For big authority site, did you use WP or something else?

I suggest going with Joomla, I own some huge websites and they are all on Joomla.

Being a developer myself over 7yrs, I think joomla is the best solution for a large website. Most of the functions comes builtin (for wordpress you need to use many plugins for the same set of features) in and loads pretty faster. Drupal has some learning curve so joomla is the way to go... or you can choose drupal as well. Both are good.

For security, wordpress is very vulnerable. Since these 7yrs, none of mine or my client's joomla based websites got hacked. I don't mean they cannot be hacked but a bit tough that hacking a wordpress site. Wordpress sites can be hacked very easily and even a kid in hacking can do it (wide opinion, I cannot hack though LOL). Number of times my wordpress websites got hacked, despite of several attempts to secure the sites.

I use both, for small sites I use WP and for bigger and huge money makers I prefer Joomla.

Also, an authority website can have nice community built around. Joomla and drupal can do that perfectly with minimal extensions. WP can do that with several plugins and may not as powerful as the others can be

I used WordPress. It worked well for me. It is also user friendly and easy to setup

I have used Wordpress on sites with other 200 posts/pages. It can work fine if you know what your doing. I would recommend that you use a lightweight theme when doing so, to increase pageload etc.

For magazine style sites WP is a good option. There are so many sites made with Drupal i like, but they have something in common - me as a user - finds them all hard to navigate i dont know why this is though. I like utopia.de for example but, hell, just for untargeted browsing - finding an old article i read once before? forget about it. Joomla is a beast, years ago i made every site with joomla, but thos shit os getting hacked all the time and produces duplicate content in masses, today i would not start a site again with it ( i just made one as i thought it got better with 3.0) forget it...

So yes, use WP and dont use the common "premium themes" think about a smart navigation that does not look like your aunta blog and i guess you can start something fine.

For all of you using wordpress to build out your authority site, thank you. You are single-handedly giving me the edge over the competition.

My recommendation is anything BUT WordPress. WP is a blogging platform, for that purpose it s unrivaled. Its pretty much useless for anything else.

Use HTML/CSS, Joomla, or Drupal.

The only thing WP has going for it is that anyone can build a site in WP. You can't really do SEO in WP, you can't silo a site. Siloing is a key component of ranking a large authority site, unless the site has only one focus.

You are stuck with the restrictions of the theme, and the only way you can add functionality is with plugins. WP is so easy to hack its laughable, and the code to text ratio is insane.

WP handles pages terribly, seldom can you even create a dropdown nav menu, plugins carry their own problems. You cannot generally create a div in the theme unless you are a developer, so if you want a section that the theme does not have you are screwed. Forget adding a nav menu, or anything for that mater, exactly where you want.

WP must constantly be updated, and when you do, it often fucks up the site. Even a malfunctioning plugin can stop your site from displaying. You will be creatng a site that requires constant maintenance, increasing your workload, and setting the settings wrong will create duplicate content all over the place.

And it is a resource hog.

WP is for newbies and developers.

You just listed all the usual wordpress faults generally cited by old school html guys who are abhorred by the basic concept of a management system that non tech people can build a site on.

98.7% of Dreadful WP sites out there back up what you are saying but if you take a bit of time to look at the better results that are acheivable with WP you might give it a second chance. A lot of coders dont find it intuitive as it is a drag and drop style system that can take a bit of time spent with to fully understand.

At its basest it is a blogging platform for newbies. When used by people who know what they are doing it is as powerful as anything out there.

"You can't really do SEO in WP, you can't silo a site"......Why is SEO any different in WP ?...All of my large sites are Silo'ed correctly.There are plenty of Silo guides(madoctopus and PHPbuilt come to mind)...there are even Silo plugins, although if your site architecture is planned correctly from the start there is no need.

"You are stuck with the restrictions of the theme, and the only way you can add functionality is with plugins" Anyone with any coding knowledge can modify a them pretty easily. There is a huge source of fellow WP users who have experienced or are experiencing the same problems as yourself so there is a team working for the same solutions. I have never had any problem swapping and sharing code/modifications with other users. There is always a solution out there somewhere. Besides we are talking about an Authority site and $100-$200 will get you a custom theme so you have what you specced from the off.

