WordPress has developed a reputation as a solid platform for blogging and Joomla and Drupal as content management systems. While that was true at one time, and it does handle blogging extremely well, it is certainly no longer the case that using WordPress for content management should be confined to the blogosphere.

Since around the launch of WordPress 3.0, the platform has blossomed into a full-fledged content management tool for any type of website, including corporate websites, e-commerce websites, and even web applications. The powerful backend flexibility of WordPress allows it to be used to build sites of any shape or size, with features you would expect to find in a commercial CMS available by means of free or low-cost add-ons. It is widely supported by an active user and developer community, making almost anything you can think of available without the hassle of custom coding.

Here are a few of the sites we’ve built with WordPress that look nothing like blogs. Next time we will post some of our favorite WordPress applications from around the web.

Improvolution

Source Communications

And of course… CPS Creative

As the name would imply, Zen mode allows you to just type away, and avoid the temptation to wander over to Facebook, to see what’s trending at YouTube or to check your Gmail… like so…

Eventually, even the header and footer fade away and you are left with nothing but a blank screen and your thoughts. There is nothing more intimidating… or freeing… than a blank page – depending on your perspective, of course. But it definitely makes it much easier to focus on the task at hand.

Rocket Mode: In contrast to the calming nature of zen mode is the blazingly fast speed at which the WordPress platform operates now. I just made up the term rocket mode, but I think it’s pretty apt.

I found some WordPress speed test results that report up to a 40% improvement in performance, and I can believe it. Having used WordPress to design and develop websites day in and day out, I can tell you that it is indeed faster both in loading pages on the front end and in administering pages on the back end. I think their wise decision to drop support for both PHP4 and – thank heavens! – IE6 played a big part in the new snappiness of WordPress 3.2.

Summary: As if that were not enough, the WordPress open source developer community have beefed up WordPress on the backend with a cleaner navigation and dashboard, a more useful admin toolbar and dozens of other small but significant enhancements. Overall, as a tool for the design, development and content management of virtually any corporate or personal website, WordPress 3.2 really ups the ante and demands serious consideration.

If you haven’t upgraded yet, push that button and get on with it. You will be happy you did.

I made this website by hand (not surprisingly) on my very first desktop computer, a Micron (now defunct), with a 40Mb hard drive and Windows 95. This was back in the day when one person – the “webmaster” – did everything from creating graphics, managing the server and coding the HTML. That person was me. And obviously I still had a lot to learn about design and even running a business.

Wonderland lasted a year. After that, I went to work full time in the field for several years before founding CPS Creative in 2004. In that time, the web and I have both evolved and CPS now specializes in a narrow niche of the New York web design and development community, primarily focusing on WordPress website design, small business website design and search engine optimization.

Has your site also evolved since the mid-1990s, or even the mid-2000s? If it hasn’t, perhaps now is the time for a little website makeover.

That’s where we come in.

Our new venture, SEO PRO NYC, New York City search engine optimization specialists, is all about optimizing your site for Google, Bing and Yahoo, specifically for local search in the New York City market.

Here are some reasons you might consider engaging a search engine optimization firm:

• You recently updated your site but are not seeing the kind of traffic you expected.
• You have a site that is all in Flash or images and cannot be indexed at all by search engines, like Google.
• Your site only ranks on Google for your company name, but not what you actually do.
• Your site shows up on Google, but on the 3rd, 4th or 5th page (or worse), which essentially means you don’t show up at all, since no one looks past page one.

If that sounds like you, a search engine optimization overhaul may be what you need. A search engine optimization firm, like SEO PRO, can work with you to target specific keywords to improve your site’s ranking and traffic, and will maintain that ranking over time by keeping your site optimized and fresh.

We work with small, medium and large businesses that need an effective online presence to create professional, attractive and user-friendly websites and other marketing materials and graphic design solutions built according to standards.

We offer affordable rates, fast turnaround and unmatched attention to detail.

Check out our work and read our blog to see what we’re up to.