USING WORDPRESS TO BUILD CORPORATE WEBSITES
DEC 11, 2010AL DAVISaldavis.org
What are we going to cover today?
Why WordPress?
Who is using WordPress for corporate sites?
Beyond the blog- taking WordPress to the next level
How to create a static home page
Questions
So the question is……..
As a Web Designer, why should I start using WordPress for my sites?
Ok, so lots of people use WordPress……why else should I use it?
Easy to install ( the famous 5 minute install)SEO FriendlyLOTS of plugins to make development easierMinimal learning curve
And….
It’s Free
So who is using WordPress as something other than a blog site?
Network Solutions
Andyroddick.com
University of Virginia
Spotify.com
Timberline.com
Vancouverconventioncentre.com
When most people think about WordPress and a blog this is what they envision
So how do you go from…..?
Typical WordPress page hierarchy
Home page of Aggregated posts
/About /contact/post 1
/post 2
/post 3
/People
“New” WordPress page hierarchy
Home page
/About /contact
/blog/post 1
/blog/post2
/blog/post 3
/People
/Blog
Setting a static home page in WordPress
How to create a page in WordPress
Make sure this is unchecked
Step 1. – Set home page to be a static page
Make sure you have these pages created prior to trying to set this up
Step 2. Add code to home page
Makes your home page a re-usable template
Grabs header.php
Good old HTML/CSS Code
Grabs footer.php
Step 3. Add your CSS to the style.css file (or whatever the file is named)
And Voila! You have a non blog looking home page on WordPress!
Additional resources
On the web
•Wordpress.org•SmashingMagazine.com•WPBeginner.com
Groups
Toronto Wordpress Meetup Group
Book Deals
Oreilly Discount code DSUGApress Discount code APRESSUG