Content Management Systems Explained

So you begin researching how to create a web site. You’re reading things about logos, images, SEO, and navigations. Then you stumble upon this huge phrase, “Content Management Systems”. You think to yourself, “sounds complicated and super technical”. Well, you’d be right . . . sort of.

Content management systems (CMS) are a one stop shop for creating, managing, storing, and deploying content. While all web sites are not massive sites with a laundry list of pages and features, several sites can benefit from the ease of a CMS.

The basic idea behind a web CMS is template based pages. Most pages in a site are designed with a specific look and feel. Several features within any given site are similar across each page of the site. By utilizing a template driven platform, sites can be built in a shorter amount of time. Another benefit is when changes to the site need to be made, those changes can be made in the template and therefore each page is updated at the same time. This helps save time from touching each page to change a font or color scheme.

Another big advantage to a CMS is the ability to have a collaborated work environment. CMS software allows multiple users with unique IDs and passwords. If there are several people working together to create, edit, and maintain a site, a CMS will likely provide an organized way of integrating multiple collaboration sessions.

With collaboration, comes versioning. CMS software often has versioning built into the structure. This means the site, or individual pieces of the site, are saved as a previous version each time a change is made. This is especially helpful if there was a change made by mistake. Using the versioning ability gives the user access to the older version in real time. By simply pulling up the previous version, the user can then make it live again.

Finally, most CMS software is free. These free systems are available to download and then customize. The built in SEO features that come with these systems are highly beneficial to those who are unfamiliar with SEO standards.

If you are looking for a Content Management System, you may want to try WordPress, as it is the most popular CMS and it is user friendly. Others include Joomla and Drupal.

As always, I am available for your web design needs. If you are looking for a web designer in Fort Lauderdale or throughout the country, contact me and I can help get your Content Management System integrated with your site.