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I have a project running for which I'll need a blog (the site is coded in Rails). Now I'm not sure whether I should use WordPress or a custom (read: simple) blog, hacked in Rails. I could integrate disqus and "clean" titles, but not more from an SEO standpoint. I'm not interested in functionality but SEO-purposes only.

What should I go with?

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If it's SEO you want then go with Wordpress.

Once you start hacking rails about you'll never stop, then you'll realize that you need a dedicated blog engine and have a lot more work to do.

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    +1 Unless you're trying to create a better blogging platform, or you're using it as a programming exercise, there's pretty much no reason to write your own blogging app, especially for a production site. It's basically more work for negative gain.
    – Lèse majesté
    Feb 27, 2012 at 16:16
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    WordPress is definitely the way to go, not only for SEO but an all around CMS it's the most popular and flexible in the world. With the available plugins you can customize your site however you want and make it function in anyway. The SEO built in has been excellent for years. You'll also save time coding. If you have a list of features you want built into your rails app just look through the plugins on wordpress.org and i'm sure there is already a few that do what you want.
    – Anagio
    Feb 27, 2012 at 19:38
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SEO value should be the same (assuming you build it into your rails blog). Wordpress comes pretty good out of the box on the SEO front. Wordpress will take you about 30 seconds to install, but won't be integrated as well into your existing site as one you build yourself. So it's really a matter of preference.

Personally I've seen a lot of people just want something simple and then down the road end up wanting more functionality that they then have to build in on a custom blog, but is already available on WordPress, so I would lean toward WordPress even if you don't care about functionality now.

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  • I wouldn't say that WP won't be integrated as well. It's just that integrating a 3rd party product is always more difficult than integrating a custom developed application whose specs you can change at will. That said, for most purposes, it shouldn't be that much more difficult to integrate WP into an existing site. And it's almost definitely less effort than trying to build a new blogging platform from scratch.
    – Lèse majesté
    Feb 27, 2012 at 16:13
  • It's true that WP could be thoroughly integrated, I guess I should have said "it's not likely you'll put in the effort to integrate it completely". Front-end integration is easy I've never seen a solid back-end integration however.
    – Joshak
    Feb 27, 2012 at 16:50
  • That's true. WP provides a WSDL and SOAP API, so it isn't too hard to fully integrate it into your own custom backend, but you'd be giving up one of WP's main features--a very well-designed and user-friendly backend. However, there are projects out there that have done it, and many plugins take the opposite approach--letting you manage extra features from within WP's backend.
    – Lèse majesté
    Feb 27, 2012 at 17:03
  • As long as SEO value is the same, I'm risking the custom route. I probably won't need more than a blog with commenting function, both very doable in Rails. Thanks Joshak!
    – ernesto50
    Feb 27, 2012 at 21:18

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