Many companies have adopted new web management strategies that enable them to control their content and keep their website fresh and current. This strategy is essentially implementing a web content management solution that allows businesses to take ownership of their website structure and content. Unless you're familiar with HTML, updating a website without a Content Management System (CMS) would be very difficult and you also run the risk of damaging the site, resulting in time and money spent in order to correct it. A CMS can offer a lot more than just adding and deleting content. The intention of this article is to briefly outline what a Content Management System can offer as we establish the key components.

Customisation

The main elements of CMS customisation fall into 2 categories, content and presentation. The content represents the information and the presentation represents the vehicle that determines the look and the feel of a web page. The ability to control the information allow editors to create new content pages and make changes to existing ones while control over presentation allow for custom designs and layouts.

Separate design and content

A CMS is structured to allow streamline management by storing the content separately from the HTML elements. This enables editors to focus on generating quality content and not worry about the HTML jargon while web developers will be able to configure and manage the design and presentation element of a website and not worry about meddling with the content.

Anywhere, anytime

Because most CMS systems are web based, publishers and editors only require an internet connection to login and access the content in just about any standard internet browser .

Publishing and versioning

Website pages can be previewed and checked by editors before making the changes live. In CMS that support versioning, revisions of changes made to website content are kept in storage and editors can view the workflow changes and revert to a previous revision if a mistake had occurred.

Multiple users

Multiple users can have separate login access and editors can be assigned different roles and permission settings. Content writers can be given permission rights to only edit content in existing pages while others can be given access to only control pages in a specific section of a website.

Extended shelf life

Most CMS vendors continuously develop and improve their software and provide upgrade packages for earlier versions. These packages may include additional features and modules to keep in line with market trends as well as compatibility updates to better improve system performance.

Larger vendors also have a growing developer community that actively participate in online discussion forums. These forums are a great place for sourcing information for technical assistance and also keeping up to date with the latest developments. Third party add-ons, custom plug-ins and CSS templates can also be integrated into a CMS to enhance the user experience by bringing new life to an existing system.

SEO

Of all the many different techniques for optimising a website for search engines, there are a specific few that are often echoed by SEO specialists. One of the most important techniques is by updating the content of your website. Search engines place greater importance for websites that keep their content updated since it shows that the website is genuine in keeping customers up to date with the latest information. You can take full advantage of this SEO technique by making a conscious effort to regularly add news feeds or latest product updates and reviews.

Final notes

It's important to have a realistic expectation of your long term business strategies and requirements and determine whether the goals can be achieved by implementing a CMS. It's always good to do your own research and preparation is key to ensure you know the right questions to ask. It's easy to see the benefits of a content managed system but not all websites require CMS integrations. Websites that generally consists of 5-10 pages that wouldn't be updated regularly won't benefit from a content managed system since there is a significant cost different between static websites and CMS integrated websites. Ultimately, businesses have different goals and strategies they want to achieve with an online presence and the development cost of a website need to be justified.

If you've decided that a CMS is the ideal solution, make a list of features that are most important to your business and which can be classified as 'added benefits'. Keep in mind that every CMS have their own strengths and weaknesses and there is no single best list of requirements for a content management system as every business has unique needs. The popular .NET based CMS's are Umbraco, DotNetNuke and Kentico while PHP based CMS's include Joomla, Drupal, WordPress and TextPattern. The discussion between .NET and PHP based systems is beyond the scope of this write up and will be covered in another article.

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Posted in: CMS