Best CMS, Ever!

If you think WordPress is yet another blogging platform, take a quick look at other pages of CSSJockey (right from the homepage). Do you really think we could do this with  “Just-Another-Blogging-Software”? Absolutely not!!

Custom Pages, Custom Widgets, Photo Galleries, Portfolio, eCommerce! What, out of these, and even more hasn’t been set up using WordPress.

Only recently, I updated my portfolio with more websites that I had finished, which were not under non-disclosure policy. After adding these projects in my portfolio, I realized that in accomplishing 90% of my work, WordPress plays the role of a CMS. With all the work done so far I am amazed by just how much of its capability I have discovered and how much of it is still unknown to me. Here are a few things that my clients ask when I recommend using WordPress, even for static websites, and what I’ve to say to back my recommendation.

Is it easy to use?

It is The Most Robust and Feature-Filled Platform, which is not only easy to use, but also, very much user friendly. So far all my clients are really happy with the decision to use WordPress as a backend. Moreover, Wordpress.tv has made our lives much easier. I refer my clients to this website to learn the features and backend functionality while I am busy creating the best solutions for their requirements.

I need a blog as well…

I guess everyone has realized the value of blogging for their personal and professional web presence by now and most of my clients ask for a blogging platform with a unique and custom website design. It’s really easy to create a few custom pages within WordPress, rather than, creating a WordPress theme that matches the website design. And its really easy to embed WordPress features on these static web pages.

What about Search Engine Optimization?

I am pretty sure you are not new to this term and would want your website to be listed in top search results. With WordPress, you can use plugins like All in One SEO Pack, just to name some, that does most of the work without user intervention. SEO is a wide topic and there’s a lot that needs to be done to achieve good search engine rankings. However, a WordPress installation with a few plugins can help you get there without much hard work. You might want to check a few posts I have written on search engine optimization.

What all WordPress can do?

Honestly, I can’t deny that after using WordPress I haven’t even cared to search for any other CMS. WordPress is an amazing platform which can be customized to create Personal websites, Portfolio, e-Commerce, Galleries and Photo Blogs, Magazine or News websites, Article Libraries and a lot more. If you are comfortable with custom functions and template tags you can actually do wonders with just a single custom WordPress theme.

I don’t know programming?

While creating websites for my clients, I make sure they don’t have to spend their valuable time learning xHTML/CSS to update their websites. I have taken WordPress customization to next level where it provides a separate section in admin area to update the front end of our custom themes. It also has WYSIWYG capabilities where you can update and stylize the content which is not a part of WordPress post or page.

Moreover, these custom functions don’t save any data in core WordPress database tables (wp_options) so there’s no chance it won’t work with any other plugins and features.

Here’s a screenshot of Custom Theme Options I provide to make my client’s life a bit easier.

Click to Enlarge

That’s not all, to add a few more features in the list…

• Wordpress is Free and Opensource
• Wordpress is easy to install and upgrade
• WordPress is standard compliant
• WordPress is Popular (CNET, Ford, ZDNET and various other popular sites has used Wordpress as a CMS)
• Free support from a vibrant and amazing community of developers and contributors
• Huge amount of documentation is available
• Plugins are available for almost everything you can think of

I bet no other CMS can compete with this master piece. If you are using WordPress as CMS please drop your website links in comments. Don’t try to spam as a very powerful spam protection plugin (Akismet) comes with its default installation