Add WordPress to a vanilla PHP site?

  • gmurray96

    (@gmurray96)


    10 years, 5 months ago

    I have a vanilla PHP website that works well. I update the pages in a PHP file, which works fine for me. I wanted to add a blog. Since I’m not a dev, I’ll be outsourcing the job. Question is, should I have the whole site rebuilt in WordPress or would a good PHP/WP dev be able to just add the blog, using the existing site look? I’m assuming just adding the blog would be less expensive than starting from scratch and redoing the whole site. What would you do?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Rod Whiteley

    (@rod-whiteley)

    10 years, 5 months ago

    I would leave the existing site pretty much as it is and add the WordPress blog in a subdomain. There will have to be a little work done on the main site to link it to the blog.

    Unfortunately, “using the existing site look” is probably impossible. A designer will have to develop or adapt a WordPress theme so that it looks reasonably similar to the existing site.

    Thread Starter gmurray96

    (@gmurray96)

    10 years, 5 months ago

    Thanks, @rob. I thought I had read that the blog can easily be integrated into the current site theme and not have to sit on a subdomain. I put the post up to confirm that assumption, but now I’m back to thinking I read wrong after reading your post. Drats. But, thanks for your reply.

    catacaustic

    (@catacaustic)

    10 years, 5 months ago

    You don’t need a sub-domain. In most cases that’s not a great idea for something that’s a basic idea like this. Sub-folders are a much better way to organise things.

    The best (easiest) way to do it is to have the blog in a sub folder, like http://www.yoursite.com/blog/ That way you’ll keep it separate from your existing site, but it’s still “within” the main domains URL.

    Thread Starter gmurray96

    (@gmurray96)

    10 years, 5 months ago

    Thanks, @ catacaustic. I was hoping this was the case. And is there anything missing from my assumption from my initial post that a good PHP dev should be able to integrate the header, footer and css styling from the main site pages into the new blog?

    catacaustic

    (@catacaustic)

    10 years, 5 months ago

    I don’t think so. Any reasonable dev should be able to mimic the template of your existing site to use with a new WordPress site.

    Thread Starter gmurray96

    (@gmurray96)

    10 years, 5 months ago

    Cheers, @ catacaustic. That was my hope and getting confirmation from someone here is good enough to now take the time to reach out to a few devs for quotes. Thank you.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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