WordPress website content management
Below is an explanation of what WordPress website content management means (for instructions go to WordPress instructions).
WordPress is both a blogging platform and a content management system (CMS), designed for easy editing by people who have no training in coding.
About WordPress
WordPress started life a blogging site for professional writers to promote themselves. Its popularity led to its development as a content management system (CMS) capable of supporting entire websites
Nowadays, we can use WordPress to create CMS websites with a blog page, offering the best of both worlds. WordPress is also widely used for ecommerce and now makes up over 40% of all websites (2022 update).
What is CMS?
A content-managed website is a website that anyone can easily edit. It works like this. Applegreen Websites arranges the hosting and set-up of WordPress, creates the design and structure in discussion with you, and hands over. You do the regular updating through WordPress’s editing facility, the Dashboard.
From the Dashboard, you can edit text, add photos, upload documents and write blog posts with events, news or longer articles. Some areas, such as the sidebar, are more complicated and require confidence to edit. We provide extensive support including written instructions. These instructions are also available on our WordPress Instructions page.
Should I choose a WordPress website?
The decision to design in WordPress must be made at the start of a project. Choose this option if you are confident that you, or someone in your organisation, will spend time mastering the editing system. Below are some pointers and examples to help you decide.
Applegreen offers its clients three website options:
- A static website;
- A static website mixed with integrated WordPress blog/news page which you can keep adding to;
- A content-managed website entirely powered by WordPress, set up and designed by us but updatable by you.
The static option offers flexibility in design together with light, fast-loading pages. We carry out updates though our tailored follow-up service which is fast and affordable (see Costs). This is the best option for people would rather not, or do not have time to, learn how to update. Among others, YouByYou Books relies on Applegreen for all its updates.
The mixed option provides a space where website owners can add their own news or events, or write a blog. We style the editable WordPress page to match the static pages and integrate it seamlessly into the navigation. This option is useful for business people who wish to blog about their work, or for organisations that have regular events or special offers: see the News page at Camden Community Nurseries.
The full WordPress website option offers the website owner access to all the pages, including the ability to add new ones. This is useful for organisations like churches and small charities where several people may wish to update different areas, or where new initiatives may lead to the need for more pages in the future.
What else is good about WordPress?
On the design front, we tend to avoid the hundreds of ‘themes’ that have been written for WordPress (themes are templates that structure the design). At Applegreen we sometimes modify a default WordPress theme if we think it’ll do the job nicely, but more often these days we create bespoke themes specially for our clients.
An extensive system of plug-ins adds extra functionality to WordPress websites. These may offer search-engine optimisation, Google analytics or photo slide-shows to name but a few.
Do you wish to set up a web shop for selling online? Several e-commerce platforms help integrate a shopping cart with a WordPress website. We have worked with WooCommerce, which enables users to upload and present dozens of product lines and variations. WooCommerce is a free system with paid add-ons that provide extra functionality — see Abelia Handbags, and more examples in our ecommerce portfolio.
So what next?
See some examples of Applegreen’s WordPress websites, or contact us for more details or a quote.
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