A CMS is basically a software system that facilitates administration, authoring, and collaborative content creation for web users who are not experienced with web programming languages. The three most popular CMS are WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are easy to use and are often favoured by small businesses, individual bloggers, and not-for-profit organisations.
We have written an article on Why we love WordPress.
The benefits of a Content Management System
A robust CMS enables users to manage documents online, administer changes to web content with little or no training, and create multiple author outputs. Most platforms have a range of presentation templates, which will vary depending on whether you want to build an eCommerce site or start a personal blog. The CMS controls your collection of web materials including documents, images, and other media, and stores your content and metadata on a database.
CMS: the good
WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla offer:
- templates that allow the user to insert their own content for an individual look
- easy to edit content – most platforms separate content from visual presentation in the administration panel. This makes manipulating content easy for non-technical users
- traffic control – user groups allow administrators to control registered users’ interaction. Anonymous users can be restricted or denied access, thereby circumventing issues with Spammers
- regular software updates and the ability to add plug-ins to extend the functionality
- multi-lingual tools to increase your audience share
- content syndication through the generation of RSS feeds and email updates to users
- low cost and low maintenance: WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla can be used for free, and the ease of use often means it is often unnecessary to employ a full-time software developer to manage your site
- CMS platforms are excellent for search engine optimisation (SEO). Social media plugins, fresh content, and RSS feeds can increase the number of subscribers on your site
CMS: the bad
- implementation for larger-scale projects can be costly and may require further hardware installations
- URLs on CMS can be unstable which could see them blocked by search engines
CMS: the downright ugly!
Before we go any further, both of the items above list are avoidable. It is worth talking to a software specialist and spending some of the money you’ve saved elsewhere to avoid these ugly ducks!
We Push Buttons
Here at We Push Buttons our favourite CMS is WordPress. We build all our client’s sites on this platform and provide WordPress training so they can manage their own sites.
Rob Jennings
