Should my website use a Content Management System (CMS)?
Probably, unless the site has only a handful of pages.
What is a CMS?
A CMS is an application to upload web content to a website via web forms, generally without requiring any HTML skills, and then stores the content in a database. The CMS has features to display the stored content as web pages.
So I’ll be able to manage my own content?
Potentially yes. If you’re running a personal site or a small site and you’re interested in editing your content. If you’re a big site with constantly changing content, like BBC News, then a CMS for teams of content authors and publishers is an absolute necessity.
But we find many of our customers fall in the middle ground between hobby sites and mega sites and don’t want to personally upload their content because they’re too busy with their primary role. Often it’s not as simple as uploading a paragraph; there are all the little fiddly bits of image composition, forms, links and so on.
If OCTA upload my content should I bother with a CMS?
Yes because a CMS stores data in a database which gives us the ability to provide
- Site search
- Summarisation, such as presenting a list of the 5 most recently updated pages on the home page
- Automatic listings, such as product lists, services lists, or a site map
- Categorisation, allowing the user to view a subset of the site that matches a particular category
- Different views, depending on the viewing device such as PC or mobile
For many sites a Content Management System is more about enabling the best presentation of content to the site user, rather than the ability of the site owner to upload content.