Buyers Guide: Content Management Systems
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Perhaps the first consideration when choosing a content management solution (CMS) is to determine exactly what it
is. Well, imagine your website is like the house you live in. A web design agency has built this house for you, a
web host has fitted the gas and electricity and ensured that the house is large enough for your needs, and
graphic designers and copywriters have made the place look good. But what if you want to chuck out some of your
old furniture, move things around or update your ageing entertainment system? Doing this on a website is not as
easy as it is in reality, which is why you need a CMS to enable you to do a little spring cleaning and ensure
everything is up-to-date and working to the required standard.
In other words, a bespoke CMS can facilitate your control of nearly every aspect of your website so that simple
changes can be undertaken quickly and cost effectively. It should also enable you to make the following
modifications without bringing in a consultant or specialist:
- Add unlimited new pages and images from your desktop, change font styles, sizes and decorations and upload
audio and video clips, PDFs and Word documents for your users to download.
- Edit existing pages using an HTML or Microsoft Word type editor and manage the formats and dates of all new
articles.
- Send e-newsletters to your client database and tailor them to send information according to consumer
preference.
A good CMS should also mean that you can receive enquiries through an online feedback form, manage your product
database, view an online sales chart, download customer details into Microsoft Excel, maintain a secure area for
payment details and create administrator accounts with different levels of security access. In addition to this,
an advanced CMS gives you detailed user statistics allowing you to see how many people have viewed your website,
when they viewed it, what pages they looked at, which search engine they came from and what they typed into the
search engine to get to you. Such data can be shown in both graphical and tabular formats that can be used in
company presentations and reports to identify areas of strength on the site and areas where there's room for
improvement.
Next: Reviewing potential CMS systems on offer >>
