Top 5 Reasons To Use WordPress as a Content Management System

WordPress Doesn’t Just Blog

If you’re in the web design and development game you’ve probably heard of WordPress. If you haven’t you’re probably not really in the game. WordPress is viewed as one of the top, if not the #1, piece of blogging software available. It is virtually synonymous with blogging to a lot of people living in the web world. In our opinion, limiting WordPress to just blogging is selling it short.

What we’re saying is that WordPress has all the features to be a really solid Content Management System (CMS). We’re not the first people to arrive at this conclusion and we certainly won’t be the last because the number of reasons to use it this way increases almost daily. We’ve used WordPress for years for blogging but have started using it as a full-blown CMS in the last couple years. Our website is built entirely with WordPress, as are many of our clients, and we haven’t seen a downside yet. On a personal level, here are the top five reasons why we decided to go this route and why you should consider it as well.

Top 5 Reasons

1. It’s the blogging king. If you want to create online credibility there’s no better way than to post some content that shows you know your stuff. WordPress makes blogging a snap for even those people who may not be the most web savvy. If you can write a Word document you can blog in WordPress. If you can’t you probably couldn’t find this article.
2. It’s easy and it’s flexible. There are other platforms out there with plug-ins but WordPress beats the rest and it has special CMS plug-ins to streamline the process. Whether you’re looking for a photo gallery or a shopping cart function, you can find a wide variety of options to just about anything you want. It’s also easy enough that it doesn’t take a professional to edit, post or modify different areas.
3. It’s open source and it’s free. All those plug-ins I mentioned earlier come without a price tag and that’s not expected to change. With so many people offering plug-ins, you can find just about anything you want with a simple web search and there is always a good, free option.
4. It has tons of design options. There are literally hundreds of places you can go online to find simple, free WordPress designs and layouts. There are more now than ever before and they’re better than ever before. If you can’t find one that fits your needs you didn’t look very hard and a couple quick changes to styles and images can make it uniquely yours.
5. Search engines love WordPress. With easy link integration and the ability to constantly publish and update web copy, your content is both extensive and dynamic. Plenty of content that is frequently changed and updated is a crawler’s dream. If it’s search engine optimization you crave (and who doesn’t), you will improve your SEO using WordPress if you put in a little effort.

It Keeps Getting Better

I’m sure we could easily come up with more reasons but we want to stop writing before you decide to stop reading. Quite simply, while WordPress may not have been originally intended to be a CMS, it can be a pretty powerful one. We recommend giving it a pretty hard look if you’re thinking about creating a new website or rebuilding your current one. A decent amateur can make it do plenty and you can make it do just about anything if you know your way around some code. In short, we think it’s a really good option for a Content Management System and our clients that are using it agree.