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HTML site vs. Wordpress

by Oscar D
43 replies
I am busy working on a review site and I do not know what to use?

I can build a decent .HTML site using Dreamweaver or Xsitepro, but I have heard that the power of wordpress is important.

Will I be able to make a site using HTML and still rank high?
#html #site #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author JayXtreme
    Yes.. you can make an HTML site and still rank high..

    That has been my experience.. I have a huge mix of HTML and Wordpress sites and they all have the same qualities, some more than others but that is a result of what I am using them for

    Peace

    Jay
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  • Profile picture of the author Oscar D
    I am much more comfortable with html

    I find wordpress and PHP to be very hard to work with. I battle to just change the font size with Wordpress.

    You are right, thank you for your opinion and I just found a good .html temp
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  • Profile picture of the author Marty S
    Originally Posted by Oscar D View Post

    I can build a decent .HTML site using Dreamweaver or Xsitepro, but I have heard that the power of wordpress is important. Will I be able to make a site using HTML and still rank high?
    Uh... HTML of course it will rank and is still the foundation of most websites today. Even a CSS website like WP is really still HTML.

    Here is my first choices for designing a new website based on what I want the website to do and be.

    1- Stagnant website (no frequent changes or blog) like a sales or capture page or 5 to 15 pages - then I use straight HTML created in dreamweaver.

    2- An auto blog where most of my content comes from other sources and a good chunk of it is auto-posted - no question here - it`s WordPress.

    3- For a TLC website with lots of (most) my own original content and personal attention my first choice is Joomla! for powerful google rankings, excellent templates and visuals, and ease of updating.
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    • Profile picture of the author Oscar D
      That is a perfect answer Marty S.

      After reading your post I can easily see that this type of site is going to be the first one you have mentioned.

      Thanks


      Originally Posted by Marty S View Post

      Uh... HTML of course it will rank and is still the foundation of most websites today. Even a CSS website like WP is really still HTML.

      Here is my first choices for designing a new website based on what I want the website to do and be.

      1- Stagnant website (no frequent changes or blog) like a sales or capture page or 5 to 15 pages - then I use straight HTML created in dreamweaver.

      2- An auto blog where most of my content comes from other sources and a good chunk of it is auto-posted - no question here - it`s WordPress.

      3- For a TLC website with lots of (most) my own original content and personal attention my first choice is Joomla! for powerful google rankings, excellent templates and visuals, and ease of updating.
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    • Profile picture of the author DavidTheMavin
      Originally Posted by Marty S View Post

      Uh... HTML of course it will rank and is still the foundation of most websites today. Even a CSS website like WP is really still HTML.

      Here is my first choices for designing a new website based on what I want the website to do and be.

      1- Stagnant website (no frequent changes or blog) like a sales or capture page or 5 to 15 pages - then I use straight HTML created in dreamweaver.

      2- An auto blog where most of my content comes from other sources and a good chunk of it is auto-posted - no question here - it`s WordPress.

      3- For a TLC website with lots of (most) my own original content and personal attention my first choice is Joomla! for powerful google rankings, excellent templates and visuals, and ease of updating.
      I agree with this except I'd replace Joomla! with Drupal:

      "You'll also want to ensure there's consistency in the internal linking of your site. Some content management systems (CMS) such as Joomla! will create multiple versions of pages and link to them with multiple URLs within the site. The Joomla! issue is especially bad with their frontpage treatment, which can create dozens of different home pages, each of which gets linked from various sections of the site. Ensure you link to your pages using a standardized rule, and stick to it."
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      • Profile picture of the author Marty S
        Originally Posted by DavidTheMavin View Post

        I agree with this except I'd replace Joomla! with Drupal:

        "You'll also want to ensure there's consistency in the internal linking of your site. Some content management systems (CMS) such as Joomla! will create multiple versions of pages and link to them with multiple URLs within the site. The Joomla! issue is especially bad with their frontpage treatment, which can create dozens of different home pages, each of which gets linked from various sections of the site. Ensure you link to your pages using a standardized rule, and stick to it."

