How Content Management Systems Benefit You

Attractive design, inquisitive structure and captivating content are the ingredients of every successful website. Since most people who wish to launch their very own website would usually not be well versed in all three areas, owning a website becomes tedious if not a costly venture.
Since all website owners may not be web developers, sometimes they may need to take the trouble of learning how to make even the smallest changes required on their site. Some may find this exciting, while the majority would get disheartened by the inconvenient task and even give up the idea of having an online presence.

If you are another one of those, who specializes at some business, service or has an urge to disseminate his interests and experiences with the world without learning web development, it is still possible. A Content Management System (CMS) is what you need!

What is a Content Management System?

A Content Management System (CMS) refers to Application Software that enables its users to create, organize and publish all website content without requiring any technical expertise. E-commerce stores, portals, forums and even some of the most popular blogs today, have deployed content management systems within their websites for efficient handling especially when multiple administrators are involved.
CMS deployment provides administrators and editors to work on user-friendly website and interfaces allowing them to add more content, images, videos, portals, corporate blogs and anything and everything they wish to have in their website. CMS today have provided freedom to all website owners from spending a lot of money, hiring web developers who would compromise on time and quality rather than delivering value-driven and high quality websites.
However, what makes these CMS systems ideal for every website is the separation of web design, development and content management. For instance, you could change or adjust the design of the website to be more attractive or have a totally different color scheme any time you wish without having to rework on its structure and content each time. Similarly, you may add a photo gallery, a wiki portal or even your very own video streaming section in the site without worrying about the pre-existing content and outlook.
New York Times, BBC News, Reader’s Digest and several renowned websites including Face book make efficient use of CMS to facilitate continuous flow of information every second. But if all of these sites deploy CMS, why do they operate and function as differently as these are questions that lurk in the intelligent mind.

Different Types of CMS Available

Commercial CMS

As the name suggests, these content management systems are usually implemented by industry big shots paying huge amounts for its use. Besides the huge tag prices, these CMS are customized for individual client needs and users can benefit by new and ever improving features for their websites and also receive 24 hour customer support.

Bitrix

CMSDotNet

CMS based on Open source Platform

Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Campsite and Tomato are some of the most commonly used and popular CMS available. The best part of these different CMS modules is that they are available for free and they are extremely user-friendly. All you need to do is down load and run the setup on your webhost space and your CMS is ready to rumble.

Joomla

MODx

Drupal

Which Content Management System is best for you?

CMS deployment would always seem a wise option for your website whether you have the technical knowledge to update your site’s codes or not. But before you proceed, you should know of the various CMS options available to choose from. It is essential that you follow-up with a need analysis for your site before you deploy just any popular CMS for your website.
Consider asking yourself questions like:

• What kind of a website do I wish to maintain?
• What features like blogs, wikis, portals, forums, galleries etc would I like to add to my site?
• Do I wish to keep my site static or dynamic or how often would I update the content on my website?

The idea is to make sure that the CMS system you choose should fulfill all current and future needs for your website. Any features that you wished to add or keep on your website should easily be integrated on your CMS. Choosing the right content management system today is what can promise hassle free growth in the future prospects.

A Few other Benefits of Content Management Systems

Separating Design, Development & Content

Add compelling features like picture galleries or change the complete outlook of your website while the quality content, bulletin boards and advertisement banners remain intact. It is ideal for expert and diverse teams managing your online business!

No technical knowledge required

Managing your dynamic website and updating regular content may have never been as easy without any coding and computer languages involved. CMS allows users who have absolutely no idea of HTML or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to have complete control over their website.

Several Publishers

Blogs or wikis featuring multiple authors are allowed to work simultaneously without any hindrance to each other. In case there are different authors, editors and publishers, each can carry out their task in producing high quality articles.

Dynamic User-friendly backend system

The dynamic software platform offered by the content management system helps in updating or adding content fast and easy. While static sites require downloading complete pages, changing displayed information with HTML and then uploading it back. CMS not only reduced time, but also lowered the probability of errors through previews and spell checks.

Total Control

You know your business better than others and no matter how much you try to convince your visions or objectives to your developer he will always be one step behind. Complete command over the content of your site is what CMS gives you. Thus, the next time your designer says he has to go and fetch some food for his cat before he can create that new page on your website, you can tell him how lovely it used to be working with him.

Consistent site layouts

With CMS, it really doesn’t matter if you just planned to install a blog on your existing website or your boss wanted his dog’s family albums displayed on the website’s gallery. All pages in the site can have the same look and feel like other pages. This feature is highly beneficial for those who have several authors posting articles on their website or guest bloggers sharing their reviews.

Auto-generated menus and links

With CMS like Joomla, Campsite and WordPress etc all menus and submenus automatically stay in line with their parent links and get called wherever their parent links are present. So for instance, you have a ‘Locations’ and ‘Order Now’ page assigned under the Contact Us as a submenu, you’ll always find them together throughout the site.

No broken links

Pages you had previously deleted or removed due to any circumstances will have no traces whatsoever as all links are generated and removed automatically. No page means no link and definitely no page navigation errors on your website.

Plugins and Extensions

This is one of the most amazing and lustrous feature in most content management systems. If you wish to have any additional items like banners, subscription service, shopping carts, PayPal or credit card acceptance features, all you need to do is go online and find yourself the most suitable plugins available for your needs.

Database driven storage

All CMS applications are integrated on webhosts using databases such as MySQL and even Office Access, making it easier to transfer or imitate content and structure on other sister sites that you may wish to launch for your business.

Content Scheduling

Like blogs, CMS also enables you to set time and date for a publication that you wish to share on a particular date. For instance sending all your employees a greeting on their emails or changing the company home page on its anniversary to treasure the moment.

Remote Authorized Access

Since all you need is your website and the login details to get inside your CMS hosted online, you can change or add updates from nearly any part of the world. Some CMS also allow users to access their websites through their smart phones and iPad devices to share any updates.

Search Engine Friendly URLs

One major problem of attracting more visitors and traffic throughout the world from search engines is also solved by most content management systems. CMS users experience total on-page optimization without having a clue about internet marketing. All URLs are keyword rich, while adding tags and links within the content itself can be much more compelling for search engines. Additionally, having a lot of content and several pages on your website is highly likely to draw some traffic one way or the other after all.