Your website is the virtual front window to your business that must look enticing so that people want to come in, take a look around, and make a purchase. To have a great website, you’ve got to have great, unique content that pleases both your visitors and the search engines that crawl and rank it. But it can become a real drag to edit, review, and publish content without any help. This is where a content management system or CMS can come in very handy.
What is a CMS?
A content management system is a piece of software that helps you create, manage, and make changes to content on your website. In more simple terms, a CMS helps you build a site without needing any coding experience because the software does the coding for you. A CMS handles all the infrastructure work like creating your pages and storing your images so you can spend your time on other aspects of your business. There are many different content management systems out there including:
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Magento
- Brix
- and many more
Why Go With a CMS?
If you want to make sure all the elements of your website work in harmony, you should definitely consider using a CMS. You can enjoy many benefits with the right CMS in place such as increased website traffic, more leads and sales, and better authority in your industry. But with so many options out there, choosing the right CMS can be a daunting task indeed.
Factors to Take into Consideration
Here are 3 factors to consider when choosing a CMS platform to use:
User Friendliness
In order to get the most out of a CMS, you need to be able to easily perform all the functions it offers. This is why it’s important to choose a CMS that that is user-friendly. You should choose a CMS that makes it easy to add and edit content and one that is simple to navigate.
If it takes you hours to update content you’ll become very frustrated and waste valuable time. This is why it’s a good idea to watch video demos of different CMS systems so you get a feel about how the user interfaces work. It’s always wise to do a test run with a CMS to make sure you feel comfortable using it before you make a commitment.
Your Site’s Complexity & Pricing
If you have a small to medium sized website or a blog, a simpler CMS like WordPress should meet your needs. But if you have a large website with many different page types, you’d be better off choosing a CMS that can handle your more complex site with advanced features like Drupal.
Of course, you’re going to have to pay for a CMS that offers more features so the cost factor should be considered along with your site’s complexity. When narrowing down your choices in CMS platforms, compare the prices to make sure you don’t end up with a half-finished website because you’ve completely used up your budget.
Level of Support Offered
Unless you’re very well-versed in CMS technology, it’s inevitable that you’ll have some questions or run into problems with the CMS you choose. This is why you need to make sure the platform you decide to use offers a good support system. Look for a system that provides great customer support so you can reach out via email, text, or live chat anytime you need quick answers or a solution to a problem you’re having. There’s nothing worse or more time-consuming than finding yourself stuck because of non-existent or very poor support.
Takeaway: The right CMS platform will put full control of your website into your hands. It’s very important to ensure the CMS you choose is really going to work for you. See to it that you choose the best software that will boost your SEO efforts by driving more traffic and making your site easy to navigate.
For best results, hire an SEO company to avoid the common mistakes make when trying out content marketing for the first time.