Using Wordpress as CMS for large Websites
-
Is Wordpress good enough to be used as a full fledge CMS for a large website. In particular, I'm talking about a news website. We have been online since 2002 but pretty soon we will have digitized our print newspaper archives of about 60 years. So, my question is, is it OK to use Wordpress for the entire website and if so what are some of the important things that need to be kept in mind.
Cheers!
-
Joomla can be very slow for large sites and drupal requires programmers. I would also recommend looking at the yoast wordpress seo plugin. I use it for all my sites and he has alot of info on how to optimise wordpress.
I am a regular reader of dawn, Good to see they are finally upgrading
-
add a +1 from me for wordpress. As mentioned above, there are several large sites using it effectively.
-
Thanks Barry,
The thing is we've already made the shift to WP but I was wondering thats an OK solution for a popular news website. As for Google news, we're amongst the favorites their when it comes to Pakistan news, as that's where we operate so that's not an issue. Thanks for giving the rest of the pointers!
Best,
Rishad.
-
Well, if the New York Times can use it...
Things to remember though:
- You'll need this - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-news-sitemap-generator/ - or similar.
If not (and there's no real reason not to) then think about your URL structure, you must use a non-date like number (minimum 3 digits) in the URL. Thus please take into account your permalink structures to include something like %post_id% or other identifier.
-
To be included in Google news you need at least 3 journalists (I think). As you're a newspaper I don't see that being a problem, but make your staff list easily found on the site.
-
Even as a real news site you may initially be rejected from Google news (I'm sure they do it just to weed out the people that don't really believe they should be there). So if rejected submit again
-
Speed. Cache everything - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/
-
Categorization. Make sure you have your site structure down and not just adding things haphazardly.
-
User roles and permissions. If journalists are going to be adding directly, make sure you've set up what they can and can't do.
-
Think hard about going for it. Movable Type is a very good option for news sites as well and is much more secure (this is a fact, I
WP, don't jump on me for saying it - http://www.movabletype.com/blog/2008/06/movable-type-a-history-of-secu.html - Although WP is a bit better now :D). MT is updated far less regularly and is usually much more stable as well. So just consider your options.
-
Unfortunately, our techies are just as bad as our journalists. I guess we should stick with Wordpress then, I am aware of the scalibility issues but journos are most comfortable with the platform so can\t decide which way to go because our website is going to get larger and larger in the comng times!
-
Thanks for the resource brother...
-
I would definitely check out other CMS solutions such as Drupal, Joomla and MODx.
I love Wordpress for small sites (less than 1000 pages), but I think the CMS has some problems in terms of scalability - especially if you require lots of different templates - or even worse - multilingual variations.
If you have lots of developers, you obviously have the muscle for massive customizations, which makes it more likely to succeed.
Another criteria to keep in mind is the tech savyness of the journalists. If you aren't too comfortable with IT, Wordpress might be your best bet.
In sum, Wordpress will probably favor the journalists, while Drupal / Joomla / MODx will favor the tech team. Don't know who you want to help out the most
-
If you are looking to engage community I wholeheartedly recommend Buddy Press for Word Press. Plenty of useful plugins for it around.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
NO Meta description pulling through in SERP with react website - Requesting Indexing & Submitting to Google with no luck
Hi there, A year ago I launched a website using react, which has caused Google to not read my meta descriptions. I've submitted the sitemap and there was no change in the SERP. Then, I tried "Fetch and Render" and request indexing for the homepage, which did work, however I have over 300 pages and I can't do that for every one. I have requested a fetch, render and index for "this url and linked pages," and while Google's cache has updated, the SERP listing has not. I looked in the Index Coverage report for the new GSC and it says the urls and valid and indexable, and yet there's still no meta description. I realize that Google doesn't have to index all pages, and that Google may not also take your meta description, but I want to make sure I do my due diligence in making the website crawlable. My main questions are: If Google didn't reindex ANYTHING when I submitted the sitemap, what might be wrong with my sitemap? Is submitting each url manually bad, and if so, why? Am I simply jumping the gun since it's only been a week since I requested indexing for the main url and all the linked urls? Any other suggestions?
