pages

  • http://www.convert-word-to-pdf.org/ Mench Ramos

    WordPress is completely free of charge, and will not harm your budget in the slightest. We cannot stress this enough: If you want to give WordPress a test-drive, there’s no monetary reason not to. And as an open source piece of equipment, you can even download the source code yourself to modify and mangle the script lines, producing a custom and whacked-out variation of the CMS that meets your specific, kinky needs.