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Content Management Systems
What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
A Content Management System (CMS) allows you to create, edit, manage and store content on your website without any technical knowledge. It's an easy to use application that you can use to update your website internally, without any web experience or having to rely on developers to do the work for you. When we use the word content, we are referring to a wealth of digital information such as text, images, video, documents etc. A CMS gives you the ability to add, change and delete this content whenever neccesary and can be done quickly, saving you time and money.
Do you need a CMS? If you answer yes to the following questions then your company would benefit from having a Content Managed System:
- Does your company change/add content on a regular basis?
- Do you frequently outsource your website work to third parties?
There are many benefits to having a CMS. It gives you the ability to structure the site including the website navigation. You have full control of the appearance of each page using templates and content is created and edited independently of all other CMS elements, making it so easy to change text, upload images, publish articles/blogs etc.
Another great feature of a CMS system is that it is simple to add meta data, a key component in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), helping your site to rank well in search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Which CMS should I be using?
There are many CMS systems available, the most popular being Drupal, Wordpress and Joomla.
Drupal: A good choice for large websites with high traffic, it's dynamic nature means that websites designed on a Drupal platform can expand and adapt rapidly. It is search engine friendly and very easy to use and can be edited with any normal web browser.
Wordpress: Very popular with companies and websites that blog on a regular basis. It can be themed in many different styles without moving content around. Each post is automatically sent out to Google and other sites and is indexed quickly. Like Drupal it is also very easy to use and has a support forum for any issues.
Joomla: Easy to download and useful for small and medium sized businesses as it allows Intranet and extranet operations. Joomla runs on any operating system such as windows and again is very easy to use. It's plug-in options provide a broad framework for different websites.
The type of CMS software that you choose will be based on your website requirements.
Features of a CMS
CMS comes with many standard features to help you edit, create and manage your content very easily. Because of the flexibility of a CMS, additional features can also be added to the framework making it easier to expand your site. With additional features you can build a website that fits in with your business plan and goals. Examples of additional features are blogs, RSS Feeds and you can even integrate an E-Commerce System.