"WP is so easy to hack its laughable" Agreed, in its basic settings WP is a bruteforce attack waitiing to happen. Thats because its popular and more script kiddies are playing with it, Much the same way a Ford is easier to break into than a Bentley. There are numerous common sense security measures you can put into place. Numerous security plugins you can run. There are lots of WP security experts on the forum who will give you a bespoke secure setting for low $.

"WP handles pages terribly, seldom can you even create a dropdown nav menu, plugins carry their own problems. You cannot generally create a div in the theme unless you are a developer, so if you want a section that the theme does not have you are screwed. Forget adding a nav menu, or anything for that mater, exactly where you want."

Plugins have problems of course. Some can clash with others but you can uninstall and try another one. The amount of off the shelf and usually free plugins is pretty liberating. As for the rest of that sentence, everything you mentioned is easily doable with most themes.

"WP must constantly be updated, and when you do, it often fucks up the site" WP and its developers and plugins etc etc roll out updates everyday. That doesnt mean you have to update. I update when I feel like it. I keep daily backups so on the incredibly rare occasions an update causes a problem I roll back to yesterdays working copy and iron out the problem.

"And it is a resource hog" Agreed, It can be. Most WP themes are not focused to have a singular purpose and are coded with more options and add ons. This can make them bloated. Again if you have a small budget you can employ someone to clean up a script. Or if you are getting a custom site build just make sure it only has the options you require. Most WP sites are slow and bloated because people use $2 hosting and install 35 plugins. Get good hosting and dont install scripts for fun and WP is as lean and fast as anything else.

"WP is for newbies and developers" I think you have probably tried WP and struggled with it. Have a look at some of the bigger Authority sites that are using wordpress. I think its up for any job and you should give it another go.

Techxan said:

My recommendation is anything BUT WordPress. WP is a blogging platform, for that purpose it s unrivaled. Its pretty much useless for anything else.

Use HTML/CSS, Joomla, or Drupal.

The only thing WP has going for it is that anyone can build a site in WP. You can't really do SEO in WP, you can't silo a site. Siloing is a key component of ranking a large authority site, unless the site has only one focus.

You are stuck with the restrictions of the theme, and the only way you can add functionality is with plugins. WP is so easy to hack its laughable, and the code to text ratio is insane.

WP handles pages terribly, seldom can you even create a dropdown nav menu, plugins carry their own problems. You cannot generally create a div in the theme unless you are a developer, so if you want a section that the theme does not have you are screwed. Forget adding a nav menu, or anything for that mater, exactly where you want.

WP must constantly be updated, and when you do, it often fucks up the site. Even a malfunctioning plugin can stop your site from displaying. You will be creatng a site that requires constant maintenance, increasing your workload, and setting the settings wrong will create duplicate content all over the place.

And it is a resource hog.

WP is for newbies and developers.

Click to expand...

Duffers 5000,

You are right about me being an old school HTML guy, but I do not abhor WP. I actually use wp for over half the sites I build. I'll also give you some of your points, If you know coding you can make WP sing and dance. (that is why I said it is good for developers who have this ability), and of course security can be addresses, by adding more plugins generally, but still.

I disagree that you can SEO WP correctly, especially for a silo. On page SEO covers more than the insertion of meta information, and there is too much inter-connectivity in WP to keep the silos from interlinking with each other, especially if you use posts instead of pages, which creates a nav nightmare in WP..

The question was would I use it for an authority site, and I wouldn't. I don't like using it much, true, but it has its uses, especially for small sites with an attached blog.

Duffers5000 said:

You just listed all the usual wordpress faults generally cited by old school html guys who are abhorred by the basic concept of a management system that non tech people can build a site on.

98.7% of Dreadful WP sites out there back up what you are saying but if you take a bit of time to look at the better results that are acheivable with WP you might give it a second chance. A lot of coders dont find it intuitive as it is a drag and drop style system that can take a bit of time spent with to fully understand.

At its basest it is a blogging platform for newbies. When used by people who know what they are doing it is as powerful as anything out there.

"You can't really do SEO in WP, you can't silo a site"......Why is SEO any different in WP ?...All of my large sites are Silo'ed correctly.There are plenty of Silo guides(madoctopus and PHPbuilt come to mind)...there are even Silo plugins, although if your site architecture is planned correctly from the start there is no need.

