What is a Content Management System and Why Do I Need One?

Content Management Systems (CMS) allow you to change the content of your website, usually without having to involve third party support.  Systems such as Joomla!, WordPress and Drupal permit you to edit text, add or remove pictures, create new articles and menus and more. If you anticipate changing your content frequently, or if you have a large base of information contained in detailed articles, then CMS is for you.

What Are The Benefits of a Content Management System?

  • Prompt attention to website change requirements
  • You control the content on your website. The modular nature of the information means that you can have dated pieces appear and disappear without having to rebuild whole website pages.  The site accommodates the blocks of information as they appear. Wholesale changes, such as the look and feel provided by a new theme may be possible, but will usually require your website design team to test it first on a local server before going live.

CMS Helps You Tweak Your Content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Clean up your siteThrough the judicious use of headlines, meta tags, alt tags and content, CMS gives you a method for finding higher search engine rankings. These types of sites are predicated on a relational database, which allows you to design and store hundreds of pages in your database at one time.  You can then choose to activate only those that server your immediate purposes.

Real Time Changes of Your Website Content

  • Although your content may be in a a cache for performance reasons, changes can be activated in just a few minutes on most servers.

CMS Promotes the Separate Control of Content and Design

  • Keeping content separate from the developmental structure of the site allows a lot of freedom within the safety confines of your system.  In other words, a good content management system protects you from yourself.  Truly egregious errors might wreck a single page, but rarely bring down the whole site.

A good CMS can reduce the costs of website maintenance

  • Most content management systems require updates.  For example, last year Joomla had 18 updates that we performed for one client. There is no CMS that is a “set it and forget it” kind of system.  That’s a good thing because constant vigilance keeps sites performing well, free from intruders and ready for your next stage of growth.

When considering a CMS be sure to look for:

  • Both front and back end access to general article information.
  • An internet service provider whose shared hosting requirements do not cramp the demands your system will place upon it.
  • Meta data editing and tracking (enables you to get a better search engine rankings)
  • Advanced editing abilities with HTML
  • Backup facilities with a central archive where all documents and files are stored
  • Automatic update utilities
  • Relational Database driven applications capable of cross platform exports
  • Open Architecture allowing for code updates and development
  • Manageable/customizable module website layouts using HTML5, CSS3 or AJAX
  • Forums with moderator control to avoid member created problems
  • Content management roles for different users such as admin, author, contributor 
  • Notification systems that work in conjunction with mass mailing capabilities.

Even though basic CMS allows many beneficial features there’s also an advanced CMS tool which provides a superior control over the website’s content.

Extensive and Advanced CMS Features Include:

  • Presentation utilities permitting industry specific events such as live video feeds
  • News generators incorporating RSS feeds from multiple sites.
  • Advanced image editing.
  • PDF file presentations
  • Text editors allowing credentialed users to write code into the site.
  • Downloadable digital image products
  • Template Management systems that permit the user to change the look and feel of the site.
  • Advanced banner management for advertising revenues
  • Subscription Services
  • Socially interactive community development architectures
  • Instant messaging
  • User controllable social site pages
Community

Community Sites

Content Management Systems make possible community sites that can share data privately or on a subscription basis.

If you need the ability to offer restricted content, we can help.  Contact us.