Everything you Need to Know About WordPress

What is a CMS?

CMS stands for Content Management System. It’s a piece of software that allows you and your team members will be able to edit, add to and manage your own content on a site. Additionally, in the future you can assign roles to people at other companies allowing them quick access to do the same. This can include web page text, images, blog posts, videos, podcasts, blog comments and more.

Why is a content management system important and why do you want one?

Personally, after learning html and CMS the next step I wish I would have learned was how to not only get my sites into a CMS, but also how to maximize it’s use (to save me time, and to increase my ability to market myself and my company). How’s that you say? Well…

Opening an FTP program, editing HTML, making sure things are formatted, and then uploading the changes takes a LOT of time. Even for those of us that are technically savvy will save countless hours over the long haul by putting our sites into a CMS (and if you’re working with clients, you’ll save even more).

Even if your content is perfect at the launch of your web presence you will no doubt want to make changes as you go. You may change the terms of your offerings, add or eliminate products or services, switch keywords, change the target market you are focusing on and more. Plus if you have done any research into website design, SEO and Internet marketing you already know that regular, fresh new content is what the search engines thrive off of and can play a big role in where you show up in search results.

Content Management Systems Technical

There are a few things you should know about the technical details of each content management system you work on or implement. Personally, for general web publishing (you have pages, and a blog) WordPress is my defacto CMS. It’s simple, extremely search engine friendly, and has a ton of extensions/plugins that you can add to increase the functionality of your site instantly. However, even wordpress has it’s quirks, and once you select a program like WordPress it’s time to learn all about it.

WordPress started as a simple blogging platform back in 2003. Since its introduction only a few short years ago, WordPress (WP) has blossomed into a winning content management system (CMS). So what are your actions once you create a website?

The functions of WordPress seem to be endless, as more and more people are harnessing it’s power for template designs, blogging, corporate websites/blogs and so much more. You’d be crazy to go against its ballooning online audience and argue that WordPress isn’t here to stay.

If you’ve ever looked for a CMS platform you understand the complexity of finding a simple CMS that actually works and isn’t full of bugs or fatal error messages. Finding a CMS platform system capable of adapting to your growing needs is also a must. This is exactly why so many individuals have chosen to use WordPress as their CMS.

Benefits of Using WordPress as a CMS

Simple Interface:

The WordPress platform offers a simple user interface when it comes to other content management systems. After logging into WP you’ll arrive at the dashboard. The WordPress dashboard allows you to change many elements of your website without having to know a line of code. You can change/edit images, pages, posts, content and a variety of other features fairly quickly. Check out the logged in WP dashboard below:

User Friendly:

WordPress is extremely user friendly. Other content management systems boast about their endless list of features, but more often than not, they are extremely complicated to use. WordPress however, is easy to adapt to without any needed support. To add a new post to your blog/website you’ll need to create a new post, customize the URL, upload/edit content and “update” the page, which will push it live on your site. Check out this process below:

Web Library:

WordPress has an extensive web library of templates and plugins. Templates are used to change the look and feel of your WP website. Often times you can download a variety of free templates online that can meet a variety of your needs. Plugins are another great feature that allow you to add specific elements to your WP platform. If you do a search for either WordPress templates/plugins you’ll be able to peruse the extensive list of templates/plugins.

Online Community:

Even if you do run into problems when you’re setting up the WordPress platform, don’t worry. WordPress has a very strong and tight-knit community ready to help you out. All you have to do is run a simple search to find answers to all of your questions.

It’s Free:

You don’t have to pay for the WordPress platform. The only time you will ever have to pay for anything is if you decide to create a custom WP template. Typically you can hire a third party web design firm that specializes in WordPress, with you want a unique/customized template.

It’s Evolving:

WordPress is a CMS that’s going to change with your business. WP has one of the largest online communities that’s dedicated to making this platform work for you. These individuals are constantly striving to push the limits of WordPress, provide users with a platform that’s capable of evolving to meet future expectations and needs.