Web Design Costa Blanca / SEO Spain

We do not pretend that blogging is the answer to everything for everyone. There are many advantages to making your entire website a blog, but there are some downsides to it, too. Let’s take a look at the idea of using a blog as the whole website, both pros and cons.

Blog as Business Website: The Concept

Used to be a website was a collection of html documents for which the code was written or generated in a development/design environment such as Dreamweaver. Then someone got the bright idea of putting all the information into a database and using a programming language on the webserver to pull data out, format it as html, and send finished web pages to the browser. These kinds of web pages, sometimes called dynamic web pages, are assembled on the fly the moment they are requested (by clicking on a link).

The interface and information needed to create and edit pages in a dynamic website was also stored in the database and presented through a programming language running on the server. You could log into an admin area and then write or edit content. This whole shebang is known as a content management system, or CMS. And it has fundamentally changed the way we do everything on the web. Heck they even have a Dummies for Wordpress Book that you can reference!!

Now, there are CMSs, and then there are C… M… Ss… (imagine loud, dramatic music).

Some of these CMSs, like Drupal or Joomla (they all have goofy names… don’t ask) are crazy complicated. They are used for monstrous sites that need functionality way beyond a simple blog.

But a blog is also a CMS. A much, much simpler and easier CMS to use, design for, and work within. The WordPress CMS in particular has become popular for more than just blogs. It can be a light CMS for a “normal” (imagine me making bunny ears with my fingers for quotes) website that may not even have a blog. More and more, small businesses and freelancers are using WordPress in this way.

Is this a good idea? It depends, of course. Let’s take a look at some pros and cons and we can decide for ourselves.

Pros

* Stoo-pud-ly easy to create and manage site content. How easy? If you can write an email, you can do it.
* Blog and site look the same, because they ARE the same.
* Same SEO (search engine optimisation) benefits are accrued by WordPress pages that posts enjoy.
* WordPress pages can have “parents.” That is, a parent page is like a section that has sub-pages in it.
* Tons of plugins that extend and enhance the functionality of WordPress. Other larger CMSs have something similar, but again, WordPress is so easy a decapitated cockroach could work with it (well, for up to 10 days anyways, which is how long cockroaches can live without their heads–not that you really wanted to know that).

Cons

* You could easily outgrow it if your needs grow beyond what WordPress can do.
* Not the most secure CMS out there.
* Not great for ecommerce.
* Not great for very large amounts (hundreds or thousands) of page (rather than post) content.
* Not great for in-depth learning or ebook type content.

Overall, I Say Go for It

Small businesses and freelancers especially would do well to use WordPress as a light CMS. It does so much so easily. Because of plugins, a WordPress blog can morph into an online magazine, a news site, a gallery, and even a limited ecommerce site. Beginning this way is beneficial, because you won’t have to duct-tape the blog onto an existing site later. A site using WordPress as a CMS need not look the least bit “bloggy” if it’s not called for. In my experience of taking client’s websites and “blogifying” them, WordPress is a great solution that balances nicely between no CMS and an overblown, over-featured CMS that may be too much for your needs.

Any other pros or cons you can think of? Add them in the comments!

Oh by the way did we mention that this site is driven by Wordpress? Thought not….