You often here of web developers talking about content management systems (CMS for short) but what are they, and why should I care?
Well a CMS can make your day at work a lot happier and a lot more efficient. This is a because a CMS allows you to immediately make changes to the test and images of your website, without the need to get on the phone to your designer, and without the need to pay any extra.
You could use a CMS to update your contact details, the price of your products, or upload your new terms and conditions. Or you could use a CMS to add news and events or blog stories.
It's great to be able to edit your website without the need to involve your web design team. Maybe you only realise you need to update a price a 5pm on a Friday and it needs doing immediately, or what if your web designer is away in holiday for two weeks??
So it's important on a practical day-to-day level to maintain the basics of your site. But as touched upon earlier it is also possible to use a CMS to add news and events stories or articles etc. This is great because having fresh content on your site is a great help in getting customers to make a return visit and check out what's new. In turn google (and the other search engines) love this - it is important to them that your site is regularly updated, as they view these pages of having greater relevancy than a website that hasn't been updated since the day it was finished.
Generally I would say not too worry about the technical side, and which software your chosen web developer uses. There are severaly features that you should consider though:
Your CMS should be accessible through the internet. Effectively you should browse to a specific page and enter your secret login information, then you can update and change your sites content. This means that you can make changes wherever and whenever you like, without having to be at the office desk.
You should check out the CMS with your web designer before agreeing to it. Ideally the CMS should be really simple for you to use. If it's complex and difficult to get to grips with it's likely that you will never use it.
You should ensure that whatever CMS solution your web developer provides your information is always secure.
That covers the basics of Content Management Systems, if you want to find out more about how we can provide this for you and your website please get in touch today.