A Web Content Management System (CMS) is a sophisticated tool that can be used to make the whole process of Web publishing much easier, by allowing people without a technical background to make content updates to the website.
With a CMS you can update your website whenever you need to. This technology is great for those that want complete control of their website content. The only downside is that you have to learn how use the tools to change the content on your website vs. emailing the web developer to make the changes for you.
Design
With a CMS, Web developers can concentrate on the site structure, navigation, look-and-feel without having to worry about creating and maintaining content.
The whole site can remain consistent since information is drawn from the content database and plugged into templates created by the Web developer for different Web pages.
Content Creation
Content writers can concentrate on writing content without having to worry about design issues. Content can easily be added to the database and displayed on a Web page by typing or pasting text into a form within the CMS admin system Web pages.
A CMS can also be used to help manage workflow and maintain quality control by allowing an overall administrator of the system to set roles, permissions, authors, editors and publishers. For example, several authors may be able to upload new material to the CMS at any time. The editor can be alerted when new content is added to the system. The new material can then be reviewed, approved, and finally published to the Web site by an authorized person at the click of a button.
Rich Content
Not all websites can be completely contained within a CMS. Most websites have additional web pages that have rich content that does not fit into a CMS like an ‘Event Calendar’ or ‘Photo Gallery’ or ‘Video Gallery’. Therefore, a website may consist of a mixture of CMS pages and rich content pages.
We build lots of websites with a mixture of CMS pages and rich content pages. These websites have the advantages of both a CMS for standard content and custom programming for rich content.
Do You Need A CMS?
If you have frequently changing content and you want to be able to change the content yourself, then you should have a CMS. But, there are several different CMS options:
- You can buy an off-the-shelf CMS
- You could build it yourself
- You could hire a web developer to build it for you
- You could hire a web developer to build your website with an off-the-shelf CMS.
The right choice for you may not be right for someone else. It all depends on what you are trying to do with your website.
Web Content Management Systems can range from fairly simple to those with highly sophisticated workflow management processes. Some systems require users to know a few basic HTML tags while others only require simple word processing skills. The more complicated your requirements are, the more expensive the CMS will likely be. Most businesses make the mistake of first choosing a CMS and then deciding what they are going to do with it.
We can help you decide if you need a CMS.