        Hmmm... Never even heard of this issue even though I have a dozen or so Joomla sites? But I am not a techie either. I do know that Joomla is simply "steamrolling" Drupal in growth, support and open source contributions.
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        • Profile picture of the author ButcherBoy.BG
          Originally Posted by cosmokid View Post

          I build regular html sites with css for the styles and then I create a simple one page feed. This gives you a nice hybrid site where you can blog and ping, submit your feed to rss directories, and submit your site as a blog to various blog indices - and Google likes it when your site has a feed. But that way you avoid all the garbage that comes with Wordpress -- comment spam, constantly software updates, hacking problems, etc.
          Jennifer
          With Wordpress you could blog&ping as easier as it can be
          Also to make auto site map and lot of thing that google likes
          About comment spam and so on-it's easy to avoid these problems. It's a matter of settings.
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  • Profile picture of the author sainshea
    Wordpress is better because it wont take much time to update the site
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  • Profile picture of the author Joemarf
    No doubt - WP is much better in updating contents because it wont take much time. for e.g. Blog Sites.
    But if you have no plans of changing website content much then go for HTML.
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Burton
    "The Power of WordPress" is in its versatility and ease of updating. There are plugins for WordPress to achieve most results you could want output onto the page. It does not possess any magical power to influence search engines. A crappy wordpress webmaster will still fail against a good html webmaster. The opposite is also true. A crappy html webmaster will fail against a good WP webmaster.

    It's not the tool. It's how it's used that makes the difference.
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    • Profile picture of the author InternetMarketingCenter
      Originally Posted by Scott Burton View Post

      "The Power of WordPress" is in its versatility and ease of updating. There are plugins for WordPress to achieve most results you could want output onto the page. It does not possess any magical power to influence search engines. A crappy wordpress webmaster will still fail against a good html webmaster. The opposite is also true. A crappy html webmaster will fail against a good WP webmaster.

      It's not the tool. It's how it's used that makes the difference.

      Absolutely true.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sipboy3000
      Originally Posted by Scott Burton View Post

      It's not the tool. It's how it's used that makes the difference.
      I second that one.

      The reason I use Wordpress is because it is what I started building webistes with in the beginning. When I only knew a little html, I could build decent sites with Wordpress.

      I have since learned more about html, css, and php. This gives me the ability to make virtually any type of website using Wordpress.

      I'm not saying don't use html only sites, but Wordpress gives you the functionality to do much more. If you are looking for static only pages with not much content management, then html may be the way to go. If you want more robust features to open up endless possiblities, then I say with Wordpress you can't go wrong.
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  • Profile picture of the author danielmcclure
    I use wordpress most of the time but found that it didn't live up to my needs for a Review Site. Rather than go HTML, I decided to take on the project of building my own Wordpress Review Theme so I'm not sure what option I should state. Personally I've found with a cocktail of the right plugins Wordpress generally works better for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
    The 'power of WordPress' is NOT hype. But there's a reason (several) for that 'power'.

    WordPress, natively behind the scenes, and through well-built themes, does a lot of things right that help pages get indexed and ranked quickly in the search engines.

    HTML or WordPress, doesn't matter. What matters is that you DO with your HTML pages what WordPress and a good theme does with its content: ping on updates, have a Google/Yahoo/MSN-compliant sitemap, structure your HTML properly, etc.

    THAT is the 'power of WordPress', and its not imaginary.
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  • Profile picture of the author ButcherBoy.BG
    My advice is to go with Wordpress!
    There are a lot of plugins, templates and so on...
    Wordpress is like CMS and it's easier to organizer,post and maintanance site!

    Good luck!


    Originally Posted by Oscar D View Post

    I am busy working on a review site and I do not know what to use?

    I can build a decent .HTML site using Dreamweaver or Xsitepro, but I have heard that the power of wordpress is important.

    Will I be able to make a site using HTML and still rank high?
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  • Profile picture of the author BigVin
    It really just depends on your situation and what you're doing with it. Have any more specifics?
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    • Profile picture of the author KenJ
      HTML no question

      I was previously completely taken with wordpress euphoria. Not any more

      Wordpress does work great for some types of site but if you want a very specific look and feel you have to jump through far too many hoops to get what you want.

      I have had 4 wordpress sites hijacked. This has never happened with a html site of mine.

      The 1,000's of themes are usually rubbish if you want to create a unique look and feel. They never quite scratch where I itch.

      My html websites rank just as well as my wordpress sites so I do not understand all the talk of "Better rankings" with wordpress sites.

