I touched upon static Pages and categories as a news model previously. It is truly a great tool whenever you need to roll out a typical old-school Web site quickly. Maybe it is a product presentation, a corporate Web site, or something entirely different that just won’t work with the weblog format. That’s when this setup is so useful.
Pages, as in WordPress Pages, were originally meant to be used for static content. The fact that you can create one Page template (recall that template files for Pages are individual) for each and every one of them should you want to means that they can really look like anything. You can break your design completely, since you don’t even have to call the same header or footer file, you can have different markup, and you can exclude everything WordPress-related and display something entirely different instead, should you want to. It is a really powerful tool that can just as easily contain multiple loops or syndicated RSS content from other sites. Each Page template is a blank slate, and it is your primary weapon when using WordPress as a CMS; this is where you can make the site truly step away from the weblog heritage that the system carries.
And don’t get me started on the front page! Since you can set WordPress to display a static Page as a front page (under Settings in admin), and pick any other Page (keep it empty, mind you) for your post listings should you need that, you can really do anything. You can even put in one of those nasty Flash preloader thingies with autoplaying sound (but you really shouldn’t). The point is that a Page template, along with the front page setting, is just as much a clean slate as a blank PHP or HTML file would be outside WordPress, but you have the benefits of the system right there should you need them!
On the other side of things, you’ve got the traditional weblog posts. These need to belong to a category and each and every one of them will be more or less the same, visually. Sure, if you want to you can play around a lot with these too, but on a semi-static site Pages are a much better idea. Naturally, it is a whole different ball game if you’re going to handle tons of content, but that’s usually not what you’re talking about when “WordPress as a CMS” gets mentioned. Pages for static content, posts for newsy stuff. It makes sense when you think about it.
You’re looking for the perfect setup with Pages for all those product descriptions, and posts for news, announcements, and press clippings. This is what I start with whenever I do a corporate Web site with WordPress as a CMS, which is basically any corporate Web site I’ll do these days. Assuming I’ve got the design worked out, here is the process I’ll follow:
1. I decide what will be a Page and what will not. Usually, everything except news and announcements are Pages, so that is really easy. I create these Pages and make sure they get the right slug. This includes making sure that the basic permalink structure is there, which means I’ll make sure the post and category URLs look good. Chances are I’ll use a plugin to further control this, but it all depends on the needs of the site.
2. I start creating the Page templates. Chances are the company profile Page will have other design needs than the product Pages, so I’ll want to put emphasis on different things, and construct any possible submenus and information boxes in ways that fit the style.
3. I create the categories needed, one for each newsy section. This is usually just one, called News or Announcements, but sometimes it is both, and even more at that. In some cases I really just want just one category Announcements, for example and then I opt for sorting within it using tags, one for News, one for Press Releases, one for Products, one for Announcements, and so on. Naturally, I’ll need to make sure the category listings as well as the single post view look good.
4. I tie it all together by creating a menu (usually hardcoded, since most sites like this will be pretty static in this department as well) which links to both the various Pages, and the categories involved.
That’s it, the elements of a static simple Web site using WordPress as a CMS. You can take this concept as far as you like really, since it is WordPress and you can build upon it as much as you like. Some Web sites obviously need more attention: the more advanced the site, the more tweaks and adaptations are needed to make it fit. Sometimes this means you’ll have to write custom loops or use Page templates, and at other times you may want more flexibility without touching the code for every little update. That’s when widgets come in, not only because a lot of cool features come as plugins that are widget-ready, but also because widgets offer drag-and-drop functionality that non-techy users will surely appreciate.
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05132010
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