The Wordpress Web Design Strategy
May 8th, 2010
In the last couple of years, a new type of web designer has emerged: the Wordpress web designer.
What is a Wordpress web designer?
In a nutshell: smart, forward thinking web designers that base most if not all of their web design work off of Wordpress. That means the entire web site is built using Wordpress.
Why build all your sites using Wordpress?
For the very same reason you don’t go the woods to kill a turkey for Thanksgiving (you go to the grocery store) … is why Wordpress web designers don’t build static HTML websites – why would you not take advantages of all the things that Wordpress does for you for free!
… Some nerd details:
When basing your web site off of Wordpress, you get all this functionality for free:
- Advanced templating for easy site wide updates.
- Built-in SEO
- Automatic search and categorizing of your content.
- Built-in image upload and insertion.
- Built-in text editor and the ability for non-nerds to add, edit delete pages.
… And that is just scratching the surface!
The economic advantages of using Wordpress
If you haven’t guessed it already, using Wordpress in your day-to-day web work WILL have major economic advantages – in a nutshell, you will be able to provide a lot more for your clients for a lot less work! This will lead to you landing more web design contracts and making more cash because the extra Wordpress skills will allow you to charge more for your time.
I’m such a big believer, I’ve even created a few video courses on Wordpress.
Until next time nerds!
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
There was a time when I’d agree with you, several years ago.
But there are major disadvantages too.
1. Frequent updates required, due to WordPress hack attacks. In other words, regular maintenance is required to keep WP sites running. Static pages don’t have this problem.
2. Options config takes a while. Even with a custom tool I created to auto-copy options for new installs, each new version of WordPress adds all kinds of new options that require configuration, which means your auto-options tools is now useless! This is a big hassle.
3. If you allow comments, this is even more day-to-day work for a webmaster, continuously updating moderation keyword lists. Spam filters don’t catch everything.
4. Switching hosts is a major headache! Inevitably you will need to switch hosts, eventually. Ask anyone in this business, expect to move now and then. Downloading a MySQL database and successfully restoring it is time-consuming compared to moving static files. Hopefully both hosts allow external MySQL connections, so you need two sets of passwords. Also, hope your new host doesn’t have some kind of glitch with wp-cron, issues with your plugins, .htaccess, etc.
5. WP is resource hungry, compared to static files.
6. jQuery allows you to build an entire multi-page, tabbed website using only one HTML file. This is super-easy to maintain, the interface is more responsive, there’s no worries about running out of memory or MySQL inserts, no worries about viruses, injection attacks, spam comments, and it’s super-easy to backup and super-easy to move to a new host. I gladly offer free updates because in the long run maintaining WordPress is a full-time job.
Don’t get me wrong, I love WordPress and I use it daily, but realize what you’re getting yourself into.
I agree. Web designers shouldn’t be getting involved in heavy server side code without experience. I’ve seen the results of putting designers in charge of the technical side of things and it isnt pretty
There is no perfect solution and your points illustrate that. But, I would argue a few of your points:
1. Yes, you will have to update WP every so often. But I would argue that the time saved by having Wordpress is well worth it. It comes down to how often you will be updating your site. Remember, more updates = more traffic.
2. I have not had too many problems there personally.
3. Again, it has been light work for me. Besides, you can shut off comments and your back to an HTML page … but with all kinds of advantages still.
4. This is rare and a database backup and restore is really a 5-10 minute thing with just a bit of knowledge. But you are right, still harder than moving straight static sites.
5. Not an issue with servers today.
6. Maybe, but if Javascript is turned off, people will not see the sub pages and you will probably take an SEO hit.
Again, nothing is perfect and I do make an assumption that the site will need to be updated regularly.
Thanks for the comments.
Stefan
@ wp-fun
Any popular site that is dynamic is a power hungry beast, that’s why you apply cache and buffer to the site to combat the workload.
So you buffer your page into a static page, only thing you might want to leave dynamic might be the comments.
Then it’s just a matter of setting the frequency to refresh the buffer and this can be anything from once a day or every hour depending on your needs.
And when you got a big site, you just have to ask the new host company to handle the move for you, as if you pitch it right it should be a plus for them to host the popular site.
And yes as with all popular widely used platforms you become the target for various attacks, but you have to look at it this way.. at least it’s not closed source so you are getting fixes out very quickly compared to if it wasn’t open source.
While I agree with one of the commenter on the disadvantages, I don’t think those reasons are enough to not use it for clients. It is simple to setup and teach people to use. You as the dev/designer just have to stay up to date on updates as well as keeping an eye on your server for hacks.
i am also with “Web designers shouldn’t be getting involved in heavy server side code without experience” as these days google is happy with the sites which got low loading time….
Nice Post
[...] – How much do web designers earn? – The Wordpress Web Design Strategy. [...]
Stefan,
I love your teaching. Everything you right is brief, but to the POINT! I am enjoying you and consider you to be my own personal tutor, teacher, and instructor, and everything that you have is most definitely worth the investment, which I will be making in the next couple weeks or month. I am looking forward to it too!
LaVonne,
Thanks for the kind words and I’m happy to hear you find the tutorials helpful.
… Many more on the way.
Stef