Last week i had a task that i was really waiting to get one of these days. We had a client who has a basic informative website about a service they offer. The website was created a couple of years ago and they were very happy with design, but they wanted it to be a CMS. So that if they want to add another page they don’t have to manually create the page and add a link to it from the navigation menu on all other pages.
An obvious choice was WordPress since all they need is a 10 page website plus Blog, Drupal would be to big of an overkill for this scenario. Now, even though i already made more then 30 WordPress installs, i usually used either a free them and just made some small changes or even sometimes the client liked the theme so i didn’t even had to touch it.
I was looking for a blank WordPress theme that while having all the necessary elements would let me do the design. And while i am sure there are dozens of those here is one i used and was pretty happy with, its called WP Framework their own description says it in the best way possible:
A blank WordPress Theme Framework that’s everything you need, and nothing you don’t
And thats exactly what it was. All i had to do is break the existing HTML into parts as following:
- header.php will hold parts of the HTML that never change from page to page on the top of the page
- footer.php holds parts of the HTML that never change from page to page on the bottom of the page
- sidebar.php has to have the HTML that will container that will be able to stretch based on the widgets activated in the back-end menu
- and of course index.php thats where you include the header, footer and sidebar plus the container for the main part of the page your posts and pages.
Then i imported the CSS and 99% of the site was done. Feels great -I just created my first WordPress theme. Having done it i see first hand why there are so many nice and free WordPress themes, since you don’t have to be a coder to make one.
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Cool, I had seen that theme, and was wondering what kind of application it had. Now I know! Can I see the site you refactored like this? I'm curious to know what it looks like.
Sure, i have sent it to you.
use wordpress ita a magic cms . you can do anything what you need in wordpress . just use the static option in the settings in admin panel and also change you permalink settings , it will give you a html pages web site . I have allready made many sites in wordpress for my clients.
the static settings only affect the front page the rest stays the same…
Wow, very cool list.
Some great sites there
Some times it is not that easy to convert the info.
I also had customers with old sites that wanted ability to edit their site.
I usualy use drupal or content editor like toko or cmseasy to create specific tags in the site
And one of the main reasons behind the failures of the newbie bloggers is that they take SEO [damn] seriously. And that’s where they start making errors by using forced keywords and other stupid stuff!
Very well written article, thx for sharing.
Have been looking at doing SEO and bettering the web design on my website for a while, so this website has been very useful. Clear read also, so thanks!
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I often wondered how to make wordpress sites. I didn't know that you could start with a template and then customize it.
Off I go then in search of wordpress templates. Thanks for the info, very informative.
There are many great WordPress templates @ themeforest.net