WordPress is well known as a blogging platform. It is very popular for its ease of use, variety of themes and loads of functionalities. I have been told several times that it could also be used as a Content Management System (CMS). Working on a client project, I found out it was true: WordPress has all it takes to set-up a simple but professional website. But what are these basic ingredients?

Website structure

Content can be organised using the hierarchical categories feature, this gives your website a good primary structure. Tags can be used as a secondary indexation list or as a free tagging system, depending on your needs.

Layout

As you may know, WordPress themes can be endlessly customised to fit your particular needs and preferences. There is no need for a WordPress website to look like “just an other WordPress website”. Check out these cool examples.

Index page

Of course, you don’t want your index (homepage) to be just a list of pages or to have the same layout as the rest of the site pages. There are ways to create your own static index page, including this one.

Pages

Just create your content using the page rather than the post format. It doesn’t show the comments form, but still can be categorised and tagged. It is also possible to build a hierarchy of pages, one being parents of others and so on, with no limit on the number of levels.

Navigation

Built-in facility allows to show list of pages, including their hierarchy: here is your navigation! There is also a useful plugin to display the mandatory breadcrumb on top of pages: Breadcrumb NavXT.

SEO

WordPress settings can be changed to generate search engine optimised web pages: title, description, readable URLs, etc.

Search

Search (and lot of other facilities) are part of basic widgets on most themes. They are often included in the side bars, but themes can be amended to show it anywhere (though this is a move for advanced users).

RSS Feed

Inherited from WordPress blog roots, the RSS feed can easily be linked from anywhere on your pages, giving your users an easy way to follow the publication of new content.

Content edition

The traditional wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) text editor is quite easy to use to create and amend content. However plugins such as WP-CMS Post Control allow to edit user interface to fit your specific needs.

What it can’t (easily) do?

I’m sure WordPress can be customised beyond imagination. But because of the nature of the platform, I wouldn’t recommand to use it for too complex websites. For instance, it can’t accomodate content requiring multiple categorisations. And as far as I know there is no advanced function to craft navigations with multiple levels or contextual variations.

You can find out more about using WordPress as a CMS on the WordPress Codex.

1 – Hotness: how often do you have to update the content?

Several times a week: 5 points
Once a week: 4 points
Once a month: 3 points
Once every two-three months: 2 points
Less: 1 point

2 – Business criticality: is the topic related to the organisation core business?

Yes, totally: 5 points
Yes, somehow: 3 points
Not really: 1 point

3 – Popularity: what percentage of the visits does it attract?

80% or more: 5 points
60-79%: 4 points
50-59%: 3 points
20-49%: 2 points
0-19%: 1 point

4 – Content owner credit: can the person or team in charge of updating the content be trusted (received proper training, keeps content up to date, is expert of the field, etc.)?

Yes: 1 point
Not really: 3 points
No: 5 points

5 – Technical reliability: is the portion of content part of a trusted technical plateform allowing for instance content management or automated check-ups (error pages, broken links…)?

Yes: 1 point
No: 3 points

The score can then be applied section by section throughout the website map using one color per score level. This way you get a visual overview of the critical zones on which review efforts should focus. Or this can be used on a specific section you found time consuming, to find out which part you should really spend time on. You could also try to compare hottest colours with sections you actually spend the most time on, to see of they match.

The most interesting thing to me is that it points out that maintenance is not only about content review, error fixing or analytic reporting. Code needs to be maintained as well! It takes a few things such as regular reviews and optimisation, proper comments and also CSS3 and HTML5 enhancements. Worth reading: Website Maintenance Tips for Front-End Developers.

Sometimes we are fed up with the CMS in our life. It is not as flexible or powerful as we wish it was. We may even wish it didn’t exist and we would be free to manage our website the way we want. Beware: life without a CMS is a terrible thing to live. This post travels back in 2001, when website and their content were exclusively managed by hand. Meet Ben, Webmaster for a cosmetic firm who has to mind a very large website.

8:42 am
Ben arrives in the office, turns on his computer and almost spills hot coffee on his keyboard : the homepage from 6 weeks ago is live again. He shouts. Someone over wrote the latest version again. As he is used to it, he always keep a backup on his desktop, so he can quickly fix it. He wishes he could know who did this, to have a word with him/her, and perhaps shout to him/her a little bit.

