Using WordPress as a Traditional CMS
People often want to create a site that doesn’t look like a blog. Usually, if you ask them enough questions, you’ll find that they want to have a site that mostly consists of “static” pages (content which doesn’t change very often). They want a home page that isn’t a list of reverse chronological, ever-changing blog posts. They probably want to include a blog as a subsection of the site, but not have it be the focal point of the site.
These people usually either create static HTML sites (difficult to manage), or they use a traditional CMS application. A CMS allows them to dynamically generate and manage “static” (or rarely-changing) content. They usually don’t consider using WordPress to create and manage these types of sites. Because WordPress has its roots as a blogging tool, it can easily be overlooked as excellent way to manage content of any sort. Don’t be fooled by its normal use as a blog-centric content manager. Content is content, and WordPress rocks as an easy way to manage content.
It only takes a few additional steps to rid WordPress of its blog-centric roots and use it as a “traditional” CMS. The key is to use Pages for most of the site (the “static” part) and Posts just for the blog subsection of the site. Here’s how to do that.
- Install WordPress. Either follow the WordPress Installation Guide or use EasyWP WordPress Installer.
- Set up pretty permalinks so your pages URLs will look like yoursite.com/blue-widgets/ instead of yoursite.com/?p=1234. I recommend using the Custom structure: /%postname%/. Most people will be able to make this happen with no extra effort, but some web hosts and servers require special instructions to enable pretty permalinks.
- Create a new PAGE called Home. Add all the content that you wish to have on the home page. Publish.
- Create a new PAGE called Blog or News or Articles or whatever you want to call the interior section you’ll use for dated posts. Do NOT add any content to this page. Leave it blank. Also: Do NOT choose a custom page template for this page. WordPress will understand (in the next step) that it should automatically use the standard blog, sorted-by-date listing of posts type of template.*
- Go to Settings / Reading and set the page you created and called Home as the front page. Then set the page you created and called Blog or News as the posts page. more info…
- Most WordPress themes make the assumption that comments on pages are undesirable, so the page template does not include the comments code. This is my preference as well, and I recommend that you not allow comments on pages (but of course, I believe comments on posts are usually essential). If that’s also your preference, and if your theme does not show a comments form on your pages, then you can skip this step.
However, if your theme does include comments on pages, and you’d rather not mess with the code, you can turn off comments for pages completely, regardless of how the theme is coded. There’s no direct way to turn off comments just for all pages. If you uncheck “Allow people to post comments on the article” in the Settings / Discussion panel, you’ll be turning off comments on both Pages and Posts, which is usually not desirable. Instead, you can turn off comments one at a time for each page when you create or edit each one, but there’s a good chance you’ll forget to do that on one or more pages. I prefer to use a plugin to handle the problem with ease, so it can be just a “set it and forget it” type of action. To do that, I suggest useing the Use No Comments on Pages plugin to turn off comments on pages.
- Pages (and subpages) in themes that don’t yet make good use of WP 3.0+ menu system are often displayed in your menu in a way that is less than ideal. Although WordPress lets you control the order of pages via a numerical system, it can get rather annoying if you add new pages often, as you’ll have to constantly adjust the numbers. For a more hassle-free solution, I recommend either the Page Manager plugin or getting your theme up to speed so it can use the new menu system.
- That pretty much concludes the setup. Now all you have to do is add a new PAGE every time you want to create a new “static” page on the site, and add a new POST every time you want to create a new dated post in the Blog or News section.
* Themes often include a Home link in the header menu. If so, you may need to edit the header file (or whichever file contains the menu) to delete it, or you’ll end up with two Home links in your menu. First look for any link that has the anchor text (link text) of “Home”. It may look something like this:
<a href=”<?php echo get_option(‘home’); ?>/”>Home </a>”
When you find it, just delete it, and you’re done.
Note 1: If you want to read more information about the concept of Pages and Subpages vs. Posts, go here.
Note 2: Look for plugins to easily additional functionality, such as shopping carts.
Want me to install and configure WordPress for you? I offer WordPress installation services now.
Tags: blog, CMS, content management systems, WordPress
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This is cool, I have always wanted the static look of a website with a blog integrated into it. Rather then having the two separate. Thank you for the very detailed instructions. Now I just need to work up the nerve to try it….
Don’t even try to work up the nerve. Just do it! What’s the worst that could happen? You mess it up? So? Delete it, and try again. (Assuming this is a new site we’re talking about, of course. If it’s old, then backup, backup, backup).
Hey there Donna,
This is a great step-by-step guide to folks that might not be aware of how flexible WordPress is. I use it on numerous sites, some as blogs, some as websites, and each one looks and feels different.
I love the WordPress community as well, and the plug-ins they come out with. Really, whatever you want to do with WordPress now, you can pretty much find a plug-in for it.
Cheers!
Thanks, Danny, and yes, I agree, WordPress rocks. I love testing its limits now and then.
Oh, and btw, Danny, you inspired me to try commentluv again. I used to use it, and then it had some growing pains, so I stopped, but I think it’s probably time to give it a shot again.
i used these instructions a couple of days ago. thanks!
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Glad they helped!
Nice guide. I’ve used WP as a CMS, but never with a separate blog. Nice to know that I can do that easily.
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WordPress is great, I created an arcade website using WordPress, I believe it can be used for everything.
