I just attended the SES 2011 conference (Search Engine Strategies) in San Francisco, and I was surprised to come across a session regarding CMS…well, it was really a sales pitch for WordPress.

Now before I go any further, let me just say that WordPress is certainly worthy of a sales pitch at any SEO, design, or development conference. Actually, a pitch is not really needed because everyone I know (including their Mom) is using it for their blog or small site. Why? Cause it’s a fast an easy way to build an attractive site or blog with relative ease. I for one have built a handful of small sites using it and I really love it.

During this conference session I discovered one remarkable thing. I realized that many Web professionals have no idea what type of CMS would work best for their needs. Many choose one at an early discovery phase and then stick with it through thick and thin. Which makes sense to me because learning a new system takes time, and that costs money. What is not often understood is that Open Source CMS today has really diverse systems that do certain things really well. It’s just a matter of knowing what those things are.

The Truth Is...

WordPress is not a great solution for large sites that need multiple editors and dynamic workflows. Why? It’s not built to be that scalable and frankly just does not work. However, WordPress is working hard to try and change the minds of Web professionals that it’s not just for small sites or blogs. A neat example of what someone has done with WordPress is the new Jay-Z site.

Letting You All in on a Secret...But Not Really

What makes Drupal so brilliantly scalable and standout from the rest is that it’s a “node-based” CMS. That’s right, pieces of content is a node. If you have a blog, the content in the blog is a node. Content in an article is a node. What makes this so awesome is that you can have articles, blogs, and other content types speak to each other in one workflow. This is what I mean when I talk about dynamic content.

So in a nutshell, if you want to go enterprise and not outgrow a Web CMS anytime soon, Drupal is your answer.

Yes, you can certainly build a small site in Drupal, however it’s got a lot of power in the core system and might be overkill if you just a have a basic site with not many editors. But if you’re comfortable with Drupal and are familiar with its modules, you can easily optimize it for a small site by removing the unnecessary modules. Just remember, don’t hack the core!

Taxonomy: Planet DrupalDrupalWordPress