I have been involved in hosting and managing, or advising on the management of other peoples websites, for around 10 years now, and have seen many developments on the Internet but, IMHO, one of the most useful has been the evolution of CMS.

Over the last 3-4 years i’ve been using and recommending a number of CMS type packages which would, in theory, allow my technically challenged clients to do their own page editing. Of the FREE packages Mambo / Joomla has been a constant contender for attention, but i’ve always thought that it is a little too Geeky for most of my small business clients, still too complicated for all but the most technically orientated of them.
I came across WordPress a couple of years ago, but never gave it much thought as a CMS package because I was under the impression it was software you used if you wanted to set up a Blog. But I was wrong in my assumption, sure Wordpress is one of the best Blog software packages around, but it turns out there’s a LOT more to it than that.

A little while ago I read an article which sang the praises of WordPress as a CMS package, so I thought i’d best check it out and created this website on a domain my business has owned for some time. My conclusion, WOW….

• it is very easy to use even for the most technically challenged
• it has plugins which allow for just about every requirement of a small business website, shopping cart, forms, tables etc etc.
• it has LOTS of very professional looking templates available, which can be quite easily modified ( although I must admit modifying a template does require a little more techiness ;-}
• it is search engine friendly, as long as you remember to set the right Permalink options when setting up your website
• itis FREE software which can be easily installed either manually or via Fantastico which is available through cPanel with our website hosting packages

I am now convinced that Wordpress is THE best option for most small business websites. If you aren’t using it you should give it some serious consideration. If you want to find out more about how to get it installed on your domain contact me.