Web Design | | DigitalMarketingSEO1 -
Wordpress Tag Organization Tips
Curious if anyone has some good examples of ways to organize your WordPress tags without making your sidebar a football field long and hard to navigate. My blog is https://karmahill.com/blog and I could use some ideas. We have main categories of photo shoot types, for example, "Couples", located on the sidebar. We want to add tags to go with those main categories for further categorization and user experience example: Couples Engagement Proposals Honeymoon Maternity My question is, do I need to make "tag" pages for those posts to reside on or is their another way to get it done with less work, that is much faster? I don't want to have to make 30 tag pages or is that just what you have to do?
Web Design | | photoseo13 -
Multilingual website in Belgium?
Hi Mozzers, I have a question about a multilingual website for a client for us in Belgium. As you guys know in Belgium we speak French and Dutch. The situation:
Web Design | | WeAreDigital_BE
At the moment we have client.be for the Dutch version of the website and client.be/fr for the French version. All tagged with href lang tags and webmaster tools. The client wants to build a new website. There are three possibilities: 1. We keep using subfolders (same configuration as the current situation). In my head this would be my first choice. 2. We just let them build two separate domains.
client-keywordindutch.be & client-keywordinfrench.be 3. We use subdomains. As the development company is not sure that it is technically possible to use subdomains, I need to know which option is the next best one and which option you would give priority and why? Should we just push through with the subfolder? Thank you for your thoughts!
Sander0 -
Duplicate page title caused by Shopify CMS
Hi, We have an ecommerce site set up at devlinsonline.com.au using Shopify and the MOZ crawl is returning a huge number (hundreds!) of Duplicate Page Title errors. The issue seems to be the way that Shopify uses tagging to sort products. So, using the 'Riedel' collection as an example, the urls devlinsonline.com.au/collections/riedel-glasses/ devlinsonline.com.au/collections/riedel-glasses/decanters devlinsonline.com.au/collections/riedel-glasses/vinum all have the exact same page title. We are also having the same issue with the blog and other sections of our site. Is this something that is actually a serious issue or, perhaps, is Google's algorithm intelligent enough to recognise that this is part of Shopify's layout so it will not negatively affect our rankings and can, essentially, be ignored? Thanks.
Web Design | | SimonDevlin0 -
Does Google penalize duplicate website design?
Hello, We are very close to launching five new websites, all in the same business sector. Because we would like to keep our brand intact, we are looking to use the same design on all five websites. My question is, will Google penalize the sites if they have the same design? Thank you! Best regards,
Web Design | | Tiberiu
Tiberiu0 -
Hom much does getting a mobile website improve the "mobile ranking"?
There's been speculation about Google totally not ranking sites that are not mobile, but as far as I can see many sites rank THE SAME on mobile devices as on regular stationary PCs/lap-tops. I had hoped for a radically improved ranking once a mobile site was built. Or is it just that it takes a TON of time for it to go through and then it gets better or is it like with regular sites that a new mobile site on a sub-domain is parked in some form of mobile-sand-box? Also, does putting a mobile site on a ranking domain, as subdomain help, e.g. m.testingsite.com instead of testingsite.mobi ? Thanks.
Web Design | | yvonneq0 -
SEO while designing the website and continuous SEO
What's the difference between SEO while designing/developing a website (ie, setting up a website so it is crawled by search engines) and the SEO that people talk about that needs to be viewed analyzed and changed all the time? I don't have a ton of money to spend on SEO right now but I do want to make sure my website is set up by an SEO expert (if possible) so when I do have money to spend on SEOthe website is set up properly to work with more advanced forms of SEO. I guess I don't understand where you can draw the line (if forced due to money constraints) between SEO in the beginning and continued SEO. What do I need to look for with SEO and the design of my website. How do I get some type of SEO without breaking the bank??
Web Design | | CapitolShine0 -
What is the best SEO friendly CMS platform?
Would like to build some content sites and would appreciate some guidance on what you believe to be the most SEO friendly CMS platform. I'm also hoping to find something that doesn't require much HTML and is pretty easy to jump into.
Web Design | | EdStaton0