WordPress® For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 14. Beyond Blogging: WordPress as a Content Management System

In This Chapter

• Defining a Content Management System

• Setting the home page

• Creating a template for each static page, post category, and sidebar

• Custom styles for sticky posts, categories, and tags

• Using custom post types

• Optimizing for search engine success

If you've avoided using WordPress as a solution for building your own Web site because you think it's only a blogging platform, and you don't want to have a blog (not every Web site owner does, after all), it's time to rethink your position. The self-hosted version of WordPress, WordPress.org, is a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that is flexible and extensible enough to run an entire Web site — with no blog at all, if you prefer.

A Content Management System (CMS) is a system used to create and maintain your entire site. It includes tools for publishing and editing, as well as for searching and retrieving information and content. A CMS lets you maintain your Web site with little or no knowledge of HTML. You can create, modify, retrieve, and update your content without ever having to touch the code required to perform those tasks.

This chapter shows you a few ways that you can use the self-hosted WordPress.org software to power your entire Web site, with or without a blog. It covers different template configurations that you can use to create separate sections of your site. You also discover how to use the front page of your site as a landing page (a static ...