Why Use a Content Management System?
Content Management Systems are changing the way websites are made. Gone are the days of static sites with pages that never change. Here are the days of dynamic content, interactivity and social media interactions. Sites now demand more from their owners, but offer much more too.
If you’re looking to maintain a large website, with multiple contributors, with lots of dynamic content, then a CMS site is ideal. The site is driven by a database, with the code doing all the heavy lifting for you. It is kept separate from the content, so whatever your contributors do, they cannot harm the site itself. This separation of front and back-ends offers significant benefits for larger organizations.
Most CMS are split into three separate elements, design, structure and content. Keeping them separate means you can modify one with affecting the other, and vice versa. It’s a great way to manage a website while guaranteeing stability.
Design
The design of a CMS is implemented through a template. This is a set of design rules that a web design company will implement to give your website the look you’re after. It works much the same as designing a standard website, except the format is slightly different.
You can still have whatever design you want, with the type of navigation, color, and images, it’s just provided as a template overlay instead of being part of the website itself. This means you can update the design whenever you like without harming the site.
Structure
The database structure allows you to manage, update and maintain your website from anywhere, at any time. Being separate from the rest of the site means, like the design, you can change the structure, the hierarchy and the feel without affecting the content.
It also means you can take backups of the site on a regular basis and keep contributors away from parts of the site they could damage.
Content
The content of a content managed website is separate from everything else. That means you can safely have multiple contributors adding content directly to the site without the danger of them breaking something. Any site owner who wants to grow their site and manage a business knows there is rarely time for both.
By maintaining separation from the design and structure, it’s also possible to safely allow guest publishers onto your site too. As long as they are only provided with limited rights to publish content, they cannot do any damage to the site itself.
Content management systems are just that. A flexible, robust system for managing content. It allows site owners to maximize their productivity and keep up with the never-ending demands of their audience. It also allows you to make the most of the creative talent out there without the risk.
As long as you source your CMS and design from a competent web design company, you should have no problem managing and maintaining a professional, dynamic website. If you need help with WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or Magenta CMS in Austin, TX, Thought Mechanics can help!