      Do what you want to do for the best business decision.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve Sanchez
        How much effort do you want to put into your site. If you build and forget then html. If you will be using RSS feeds to get backlinks Wordpress is easier.
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      • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
        Originally Posted by kenj View Post

        HTML no question
        Wordpress does work great for some types of site but if you want a very specific look and feel you have to jump through far too many hoops to get what you want.
        My word - what hoops do you have to jump thru? If you're into building your own pages, build an HTML page, put the WordPress loop on it, put it in a theme folder, and you're done!

        ####

        That said, if you're only going to build a 4- or 6-page site, even that is hardly worth the effort.
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  • Profile picture of the author billnad
    Wow a flame war about Wordpress? I used to use Movable Type for all my blogs and then a couple of years moved to wordpress. I can set up a full site with Wordpress in about 20 minutes which may be a bit slower than static HTML by about 19 minutes but the reason that I love Wordpress is because of the following

    Interaction with commenting
    SEO using Plugins
    Ease of adding content
    Ease of updating content
    Many designs using free to use themes
    Ability to change all pages very quickly
    Plugins to enhance content, links, layout, and SEO

    I have lots of sites that are static HTML but most of the time really I am trying to build and add lots of content in Wordpress.

    There is no magic bullet really since you still need content. If you have no content to offer the search engines then there is really no reason to rank whether you are using static HTML or any of the CMSs including Wordpress, Joomla, or Drupal
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Fullman
    Erm...

    Just a quick note.

    The search engines don't care a crap about your platform.

    They're in business to index your content.

    ...oh, and show you ads, but that's OT

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author Marty S
      Originally Posted by Steven Fullman View Post

      The search engines don't care a crap about your platform. They're in business to index your content.
      Careful though, because some platforms in particular are better able to showcase your content to an search indexing program, so if a computer spider could really care, yes he just might give a crap! ;-).
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      • Profile picture of the author Steven Fullman
        Originally Posted by Marty S View Post

        Careful though, because some platforms in particular are better able to showcase your content to an search indexing program, so if a computer spider could really care, yes he just might give a crap! ;-).
        Good point.

        But show me a platform that Google would want to see more than HTML...! There isn't anything 'magic' about WP. It's just very good at announcing blog updates to the world.

        ...Something that we can do with plain ole HTML websites easily enough.



        Steve
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        • Profile picture of the author AussieT
          Originally Posted by Steven Fullman View Post

          Good point.

          But show me a platform that Google would want to see more than HTML...! There isn't anything 'magic' about WP. It's just very good at announcing blog updates to the world.

          ...Something that we can do with plain ole HTML websites easily enough.



          Steve
          Steve (or anyone else) any pointers on how we would easily announce updates to the world?

          I build regular html sites with css for the styles and then I create a simple one page feed. This gives you a nice hybrid site where you can blog and ping, submit your feed to rss directories, and submit your site as a blog to various blog indices - and Google likes it when your site has a feed. But that way you avoid all the garbage that comes with Wordpress -- comment spam, constantly software updates, hacking problems, etc.

          Jennifer
          Jennifer Could you please provide more info on how you use your simple one page feed?
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          • Profile picture of the author madison_avenue
            Originally Posted by AussieT View Post

            Steve (or anyone else) any pointers on how we would easily announce updates to the world?



            Jennifer Could you please provide more info on how you use your simple one page feed?

            Aussie, this has site an excellent guide on how to convert a HTML page into a RSS feed It is fairly straight forward and can be done in a couple of minutes.


            How To Create A RSS Feed From Any Web Page - Robin Good's Latest News
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Moser
    It's the backlinks that determine you're site's rankings not whether it's WordPress or HTML. These days the only time I don't use WordPress is for 1-page sales letters. But even then there are sales letter style WordPress themes out there that can be used.

    With my affiliate review sites I use WordPress with a static HTML homepage and customized HTML product review pages. I design the page the way I want it to look in my WYSIWYG HTML editor and I embed the HTML into my WordPress pages.

    The result is a more authoritative looking site that converts higher than you're typical "thin affiliate" product review. Not to mention a built in star rating system and user generated comments that add social proof.

    I then put my all my niche related articles into posts and put them on a drip feed to automatically post an article twice per week. To me this is the ultimate setup and I would never look back at building static HTML sites again.

