With 60.4% market share, WordPress is one of the most used Content Management Systems (CMS). When you take into consideration all websites, including those not using a CMS, this puts WordPress at being used for 33.5% of all websites. That’s a lot of websites! And that does not even include all websites on other CMS options. With so many websites being built with a CMS, you may be wondering what exactly a Content Management System is and why it’s used by so many.
Wikipedia defines a Content Management System as “a software application that can be used to manage the creation and modification of digital content.”
If you dig a little deeper, you see that a CMS is made up of two major components, a Content Management Application (CMA) and a Content Delivery Application (CDA). Essentially the CMA allows you to create and manage your website, while the CDA makes the content display correctly for your website visitors. A CMA and CDA can be further defined as:
- A Content Management Application is the front-end user interface for creating and managing the website content without the need of coding knowledge.
- A Content Delivery Application is the back-end interface that compiles the content to be displayed on the website and to update the website.
Now having the knowledge of what a CMS is, you may be wondering why this type of software is chosen by so many for creating and managing a website. There are many benefits to a CMS!
Benefits of a Content Management System
Don’t Know Coding? Don’t Worry About It
A CMS offers a lot of benefits. For one, it provides you with a way to build a website without having to code it all from scratch. You can build a website with a CMS, like WordPress, without having to touch any code. An added benefit to a CMS is that you can access and edit the code if you wish to! This allows people with and without coding knowledge to build and modify their website to look and function the way they want.
Easy Content Management
As the name implies, a CMS is also a great way to manage your website content. A CMS manages all website content including all the website’s text, images, and videos, making it easy to keep everything organized and easy to find, edit, and update.
Integrations
A CMS allows easy integrations of different software that your business uses into your website.
Scalability
A CMS, such as WordPress, can be used for a wide range of needs. It can fit the needs of a small business up to a large corporation. You’ll see Content Management Systems used for blogs, small business websites, and large corporations and organizations.
Features of a Content Management System
A CMS offers a lot of features that leads users to choose to use one.
Customization
You can easily customize your site to look and function however best fits your business’ needs. There is so much you can do with your CMS to make your site unique and fit your brand best.
Themes and Templates
They provide many themes and templates you can choose from to start building your site with ease. These themes and templates are customizable but offer a great launching pad for getting your design process started! When you begin modifying your theme and designing your website, keep these five design elements in mind.
Plugins and Integrations
There is a seemingly endless list of plugins and integrations that you can use in your site. This allows you to make the site fit into all other parts of your business easily. Plugins are great and add so much functionality to your site but be sure to only use ones you know are credible to help lower the risk of your site being hacked. You can learn more about some essential plugins for your business here.
SEO Friendly
A very important feature! Designing your site to be SEO friendly makes a huge impact on your site’s visibility on search engines. Without an SEO friendly site, you’ll miss out on possible site visitors.
User Permissions
You can set up your site to have multiple users, making it easy to delegate content creation and publishing for the site. However, you may not want all users to be able to access and edit all aspects of the site, so you also have the capability to set up a hierarchy of users where not all users have access to all editing permissions.
Publishing Capabilities
With many CMS’s, you can publish a page or post immediately or schedule it to be published at a later date. This feature makes it easy to create content ahead of time, schedule it to publish on the desired date, and make sure you don’t miss a deadline.
Easy Editing
Revisions and edits can be easily made, even after the page has been published. A CMS makes editing your site simple with the ability to make any necessary edits and then update the site with ease.
Content Hierarchy
In a CMS you can set up your site’s content hierarchy. You can organize your content, including all pages, posts, and landing pages, in a categorical structure. Content can be categorized in multiple levels, making it easy to see how your site’s content links together. This often aligns with the navigation structure of your website.
How to Get Started with a CMS
After reading through all of the benefits a CMS has to offer and learning about all the cool features that come with one, you may be ready to create your own website and increase your business’ or blog’s online presence, but you don’t know where to begin. You can get started in a few easy steps!
- Decide if you want to create your site yourself or hire a web designer.
- Decide on which CMS you want to use.
- Purchase your domain name.
- Select a web host that supports your chosen CMS. A trustworthy and reliable web host is extremely important. You can learn more on how to choose a web host here.
Once you do these steps, you can get started on your website. If in the process you find you need some help, just contact us and we would be happy to help you get your website ready for the online world!
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