Pros and Cons of Using a WordPress Blog as Your Entire Business Site

Feb 13, 2008
36 Comments

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I do not pretend that blogging is the answer to everything for everyone. There are many advantages to making your entire website a blog, but there are some downsides to it, too. Let’s take a look at the idea of using a blog as the whole website, both pros and cons.

Blog as Business Website: The Concept

Used to be a website was a collection of html documents for which the code was written or generated in a development/design environment such as Dreamweaver. Then someone got the bright idea of putting all the information into a database and using a programming language on the webserver to pull data out, format it as html, and send finished web pages to the browser. These kinds of web pages, sometimes called dynamic web pages, are assembled on the fly the moment they are requested (by clicking on a link).

The interface and information needed to create and edit pages in a dynamic website was also stored in the database and presented through a programming language running on the server. You could log into an admin area and then write or edit content. This whole shebang is known as a content management system, or CMS. And it has fundamentally changed the way we do everything on the web.

Now, there are CMSs, and then there are C… M… Ss… :) (imagine loud, dramatic music).

Some of these CMSs, like Drupal or Joomla (they all have goofy names… don’t ask) are crazy complicated. They are used for monstrous sites that need functionality way beyond a simple blog.

But a blog is also a CMS. A much, much simpler and easier CMS to use, design for, and work within. The WordPress CMS in particular has become popular for more than just blogs. It can be a light CMS for a “normal” (imagine me making bunny ears with my fingers for quotes) website that may not even have a blog. More and more, small businesses and freelancers are using WordPress in this way.

Is this a good idea? It depends, of course. Let’s take a look at some pros and cons and we can decide for ourselves.

Pros

  • Stoo-pud-ly easy to create and manage site content. How easy? If you can write an email, you can do it.
  • Blog and site look the same, because they ARE the same.
  • Same SEO (search engine optimization) benefits are accrued by WordPress pages that posts enjoy.
  • WordPress pages can have “parents.” That is, a parent page is like a section that has sub-pages in it.
  • Tons of plugins that extend and enhance the functionality of WordPress. Other larger CMSs have something similar, but again, WordPress is so easy a decapitated cockroach could work with it (well, for up to 10 days anyways, which is how long cockroaches can live without their heads–not that you really wanted to know that).

Cons

  • You could easily outgrow it if your needs grow beyond what WordPress can do.
  • Not the most secure CMS out there.
  • Not great for ecommerce.
  • Not great for very large amounts (hundreds or thousands) of page (rather than post) content.
  • Not great for in-depth learning or ebook type content.

Overall, I Say Go for It

Small businesses and freelancers especially would do well to use WordPress as a light CMS. It does so much so easily. Because of plugins, a WordPress blog can morph into an online magazine, a news site, a gallery, and even a limited ecommerce site. Beginning this way is beneficial, because you won’t have to duct-tape the blog onto an existing site later. A site using WordPress as a CMS need not look the least bit “bloggy” if it’s not called for. In my experience of taking client’s websites and “blogifying” them, WordPress is a great solution that balances nicely between no CMS and an overblown, over-featured CMS that may be too much for your needs.

Any other pros or cons you can think of? Add them in the comments!


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  • Michael,
    Excellent post, like some people here we are developing a new site but we are concerned with the problems with wordpress when creating a large site. We are creating a site that will be 800,000+ pages over the next 3 years and were hoping to use Wordpress since its SEO is unbeatable, but not sure if it will be stable enough. Do you have any recommendations?