    More benefits of WordPress include the ability to generate backlinks automatically and get your site indexed fast through the use of pings. Most bloggers aren't even aware it's full potential.

    I usually get a new site indexed within hours of my first post. With an HTML site I would of had to build a few backlinks and wait a couple days.
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  • Profile picture of the author C.B. Stewart
    My personal experience is that sites made with HTML take a long time to get indexed and ranked, while WordPress-driven sites get indexed in Google immediately and seem to have better SEO.

    This could all be due to poor marketing on my part, though.

    C.B. Stewart
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  • Profile picture of the author Leon McKee
    I would say the bottom-line is it depends on what your business model calls for at a particular point in your marketing funnel. WordPress, static HTML, advanced CMS systems, advanced Member systems and many more are simply tools. Of course, all of these tools have some overlap, but they all can have a place in a complex business environment. For example a simple and FAST silo based HTML "landing page" site that is seen as "thick" by Google may be best for one situation within your marketing funnel. However, a WordPress based Membership site may be best at another point in the process etc...

    Leon McKee
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  • Profile picture of the author xlfutur1
    Wordpress is awesome out of the box for SEO, especially with a few select plugins, but if you optimize an html site correctly and build links, Google doesn't differentiate from my experience. Wordpress does so many things automatically so I would recommend using wordpress, but both can be just as effective.
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    • Profile picture of the author W.P. Allen
      Build an html site with a wordpress blog attached to it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bev Clement
    Over 90% of my sites are html not wordpress.

    Some niches don't do well if the platform is WP, not that is nothing to do with the SE but the buyers. Yes, I have researched, I have dug deep and fact is fact.

    Let's get rid of some myths here. The OP said he could use XSP.

    Fact:

    XSP

    You can drip feed your content.
    Manually update your content, takes as long as WP. You write a post, and you put it on the site. You hit upload and it makes the changes for you.
    You can create your own feed there
    You can allow social bookmarking
    You can allow simple printing of pages
    You can automatically make a mobile site
    You can automatically create sitemaps
    You can automatically siloing

    HTML sites can be indexed quickly. Only 1 site I ever had a problem with indexed.

    My HTML sites all rank high so not true that only wp sites do this.

    I can create a XSP html site with over 100 pages of content in less than 1 hours, I can choose which articles go live immediately and dripfeed the rest of them.
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  • Profile picture of the author teesee150
    You can definitely have a high ranking website with html, but Google really loves Wordpress.
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  • Profile picture of the author MeTellYou
    It really depends what you want to use the site for. Both HTML and Word press have qualities, which you might want to consider it, when you make your selection. Don't use one of the other just because. Think about it and make a selection then.

    Sebastian
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  • Profile picture of the author lacraiger
    blogspot ranks better than wordpress
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    • Profile picture of the author JustVisiting
      Originally Posted by lacraiger View Post

      blogspot ranks better than wordpress
      Thread is about self-hosted Wordpress from wordpress.org
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  • Profile picture of the author Oscar D
    Thank you to everyone for your input.

    I am going to go with the .html site as I feel that my skills will allow me to create a better site.

    Do you recommend creating a .html site and then have a wordpress blog on that site to try and improve its ranking?

    The niche that I am going to target will not have a lot of updates, so I am not sure if a blog will be needed?
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric Reed
    In my opinion, if you're just getting started, my suggestion is to start off with a wordpress cms as this is where the industry is headed.

    I have created sites in both .html and wordpress and find wordpress more conducive to my needs and user friendly.

    Eric
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  • Profile picture of the author Micheal Perkins
    I like to use HTML sites if they are going to be pretty static. If I'm adding a lot to them I have been using WordPress.

    I would like to build some sites with Drupal and/or Joomla, but I have problems getting the links to work right in either. I know that it's just an issue of me figuring out how to set them up correctly, but I haven't been able to yet.

    Anyone know of any good resource for learning how to use Drupal or Joomla?
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  • Profile picture of the author steveaaa
    I think if you write mutliple posts and schedule them for regular posting, and set up proper pinging plugin (that does ping only when the article posts...) then you are telling goog you have a LIVE site with frequent updates... goog IMO likes live sites a lot better.

    So go for WP.
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