Why Does My Website Need a Content Management System?

The FrontPage Era is Dead

I remember making my first website in Notepad. That’s right, Windows Notepad. Back then (time moves fast in the Internet era) some people like me felt a certain sense of masochistic pride in painstakingly going into the code of a website and building it in the most difficult way possible. Obviously, this was slow and you could only get so much functionality.

Others used tools that proudly proclaimed “you don’t need to know anything about web design to make a website with this program!” unfortunately, the results tended to look less than professional, and were extremely slipshod on the technical side.

Then there were those people who invested heavily in expensive, complicated programs–DreamWeaver and the like–who, if they had the professional skill, could make a good website. However, the process was quite expensive to the customer, and took a long time to develop.

What is a CMS?

Those were the only options back then. But now, things have changed. A Content Management System (CMS) is a system to manage content… in other words, a tool ordinary people can use to change pages on a website. You login, click, change some text or images, and you’re done.

A CMS is software installed on a web site. Then with a few clicks, you can alter numerous settings to your liking, write blog posts, create web pages, add images, and so on.

To change the looks of the website you can, again, change various settings… but largely, the appearance is determined from a theme you can download and install. There are many free themes, but it’s wise to get a paid theme that is professionally designed and professionally supported. See ElegantThemes and look at a few themes to get an idea for how radically the appearance of the entire site can be changed, with little to no change required in the content and site settings.

Which CMS?

There are numerous CMSes out there today, but the big three are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Which is best? There’s a great deal of debate around that, and everyone has their own opinion. I feel that each has their own uses, but recommend WordPress for small business websites.

What Does it Do For Me?

With a CMS, you can:

• Easily add special functionality with a click or two by means of “plugins”
• Easily change the appearance of the entire site
• Update your site anytime, without needing to be a web design expert
• Benefit from a site structure designed with SEO in mind
• Set up different users so you can control who can change the site and how much access they have
• Manage large amounts of content, categorizing and searching through hundreds or even thousands of posts

Can I Design My Website Myself?

Using a Content Management System does make it much easier to create your own website. You could, with a little fiddling, get something set up online and start writing content.

However, web design is much more complicated than that. Topics like accessibility, SEO, security, online marketing, mobile design and so on can make matters complicated. Do you know what themes are good to use, what plugins are good to use, and how to correct CSS problems? Just like any other professional, you could learn to do it yourself… but if you get a professional, they can do it much faster, leaving you with more time to work on your business and make more money.