Skip to content
Home » Blog » What Is a CMS

What Is a CMS

CMS stands for “Content Management System,” and describes a method of managing content, workflow, and collaboration online. CMS’s have revolutionized the way people think about and control content on websites.

A Content Management System (CMS) is a software application that allows users to create, manage, and publish digital content on the internet. It provides an intuitive interface and tools for creating and organizing content, making it easier for individuals and businesses to maintain and update their websites.

At its core, a CMS separates the content from the design and functionality of a website. This separation allows users to focus on creating and editing content without needing extensive technical knowledge or coding skills. The CMS takes care of the underlying structure and presentation, ensuring that the content is displayed correctly on the website.

One of the key advantages of using a CMS is its ability to enable collaboration and streamline the content creation process. Multiple users can contribute to the website, each with their own roles and permissions. This makes it ideal for websites that require frequent updates or have multiple authors.

A CMS also offers a range of features and functionalities that enhance the overall website experience. These can include user management, SEO optimization tools, responsive design templates, e-commerce capabilities, and more. With a wide range of available plugins and extensions, users can customize and extend the functionality of their CMS to suit their specific needs.

There are several popular CMS options available today, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Shopify. Each CMS has its own strengths and caters to different types of websites and users. It’s important to consider factors such as scalability, ease of use, community support, and available resources when choosing a CMS for your website.

WORDPRESS

WordPress

WordPress has been around since 2003 and is the most popular blogging software on the market. Over the last few years, WordPress has also become the content management software of choice for non-blogging websites.  I.C. Designs uses WordPress as a base for almost all sites now.  The initial costs to setup a site using WordPress are slightly higher than a traditional HTML site, but the client generally saves money on updates costs and gets the benefits of the added functionality.

SOME BENEFITS OF WORDPRESS:

1. EASE OF USE

WordPress is very easy to use and has an intuitive interface.  This allows us to teach most clients how to do basic site updates including adding new pages, blog posts, and images.  If a client does not wish to do their own updates, it will still greatly reduce the general updates costs over a typical site not using a CMS.

2. MANAGE YOUR WEBSITE FROM ANY COMPUTER

WordPress is browser-based. You can login from any Internet connected computer and manage your site.

3. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

The code behind WordPress is very clean and simple, making it easy for search engines to read and index a site’s content. In addition, each page, post, and image can have its own meta tag keywords, description, and title, and be optimized for specific keywords, allowing for very precise search engine optimization.  You can also use tags to further enhance your search engine optimization efforts.  WordPress’s built in SEO capabilities, combined with other SEO techniques implemented by I.C. Designs lead to favourable search engine results.

4. THE DESIGN OF YOUR WEBSITE IS CUSTOMIZABLE AND EXPANDABLE

WordPress acts as the engine for your website. The look and feel of the site can be customized so your brand can shine through on your site and provide a unique experience to your visitors.  A site can also be given a “facelift” to keep give it a new look at any point, at a fraction of the costs typically required for a re-design.   Additional pages and features such as E-commerce capability can also be added to the site at any point.  A site can start small, and grow.

5. A BLOG IS BUILT-IN AND READY TO GO

Since WordPress was originally created as a blogging platform, blogging capabilities are built-in and are easy to integrate, if desired. Setting up RSS / email subscriptions to your blog, commenting capabilities, and automatically adding the most recent blog posts to other pages of the site (your home page, for example) are also very simple to set-up, and help to extend your company’s reach and make your site more dynamic and interactive.  “Blogs” can also be implemented in various ways such as “News” or “Specials” sections that are easy for the client to update.

6. YOUR SITE CAN GROW AS YOUR BUSINESS GROWS

WordPress sites are very scalable. You can have hundreds of thousands of pages or blog posts on your site and the performance of the site will not be compromised in the least.

7. HAVE MULTIPLE USERS

As an administrator of a WordPress site, you can set-up multiple users for the website and assign access levels and capabilities to each user.

In conclusion, a CMS is a powerful tool that simplifies the process of creating, managing, and publishing content on the web. It empowers individuals and businesses to maintain a dynamic online presence without the need for extensive technical expertise. Whether you’re a blogger, an e-commerce store owner, or a corporate website manager, a CMS can greatly enhance your web development and content management capabilities.

People Also Ask:

Web Design Cost Guide