    Thanks,
    Kris
  • Kris, if I were you, I'd look into optimizing the database and stuff like that. People can and do make large sites with WordPress.
  • WP sounds like a good match to my needs. But is it possible and how easy is it to convert my existing website (less than a dozen pages, mostly text but a few pictures, banners, etc.) to WP? It is being hosted on Dreamhost which is WP compatible.
  • Damon, it's pretty easy. In most cases, you can just copy & paste the content of the old static pages into the new WordPress pages.
  • Thushara
    Hi Michael ,

    i just want to know whether Wordress have capacity of building a dynamic web application with complex web page interface including Gird ,tab , List boxes , Dropdown list controls or not. Please give some clarifications on this .
  • Thushara, absolutely. There is a lot of great work being done in this area with JavaScript libraries being used in conjunction with WordPress themes for all manner of interactive goodness.
  • Michelle Fisher
    I am reviewing a proposal from a web designer to build a website for my company. I want to use WordPress for the whole site. It'll start at appx 30 pages of content expanding to appx 250 pages within the next 3 years as we roll out into other major markets. Content will be organized by region/city using parent pages - there's no e-commerce, but some video. The web designer proposes building html pages then using his own CMS to turn several parts of the site into "modules" that can be edited by the company. He cites "round peg, square hole" issues with Wordpress. Sounds like building parts of the site twice. Further, I'm why use someone's proprietary CMS when WordPress has been tested and continues to be updated and improved. Am I missing something?
  • Michelle, the answer is: Yes, you're missing something! WordPress can do just about anything you could want. The proposal from that web designer is a sham. Your doubts are already significant enough that there is no way you should accept such a ridiculous proposal. What you are missing is a good WordPress developer/designer. You don't want a "web designer." You want a WordPress designer.
  • Thank you Michael, I teach continuing ed to Real Estate Professionals in Washington State and I am in the process of reBranding my online presence. I am "getting Connected" (yes i just followed you on Twitter) and your article convinced me to build my site with wordpress.THANKS
  • Craig, that's awesome! Thanks for letting me know and good luck with everything!
  • Something that should be noted is WordPress's functionality is growing very rapidly. 2.7 is even easier to administer. There are heavier duty solutions out there, but for most website WordPress is great. The big opportunity is not having WordPress try to handle super big content sites, but rather having it handle medium and lower content volume sites (which is most of them) and migrating data stored in conventional web sites. WordPress is also great at managing project sites and is far more usable than SharePoint.
  • @Susan - I would suggest you inform yourself about what can be done in this regard. Probably the best thing you could do to understand how to market and sell ebooks to take Naomi Dunford's Online Business School course. Naomi has the lockdown on this with OSB. Otherwise, I would humbly suggest you set up a call with me to discuss the possibilities, pros, and cons.
  • I realize I'm way late joining in this discussion, but this topic has just recently become of interest to me. I am writing an e-book and working on a marketing strategy for it.

    Would it be best to write one of those long sales pages, build a traditional website or create a blog on the topic?

    This e-book would not be a full-time business for me. It would be a way to generate a little revenue on the side, so I need to be realistic about how much time I can devote (i.e. a daily- or weekly-updated blog would be more than I could do).

    Open to any suggestions, opinions, advice, etc. Thank you!

    Susan
  • Thanks, you nice post that helped me alot.
  • All you cockroach lovers should see Wall-E . . . Eee! So cute. <3

    Also, I'm considering moving to Wordpress for my new blog, so I found this incredibly helpful!
  • I think wordpress can be a good business site for first domain and subdomin can be use as a blog to promote the product.
  • Thanks for the information...I am looking to open my own business within the next few months. Good luck with everything!
  • @ Nigel - I just saw something online the other day about using WordPress' user-registration/management function as a way to have a directory, so I suppose it's possible. You could integrate BBpress with WordPress and use it as a job board, I think.

    I don't know how well any of this would work, though. It might be really clunky, square pegs hammered into round holes. I think you'd have a more robust scenario using other tools than WordPress in this case.
  • Guys, Im looking at a wordpress site, I want to incorporate a Business directory can this be easily achieved. I also need to include a jobs board. I would like to set up a rss to import jobs from other sites, can this be achieved also. CHeers
  • @John Robin - I'm not sure WP is a complete solution to a business site, but not for these reasons.

