1. Why WordPress?
A Whitepaper
by
Brent Toderash,
WebRiggers.net
November 2010
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons

2. Why Use WordPress?
What do Martha Stewart, Discover Magazine, the NFL, the Royal Navy, the Wall Street
Journal, CNN, and Danielle Steele have in common? They all use WordPress. CNET,
Ford, Zdnet, and various other popular sites are using WordPress as a Content
Management System (CMS). WordPress is also used by Coca­Cola, the New York Times, and The Ford Motor Company's
autoshow site which offers a virtual autoshow online that looks nothing like a traditional WordPress theme. The 2009
People's Choice Awards included an innovative live blog powered by WordPress. So many notable websites have
actually begun using WordPress in so many interesting ways that the project sponsors now maintain a WordPress
Showcase to feature them.
At the same time, the software is easy enough to use that a computer­friendly 9­year­old can easily write a
blog post and publish it online in minutes. The software is feature­rich, but an overwhelming featureset is not
necessarily the best approach to evaluating WordPress as a website platform. Instead, consider the big
picture: its architecture.
Architecture
WordPress is designed to keep three main website components separate: the content, the
design, and the underlying programming. Keeping each of these “layers” of the website
separate and distinct means that one can be changed without affecting the others. A
website redesign need not mean re­entering all the site content. Similarly, making
changes to the content doesn't require digging into the internal programming of the
site, and software updates will not overwrite the existing content or design features.
As well, keeping the data separate from the design also allows reformatting the
content on­the­fly for different devices, such as the rapidly growing number
of mobile phones that support web browsing.
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons

3. Extensibility
WordPress is almost infinitely extensible through the use of existing or custom­
developed “plugins.” Like WordPress itself, most of these are licensed under the
GPL and written in the PHP programming language to access the existing
WordPress database. These plugins can be used to add a myriad of
features to a website to achieve just the right set of features required to fulfill its purpose. In fact, WordPress plugins can
be custom­developed to meet very specific site requirements, and use a host of WordPress “hooks” to insert data in
the appropriate places without modifying any of the underlying WordPress software files. Popular plugins facilitate
integration with other sites like Twitter or Facebook, publishing of podcasts or videoblogs, photogalleries, and
Google Analytics to name just a few.
In the same way that WordPress functions can be extended, there
are innumerable free themes for WordPress that can be download
and used or modified to suit a particular site. These themes can
completely change the layout and structure of the website
without changing the site content itself. In fact, themes can
actually add or make extended use of certain site functions
that might be hidden or omitted in other themes.
Changing between themes is a simple matter as well – one
client needed separate summer and winter versions of their
website, which have been set up as separate themes.
Changing between them is a matter of two mouse­
clicks through the WordPress Administration interface.
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons

4. Basic WordPress Features
Despite the extent to which WordPress can be modified and customized, its base feature set is quite comprehensive. Its system
of managing posts and pages allows for both hierarchical and chronological organization of material. Further, WordPress
allows organization by categories – which can be hierarchical – and by tags, an increasingly popular taxonomy for
organizing data online. Pages can optionally have a “feedback” or threaded discussion format through the built­in
comment feature, which can be turned on or off for individual pages as desired. WordPress natively includes future­
posting, which allows you to set up an entry to be automatically published at a preset time and date.
RSS feeds are automatic with WordPress, which supports multiple feeds for such things as chronological updates,
entries in a specific category, comments, and comments on a specific entry or page.
Open Source Software
WordPress is Open Source software built upon the Open Source
technologies of PHP and MySQL and is licensed under the GNU General
Public License, or GPL. Two immediate benefits of this approach are the
inclusion of a large number of software developers contributing to the
project, and that the software is available at no cost. For these
reasons, WordPress is under active development with new features
appearing regularly.
The software is built to run upon the similarly­licensed
platforms of the PHP programming language and the MySQL database. Along with the
Linux operating system and Apache web server software, PHP and MySQL are two of
the letters in the “LAMP” acronym, which refers to the website hosting environment
of choice for a majority of websites on the Internet. This means that finding a web
host for a WordPress site is very easy – some hosts even provide a one­click­
install through an admin panel, so your site can be up and ready to
customize in just a few minutes. Even if your chosen web host doesn't
offer this service, WordPress is famous for its easy “five­minute
install”.
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons

5. One major advantage with Open Source software generally is the avoidance of “vendor lock.” Vendor Lock occurs when a
system is custom­developed or available from only one or a very small number of sources in a region. Once you commit to this
platform or product, it can be difficult to change vendors later on because of licensing or support entanglements. Just like cell
phone contracts, some vendors actively use this strategy as a means of customer retention.
Large User­Base with Readily­Available Expertise
In the case of WordPress (and its underlying technologies), there is an active developer community
that is continually making fixes, enhancements, and improvements to the product. And due to the
software license, all of these updates are available at no cost – just like the original installation.
Because the technology is so widely used, finding a consultant to build extensions or
troubleshoot a problem is almost never an issue down the road. There are in fact a growing
number of consultants who work exclusively on WordPress site programming, as well as
many excellent resources for do­it­yourselfers, both online and in print.
As of April 2009, statistics suggested that WordPress was used on more than 1% of all
websites on the Internet. This doesn't sound like a lot until you realize that there are currently thought to
be about 155 million websites online, each existing to serve a diverse set of purposes.
Interoperability
Online, WordPress functions as a web application which functions within the user's web
browser of choice – Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Opera – on any of
the leading operating systems. As well, it works with third­party applications for offline
blogging, such as ecto on Mac, BlogDesk or Raven on Windows, Qumana on Windows
or Mac, and Flock or the Scribefire extension for Firefox on Windows, Mac, or Linux.
As well, WordPress includes a special “Paste from Word” function for people who
like to compose posts or pages in Word and then copy/paste them to their
website. For people wanting the ability to update their website on the go,
free smartphone applications are available for iPhone, BlackBerry,
and Android phones.
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons

6. Ease of Use
Although WordPress is an extremely powerful content management system (CMS), it is extremely simple to use. Although there
are an lot of settings and features to manage in the administration area, most of the less­frequently­used options can be
tucked away out of sight, while the most common ones are clearly marked and appear “above the fold.” In fact, the
WordPress interface is in many ways easier to navigate than the familiar Facebook one,
and is much easier than CMS­competitors Joomla! and Drupal. With recent releases of
the software, the administration interface even allows you to search for extensions
and install or update them with a few mouse clicks.
WordPress makes it is easy to update content on your website without knowing HTML. Once WordPress is set up, you
can create new pages or edit existing ones using a rich text editor.
The administration area is easy to navigate as well – no more difficult than Facebook, and much easier to use
than competitors like Joomla! or Drupal. Many web hosts (BlueHost, 1and1, DreamHost, GoDaddy, Media
Temple, and WebRiggers.net) actually have an option to install WordPress with a single click. Once installed,
updates can usually be done through the admin interface with a few simple clicks.
Standards & Compatibility
WordPress follows W3C's published web standards,
meaning that its output to the web browser is properly
compliant and up­to­date in order to minimize
display issues from one browser or platform to the
next. (Individual plugins or themes may not be fully compliant.)
Ensuring that WordPress' native output follows a standard format makes it easier for
website developers to produce themes that also follow accepted web
standards. Although standards are important to adhere to, certain web
browsers (Internet Explorer) require additional workarounds which may
not be fully compliant, but ensure the site will display properly across
all the major web browers and operating systems. (You want
to make sure your developer does not ignore this, which
means testing across each of the major browsers – Internet
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons

7. Explorer 6 and later, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera – and operating systems – Windows, Mac, and Linux – to be
certain that the site display is consistent within a specified tolerance for differences like Helvetica vs. Arial fonts.)
Search Engine Optimization
Following accepted standards also helps structure the data for search engines to index. WordPress in
particular is well­formatted for Google to find and index a website, as it includes built­in functions to
automatically notify external sites like search engines or content aggregators that the content on
the website has changed and needs to be re­indexed. Some themes are better­suited to this than others, but there
are specific plugins available to more effectively optimize the site for search engines. And like many other of
WordPress' features, once these are set up, everything happens automatically in the background.
WordPress provides good search engine optimization (SEO) with minimal
effort. There are a few tweaks to make, but most of it is already there.
Google’s own Matt Cutts says WordPress is “made to do SEO well” in a video interview
(Matt Cutts gives tips to small business owners). Even if a site is intended to be present
essentially static content, WordPress still presents a compelling argument, as one
article states. Among the reasons are not only the ease with which features can be
set up, but also the manner that “Google and WordPress work together”,
meaning your site will be easier to find online, which is pretty much the whole
point of the exercise.
WordPress Among its Alternatives
WordPress has begun to be recognized as a best­of­breed solution. In 2009, it won
in the annual Open Source CMS Awards for “Best Overall Open Source CMS”
and was the runner­up as “Best PHP Open Source CMS” ahead of
Joomla! and second to Drupal by a narrow margin. This achievement
was for a category in which they didn't factor into in the top
five for 2008. WordPress has also been nominated for a Hall
of Fame CMS award for 2010.
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons

8. In 2007, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg has been named #16 in PCWorld's list of
The 50 Most Important People on the Web. The following year, he was named one of
Inc. Magazine's 30­Under­30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs and
BusinessWeek placed him on their list of The 25 Most Influential People on the Web.
Mullenweg's recognition here is based primarily on his work with WordPress,
which has steadily gained in popularity since the project began in 2003.
Joomla!
One of the biggest alternatives to WordPress is Joomla!, an offshoot of the Mambo CMS software project. Joomla! Is
a powerful content management system which like WordPress uses themes and plugins to change its look and
extend its features in a multitude of ways. Of the available themes and extensions, a higher percentage of
Joomla!'s seem to be commercial (for­pay) rather than free open­source solutions, though both projects have
both free and commercial themes and plugins available.
The biggest drawback for Joomla! is its administration interface, which is fairly
complex to the point that it can easily confuse inexperienced users. Joomla! is
sometimes perceived as being more powerful – or extensible – than WordPress,
but this is due largely to a different development philosophy. In actual
practice, I have yet to find something that can be achieved with Joomla!
that can't be achieved with WordPress.
As well, the type of theme design required for Joomla! sites is slightly more complex than for
WordPress, meaning that the cost for a custom­developed site or for later design
changes can tend to be marginally higher.
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons

9. Drupal
Drupal is perhaps the oldest of the three major open source content management systems.
Although it is very flexible, it has been criticized for having an administration interface that, like
Joomla! can be confusing at times since it is not always very intuitive, giving it a steeper
learning curve. While updates to the software are released at no cost (as with Joomla! and WordPress), the Drupal
development team have decided that backward­compatibility is not a necessity in major releases. This means that a
major software update can cause plugins and extensions to “break” and require further programming in order to
restore functionality. While other systems including WordPress are not completely immune to this, their approach to
backward­compatibility ensures that such occurrences are minimized.
Custom­Designed Content Management Systems
Custom­designed content management systems were the norm for many sites until some of the available
ready­made solutions became flexible enough in the past few years to accommodate virtually any
requirement. Custom CMSs can be designed to perfectly match the
site requirements, but their drawback comes when changes or
updates are required. For these, the site owner must bear 100% of
the associated costs. Custom (or house­branded) CMSs may also
lock the site owner into a long­term relationship with the
vendor for hosting and maintenance, and may not easily
facilitate migration to another web host or platform.
Further, custom systems which are not well­designed
can tend to mix the presentation (design or format)
of the content with the application (site
programming) so that changes to the design
require reprogramming of the application code. Sometimes this weakness
can extend to include all or part of the site content as well. In this respect,
all of the leading open source solutions mentioned above offer the
advantage of keeping the site content, the design, and the
functionality of the site separated to make future design or
feature changes as straightforward as possible.
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons

10. About WebRiggers.net
WebRiggers.net is a Winnipeg­based professional technical and creative services company
specializing in providing innovative solutions to business challenges. WebRiggers.net was
founded by Brent Toderash to address the need of small to medium enterprises for reliable functional websites to form a
cohesive part of their marketing programs. Clients and project experience of WebRiggers' consultants includes
provincial government departments, municipalities, economic development agencies, crown corporations, multi­
national and public companies, financial services, the entertainment industry, the education sector, and various
professional services clients as well as non­profit organizations and a variety of other small and home­based
businesses and individuals.
About Brent Toderash
Brent Toderash is a freelance thinker, writer, and consultant who serves as the
senior project manager for WebRiggers.net and is responsible for the delivery
of all projects undertaken by the company. As an entrepreneur, he earned
distinction in his work with Rainy Day Internet, where one of the major
projects he spearheaded was featured as a case study for Industry Canada on successfully
deploying rural broadband access. He has been interviewed in connection with various
regional, national, and industry news stories for a number of publications and media outlets,
including The Steinbach Carillon, The Interlake Spectator, The Stonewall Argus, The Selkirk
Journal, ITBusiness.ca, The Ottawa Citizen, Wi­fiPlanet.com, Wireless Broadband Business
Magazine, Decima Publishing's Report on Wireless, and in the CWTA (Canadian
Wireless Telecommunications Association) Newsletter, as well as CHEX Television, the CTV
Affiliate in Peterborough Ontario, and locally on CHVN Radio and CBC Radio
One. His technical articles have been published since 2000 at Penguinista.org
and more recently for C­level executives at CIO.com.
©2010, Brent Toderash, WebRiggers.net
Distributed under the Creative Commons