Content Management Systems (CMS)

For a traditional static web site, a web designer is typically engaged to design and deliver a professional looking site, which brings a company and the services it offers to the attention of a world-wide audience via the Internet. However, the website, and in particular its content (i.e. the images, text, and data on a web page – everything that is visible in the browser) will degrade and therefore no longer accurately represent the company. The business therefore has to re-engage the services of the web designer in order for the site to be updated.

Content management systems overcome these limitations by allowing the content manager or author, who typically will not have any specialist technical knowledge in areas such as Hypertext Markup Language or HTML (the presentation “language” of the Internet), to manage the creation, modification, and removal of content on a Web site without the involvement of a web development team . This allows the business user to concentrate on the most important aspect of their website – the content – and make changes that have immediate and visible effect.

Content management systems are also web-based, meaning that a user only needs Internet access to publish their content – no specialized software is required. With some brief initial training, new pages can be rapidly published and maintained on your site.

Because of their complexity, content management systems involve increased initial development costs and slightly higher hosting costs, but once your site has been delivered and deployed this is more than offset by the independence and flexibility afforded to the editor over future enhancements to the site.

Your website, and most importantly, your content, is now always up to date. You can react to changes in your business quickly. If your customers know that the information on your website is always relevant and current, then the frequency of their visits will increase, as will the volume of business generated for your company.