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

Author: CSSJockey

Mohit is a freelance web designer/developer based in Chandigarh India. He founded CSSJockey.com on Jan 01, 2009, since then he is serving clients from all over the world. Follow on Twitter | Connect via Facebook | Read more »

20 Responses to “Why I use WordPress as CMS?”

12 Jul, 2010

Jay says:

Excellent article Pal. I still think that WP is the best cms especially if you need to incorporate a blog on your Website.

13 Jun, 2010

Bob Jenson says:

Thanks CSSJ, I’ll give WP a go. It doesn’t seem like a large learning curve as well.And I can use my existing CSS, graphical and web design skills anyway.
I just need more hours in the day to learn all these system

16 Jun, 2010

CSSJockey says:

Best of Luck!! Let me know if you need any help from my side.. I love to share my knowledge.

13 Jun, 2010

Bob Jenson says:

I’m definitely tempted to try WordPress but I’m using Joomla at the mo. What do you think WP has over Joomla?

Cheers,
Bob.

13 Jun, 2010

CSSJockey says:

Hi Bob,

I recommend WordPress as its light-weight, easy to manage and you can create almost anything based on this framework, from a simple blog website to a fully functional shopping cart or a support ticket system or a just a task manger program. The flexibility of this CMS allow you to integrate almost anything with custom back-end pages, widgets and plug-ins.

You’ll get to know more once you start developing stuff on WordPress.

20 May, 2010

eRage webdesign says:

Hi,

I have to agree with you partially. WordPress IS good and version 3.0 will absolutely rock the web development world with the “custom content” options. Those things will make a huge difference for developers who want to use WP for non-blogging websites.

However, I was wondering, have you tried another open source CMS like MODx for example? That’s very flexible as well. Just wondering.

20 May, 2010

CSSJockey says:

WordPress Version 3.0 will really bring some good features to make our life easy. I haven’t explored other CMS much but will sure check out once I get some free time.

19 May, 2010

Jasmine Ward says:

i was a former employee and now i am making my best effort to start up a small business.,-`

16 May, 2010

Antonio says:

first time Ive checked out your site, well what can i say apart from brilliant…great info for the rest of us…thanks

17 May, 2010

CSSJockey says:

Thanks Antonio, I am glad you like it..

21 Apr, 2010

single sites says:

HI Sorry for the off-top… Where did you get such a blog theme? Could you please share a link?

02 Jan, 2010

Lourdes Strauhal says:

Now I know why so many people love this site

02 Apr, 2009

Master Po says:

I love wordpress. CMS is dead. Every “real player” on the internet is using some version of wordpress or wordpress mu, not to mention the plug-ins. wordpress is unsurpassed!

04 Mar, 2009

Abhinav Sood says:

I can’t agree more. Ask me what’s the greatest invention of man after the wheel and the fire. It’s WordPress. Since I moved to WordPress from Blogger, I never looked for anything else!

The capabilities are endless. You can do just about anything with it. CSSJockey.com is one of the best live examples of it.

Many of the people known to me, who are still on Blogger just because they think that WordPress is complicated will have to rethink when they see the Demo of custom options in WordPress ( as in the screenshot above !)

Solid posting, CJ Mohit.
Cheers.

04 Mar, 2009

David Villarreal says:

Absolutely true, target is to take WordPress to the next level, with his amazing capabilities to mantain complicated websites like magazines.

03 Mar, 2009

Kung Fu Man says:

Like you, since finding WordPress I haven’t even tried to find another CMS. There is no point, everything you have listed above is completely true and new stuff is added with each version,which is also more frequent than any other script i’ve used past or present.

03 Mar, 2009

Reet says:

Amazing Write Up!
Gr8 Work CJ!!
So agree with Lucy, its an endless ocean of great opportunities.

02 Mar, 2009

lucy says:

I am a huge fan of wordpress, it has endless capabilities and design opportunities. Also the majority of people can use wordpress and easily blog. I have seen some really good blog designs recently, I really like yours.