How should I best incorporate WordPress in my static website?

Question

My site as of right now is a static website. I am planning on having a 'recent blog posts' section on it, with permalink to the main blog post/blog. example:

http://site.com/blog

I was wondering, because of having a recent blog posts section on the homepage, should I just have the entire website powered by WordPress and just add the homepage (and other pages, such as contact) as a word press 'page', and call recent blog posts on it?

If I do it that way, am I still able to have the blog in /blog?

I was also thinking of just adding the whole WordPress files to the /blog directory and call recent blog posts from the static file...

I am new to Wordpress, so I am a bit confessed here.

What is the best option?

Answer 1

You can do either, it's up to you depending on how invested in your static site you are and how much work you want to do transferring things over.

The Codex page on Integrating WordPress with your website outlines how you could have WordPress installed in the /blog directory, and show recent posts on your static site through the use of a bit of php.

Your other option is to have WordPress take over serving all of your site's content. It's pretty easy to set up a static home page, plus contact, etc., as well as a blog at whatever url you choose. See the Codex page on WordPress Settings > Reading. You just need to create two pages, then designate one your home page and the other to be the page that shows your posts.