Why Use WordPress for Niche Websites? Better SEO from the Start?

[wordplay]

Hi,

After years of kicking around this forum, I'm finally realizing that maybe I could make a few dollars with niche websites.

So here is my absolute noob question: why bother with WordPress, as opposed to uploading my own adsense niche templates to my server? Is it that a WordPress site will be picked up better/faster than anything I could put up and optimize?

Thank you very much in advance.

[dcristo]

In a nutshell, its easy to familiarize yourself with the software, its feature rich and well supported by the WP community.

The better question is, why wouldn't you use wordpress?

[draggar]

WP is very easy to learn and use (even more if you have some knowledge of HTML / CSS / PHP).

Countless "free" templates are out there and it isn't that hard to modify them (or you can use a program to make templates). It's also easy to add in your own items like AdSense, or just general ads (plus plugins like Ad Rotate will let you rotate and manage ads easily).

Search Engines like WP a lot and if you update it 2-3 times a week it'll help even more.

The only drawback of WP is it's limitations (style, etc.) but even it's limits are diminishing with new plugins popping up every day. It's great for sites that get frequent updates but other CMS like Joomla would be better for more static sites.

The better question is, why wouldn't you use wordpress?

IMO it's very "bloggy" looking (which is great for blogs and related sites). It may also look a little unprofessional unless you spend some good $$ on a good template.

[dcristo]

WP is very easy to learn and use (even more if you have some knowledge of HTML / CSS / PHP).

Countless "free" templates are out there and it isn't that hard to modify them (or you can use a program to make templates). It's also easy to add in your own items like AdSense, or just general ads (plus plugins like Ad Rotate will let you rotate and manage ads easily).

Search Engines like WP a lot and if you update it 2-3 times a week it'll help even more.

The only drawback of WP is it's limitations (style, etc.) but even it's limits are diminishing with new plugins popping up every day. It's great for sites that get frequent updates but other CMS like Joomla would be better for more static sites.

IMO it's very "bloggy" looking (which is great for blogs and related sites). It may also look a little unprofessional unless you spend some good $$ on a good template.

What sites are static nowadays? If you want to be one step ahead of your competition, you need to be constantly updating your site with quality content.

Yeah you have to spend $$ on a good template but its well worth it, especially if you have many sites. Plus you can make the homepage a "static" page so it really doesn't look like a blog at all.

Wordpress allows for comments (user generated content) has a ton of plugins/templates and there is a huge support community. It's really a no brainer.

[silentg]

You should check out woothemes.com (you get 3 templates for the price of 1 - $70 - lifetime updates) or elegantthemes.com (yearly subscription of $40 and you get access to all their templates).

[wordplay]

Thank you, dcristo, draggar and silentg for your suggestions.

Sorry - if I wasn't clear enough, but I'm not doing blogs -- just niche content sites for adsense and affiliate ads, like this: (not mine): http://www.newyorkstocks.com/.
And I'll be creating my own websites. So if I understand you all correctly,
the main advantage would be I'd have some boost with at least the initial SEO?

[Tom K.]

Wordpress site will get indexed in Google's blog search engine, you have access to many 3rd party plug-ins (many free including ones to help you with SEO), free and paid themes, updating is very easy. If you are building a site that you will be updating every once in a while to often then this is a very good platform.

If you want to launch a site as fast as possible with original or mixed (original & re-published) content that will be static, or seldom updated, then there are better options that are much faster than wp.

[wordplay]

"If you want to launch a site as fast as possible with original or mixed (original & re-published) content that will be static, or seldom updated, then there are better options that are much faster than wp."

Thanks DomainerScript -- I thought as much.

[draggar]

What sites are static nowadays? If you want to be one step ahead of your competition, you need to be constantly updating your site with quality content.

Informational sites where the information doesn't need regular updates.

[Gerry]

Thank you, dcristo, draggar and silentg for your suggestions.

Sorry - if I wasn't clear enough, but I'm not doing blogs -- just niche content sites for adsense and affiliate ads, like this: (not mine): http://www.newyorkstocks.com/.
And I'll be creating my own websites. So if I understand you all correctly,

Google's standards are constantly changing, including the ability to block ad heavy sites and pages.

Honestly, I look at your site and it is a turn off (from a consumers perspective) because it looks like one big ad from the very onset.

Your pages are static. Do you have any feeds to keep updated and fresh content? Google looks upon content as being the primary source for ranking. New, updated, fresh content get preference over static, stale, historical content.

Using WP (or even joomla) allows you to also SEO enrich each individual page with tags, keywords, and metatags.

the main advantage would be I'd have some boost with at least the initial SEO?

The main advantage is you won't be blocked by google or browsers that block ad heavy sites

[Mark Talbot]

Hi,

After years of kicking around this forum, I'm finally realizing that maybe I could make a few dollars with niche websites.

So here is my absolute noob question: why bother with WordPress, as opposed to uploading my own adsense niche templates to my server? Is it that a WordPress site will be picked up better/faster than anything I could put up and optimize?

