Static or Dynamic Site? HTML/PHP or Wordpress/Joomla etc.?
Submitted by SkylineSource on Thu, 05/08/2008 - 23:23.
Jeremy and all,
I'm in the process of figuring out how exactly I want to build my site and I wanted to ask your opinion on something that I've been wrestling with for a while on other sites. And that is whether or not I can still build a viable site (that is capable of ranking high in natural search) that is more static in content rather than a CMS.
As some of you already know from my twitter rants, I've had huuuugeeee amounts of problems with Wordpress on my main moneymaking site. I built the site in 2006 using XSitePro and with the subsequent rise in traffic due to my search ranking, decided I wanted to make the site more appealing design-wise, as well as more interactive and user friendly. I had heard about how fantastic Wordpress was for SEO and with the rise in the social media engines like Technorati, I felt that I could do more to boost my rankings by converting to that format. So I gave it a shot and figured it wouldn't be too big a deal.
Big mistake. Wordpress (at least to me) has an enormous learning curve. The things I used to to be able to do in six seconds took FOREVER to figure out how to do in Wordpress. Even the most simple, arcane tasks I was outsourcing to freelancers for a couple bucks....which wouldn't be a big deal if there weren't so many things I wasn't able to figure out how to do.
Obviously there's going to be some technical know-how anytime you build a website, but I just want to be able to build a nice, crisp clean site without having to jump through hoops and learn 10,000 new things.....or have to pay a programmer to teach me those 10,000 new things. :)
So my question to Jeremy (and the rest of you) is....can you still build that kind of site and move up the ranks organically even on a new domain? Or is some kind of CMS (Wordpress/Joomla/Drupal) necessary now to compete with the big boys?
I know its a pretty open-ended question since a lot of us get caught up in every Web 2.0 buzzword and having to have every tech-saavy plugin or feature.....but in the end, is all that stuff really necessary? Or does a site rich in original content still win out, even if its just basic HTML?
Thanks,
Blair
It doesn't really matter if
It doesn't really matter if it's a CMS or hand-coded site, as long as you follow good SEO and usability guidelines. CMS's can be attractive because they have this built-in. For example, I'm using Drupal to power QYDJ. The URLs look static, but they're all dynamic and easily crawled by Google.
The other advantage of a CMS is that you can leverage other modules and themes. This can be a great time saver. For example, Drupal has a RSS module and a ping module, which help me notify users and search engines when I post new content.
You can build all of this stuff on your own, but as you can imagine it requires skills and time.
The downside of using a CMS is that it can be harder to customize. It took me a few weeks to get my head around Drupal and I'm pretty technical.
Check out this article on SEOMoz about using a CMS:
http://tinyurl.com/2l2dnm
Best,
Jeremy
Thanks Jeremy
That helps a lot.
Also I've noticed that many CMS driven websites are more community-centric, like this one. The site I'm building will have a little bit of interactive functionality (those can be managed by PHP scripts) but I don't think it would need the publishing power of a Wordpress or Drupal etc.
For example, I wasn't really planning on doing any kind of blog to go along with the site because I feel the information would be redundant for a site like this. If I already have a ton of quality content pages (which is my plan) what's the need for a blog? I don't think copying and pasting a bunch of ezine articles and setting them up in WP for future publishing every other day really serves any kind of purpose. Particularly after I read this: (see the "high spidering frequency" section)
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3626036
Cheers
-B
Why Drupal?
Jeremy, What lead you to choose Drupal rather than Joomla or one of the other CMSs? I've heard Drupal is the most complex and least forgiving when it comes to customization.
Drupal is the most complex,
Drupal is the most complex, but offers the most customization. Drupal isn't a CMS (Content Management System), but more of a CMF (Content Management Framework). Drupal gives you endless possibilities, but it has a steep learning curve. It's almost like learning a new programming language (or framework).
It certainly sounds to be
It certainly sounds to be the best of the bunch. It makes me wonder sometimes how paid options, such as Expression Engine and CodeIgniter from EllisLab, can compete when there are stable, secure and extendable open source products backed by very large communities.
Personally, I use WordPress v2.5.1 and I'm very impressed with the changes since the last version I used, v1.5. It seems to me the future for this product will be to compete with the other CMSs available.
I use Wordpress and love it!
I have used Dreamweaver and then after having a website that almost got out of control I went to using Squarespace. Squarespace is great if you intend on creating lots of content but I was paying every month to use it. I then wanted something free to maintain my site so started to research all the open source solutions (Joomla, Wordpress and Drupal) I wanted something simple and a well supported community-wise so I chose Wordpress and I love it. Yes it has a learning curve but I just got Wordpress for dummies to get me through those periods and a slamming theme that showcases my content. I've been having a lot of fun incorporating different plugins and widgets to personlize my site.
If my site wasn't so content intensive and didn't require the amount of maintenance I know it needed I would of stuck with Dreamweaver because it is equally awesome. While my site is in construction mode I use Dreamweaver to design my newsletter.
I understand your point, Wordpress was confusing whenI first got started but as with everything if you keep working with it, it becomes less of a mystery. I suggest to keep working with it, I think it's worth it.