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CMS (Content Management Systems) for Small and Medium Websites

February 14th, 2010 No comments

What is a CMS?

A  CMS is a content Management System. A CMS allows you to manage your digital content. In terms of websites, a CMS will allow you to manage all your pages, images and documents that form part of your website.

Small And Medium Websites

Small and Medium websites are usually built using static pages. The pages use HTML, Javascript, Flash files etc. The pages are stored on a web server. Usually making changes to HTML requires special knowledge and/or software. A Client is usually not able to go and make a quick change to a spelling mistake, image or add a new product or service easily. Usually the process is to ask your web-developer to make the change and this can be very time consuming and at some cases expensive.

The low-cost solution – A Content Managed Solution

The low-cost solution is to plug in a content management solution on to your site. In a CMS system, you will be able to log in yourself and make changes as you would do to a Word Document. The CMS also allows you to store all your images as assets, so that you can re-use them over time and also allows you to index all your documents, so that you can drop them into the website whenever you please.

This way, you will be able to efficiently cut down on turn around times and costs and make changes to your site quickly.

What features should a decent Content Managed Solution Have?

Depending on your needs and your budget here are some basic functionality any CMS systems should provide

What you Need

  • Change Text on your page, add new text and delete existing text on a page
  • Change images on your page, add new images and delete existing images

What you should want based on your needs

  • Store all your images in a library so that you can pick and drop them in as you choose. This means that you don’t have to upload your images to the site everytime you want to change them
  • Store all your documents (PDFs) in a library, so that your brochures, product whitepapers can be dropped into the website as you please without having a local copy
  • Allow you to make changes to the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) content of your page so that you can get better visibility on Google
  • Allow you to add new pages to your site, these new pages already have your branding and a link is automatically created for you
  • Search Functionality so that users can now search for things on your site
  • A Backup functionality so that if you mess something up, you can revert back to the original

The power in your hands and advantages

  • You can now update your pages quickly and efficiently and have more control
  • You keep the costs of changing smaller things on site low
  • Your site is more flexible in generating new content
  • You have a library of images and documents that works as a backup and also allows you to drop content on your site quickly

With great power comes great responsibility

There are also some pitfalls on having the power in your hands. Here are some of the things you have to understand

  • Once you make a change and publish the page, it is live for everyone to see. So if you make a spelling mistake it will be on the site. So you have to make sure you have a good approval process
  • You should stick to the colours and branding of your site. Sometimes we see clients putting all sorts of colours and sizes to make the page look more appealing. This can more often than not make the site look less professional. Unless that is your branding, then it’s fine.

The DzineClub Content Management System:

We also provide varying levels of CMS and customisations to our clients. Drop us a line if you are interested.

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