Benefits of CMS
With the advent of CMS or (content management systems) for websites, creating and managing content is now much easier than ever before. Over the last few years CMS's have advanced significantly in usability and functionality and the cost has come down too. The earliest CMS's cost $500,000 in 1999*, that's a whole lot more expensive that WordPress.org or Joomla!, which are free, or commercial CMS's like SiteFinity or ExpressionEngine. This means that and a single person can own and operate a website for very little cost, that has as much or more functionality than those large expensive corporate websites had just ten years ago.
What are some of the benefits of CMS?
- Edit the content from your web browser. Even if you're on vacation and you forgot to add or remove something, you can logon and make the changes.
- By making it easy to add new content, you will attract more return visitors by keeping information fresh.
- Typical CMS uses a template or theme to give the website a certain look. When you make changes, the look stays the same.
- The web content is stored in a database. This way you can display the information for a variety of devices. For instance, you can have a light version of your content for mobile devices.
- CMS is designed for the non-technical user. You don't have to know HTML (web language) to modify the website. If you can use a word processor you can learn CMS.
- Modules, extensions, plug-in's allow you to gather information from users. Blog comments, user polls and contact forms are a few examples of how information can be gathered.
- Most CMS software's have an easy way to add meta-data. These are keywords, text and phrases that search engines pick up on. They will help you improve your search position and get you more relevant traffic.
- Syndicate your content! RSS (really simple syndication) is a great way to gain return visitors. Once enabled, users simply save the news feed. When they see something that interests them, they can click on it and return to your website. Great for top-of-mind-awareness.
- Reduce your costs by saving time updating web content.
- Create content to be released at a later date or stop it when it's no longer needed. Just assign a start and stop date and time.
The typical CMS website has a management console that allows you to post articles, create links, manage users (guests) and upload media (photos, video or documents). Features vary, Joomla! comes with an article manager, poll manager, link manager, syndication and news feed manager, just to name a few. WordPress has a fully developed blog, blog comments, spam protection, links, and hundreds of free themes to give your site a look you like. Each of the popular CMS's have additional components that can add more functionality to your website.
Most CMS's offer plug-ins, extension or modules. Basically they are add-ons to give your site more functionality. There are hundreds and even thousands of free (open source) or low cost features that match what you want your website to do. The most popular are event calendars, enhanced web forms and photo gallery's. These can be added when setting up your website or at a later date.
Choosing a CMS really depends on what you plan to do with your website. Contact us and we can show you the options and help you through the process.