If you’re new to the web, have a digital role, or are modernizing your company’s online presence, you probably hear a lot of acronyms and jargon.
Content Management Systems (or CMS) are often talked about and have become a standard aspect of most websites.
I’ve been working in the digital space since the early days of content management – and even before it was common practice to have it – so I’m excited to share the details based on where we are in the current times
In this article, I’ll explain what a CMS is, its importance, how they work, the different types of content management systems, and how to consider the best options for you.
What is a CMS?
A content management system is a functionality that allows administrative users to update, maintain, create and manage their own content without having to go into code or have a developer do it for them.
Typically, to access CMS functionality, admin users will have a private login page or area to authenticate and navigate to a separate menu or portal that has options for specific editable content.
There are several types of CMS platforms and ways this can look like. Later I will go into some of the best systems for you to consider.
No matter how customized or standardized the system, or how limited or robust, the ability to administer your site and have control over uncoded content is powerful and can be crucial to managing your web presence.
Why is a CMS important?
A content management system is a powerful thing that saves time, money and effort when it comes to adding and updating text, images, videos, pages and important page elements and structure to your website.
It is essential that you can edit everything you need to on your website.
Even in corporate environments or industries that require compliance reviews, approvals, and other steps for specific content before it’s published, a CMS can be very helpful with these steps built in.
How does a CMS work?
At the highest level, a CMS works by giving you the power to influence the live content on your site through editor boxes, upload options, and other behind-the-scenes features.
When you edit text, you’ll do so in an editor box that often has similar functionality to a program like Microsoft Word. Some systems have more controls and options than others.
Whether you’re editing text, uploading images, or creating pages, you do so through easy-to-use admin controls that make changes to the site’s databases and allow you to publish them to the live site.
This replaces having a web developer make the edits directly to the code.
In some cases, if you don’t have the controls you want or need, you can have them added by your developer or the platform itself.
In other cases, you may experience CMS limitations and may need to look at other options to land on the right platform for your overall site.
Screenshot from WordPress, October 2022
How many types of content management systems are there?
Types of content management systems include:
Content websites. Focused on the blog. E-commerce and shopping cart. Non-profit. Specific and industry-specific functionalities (eg donations, tickets, customer portals, etc.). Online development and learning. open source owner Customization and functionality.
Depending on what kind of content you want your site to display, what level of security you need, how integrated your site needs to be with back-end systems for compliance or customer access (e.g. ., online banking) or how flexible you want your content to be, you have options for finding the right technology and CMS platform.
In addition, there are content management systems based on open source technologies or platforms (WordPress, Drupal, etc.), those that are built on closed platforms or SaaS-based products (Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) and opportunities to have your own custom CMS.
Popular content management systems
Content management systems are in use by approximately 796 million websites.
The Top 10 CMS by market share worldwide includes:
Keep in mind that about two-thirds of all websites use a CMS.
This alone should validate the importance of a CMS to so many businesses and organizations around the world.
Features of the CMS
There are a number of specific content management features that are big reasons why CMSs are so valuable, including:
Create pages. Manage navigation. Edit the text. Upload and manage images. Upload and manage video content. Manage product information. Contact forms. Blog content Style and theme management. Analysis and reporting tools. Control panels. SEO and marketing tools. Integrations. Staging of contents. Approval processes. Private content Security and third-party support.
There are many more too.
Depending on what priorities are most important to your content management needs and the customized nature of those needs, you may prioritize some factors over others.
Should you build a CMS from scratch or use a popular system?
More than twenty years ago, your options would have been limited and you would probably have looked at a custom CMS as your best (or only) option.
The explosion of options and rate of adoption of content management systems has changed the decision from “if” to “what type” when planning your CMS.
In many cases, an open source CMS is best for content sites, shopping sites, and those that don’t need an unusual level of customization.
Even open source CMS can offer many options to customize using plugins or custom code to create needed features, functionality and integrations.
However, if you have a very unique product, service, or web-based application, you may be best suited to build a custom CMS.
Reasons may include the lack of existing necessary open source technology, unique integration needs, unique customer or user characteristics, or the need to limit access and have closed systems for security reasons.
Challenges companies face with CMS
CMSs of all types (like almost every website or web-connected interface) require specific monitoring and action to maintain a secure site.
Custom code and CMS can have code and database risks if not updated and maintained to stay ahead of any known vulnerabilities.
Open source CMS can have similar exposure with outdated CMS cores, plugins, and versions, and without proper tracking to ensure that versions are updated and patched immediately when possible.
Beyond security, there’s also the potential challenge of having too many plugins, extensions, or plugins to properly manage. Changing a setting in one plugin might break something elsewhere on the site, for example.
It can be difficult to quality control and properly manage plugins and third-party aspects of a CMS.
Also, sometimes it can be difficult to scale in a CMS. Often, creating a new feature requires removing old plugins and code and rebuilding them, or risking conflicts and not being able to get something to work as desired.
The best content management system
It’s hard for me to tell you objectively which is the best CMS.
As I noted above, my goal and desire for you is to find the best fit for your online presence and content needs.
The most popular CMS in the world is WordPress. It happens to be my favorite and primary technology that my team uses to build websites, so feel free to point it out if you disagree or think I’m biased.
What we’ve found with WordPress is that it’s robust enough to do almost anything we need it to do.
However, it is easy to use, it allows you to do everything SEO optimization we need within it, and it can be integrated with a wide range of other technologies. It has a higher ceiling than platforms like Squarespace, Wix, and more basic content management systems.
However, there is a place for lighter systems, just as there is a place for more enterprise-heavy systems.
While WordPress is great for eCommerce with WooCommerce, there’s a case to be made for some businesses to be on another eCommerce CMS, like Magento, or a lighter/easier to onboard platform like Shopify.
Again, the “best” CMS is subjective. You want to determine the right fit in terms of features, functionality, scalability, ease of use and cost for you and your digital presence needs.
Ultimately, you must weigh specific factors related to your situation:
How well supported/updated is the CMS (for open source or how will you handle it for customization). The number of plugins or extensions available and/or that you need to manage. Hosted vs. self hosted The cost of ongoing licensing, hosting, management and general maintenance, both short-term and ongoing. Your ultimate goals and the return on investment the site can provide.
opportunities and limitations for SEO, marketing, personalization and scale by specific systems. Other unique aspects related to your company or organization.
The best CMS for marketing
When it comes to marketing, if you do any kind of digital marketing, you need to make sure that the CMS you select can support your campaigns.
Questions to ask include: How easy is it to create landing pages with this CMS? To integrate conversion and event tracking? Implement analytics? To do technical and on-page SEO?
If any of these things are important to you, be careful and select a platform that doesn’t limit you.
For example, I often encounter clients who are frustrated by the limits of the simplest content management systems that end up having to reinvest in a new site and platform (eg moving from Squarespace to WordPress).
This is what can happen when you don’t think ahead enough or ask the right questions ahead of time before fully building a site on a specific platform.
conclusion
It is very important to understand how content management systems work, why they are important to your business, and how to choose the right one for your business needs.
It can be time-consuming and expensive to switch platforms after establishing your site and content.
I recommend that you go through a thorough process to determine which is the best fit for you, and think both short and long term, so that you make the best investment and decision for your business.
More resources:
Featured Image: Zoomik/Shutterstock
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