"You are stuck with the restrictions of the theme, and the only way you can add functionality is with plugins" Anyone with any coding knowledge can modify a them pretty easily. There is a huge source of fellow WP users who have experienced or are experiencing the same problems as yourself so there is a team working for the same solutions. I have never had any problem swapping and sharing code/modifications with other users. There is always a solution out there somewhere. Besides we are talking about an Authority site and $100-$200 will get you a custom theme so you have what you specced from the off.

"WP is so easy to hack its laughable" Agreed, in its basic settings WP is a bruteforce attack waitiing to happen. Thats because its popular and more script kiddies are playing with it, Much the same way a Ford is easier to break into than a Bentley. There are numerous common sense security measures you can put into place. Numerous security plugins you can run. There are lots of WP security experts on the forum who will give you a bespoke secure setting for low $.

"WP handles pages terribly, seldom can you even create a dropdown nav menu, plugins carry their own problems. You cannot generally create a div in the theme unless you are a developer, so if you want a section that the theme does not have you are screwed. Forget adding a nav menu, or anything for that mater, exactly where you want."

Plugins have problems of course. Some can clash with others but you can uninstall and try another one. The amount of off the shelf and usually free plugins is pretty liberating. As for the rest of that sentence, everything you mentioned is easily doable with most themes.

"WP must constantly be updated, and when you do, it often fucks up the site" WP and its developers and plugins etc etc roll out updates everyday. That doesn't mean you have to update. I update when I feel like it. I keep daily backups so on the incredibly rare occasions an update causes a problem I roll back to yesterdays working copy and iron out the problem.

"And it is a resource hog" Agreed, It can be. Most WP themes are not focused to have a singular purpose and are coded with more options and add ons. This can make them bloated. Again if you have a small budget you can employ someone to clean up a script. Or if you are getting a custom site build just make sure it only has the options you require. Most WP sites are slow and bloated because people use $2 hosting and install 35 plugins. Get good hosting and dont install scripts for fun and WP is as lean and fast as anything else.

"WP is for newbies and developers" I think you have probably tried WP and struggled with it. Have a look at some of the bigger Authority sites that are using wordpress. I think its up for any job and you should give it another go.

Click to expand...

WordPress, hands down. Especially if you know how to tweak database catches to increase page-load speeds. You can host a 5k+ page Authority Site on shared hosting plan with the right catching.

I would say Wordpress just because it's the most flexible and I run all my Authority Sites with it and they stand the test of time.

Fair enough Buddy,

As a WP user I understand where you are coming from.

I am still struggling with the on page SEO stuff though. Out of the box WP is efficient but has shortcomings. With a little modification you can make Search engines love it.

Here's one of 8+ Sites I have on the Front Page for reasonably competitive terms in WP. Sorry for the excessive blurring but I dont share anything around here.

All of these sites have 10 sitelinks and rank Place 1 for 10+ terms. Usually ranking Page 1 for 30-50 keywords.

Yes I spend $ on off page SEO but on page is the foundation and I have never had a problem getting a site listed and ranked by on page alone

Techxan said:

Duffers 5000,

You are right about me being an old school HTML guy, but I do not abhor WP. I actually use wp for over half the sites I build. I'll also give you some of your points, If you know coding you can make WP sing and dance. (that is why I said it is good for developers who have this ability), and of course security can be addresses, by adding more plugins generally, but still.

I disagree that you can SEO WP correctly, especially for a silo. On page SEO covers more than the insertion of meta information, and there is too much inter-connectivity in WP to keep the silos from interlinking with each other, especially if you use posts instead of pages, which creates a nav nightmare in WP..

The question was would I use it for an authority site, and I wouldn't. I don't like using it much, true, but it has its uses, especially for small sites with an attached blog.

Click to expand...

Wordpress will save you some time, and that time saved will let you produce more content and focus on what brings in money. Other choices can be a little better, but if the learning curve is high and the development costs go up, it could be a loser decision from a business perspective.

That said, my authority sites are on a custom old-school HTML/CSS solution. Love the page load times and unhackability.

I would go with Wordpress. Easy to set up, easy to use and most of all, free. You can make some slick looking sites for free. I made my first one and have added over 2k posts in under a month. Alexa has dropped to Global Ranking of 398,754 in just over a month. It literally takes seconds to post an article, and there are so many free plug-ins.