Warning this article is for people that are very familiar with WordPress and wants to take it to the next level!

There is no doubt that WordPress has become the world’s most popular CMS (Client Management System), and it is believed to be powering about 22 percent of the web. As a website owner and a blogger, I have been using WordPress for the past 8-9 years or so, meaning that I’ve loved every bit of the WordPress and its incredible features.

I recently read an interesting post by Jonathan Allen. Mr. Jonathan found out that WordPress powers 68 percent of websites whose CMS are known and can be identified.

For WordPress users, it is tempting to think that plugins are bolts on features; however, the plugin can actually solve fundamental challenges when it comes to building a solid website.

Some of the solvable aspects include things like mass editing, creation of a sitemap, and even ensuring that the content is compatible with theme changes made. Therefore, if you are looking to optimize your page, there exist quite a number of SEO plugins, which offer so much flexibility that eventually makes the WordPress a viable CMS option.

When it comes to designing a simple and yet easy-to-use WordPress website that offers various content types, the process can prove to be a daunting task. This is because most WordPress users find the default features to be insufficient and can’t satisfactorily organize and manage the content they host. This makes their websites less intuitive compared to their competitors.

Nevertheless, developers don’t necessarily have to settle for the default features. You just need to accustom yourself to basic coding skills, where you can create your own taxonomies and custom post types, which is a relatively simpler way to make your website easier to run, thus the website feels more professional and organized.

Once you go through a few basic tips, you’ll see just how plugins and customized features can revolutionize your WordPress CMS into a truly unique experience.

Let’s have a look at 3 tips for using WordPress as a CMS.

Default Post Types

Basically, WordPress has five default post types, namely: Posts, Pages, Revisions, nav_menu_item, and attachments. For the purpose of simplifying the situation, I’m gonna take you through the differences between Posts and Pages, coz that’s what you really need to know.

Posts are the pages that frequently host updated streams of contents. A perfect example is a newsfeed, which are ever changing on a 24 hours basis (or even less than that).

On the other hand, Pages tend to hold contents that are more static, for example a company’s mission statement, which doesn’t need much updates. The two post types (Pages and Posts) are enough for an average CMS user. However, for those who would like to feature various kinds of content, then web customization is something you need to do.

Custom Post Types
Did you know that you can actually code your site to do basically anything? Well, now you know. You just need to know a few basic coding skills. However, when you create a different customized Post type for every page, it can make navigation to feel a bit more impossible. For that reason, leave the customizations just when you want to simplify the website.

These customizations have the capability of performing incredible intricate functions, and can as well be used for something like simplifying a products page.

For example, say you are running a blog that’s got constant updating posts – like a daily newsblog – then you would obviously like your stories to be instantly available to anyone who visits the pages. At the same time, you would like to have an archive section where previous articles can be found when searched by the visitors.

If you are writing for a web audience, then possibilities are that much of your revenue will be coming from sale of merchandise. This means that if you need to customize your website in such a way that visitors (probably potential customers) won’t have to browse through the entire website just to get what they need.

A product Page Type not only keeps your products discrete and separate from your regular content, but it also outfits these pages with different features, such as ‘zoom in/out’ tools.

Most app makers should be aware since some mobile apps cannot support custom post types. Thus, before you embark on developing your website targeting the mobile users, make sure they won’t be hindered in any way.

Custom Taxonomies
You don’t have to limit your WordPress site to only the post types: you can actually organize your pages even further by use of custom taxonomies. Just like the page types, taxonomies come in 2 default categories, types and tags.

The categories consolidate your contents into hierarchies, mainly through a series of checkboxes. And if you are searching for news stories within your blog, for instance, those particular stories will either have a ‘personal interests’ or ‘news’ checkboxes.

Then again, the tags are more general, where terms like ‘recession’ are associated with contents that are relevant.

In other words, both the categories and tags make use of words to organize content, but the tags are more like keywords, allowing visitors to find a certain page by typing in the words.

Custom taxonomies can specialize these functions, and you can choose the kind of post types that allows for taxonomies. This enables the visitors and website users to pick the content they’d like.

Something even better with custom taxonomies is the fact that you can use them to create databases. That is, if you are running a website dedicated to football, it means that you’ll have to feature different databases, like to lookup for player statistics, alongside the player’s age, team, years, leagues, etc. This hosts a ton of data without necessarily cluttering your website.

While taxonomies and custom post types aren’t exactly meant for every website, they are really great and much useful whenever you are looking to make a website(s) that’s got lots of different content; most of which are easy to edit, manage and navigate. With customization, your imagination is your only limit.