Can You Manage without a Content Management System?
The short answer: Why would you want to?
Although you might not know the geek speak, you’re probably aware of the concept of a Content Management System (CMS). Even if you didn’t realize it at the time, many of the sites that you have visited over the last 10 years have been built on some type of management system that gives site administrators the ability to edit and extend the content without the need for specialized software. More and more, our clients are asking us to deliver their websites with a built-in, browser-friendly system that will allow them to make simple, or even complex, edits and additions to their sites. Primarily, they want to avoid the ongoing costs of site maintenance. But there is a lot more to it than that. Let’s look at some of the benefits to adding a CMS to your site.
Go with the Current
Having the ability to update your own site doesn’t only save time and money, it actually encourages you to keep your site current and fresh. If your site is constantly being updated, it will also inspire return visits, which can potentially turn cold leads into hot ones.
Size Matters
If your company is growing, your site will need to keep the pace. Perhaps you are adding products to your inventory, or adding new clients to your roster. The faster potential clients can see your products and successes, the more likely they are to contact you.
Online, on Time
Because a CMS is browser friendly, you can manage your site from anywhere. On a flight from San Francisco to New York City? If you have an internet connection, you can update that Conference page on your site with a change in presenter. Want to update your News and Events page with your latest product launch? You can do it with a laptop and a web browser, while in a hotel in Amsterdam. Anywhere you can view your site, you can edit it.
Blog, Not Bog
Keeping your blog up-to-date on your own time is not only convenient, but it increases your SEO compliance, making your site more friendly to search engines. Enough said.
Flexible and Scalable
Using a CMS has advantages that go far beyond simple content editing. Using a CMS inherently adds powerful functionality to your site. Data relationships are created, and content blocks can be accessed from any page, at any time. This allows the developer (me) to create complex data objects, which can be searched, filtered and displayed with ease. This type of back-end structure can turn a good site into a great one.
So How Does it Work?
Whenever High Seas begins a website project one of the first questions we ask ourselves is, “which Content Management System is right for this client, and for the needs of the project?” Believe it or not, Wordpress is not the only option. In fact, there are a number of CMS frameworks out there, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. New site development can include a CMS framework into the build, and older sites can be “retrofitted” with a CMS at the core.
But what about the cost? Is there a big price increase for the set-up? You may be surprised to hear that the cost of adding a CMS during initial development is quickly offset by the savings you experience by managing the site content in-house. And after a little bit of training, which we’re happy to provide, using your content management system will seem like second nature.
You can read more about our favorite Content Management Systems — Wordpress, Drupal, and Concrete5 — and explore the pros and cons of each option, by searching our blog posts for each one.
If you would like to know more about how a Content Management System can help you to take control of your site and grow your business, contact High Seas. We will be happy to go over the details and create a plan to give your site the management system it always wanted.
