What is a CMS? Do you need it?
The Basics
The key idea of a CMS is that it allows for multiple users to create, edit and publish content easily. The main features of a CMS includes: content creation, content storage, workflow management and publishing. Content creation and storage are quite straightforward and self-explanatory, it allows users to create their own content such as writing their own text and store their own content such as images. Workflow management is allowing for a customizable, multiple layers of differing user privileges (access levels), enabling some sensitive information to be stored privately while also allowing a company-wide input. Therefore it is an indispensable collaborative working tool.
Another important aspect of website designing that is also supported by a CMS is data consistency. The databases used to store information allows for an update of information to be seen throughout the whole site immediately. This removes the tediousness associated with having to edit different instances of the same data one by one for all recurring uses.
Christmas is just around the corner, if your business has any discounts related to the event or you just want to give a seasonal greeting, everything goes up and down easily with the help of a CMS. It is after all really important to stay relevant to your target audience and take advantage of these key moments to increase customer engagement. The content scheduling feature available in most CMS is also especially helpful in this aspect. Prepare your content ahead of time to make sure that it is polished, then schedule for when you want to publish the post and it will automatically be published on the time that has been set. There’s no need to wait around for the right timing and risk forgetting to post an important update.
Out of sight, Out of mind.
A CMS gives you full control over your website’s contents whether you want to append new content, amend an already existing one, or remove some content, rest assured that you will be able to do all these in only a few short moments. All of this can be done without worrying too much about the technical details. Such is the beauty of using these content management systems.
A lot of the heavy lifting is done behind the scenes in order to ensure that everything is working efficiently. Features such as website responsiveness across different platforms are taken care of discreetly without the users of the CMS even having to think about it. The design layout also helps in providing a clean and consistent design throughout the whole site.
Just handle the tip of the iceberg and the CMS will magically do the rest for you.
As web developers that have tried both methods ourselves, both using CMS to edit content and also editing directly through changing the code, we can confidently recommend the use of CMS because it even makes life a lot easier for experienced web developers as us. Even when we have the technical capabilities to do everything manually by code, it is a welcome and refreshing moment to stop staring at lines of codes all day and engage in a more user-friendly system.
Envision Customer Satisfaction
Do you want to merely receive a website, or create a brand machine?
Websites are the number one online marketing tools for businesses. They also have to convert potential clients to sales instead of only providing information. Directing traffic through the right keywords is easier than ever with the help of integrated SEO features. Target the right people and give them the right content for a wider reach, increase interactions and help reach your goals by getting more leads.
Visual aid in editing goes a long way. See what the end product will look like once contents are done being published to the site while editing. No more going back and forth with multiple refreshes to see if the changes made were implemented correctly. No more fiddling with sizing, positioning, etc. This ensures that everyone is able to manage their website even without any knowledge of HTML of CSS. Aside from saving time and effort in developing your website, such a visual system where you get to see previews of your pages during editing helps a lot with understanding what your visitors will get and enables you to tweak the site to maximize visitor satisfaction.
Freedom with Safety
A CMS to adults is like a sandbox for children, it is an environment where they are free to have fun while also minimizing the risk of injury when they inevitably fall down.
A CMS allows for users to experiment with their creativity to create the website that suits their visions and ideals while also being a safeguard against the risk of potential catastrophic failures that might cause a business to incur losses, just like how soft sand on the playground dampens a fall. Users are free to experiment with the layout or aesthetics of their websites without having to think about the consequences that their every action might make to the usability of the site.
You should take advantage of the continued improvements and innovations in software to enjoy a system that benefits you by allowing for creativity, freedom and control over your website while still experiencing a polished UI and UX.
Conclusion
After looking into the matter and comparing some of the best-known content management systems out there such as Shopify, WordPress and the likes. We have seen the contrast between what different systems have to offer. On one end of the spectrum we have extremely user-friendly and easy to use systems such as Wix which utilizes a drag and drop style of in-line editors to visualize what the website will look like live even in the midst of editing. This style of editors are really appealing for beginners who have little to no knowledge about web development and thus will have difficulty in recognizing what a line of code would look like on a live website.
On the other hand, high-utility and feature-packed systems such as Joomla are also on the market. These systems will require some degree of proficiency in web development which explains its popularity amongst developers and experienced creators who do not mind the added complexity which brings with it increased customizability. There are also systems which utilizes both styles such as WordPress which shows why they have the biggest market share as they are able to provide to the needs of most people. It does however become a hassle to try and navigate through the sea of features that they have, especially when a majority of the features will remain untouched for most users.
Are you a developer that has the mastery and time required to handle a complex-yet-powerful CMS? Or are you a busy businessman that needs a simple and quick way to establish a good looking site for your business? In this way, the system that you are looking for depends on who you are.
Don't look for a perfect system since it is impossible to find, instead search for a system that caters to your needs perfectly.
