Do I Need A Content Management System (CMS)? Thursday, April 14, 2010

As web developers, one of the most frequent questions that clients ask us is "Will we be able to update our website's content on our own?" The answer is "Yes." One of our specialties is creating custom content management systems (CMS), which enable "non-technical" individuals to quickly and easily update website content. There are some items to consider though, before jumping head-first into the CMS swimming pool.

Some website owners will request a CMS that will enable them to manage ALL the content on a website, and while we can certainly implement an off-the-shelf content management system, we usually take a slightly different approach. Quite often, a website will contain some pages that are updated frequently – pages such as "News & Events", "Press Releases", "Photo Galleries", etc. This same website will probably also have some pages that don't change for months (or years) at a time – pages such as "About Us", "Mission Statement", "Contact Us", etc.

We tend to recommend applying CMS functionality to only those parts of a website that are updated often. There are several benefits to this method:

1. Much lower overall cost for the client.
2. No need for the client to learn a complicated off-the-shelf CMS.
3. Less programming for the web developer means a quicker turnaround time for the project.
4. Clients can make content updates on their own, without relying on a web developer.
5. Need to update the website at 3am? The custom CMS is available 24/7/365.

For those who aren't sure if a CMS is necessary for their website, hopefully this article has pointed you in the right direction. Needless to say, there are still many small decisions to be made when considering a content management system. We're here to help, and we are more than happy to answer any CMS-related questions you may have.

Click here to contact us, or give us a call at 1-888-867-9633.