We often get asked, “Is WordPress used to build websites?”
An analogy that springs to mind is that you don’t use a dishwasher to “build” a kitchen. You simply integrate this appliance with a kitchen to perform a specific task – just like WordPress can be integrated with a website to perform the task of content management.
In fact a kitchen is constructed using tools such as a screwdriver, hammer and saw, just as a website is built using tools such as an IDE, SASS and Grunt. And whilst your kitchen is built from wood and stainless steel, a website’s “raw materials” are often things like HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL.
Anyway, enough of the jargon! Laypeople often assume that WordPress makes building a site easier. This is actually incorrect – WordPress makes editing a site easier.
I think the “built with WordPress” syndrome is also rife because lots of people choose an existing WordPress theme (you might know this as a “template”) and then develop their site around it. Whilst this is acceptable for beginners and low-budget websites it’s often not ideal for higher end projects. Just as you wouldn’t let your dishwasher dictate the entire design, layout and workings of your kitchen, neither should your content management system dictate the design and layout of your website.
Instead of building a website around WordPress we prefer to approach it the other way around and build WordPress around a website. This means we’ll design and construct the site according to the client’s requirements and without limitations, and then integrate WordPress secondary.