WordPress functionality has come a long way since the launch of the popular CMS. On top of content, many people want the coding aspects of a site to be more accessible through the WordPress backend. This includes stylesheet modifications, easy ways to change a site background, SEO, CSS3 font replacement, javascript insertion, and more.
A WordPress framework can bring in some advanced features and functionality that can help your website succeed by improving user interactions, providing better customization, and making administration easier.
In this post, Robin Bastien of OcularHarmony will outline 10 WordPress framework features and advantages that can help your site succeed.
The first thing I will explain is what a framework is. Instead of being the core WordPress engine (the CMS itself), a framework is everything that the CMS does not include in its fundamental functionality.
A framework works with Child Themes, meaning the themes support the added functionality of the framework. Child themes are super-charged templates with tonnes of features. This can include the dynamic capabilities of choosing where site advertisements will show up, whether or not to output a sidebar for a page, or initializing the 960 grid system. Any theme can be turned into a child theme just by using the functions in the framework.
Using the Premium WP framework as an example, here’s how the framework can improve your site:
SEO and Tracking Codes
Fine-tune the meta keywords, descriptions, and titles through the backend. There’s also an input box for placing tracking codes (Google Analytics, Woopra, Clicktale, etc) and any custom javascript to be placed in the header.
Background changer & text color
A fully featured color select tool along with on-the-fly background image changer.
Importable child themes
Import different child themes that you or your friends create, or find different child themes on the internet.
Built-in Related Posts detection
The framework detects related posts and outputs links to them to increase page hits and decrease bounce rate.
Google Font API Integration
Allows you to take advantage of the Google font API to give you the flexibility of typographic selection.
Easy Advertising
Define where you want your advertisements to be placed on the page and what to display.
Title / Logo Switcher
Easily replace the title with a logo of your choice, and choose where to output it.
Add icons to Navigation for Social Media, RSS, etc
Add icons of whatever you want to your theme, and easily add or remove more.
Bottom Widget Support
Include widgets at the bottom of your pages, change it’s background color, padding, or sharing styles with other site elements.
Much, much more
The features of a framework don’t end. There’s footer text changing, Custom CSS entry, Container width changer, Navigation bar customization, search bar location changer, and more.
If you’d like to check out a framework, the one I was referencing in this post is Premium WP framework. You can also check out Thesis or Thematic, other popular Frameworks available to WordPress.