9:14 am
A new sub-site is planned to go live in two weeks time. Ben is in a hurry, he has just achieved designing the templates and now has to create each and every pages of the sub-site. Why would he complain ? Setting up 54 pages from scratch never killed any webmaster. And who needs spare time anyway?

10:07 am
Franck, from Marketing Department, rings and is not so happy. Results on Altavista are showing funny description for Dandruff Away, the firm new anti dandruff shampoo : “Wax-wax, a revolutionary hair-removal solution to make sure your legs are soft as silk”. “Oups” Ben says, someone forgot to update the meta description when the Dandruff Away page was sent live.

11:21 am
Ben almost spills dark coloured fuzzy drink on his keyboard : the homepage from 2 weeks ago is live again. He shouts, fixes it for the second time of the day and thinks he definitely needs to find out who did this.

11:38 am
“Hey everyone, I am updating the “About Us” page, don’t touch it for now guys.”, Peggy shouts from her cubicle, 3 rows away. Ben thinks he does not understand her constant need to shout that loud and update that bloody “About Us” page.

1:00 pm
Lunch. Ben manages to avoid Robert, a guy who always talk about menus built with Java applets.

1:44 pm
Margaret and Stephen, from Communication Department, are upon him. They need help as they have been both working on the same page and kept over writing one an other amendments. Now they don’t know what the new page should read as they don’t have a copy of the initial version anymore. Ben feels tired.

2:15 pm
Ben almost spills caffeine free tea on his keyboard : the homepage from 8 weeks ago is live again. He shouts, fixes it for the third time of the day and wishes there was a way it didn’t happen again.

3:27 pm
Ben takes a break. His personal way to unwind is to browse his website to check everything is in order. Dedication. Unfortunately he has to shout and jump and move his arms very fast when he discovers the new version of the “Delivery Policy” pages. The layout is totally different from the rest of the site : the logo colours have been altered, the left hand side navigation is gone and there are blinking red heading all over the page.

5:56 pm
It took a while but Ben finally managed to fix the “Delivery Policy” pages. It took even longer to explain to Henry why he should not amend it in such a way.

6:22 pm
Ben feels like going home now. Instead of that he almost spills mineral water on his keyboard : the homepage from 5 weeks ago is live again. He shouts, fixes it for the fourth time of the day and wishes there was a way it didn’t happen again.

6:31 pm
Ben goes home. He has a sore throat.

Now you know why CMS were invented: to prevent webmasters from getting sore throat after shouting too often and too loud.

Here you are, with your brand new website, freshly delivered by your web agency. What do you do now to make sure it does not turn Rainforest like within two weeks?

Know the website objectives

A website is a tool, not an objective. It can help you to do a lot of things like selling, getting new customers, improve loyalty of existing ones, revamp your brand image, etc. If you want a chance to succeed, you’d better know what you’re looking for. Objectives may have been defined by your management, or you may have to find out yourself. If the latter is correct, start with a short list of priorities. You will have time later to expand it, once the primary goal is reached.

Identify content owners

Website Managers are not supposed to be accountable for all their website content, particularly if it deals with specialised topics or legal issues. Anyway if the site is large you won’t be able to mind it all on your own. That’s why you need to clearly identify a content owner for each page of the website. I mean it: write down the list of sections, making sure it covers all the website pages, and match each one with a unique name, the one of the person who is responsible for updating or providing you with content. Of course, the Web Administrator can own some sections, especially the ones directly related to the site such as “Help” or “Contact”.

Meet the team

Times are gone when Webmasters were managing websites from top to toe on their own. They’re now conductors rather than handymen (though a well equipped tool box still comes in handy). You have to make sure you know who does what and you’d better have a nice and trusty relationship with them. This opportunity to get to work with a wide range of professionals is one of the nice aspects of Website Management.

Plan

Managing a website involves a lot of checking quality, as well as pages updates, promotion and reporting. To be as effective and painless as possible, these operations can be planned pro-actively. Pages that are most likely to change often and relate to website core business should be checked first. Tools to audit the quality of a website should also be run at least once a month. And users feedback should be sought once in a while.

The above four steps are only good sense applied to website management. But it is important to remember that the job needs to be done as professionally as any other one.