Why you need it?
You want to record procedures, you need multiple people to access one source, you are struggling with version control with your current sources, you need to be able to change the content frequently, you would like to manage edits from multiple colleagues, you would like to keep a backup of that information and the information needs to be available across multiple devices from multiple locations, you would like the information to be searchable, you would like to restrict who has access to the information and finally you want to spend the least amount of money doing this as possible.
I particularly value the built in search functionality – I have in the region of 500 posts and 500,000 words across my own personal reference sites and I would not be able to find anything or maintain what I have without the functionality that wordpress brings.
What is WordPress?
You are reading a wordpress site now. WordPress is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) used to create and manage websites and blogs. It allows users to build everything from simple personal blogs to complex business sites without needing to write any code, thanks to its modular structure of themes (for design) and plugins (for functionality).
WordPress was launched in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little as a fork of an earlier blogging platform called b2/cafelog. It was designed to make publishing content on the web easier and more accessible. Over time, it evolved from a simple blogging tool into a full-featured CMS that powers more than 40% of all websites today.
The official website of the open-source WordPress CMS is
How is Long term stability and maintenance?
I’ve been running my cloudydatablog.net site since 2014. Updates can be fully automated and I’ve never had an issue with an update in ten years. Estimates vary but WordPress is the Content Management System behind in the region of 40% of online websites, its not going anywhere anytime soon. The CMS success stems from its open-source community and continuous development.
What does it cost?
If you have an IT department and web servers chances are it will cost you nothing beyond staff setup and monitor time – many web hosting platforms now natively support one click Worpress install options. As its open source ownership costs nothing so all costs will be associated with the maintenance of a server which if you already have a server is a sunk cost.
If you don’t have a server I would recommend that you sign up for managed shared hosting, its ridiculously cheap and can be anything between 2 to 10 dollars/pounds a month. You may be able to host unlimited wordpress sites on one plan not that most organisations need to host more than a handful. Outside provision of shared hosting is very commoditised, whoever you choose you will get the same application but service tends to be distinguished by the reputation and number of support staff of the provider , just watch that and choose according to your long term plans. Premium expensive hosting is available if you wish. You can also choose how hands on you are with support and hosting locations are available in every country I’ve ever required.
Some suggestions for Shared Hosting
InMotion (this site is hosted on a shared instance fully managed by InMotion)
More expensive – for particularly critical business critical sites
kinsta – business orientated premium wordpress hosting
What Security features does WordPress have?
There are plugins that will automate backup so that a copy of your site can be copied to a google account or other off site platform. If you need to restrict access there are many options that can be used independently or together. I particularly like two. Firstly you can white list IP addresses so that you can restrict access to individual locations, I regularly use this for individual sites which I want to restrict to an individual static IP address and is completely bullet proof. Secondly there are plugins that allow password authentication so that anyone can get to a login screen but only those that have the password can progress further. You can action both features so that the site is restricted to an individual location and then only those with the password can progress further. You can set up a site to be readonly and at the same time allow editors. There are further options but honestly I’ve never needed more than these two options. With regard to restoring a site – I’ve only done it once and it worked – I have setup automated backup on all of my sites but to date I’ve never had a failure.
Can I get professional help with my WordPress Installation?
Yes – you can hire people or agencies to setup maintain or develop a site if you need. There are heavy duty agencies out there who have a lot of experience in making WordPress sites extremely slick – there are hundreds of consultant services that you can pay for ranging from cheap talented individuals to large expensive multinationals. I have never needed any outside help beyond a bit of guidance from the helpdesk of my shared provider. I run my wordpress sites through cpanel which has a onestep button for install and that has always worked for me. Udemy has lots of courses on WordPress here’s one I just searched for… I haven’t even used those.
WordPress Planning Specific Example Sites
You can identify the technology behind websites using BuiltWith. Here I search out some planning related sites that I have put through BuiltWith to qualify the use of WordPress. Here I showcase an individual’s site, a council’s site and various professional consultancies involved in aspects of planning.
City of Edinburgh Council Planning – WordPress being used by Edinburgh to improve community engagement and participation by communicating important developments, specialist knowledge and local plan information.
Dentons Planning Law Blog – Dentons Lawyers if you need heavy duty (and expensive legal advice) they can help. Here they use WordPress for marketing through community engagement and discussion of specialist legal planning knowledge.
Decisions Decisions Decisions = ‘A blog about better decisions, better urban planning and better economics‘ using WordPress
Planning Portal – Blog by the organisation that manages the planning portal in England and Wales again being used for community, engagement participation and marketing.
Cratus Group – Private agency with specialist knowledge in Strategic Land to Reserved Matters / Public consultation and post submission engagement. A good example of a very modern implementation of WordPress for an agency heavily involved in planning development work.
Progressing Planning – ‘On trends impacting planning practice research and education‘ Has an interesting article on skateboarding and relevance to planning… WordPress site that is extremely pretty. WordPress being used by Higher Education in this case the London School of Economics.
Digital Town Planning dot net – I won’t link to it because you are already on it! If you were to put it through builtwith this is what you would see.. LINK
Summary
WordPress is an easy win that is cheap – its a heavy duty tool that excels for Documentation, Workplace Coordination, Community Engagement and Community Participation. I would recommend before using for any form of external access you get a site setup and use it for internal procedure document management.
Another use I would think it would be excellent at is as managing the writing of a local place or local development plan. I don’t believe it has ever been used for that purpose before.