Behind every website, there’s a CMS. Whether your site sells goods or services, or you use it to shareyour thoughts to the world, you’ll use a CMS to populate it with content. You’ll also use that CMS to update your content, whether you’re adding a new product page or correcting a typo.
Here’s a primer on CMS software and the world of web content management.
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What is a content management system?
A content management system, or CMS, is asoftware applicationused to author, edit, publish, and generally manage digital content without writing code. Essentially, it’s the interface you use to publish content on a website. “Publishing content” can include blog posts, multimedia web pages, and product listings in an online store. A CMS also allows you to add or modify elements on your pages.
A CMS can be part of an all-in-one website builder, in which you design your site and upload content to it in a single application. This type of CMS allows you to build a website using a templated design and populate that design with text and media. In these solutions, the back end (where you input content) and the front end (what a visitor to the site sees) are handled by the same tool.
A CMS can also be “headless,” meaning the back end is separate from the front end. A headless CMS integrates with other tools you might use to manage your site.
Features to look for in an all-in-one content management system (CMS)
- User roles and permissions
- Editing and publishing tools
- Media management
- Analytics
- Responsive design and mobile optimization
There are CMS platforms for businesses of all sizes, budgets, and use cases. Any good all-in-one CMS should have these five components.
- User roles and permissions.A CMS lets you establish particular roles for the people creating your company’s digital content. You can designate people as site administrators, editors, writers, and more. Each role has its own set of access privileges.
- Editing and publishing tools.All of today’s popular content management systems come with user-friendly interfaces that make it easy to create new content and publish it to the web. For instance, if you’re drafting a blog post, you’re likely to see an edit window that looks like a word processor. You don’t need to know how to code to publish on a modern CMS.
- Media management.A good CMS makes digital asset management easy, creating a library of all the images and videos you’ve used on your site.
- Analytics.Many of today’s CMS platforms come withanalytics tools, which can help you understand how much time people spend on your website and what pages they’ve viewed. Note that analytics are not typically included in free CMS solutions.
- Responsive design andmobile optimization.With more people than ever shopping on their mobile phones and tablets, you need a website that renders properly on these devices. Standard all-in-one CMS platforms do this automatically, ensuring your site looks good no matter what device it’s viewed on.
Note that a headless CMS may not have all of these features. In a headless CMS architecture, you may choose other tools to accomplish some of these workflows.
Features to look for in an ecommerce content management system (CMS)
- Product and inventory management
- Order tracking
- Customer management
Ecommerce businesses have specific needs from their CMS. If you’re looking for a CMS for your online store, make sure it has these three capabilities.
- Product andinventory management.A good ecommerce CMS should help you manage inventory and product listings. If your CMS doesn’t come with inventory tracking capabilities, you can add a plug-in that supports it. There areShopify plug-insto do just that for Shopify websites, WordPress plug-ins for WordPress websites, and so on.
- Order tracking.You’ll need to track an order once you ship it. A robust CMS can handle this as well, or you can use anorder-tracking plug-infor your CMS.
- Customer management.Enterprise CMS software typically can store customer names, contact information, purchase history, customer service history, and more. If you want to go more in-depth, you’ll use a related product calledcustomer relationship management (CRM)software.
Four tips for choosing a content management system (CMS)
- Identify your needs and goals
- Compare features and pricing
- Weigh ease of use vs. maximum flexibility
- Determine your customer support needs
As you shop for a CMS, you’ll find there are a lot of services vying for your business. Here are four guidelines to help you choose the right one:
- Identify your needs and goals.Identify your company’s goals to figure out what you need from a CMS. Will your website center around anecommerce store, aportfolio, ablog, or something else entirely? Your CMS should make it easy to maintain the right type of website for your company. Keep in mind that you can have one CMS for your core website and one for your blog.
- Compare features and pricing.Basic plans for all-in-one website builders like Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and Weebly range from $8 to $12 per month. WordPress, which powers some major websites, offers a wider range of functionality and prices.
- Weigh ease of use vs. maximum flexibility.An all-in-one CMS reduces the amount of technical overhead you’ll have with your website, giving it a big advantage when it comes to ease of use. The primary downside to an all-in-one CMS is that you may be limited by the templated design and functionality it offers. A headless CMS allows for far more customization and complex functionality, but you’ll typically need technical resources to build and maintain a site with headless architecture.
- Determine your customer support needs.Some all-in-one CMS platforms come withcustomer supportas part of a paid subscription. Other platforms may post product explainers and video tutorials, but they may not offer as much one-on-one customer support. If attentive user support matters to you, take time to directly compare what type of support each platform provides to its subscribers.
How to implement a traditional content management system (CMS)
- Connect the CMS to your domain and assign admins
- Import content and set up the website structure
- Customize the design and functionality
- Train users and establish workflows
In general, implementing an all-in-one content management system requires the following four steps.
- Connect the CMS to your domain and assign admins.一旦你选择了一个传统的CMS,第一个圣ep is to connect it to your domain. Then, you’ll assign site administrators to maintain your website. These platforms offer different pricing tiers that accommodate different numbers of administrators.
- Import content and set up the website structure.Once connected, you’ll likely choose adesign templateand use it to start building your site. All sites have a homepage; beyond that, you might add a blog, a store, or ancillary marketing pages. The exact site structure depends on the nature of your business. (Note: You can use different CMSs for your primary site, your store, and/or your blog. This adds complexity, but is possible.)
- Customize the design and functionality.With the basic structure established, you’ll be able to customize the site’s design, navigation, and interactive features. Having a working knowledge ofuser interfaces (UI)anduser experience (UX)can help you with this step.
- Train users and establish workflows.With the site now set up, administrators can train other team members—marketers, writers, sales directors, and more—to use the CMS. These team members will be given specific site permissions that let them add new content without inadvertently crashing the site or causing it to misbehave.