Why You Should Use A CMS To Build Your Website
You’ve just started your business and you know you need a website to launch you in this big, complex and competitive world of the internet. You ask friends for their opinions and get in touch with some digital agencies to figure out what to do next, and they bring up a concept you’ve never heard before: CMS.
CMS stands for Content Management System which is a computer application that supports the creation and modification of digital content. In a CMS, you play the role of a true manager and can easily change pretty much everything in your website. And the best part is you can do all of that without having any knowledge about how to write a single line of code.
Don’t believe me? Here are 5 reasons why you should be holding hands with CMSs and become BFFs.
1. It’s faster to get started
Whether you decide to do it yourself or hire an agency to do the job for you, it will always be a faster building process than any website implemented from scratch.
CMSs already have a base structure called core that comes with the installation, ready to run on its own (something like those tents that pitch themselves). And that’s it: you can have a website up and running in literally 15 minutes. The result is a very basic structure with a backstage system ready for you to add pages, menus, and many other features. There, you’re ready to start building your dream website.
2. You can choose what suits your company best
Fortunately, there are a lot of options on the web when it comes to CMSs. They exist for at least 2 decades and, as it is a growing need, there are always new ideas emerging in the digital world.
The most popular, that you have certainly heard of, is Wordpress (used by over 27% of the websites on the internet), followed by Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Blogger, and many many more. Some are best suited for blogs, others for online stores, intranet, institutional or just simple static websites. It all depends on what you want to do and your level of expertise, as some are more limited or easier to use than others.
With all of these choices anything is possible. And in case you are wondering, a lot of them are free!
3. You take the wheel, not Jesus
You’re in control. No more calling the developer in the middle of the night to change a comma in the html text inside that php file, which is in the Area 51 of your website. You can add, modify or remove content whenever you want, making it faster to get back to your client and to update content: that goes for adding and formatting text, images, menus, links, pages, blog posts, etc.
You’ll have time to focus on tools like keyword monitoring, social media, blogging and email marketing to help increase the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your page. If you want to hire an agency or assign this work to your cousin, you just need to create an account for them and set the permissions to your needs. It’s that simple.
4. It can be extended
Not happy with what you’ve got so far? Take a look at the extended features each CMS holds. In Drupal, they are called modules and Wordpress has plugins. They’re available for free download (some plugins are paid) and you can easily add them to your website. Whether you need a contact form, an image gallery or a text editor, luckily someone had that necessity before and contributed by implementing and sharing those features with others.
If you don’t have time to worry about the design implementation, there are a lot of themes as well. Of course, these themes are available to everyone and you’ll need the help of a designer if you want something really unique.
5. Community and support
Speaking of contribution, the community is also a very important aspect. As CMS popularity is growing, more and more developers and non-technical users are interested in this website building method, resulting in mutual help inside the community. Also, digital agencies have experienced web experts ready to give support in any difficulty you should come across.
CMSs are built for people that have little or no knowledge in programming languages, but they’re also a great tool for developers as they can use their time more efficiently.
There’s a lot of controversy about the advantages and disadvantages of CMSs due to the fact that non-technical users are inevitably unaware of some basic web rules. And, undoubtedly, limitations exist. Limitations that only a web expert can decode and understand.
I believe the solution lies in working together: ask a developer to build the main structure and implement specific features, and ask a designer to do his or her magic and make your website stand out from so many others. Then they hand you the keys and you’re prepared to rule. How does that sound?
Bee ready to grab all the tools that are available to you and give us a buzz when in need, so that you can create the unique website your business deserves.