Easy Menu Navigation

One of the reasons WordPress works so well as a content management system is because it manages and updates menu navigation for you. As you add pages to your site, theyʼre also added to your siteʼs menu. Not only can you add pages to your siteʼs menu easily, but you can also give those pages hierarchy and easily create a multi-tiered website.

But even better is that many themes offer drop down menu navigation—just like the menus on this site: roll over a menu item and the options appear below. This makes it easy for users to navigate a multi-tiered site and find the information theyʼre looking for. But it also makes it easier for you to keep your site well-organized and easy to navigate—without needing to know the coding that makes drop down menus work.

Integrated Blogging

One of the benefits of using WordPress as a content management system is that first and foremost WordPress is blogging software. Thatʼs what it was designed for. Which means itʼs perfect for managing consistently updated content. You may be thinking that your website doesnʼt need a blog. But you might want to reconsider. Blogging is a great way to set yourself up as an authority in your field. But even if you decide not to have a traditional blog, the blog functionality is still useful. It doesnʼt have to power a blog in the strictest sense—it can power any type of consistently updated content:

• News updates
• Press releases
• Feature articles
• Newsletters
• Portfolios

WordPress takes care of all the details, organizing your content chronologically and categorically. So not only can WordPress handle the static pages of your site with ease, but it can also add the muscle of a full-blown news section, making it easy for you to keep your site up to date.

Expand Your Site with Plugins

Another bonus of using WordPress as a content management system is plugins. The basic WordPress software can be complimented with a host of plugins that can add new features. Plugins come in all shapes and sizes and offer just about any functionality you can imagine.
WordPress offers a directory of several thousand plugins and we point to more resources to help you find helpful plugins.

Here are some of the Most Useful WordPress Plugins:

• Askimet – Industrial-strength spam protection. Itʼs installed automatically, but youʼll need an API code from WordPress.com to activate it.
• Google Sitemaps Generator – Give Google and the other search engines a road map to your content.
• Related Posts – Give readers an easy way to find related (and buried) content.
• BackupBuddy – having a good backup AND restore system is vital … created for developers who want to build a local site and mirror it on a live domain
• Subscribe to Comments – Let comments keep track of the conversation.
• Contact Form – Give site guests an easy way to contact you.
• DisplayBuddy series – Showcase images and text easily in WP widgets
• Mobile – Make an iPhone specific version of your website
• EmailBuddy – Collect email addresses to send professional newsletters to your clients