It’s a common misconception that WordPress is just a blogging platform. After all, that’s what the original purpose was for.

However, it’s all the other features that make WordPress more than a blogging platform. The possibilities for using WordPress are seemingly endless.

If you’ve ever wondered just what WordPress is capable of, it’s time to look beyond the blogging aspect and uncover some of the other powerful features.

Blogging Is Just One Feature

WordPress was initially developed as a personal publishing system, but it developed into something much more advanced. Since then, the blog portion has become just one of the many features. Now, WordPress includes features, such as:

• Develop and manage static pages
• Sell products
• Optimise for search engines
• Implement your own features (through open source coding and plugins)
• Create responsive sites
• Store and manage data for your business and consumers

While this list could easily fill this post, it’s just a sampling of what makes WordPress more than a blogging platform. With all these features, there’s no reason to limit yourself to just blogging.

Run An Entire Online Business

About this time last year, I covered the reasons why WordPress is ideal for small business websites. Yes, you can host your business’s blog, but you’re able to run your entire online business through WordPress. With ecommerce plugins and themes, you’re able to manage and sell inventory online. Interact with customers, build an email list, connect social media accounts and much more.

If you want to see examples of major brands doing just this, check out my post 8 Examples Of Major Sites Using WordPress. WordPress.com and WordPress.org also list some of the most notable users and sites. Between these three links, it’s difficult to imagine using WordPress just as blog, though that’s still an option, especially for personal blogs.

Create Full Applications

The ability to create full applications makes WordPress more than a blogging platform. One company actually used WordPress to create a SaaS application (software as a service). In fact, they did it in just one month. This shows the versatility of what started as a user-friendly blogging system. While most businesses probably won’t think of WordPress for this use, it is an option for creating your own in-house SaaS apps.

Plugins And Themes Go Beyond Blogging

Take a quick look at the most popular themes and plugins on WordPress.org. How many of those seem exclusive to blogging? While some of the SEO plugins definitely cater to blogs, they also work for static web pages. After all, if a page has content on it, it’s available for Google to index. You want to optimise every single page on your website.

The themes listed are what truly show the difference between a simple blogging platform and a complete content and website management system. Most look like professional business sites, which is kind of the idea. They’re designed not just to showcase your personal thoughts on whatever crosses your mind, but to impress potential customers and clients.

If WordPress was just a blogging platform, you’d see much simpler themes that just focus on organising posts and categories. In fact, it’d probably look more like the early days of Blogger versus the highly used WordPress.

Powerful Database Features

One feature that’s often overlooked when it comes to WordPress is databases. You probably already know about the databases tied specifically to your site’s content and files. These are just the basics. These are the databases used to organise your site’s content and users.

However, when you’re using WordPress for a business, you’re able to create databases to store and organise customer data. For instance, certain plugins provide detailed analytics based on customer data on your site. This data is stored in databases within WordPress for you to use to provide better experiences for your customers.

Ready to see what WordPress could do for you? Learn more and find out how to start your own WordPress site by contacting me today.

Image: Corinne Kutz