    Taxonomy features in WP are rather advanced. You can create categories and subcategories at any level for posts and have parent pages for your pages.

    Further, you can create page and post layouts on a per-category basis, which basically solves all the common possible problems on taxonomy.
  • @ John Robin - I think that would be possible in WordPress through the use of different page templates and alternate sidebar includes which display different sets of categories.
  • For business, You better not use WP since you cannot customize for more features for business needs. Let's say we want to separate the listing of categories/products from brands in different places. I think WP is only for blogging, write what you are interested in. But WP has good form for Search Engine Optimization.
  • What a timely post. I am currently developing a new website that will use WordPress as the CMS in the more traditional sense. I may add a blog to the site at some point, but right now that is not in the works. I just need something that is easy enough for me to work with (given my current headless cockroach skill level). Thanks for the critique; I think you are dead on!
  • @ David - I'm not blindly sticking up for WordPress, but conversion is dependent upon design and content, not the CMS.
  • I agree with all of those points. I had a friend running a site totally on wordpress. Conversions were low, and multivariate testing was harder and tricker to discern.

    I love cockroaches.
  • I use wordpress as a few websites - of course with the use of heavy static pages and also a bit of hacking of the theme, i can usually make it so not even a trained eye can tell the difference.
  • I am using wordpress as my fish company website.
    It helps a lot on my SEO.

    I always believe, content made the different but not the Engine. So, as long as you get the content present nicely, then you are the king.
  • @ Rob - I don't have any hard info about it, but if you want a blog/cms that might be more secure than WordPress, maybe look into the new version of Moveable Type. There plenty of tricks for security-hardening your WordPress install.

    @ Moses - Yes, there are ecommerce plugins for WordPress. Without them, your ecommerce capability (like a typical ecommerce site) is severely hampered and difficult. You can do stuff with custom fields, but it's a pain in the ass.

    @ Guilherme - Thanks for the extra data on headless cockroaches (man I just screwed the SEO for this post!).

    @ Mark - Plone looks pretty cool and at one time I had thought of learning it hardcore and doing design work for Plone sites. I will be very careful! You know how that spot on 89 near Richmond can be! Thanks for the well-wishes and the hello!

    @ Anthony - I don't share your opinion that there is a loss of control. Any self-hosted open source platform gives you as much control as you would care to take. But kudos for rolling your own! :)
  • The problem I have with any of these is the loss of control: you have to wait for someone else to implement features you want or you have to dig in and learn enough about their code to write the feature yourself.

    I have enough trouble understanding my own code; I detest pawing around in other people's. So I wrote my own CMS and can do whatever I want whenever I want.
  • Michael, I opted for a Plone site even though it's overkill (vast understatement) for my present-day needs, and moreover, its blogging and particularly commenting functionality is poor OOTB.

    But I need to rapidly develop and deploy applications on the site, and Plone/Zope/Python is ideal for that, so I'm gritting my teeth on the steeper pitches of the learning slope...

    BTW, just down the road from you (South Burlington). Keep safe on the roads today, friend; it's slick!
  • First of all, let me enhance that info on cockroaches. They die after 10 days, yes, and they die of starvation, because they can't eat without the head, they don't actually need the head to live other than eating (More or less like blog scrappers and other insects).

    That said, it is true you can completely debloggify wordpress and you can actually put e-commerce on it with plugins.

    I was skeptic at first but I've seen WP-based e-commerce sites that are very impressive. Not as Amazon.com, of course, but you would hardly guess is Wordpress if you are not told.
  • Another big con of Wordpress, is that when your system fails it can fail big time taking down your database or upsetting your host to the point where they pull the plug. Caching can help on many of the situations that cause problems, but not all.

    db
  • Good list, although i think WP can handle e-commerce as there are some really cool plugins to achieve this feature.
  • Just curious, what would you recommend for a more secure and full featured CMS?
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