Times have changed and you no longer need to be at the mercy of your web designer or developer for every content update to your website. Unless you want to be. We still have clients who pay us to make updates to their site on a regular basis. And we are happy to do so. However, if you post regular updates to your site and blog, you will see increased traffic and better conversion. In other words, your online marketing efforts will produce results. Your website is your online business hub from which you communicate with current and potential customers both through the site itself and appropriate social media channels that connect people back to your site.
Websites are now far beyond the traditional brochure design with the addition of dynamic content, fresh material and communication channels along with content that can be automatically updated through the use of RSS feeds. As a result, content management systems have become a smart choice in website creation.
So what is a content management system?
A content management system (CMS) is a software tool that provides an intuitive user interface for building, modifying and publish webpage content. A content management application (CMA) is the editing component and a content delivery application (CDA) is the publishing tool.
Most of the data for a CMS site is kept in a database instead of flat files or multiple HTML files linked together. This provides you with more advanced functionality to build on your site by easily adding features such blogging, contact forms, image galleries, customer testimonials, event management and user roles. Plugins can be added to continually extend your site. WordPress began as a blogging publishing application but has grown to power sites offering a huge range of features and functionality. So as the needs of your business grow, you can easily add eCommerce to your site with a plugin such as Woocommerce, a members section with WP Client or event management with Eventbrite. With many thousands of WordPress sites live today, the software is well supported by a large developer network.
Still not convinced that a CMS is the right choice for your website?
1. Increase efficiency
A CMS simplifies the website updating process. It enables you to separate the design of the site away from the content management. This gives you the flexibility to update content easily without having to rely on a web designer. Content can be publishing easily and efficiently as editing and revisions do not generally require visual design or coding knowledge. This allows for fast and efficient updates, saving your business time and money.
2. Make it easy for visitors to access information
A CMS catalogs and indexes content so it can be easily found or delivered in a requested way, such as other languages. This means the visitors experience can be personalised. If you run a website that sells products, personalisation makes it possible for you to present the browsing customer with items they may want, based on previous purchasing behaviour. WordPress organises your content by day, month, year, author, category, tags etc. Every word you write is searchable through a site search function that can be easily accesses at the top of each page.
3. Rank well on search engines
A good website takes into consideration strategies to rank well on search engines. After all, what is the point of a beautiful, informative site if it can not be found? Good ranking on search engines demands a content strategy. An essential part of a strategy includes an effective and easy way to update content as well as using effective page titles and meta data. This is easy for a beginner to master with the easy to navigate WordPress interface.
4. Extend your site with themes and plugins
Lots of people using WordPress are neither web designers nor programmers. WordPress themes are easy to customise because a lot of them come with their own options panel allowing you to change colours, upload your logo, create beautiful sliders and do a variety of things to your website without ever writing any code at all. WordPress can be extended by using plugins. Just like themes, there are thousands of free and premium plugins available for you to use.
5. Manage your site easily
WordPress comes with built-in updater that allows you to update your plugins and themes from within your WordPress administration dashboard. It also notifies you when there is a new version of WordPress is available, so you can update it by just clicking a button.
6. Maintain accountability over content
A CMS allows you to assign authoring duties to different people. Setting up workflows, approval chains and permissions helps to ensure that content doesn’t appear on your site unless it has been approved.Draft pages and posts are saved until they are edited and approved.
7. Ensure design consistency
A CMS assists to force visual consistency across the website. By putting style rules in place, you can make sure that elements such font choices and sizes as well as colour palettes are set and used universally to keep the site looking professional and maintain branding.
8. Edit your site from anywhere with an internet connection
Once your site has been published, you can access and edit it from anywhere with an internet connection. You don’t need any software installed. You can also schedule the publishing of a page or post so it will go live automatically on a set time and date in the future.
9. Grow your community
A CMS helps to build communities around your site with the use of comments, trackbacks and pingbacks, helping you keep in touch with your audience. Visitors to your site can leave comments on individual entries, and through Trackback or Pingback can comment on their own site. You can enable or disable comments on a per-post. WordPress provides an array of moderation options. You can moderate all comments before they appear on your site and also set up email notifications to let you know when there is a new comment or a comment awaiting moderation.
How do you decide if you need a CMS?
- Do you want to make updates to your website regularly (at least one a month)?
- Do you have a site that is outdated and content that offers poor customer experience?
- Does you have content need to be published immediately (information/prices that will be outdated quickly)
- Do you have a limited budget?
- Do you lack consistent branding across your current website?
- Are you re-creating content for different devices such as desktops, tablets and phones?
- Do you want to grow your site over stages?
If your answer is yes, a content management system would be the wise choice for your website and WordPress offers the versatility you need. Talk to us about how we can work with you to create the site your business needs today and you will feel confident to maintain.
What do you think? How often do you make updates? Are you stuck relying on someone else or do you already use a CMS? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