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Thank you for posting a step-by-step instruction on this. A self-confessed technology dunce, I really am at a total loss when it comes to matters concerning websites and other related technicalities. Now that I’ve gone over this twice, the next step would be to muster the confidence to get started with it.
Bookmarked and stumbled! The general idea – using WP for a more static site – is something I’ve been recommending to artist friends who want a gallery and a little bit of a diary, both at once. Pages are quite, quite excellent for an online gallery, given the right template and plugins.
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Oh I agree. I’ve seen some amazing galleries using WordPress. Simply stunning stuff. (Ooh, nice alliteration there, LOL).
This is a really great way to transform virtually any template into more of a CMS. It annoys me when people refer to WP as a blogging-platform as clearly it is way more powerful then that.
However if you have any experience with customizing/developing wordpress themes you can create an even more complex CMS theme by using your posts and organizing them into categories as usual.
You can create the static page for the homepage and define the blog page.
Then instead of linking to the category pages which are normally /category/somecategory you can create page templates for your categories (with a loop for whatever posts you are trying to retrieve).
This way you can create a page-template that will get any posts inside your “blog” category, the same with all your other ones.
…etc
I find this to be much more effective then using all pages because the only way to retrieve pages is by calling a loop to all of them and if you want to exclude any you have to do so with the ID’s – this would suck on a site with 500+ pages.
And of course now with the WordPress 3.0 post types the opportunities are endless.
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I haven’t yet played around with 3.0′s new post types, so I have a feeling that will open up an entirely new spectrum of possibilities. As soon as I get time, AJ, as soon as I get time…LOL. Soon, really, I intend to delve into 3.0′s new features.
I’m going to have to think about your page template scenario for a bit. Mulling that over in my mind right now…coming up with thoughts and ideas…almost overwhelming.
Hi Donna,
This is perfectly summarised!
On point 7, though, I’ve noticed since WordPress 3.0 organisation of pages and subpages is so much easier. The in built menu function is a dream too.
Hands up – I am not a coder…. at all! I simply don’t have the logical thought processes for it! But I’m a whizz with one click theme installations lol.
I work with websites that are actually completely WordPress based, some of which have had custom themes created, some of which are using ready made themes. Of course,if you’re looking to get a hugely functional site that’s calling up information from a ton of databases, it won’t be ideal… but,as you say, as a content management system, WordPress is a dream.
Added bonus: once WordPress is installed, you don’t need to to grant users FTP access to change content… just wordpress access. That, to me, is one of the biggest bonuses.
Ok,excuse me while I climb down off my ‘WordPress Fangirl’ stool!!
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I do need to update this post a little now that 3.0 has the nice menu management feature. No worries about being on that fangirl stool! I love WP too!
Hi Donna,
I thought I had most of the ingredients for a static WordPress site. Thanks you, the recipe is more complete.
I had assumed that I could only get the posts displayed by having the categories in a sidebar widget.
But, with your method of setting a Posts page (I never even knew what that meant), I can have both methods: when visitors click the Posts Page link, they’ll get as many posts as they would get on a “regular” blog. when they click on the CATEGORY link, they’ll get the posts in summary form!
Now, I just have to figure out the htaccess nonsense. (I can never seem to get it right from blog to blog, even on the same server!!!)
I installed WordPress 3.0 into a /httpdocs/blog/ folder, rather than the root /httpdocs/. Usually, I can get htaccess to change the url to show mysite.com. This time, no matter what I do, I get mysite.com/blog.
Oh well, I’ll keep at it!
Thanks for all the great tips! Can’t wait to get to more of them.
Cheers,
Mitch
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If you’d like, contact me via my contact form at http://www.dazzlindonna.com/blog/contact-me/ . I can try to help with your htaccess issue. No promises, but I’ll try to help. Redirects can be really annoying at times. I fought with one just yesterday in fact. I fought – and I won. LOL.
I really need to make the time to get by your site more often! I’m just so buried that I just haven’t made the rounds anywhere.
Every site we’ve had built for ourselves or clients for many years now is built on WordPress and uses the Thesis theme – and every one looks different.
One has no blog at all (because the site owner doesn’t know how and wouldn’t keep it updated). Unless someone is familiar with blogging they would never know it is on WordPress.
The only type of site I might not put on WordPress would be a large ecommerce store and with the ecommerce functionality now available I’d have to research to find out if WordPress might not work even for that.
I would love to collaborate more directly with you if you’re interested.
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I completely understand about being buried. There’s never enough time.
I’d say a large “anything” might be iffy on WP, unless some serious tweaking was done to ensure as few trips to the db as possible. And I guess “large” would need to be defined. But I think average sites with ecommerce can probably do fine on WP.
I’m always interested in hearing about collaborating with others. Hit me up any time.
Hey Donna,
Totally with you on the usage of WordPress as a traditional CMS, in fact in my opinion it’s easier to use than a lot of other CMS’s out there
Use it all the time, love it
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It’s definitely easier to use than any of the CMS’s I’ve tried over the years, with a few exceptions, but those exceptions meant they seriously lacked some features that WP had. All in all, I think WP is the perfect solution most of the time.
Nice little tutorial/explanation there. I have used WordPress to make static sites a few times in the past. I think they turned out great. Once you get pretty proficient with using it, you can easily find ways to mold it into just about whatever you need. If the site is going to be larger than a few pages of content, it also makes it much easier to build it out.
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If you have any tips that I failed to mention, Kathy, would love to hear them. Sounds like you have some good experience with it.