What is a CMS?

Are you thinking about building your business brand online? If so, you need to create a website. A website will ensure that you have a platform where you can share content and engage with an audience online.   To build a website, you can use a CMS or content management system. There are many examples of content management system software including WordPress, ExpressionEngine and Ghost. The alternative would be to build up a website from scratch. 

Let’s explore content management systems in more detail and discover why it’s a far better option than building your own site from the ground up. 

Content Management System Explained

Typically, a CMS will be a computer application or a set of programs. You can use this to both create and manage digital content. This includes blog posts, articles and webpages. You will be able to add content to your website and then edit or delete it. Ultimately, a CMS gives you complete control over what content is published on your website at any time. 

But this is actually just the tip of the iceberg of what a CMS allows you to do. As well as providing web-based publishing, a CMS system will also allow you to manage the format. So, you can change the aesthetic and style of your website with a few clicks. You might also be able to complete indexing and use the CMS system to optimise your site too. If you are working in a large business, it might be possible to provide different permissions to users. 

You can then decide who has control to change what. Each person can have individual permissions depending on their role in your company. 

Changing Times

Years ago a CMS was not an affordable option for the typical business. Instead, companies and particularly small businesses were forced to rely on HTML. This was a time-consuming process but it certainly beats spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on this type of software. However, times have changed and now content management software such as WordPress is accessible to all. In fact, WordPress, is available for free online. 

You’ll be amazed at how many different businesses and organisations use these type of CMS setups. University websites, small business websites, blogs, real estate property websites and movie databases are all often run using a CMS. 

So why is using a CMS so popular and what benefits will you get compared to building a website from scratch?

Benefits Of CMS

Free To Use

Most of the popular CMS options available on the market today are free to use. For instance, you can install WordPress on your web hosting account automatically and without charge. As mentioned, there are premium options for content management software you can typically sign up for but this is completely scalable. Ultimately, that means regardless of your business model, a CMS will fit into your business budget even if you choose to avoid paying for the software completely. 

Fast And Friendly

A content management system is designed to be completely user-friendly. You don’t need to have a degree in computing or qualifications in website design to access this software and gain the most from it. Instead, it is possible to publish a piece of content through WordPress in minutes. That does include the time it takes to ensure that it looks professional and you can even guarantee that it is optimised. These software systems provide an easy solution where you can fill in different settings and boxes before you hit publish. 

When you explore a preview of the content you’ll discover the system has laid it all out for you. 

Crucially, content editing is completely separate from the functionality and design of the website. A website is a lot like a theatre production. As impressive as everything looks on stage, there’s a lot going on behind the curtain. With a CMS you don’t have to worry about anything like this and instead can simply focus on adding content that will look great. You don’t have to know anything about coding or design. All of this is taken care of behind the scenes. 

As such, you could save a fortune because you won’t need to hire a professional to publish your content. Instead, if you’re paying by the hour your marketing team or outsourcing expert they can focus on other areas of your campaign that are more complicated. 

Fast Updates

A website should never be stagnant. If your website never changes it will quickly bore users. You need to add fresh content on a regular basis, even making changes to web pages, headers and sidebars. This keeps your website fresh and exciting. Without CMS, doing this requires playing with the coding of the site. This involves expertise and a lot of time. With a CMS changes like this can be completed within minutes. If you want to change multiple pages on your site and give it a fresh look, you’ll still only need to schedule an hour in the business day. The best part is this won’t look like a rushed job. Using a content management system, your website can look professional, stylish, modern and most importantly, well maintained. 

SEO Extras

When you explore the options that a CMS provides you will find SEO features. This means that you can optimise your site to ensure that any content you do publish will help with the ranking. You can even find plugins which will provide you with information on the best ways to improve a piece that you are publishing. Without a CMS you will be on your own when it comes to SEO. You will have to hire a marketing specialist. With a CMS, SEO optimisation becomes a lot easier and significantly more automated. It even makes the option of DIY SEO far more accessible to the typical business owner. 

We hope this helps you understand the key benefits of a CMS and why it’s a far more attractive option than building a website from scratch.