How to Switch Your Website Builder to WordPress
You’ve probably seen a website or two that use WordPress as the content management system (CMS). Perhaps these websites use the simple theme from WordPress or one of its many child themes. However, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and you might be surprised at how many different ways there are to build a website using WordPress as the content management system!
In this article, we’ll discuss three approaches to using WordPress to build websites.
The Classic Approach
You can use the Classic Approach to create a WordPress-based website. Simply install WordPress on your web server, and use its built-in theme to build your site. If you’ve ever used a CMS like WordPress, then this approach should be pretty easy to follow. You’ll just need to decide on the general arrangement of your site and play around with the styling to make it look the way you want. For example, you might choose to use the Twenty Fourteen theme from WordPress because it comes with a bunch of built-in styling options that you can use to adjust the look and feel of your site.
Pros: Quick and easy to set up. Cons: Limited choice of templates. Theme isn’t built for SEO.
The Multi-purpose Approach
The Multi-purpose Approach is a bit like the Classic Approach, but it allows you to use WordPress for more than just content management. With this approach, you can use WordPress to build a blog, a company website, or even an e-commerce store. To do this, first you’ll need to decide on the general functionality and layout of your site and choose a suitable theme. For example, if you’re planning on building a blog, you might want to choose a theme that’s light on styling and has a lot of pre-made blog posts. If you’re building a company website, then you might want to consider a theme that has a more professional look and feel. Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can install WordPress on your web server and begin building your site.
Pros: Very flexible. You can use WordPress for all sorts of projects. Cons: More complex set up. More expensive. More difficult to customize.
The Drag-and-drop Approach
The Drag-and-drop Approach is yet another way to use WordPress to build websites. In this approach, you don’t need to know any coding to build your site, but you do need to know how to use a content management system like WordPress to build a site. With this approach, you can use the WordPress dashboard to build your site by simply clicking on various widgets and components that will help you build the interior of your site. You can also choose from a wide range of free and premium WordPress themes to use for your new site.
When you’re ready to launch your website, simply drag and drop elements from the dashboard onto your web browser’s blank slate to build out the site’s interior. Once you’ve laid out the basic structure of your site, you can begin building out the content that will appear on your site using the WordPress dashboard. You can also choose to use WordPress’s built-in web editor if you want to write out the articles that will appear on your site. Finally, you can use one of WordPress’s many plugins to enhance the functionality of your site. For example, if you’re planning on using the plugin’s built-in email capture feature to collect email addresses from visitors, you can do so using a simple click of a button.
Pros: Simple and intuitive to use. Cons: Limited control over the look and feel of your site. Fewer pre-made templates to select from. Fewer functionalities.
WordPress for Everyone
WordPress is a fantastic choice for building websites because it’s extremely flexible and there’s a large community of people who use it and love it. It would be very difficult to find a website that doesn’t use WordPress as its content management system, and it’s definitely the CMS of choice for users who want to build a site with any sort of professional appearance and want to maintain complete control over the content that appears on their site.
However, if you don’t happen to be a technical expert, then the other two approaches listed above are also good options because they don’t require as much of a technical skill to use. If you’d like to use WordPress to build a site, but you don’t have the time to learn complex coding techniques, then try out one of the other two approaches listed above.