Web Design Discussion

If you are planning to build a site that contains hundreds of pages, needs constant updating without needing to upload web pages to your web host, consider using a content management system or CMS.

What is a Content Management System or CMS?

This system enables you to manage large amounts of content from multiple authors.

Here are the top 12 benefits of a content management system:

1. A CMS web site is database driven.

This allows you to create and store hundreds or thousands of pages in the database without the need to update each one of them.

2. Separate design and content.

The design of the site template is separate from the content. This allows you to change the design any time without affecting the content stored on the site.

3. Use cascading style sheet (CSS) to control site appearance.

Altering one CSS file will allow you to change the design and/or color of your CMS site. The consistency of the design can be preserved.

4. Multiple authors

If you have different authors that wish to contribute to your CMS web site you can set up multiple user access in the administration panel. They can just login and begin adding their content.

5. Access from anywhere

Authors and editors can access the site from any computer with an internet connection. This means users can update the site at the same time from any location in the world.

6. Web site management panel

The backend administration panel not only provides the ability to add content but also to add modules such as polls, banners,
forums, shopping applications, news management and menus.

Authors can be given limited permissions to prevent them from editing content which they are not authorized to change.

7. Schedule content updates

Publishing content can be controlled by creating a draft first then publishing it later. This is handy if you need to coordinate content from multiple authors.

8. HTML knowledge not required

A CMS site allows non-technical people to add content. They just need to login with a user name and password then use the web editor that’s built into the CMS to add their content.

9. Saves time.

If you were using a static site to add content from multiple authors, each author would have to download the pages from the server to their computer first, update them, then upload them back to the server. This would be very time consuming and could generate a lot of errors.

10. Create search engine friendly pages

The separation of content from design allows you to easily include keywords in the URL of each page. If the title of your article was “Content Management System Benefits” your URL would be written as:

http://www.domainname.com/content-management-system-benefits

Some CMS sites automatically generate the correct meta tags for each web page which would help them to spidered by the search engines.

11. Attracts visitors

A CMS site attracts visitors because it can be constantly and rapidly updated. It not only generates pages that are search engine friendly but can produce lots of links from the new content that is added and syndicated.

12. Create automatic RSS Feeds.

RSS or really simple syndication is integrated automatically into many CMS sites. Every time you create a post or make a comment it creates a feed for it. This allows visitors with RSS Feeders to read the post at their own leisure.

Conclusion

A content management system is a powerful tool for businesses that want to present lots of content from multiple authors and gain lots of visitors. It also has the capability to expand as your business grows.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 9:56 pm and is filed under CMS . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.