5 Advantages Of WordPress Over A Static Site
Blogs have advantages.
I recently made a post about switching one of my sites to WordPress from a static site.
If you are not sure if you want a blog or a static site, maybe some of these advantages might change your mind. While I am most familiar with WordPress, other platforms like TypePad and Blogger have many of the same advantages. Some of them can really help you succeed online.
5 advantages of WordPress over a static site.
First, easy addition of new content.
Adding a new article or page to a blog is about as fast and easy as it can get. Using built in features like WordPressIt or using software like Windows Live Writer also make adding a quote from a news site or other source as a base for a page easy.
Second, easy page and text styling.
No need to learn CSS or html when you are just starting. You can find plenty of free templates to use to change the look of your site. You can keep your text well highlighted and correctly marked with CSS just by using the <h1> <h2> <h3> and other CSS tags in the blog text editor. This keeps your content looking consistent and professional.
Third, it is easy to add extras to your site.
Want to take a poll? There is a plugin. Want to add music? There is a plugin. Plugins make adding features to your site fast and easy. Often, trying to do the same thing on a traditional web page takes a lot of hand coding and knowledge. With WordPress, it is fairly painless to find the plugin to do what you want at WordPress.org and simple upload it to your plugin folder. Click activate and it's ready to go.
Fourth, easy internal SEO.
The use of categories for posts gives your site an easy to follow navigation. It also improves the SEO of your internal links. SEO plugins help even further. WordPress is amazingly effective at SEO right from the setup.
Fifth, RSS.
The recent RSS reader contest between John Chow and Shoemoney brought RSS to the forefront. What would happen to your traffic if you lost all your ranking with the search engines? Internet marketers are always talking about building a list. RSS is an easy way to get that list of your readers. Far more people will subscribe to an RSS feed than will ever give you their email address. RSS can make you Google-slap proof.
There are many other advantages to using a blog over a static site.
Do you have any other you would like to share.
Make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed too!
Filed under Blogging, How To Build A Website by JamesThoenes
Comments on 5 Advantages Of WordPress Over A Static Site »
Hey James,
Just taking a minute to thank you for chiming in about headsets. We must think alike, as the one you mention is the exact one I picked up - before I read your comment.
I also love having a blog, over a static site. And I set up many of my web design clients with WP sites, because many of them are website novices and WP is easy for them to catch on to and update themselves.
Good Article, James!
Sincerely,
Meg Meyer
http://www.centerofmuse.com
Thank you Meg,
WP has so many advantages. I forgot several I wanted to mention when I was thinking about this article. I wish I had used WP for all my sites when I started.
I think you have the best headset if you need to carry one with you anywhere. The case protects it well. I had another headset that only lasted a few months once I needed to put it in the laptop case and did not have something to protect it.
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I don't agree with wordpress being easy for SEO. You have the same links structure throughout the site. I'd like to have some pages with no links outgoing, and some pages with a lot of links outgoing. Like I've said before, I think having both is the answer. Keep up the good work.
WordPress has a natural funnel focusing to the main page. While I agree, there are times that you do not want links going out from a page and all the pages in a WordPress site have the same links.
What you can do in that case is use a static page and link to it from WordPress. This can be used much like the Silo technique of site design.
Whenever someone asks me to help them do some web work for them I always suggest they convert their site to a Wordpress site. I really think it's the easiest way for a small company or organization to run and maintain a quality site that doesn't get outdated the moment they put it up.
Nice analysis.
I have few clients that still use static sites, but so far it's okay because updates are still not necessary thus far. If they ask me to do updates, I'll recommend converting to WordPress.
Of course, fees are accepted.
-Saedel
I need help! I am trying to decide whether to convert my site to a wordpress site. I am a caribbean guest house. I do not need posts yet. It is better for my guests to leave commnets on Trip Advisor where they will be seen. Thanks for the article.
Kathy
Kathy, what I would do is go to WordPress.com and sign up for a free blog. Play with it a bit and see how it works and if it is a good solution for you.
You would probably use a static page for your front page and pages for the descriptions of each apartment.
Posting often about what is happening would help bring traffic to your site (and hopefully customers). You could post a photo of the guests with the guest's testimonials as posts in their own category as well as on Trip Advisor.
Kathy…
How about this…You have category called testimonials. Have guests type in their comments right into the post page on wordpress. Press submit and automatic articles about your guest house.
I have one day's experience with wordpress - see http://www.viequesenlucha.org. I do not understand how to create the static part of the site. As you will see I put several documents under categories as posts. This site is designed to allow several community groups in my town to post press releases and stories about there activities AND Photos and also allow them to make comments on issues. It's like a community bulleting board. Should I have put the documents on a page? If I want a section for ABC group and then 5 subsections called Docs, Photos, news articles, links, etc. They would all be pages? How do I get control over the menu? I plan to learn a bit on this site and then make my business site. Thanks, Kathy
Kathy, you should use categories and posts for most things. Use subcategories under them if you need to.
Use pages only for things that do not change and you want to feature. You probably should not use too many pages.
I use the Semiologic Pro theme and it works a bit differently than a standard WordPress blog so I am not sure I could tell you how to set up a static front page correctly.
Thanks. I will play around a bit. I don't understand the concept of a static home page. The menus can always be changed on the home page?
Kathy, with WordPress, the menus are the same on all the pages. Also, usually the home page is a list of recent posts. With a static home page, instead of a list of posts the contents stay the same and recent posts are listed on a blog page. You can check my photographybyjet.com site for an example of a static front page.