Thank you very much in advance.

I use WP for several content niche sites.

Have used elegant themes before as I like their diversity,

But most recently I use suffusion theme/plugin as it works wonders for me as a CMS, and can easily be configured to not look bloggy or at least remove the bloggy elements by a mere checkbox.

[Mr.Domains]

And I'll be creating my own websites. So if I understand you all correctly,
the main advantage would be I'd have some boost with at least the initial SEO?

No, WordPress doesn't give you an SEO advantage or "boost", it's just that WordPress does do SEO properly, where many scripts don't. If you code your own sites following SEO best practices, then they'll perform just as good as WordPress, no better, no worse. It's just that WordPress already does it all for you, so you don't have to. You don't have to build keyword specific landing pages (tags and category pages), mod_write URLs to make them SEO-friendly, build user commenting systems, search engines, sitemaps, spam filters, moderation systems, etc, because it's all there in WordPress's 10 second setup.

[wordplay]

No, WordPress doesn't give you an SEO advantage or "boost", it's just that WordPress does do SEO properly, where many scripts don't......

Excellent answer, Mr. Domains. Much appreciated.

---------- Post added at 11:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:56 AM ----------

OK smirkley, thanks for the tips.

---------- Post added at 12:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:58 AM ----------

"Google's standards are constantly changing, including the ability to block ad heavy sites and pages.

Honestly, I look at your site and it is a turn off (from a consumers perspective) because it looks like one big ad from the very onset...."

I agree Dot Com, that page design (which I used as a possible example, and is not mine, as previously stated) does look super-"adsy". However, I have read from numerous sources that that kind of ad lay-out scheme gets good click-through response. Perhaps I'm reading out-dated info, especially in regards to how Google now deals with such sites. Thanks for the great answer Dot Com. And thanks again to all who took the time to give all the helpful feedback.

[Gerry]

I agree Dot Com, that page design (which I used as a possible example, and is not mine, as previously stated) does look super-"adsy". However, I have read from numerous sources that that kind of ad lay-out scheme gets good click-through response. Perhaps I'm reading out-dated info, especially in regards to how Google now deals with such sites. Thanks for the great answer Dot Com. And thanks again to all who took the time to give all the helpful feedback.

If and when I can think of the book, I'll pass the title on to you.

Integrating the ads to become part of the site for me has become a great strategy, rather than integration or building the content around the ads. One particular site I manage went from about 4.5% CTR in November 2010 to now an average of 9-11% month after month (May closer to 14% so far).

The philosophy is the consumer recognizes an ad, what an ad looks like, where it is positioned, and does not bother with it. Your example site is so ad rich that the consumer has to look for the content. That can be an immediate turnoff and loss of traffic. You have about 4-6 seconds to grab the viewer's attention. If your site is a turn off and they leave, then it does not matter what you design, where you place your ads, where you place your content, how great the content is because you lost the "grab" or impact of getting (and keeping) their attention.

[ibee]

Somehow search engines are loving wordpress websites, it may be due to their standards of code or automatic ping to all the search engines.

[Tia Wood]

So here is my absolute noob question: why bother with WordPress, as opposed to uploading my own adsense niche templates to my server? Is it that a WordPress site will be picked up better/faster than anything I could put up and optimize?

Wordpress is a CMS that happens to be well scripted and sturdy. Wordpress has just as much advantage with SEO as other properly formatted non-CMS sites. I'm not sure what type of "adsense niche templates" you are using but the main advantage of using Wordpress versus 'niche templates' would be the ability to scale.

Would you be using a script for these adsense niche templates or is this something you created yourself? My concern would be how limiting I know them to be - and you run the risk of being blocked by the search engines. Some of them are still labeled as MFAs (Made for Adsense sites) which are highly frowned upon by search engines.

DomainerScript is right. Wordpress is better for content that updates. If you have a 20 page site that sits there, there is really no need to employ a database, install framework, etc, etc to run it.

Do you know html, css and/or some type of scripting language? If not, that is another big advantage for using Wordpress.

[ThinkTankGroup]

Hi,

After years of kicking around this forum, I'm finally realizing that maybe I could make a few dollars with niche websites.

So here is my absolute noob question: why bother with WordPress, as opposed to uploading my own adsense niche templates to my server? Is it that a WordPress site will be picked up better/faster than anything I could put up and optimize?

Thank you very much in advance.

This website and link may answer your question: http://trends.builtwith.com/cms

[Channing]

In a nutshell, its easy to familiarize yourself with the software, its feature rich and well supported by the WP community.

The better question is, why wouldn't you use wordpress?

Because it's slow. That's why.

[dcristo]

Because it's slow. That's why.

And if you want to be one step ahead of the competition you install a caching plugin.

[Channing]

And if you want to be one step ahead of the competition you install a caching plugin.

I still prefer the speed and simplicity of html websites and I used WP exclusively for over 5 years, but no more.